{"id":1682,"date":"2018-01-05T10:24:37","date_gmt":"2018-01-05T15:24:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sagestaging.wpengine.com\/en-us\/blog\/?post_type=sage_glossary&#038;p=1682"},"modified":"2026-01-16T07:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T12:27:16","slug":"generally-accepted-accounting-principles-gaap","status":"publish","type":"sage_glossary","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/glossary\/generally-accepted-accounting-principles-gaap\/","title":{"rendered":"What are Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)?"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header has-dark-background-color entry-header--has-illustration entry-header--has-illustration--generic\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__row row align-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col col-lg-7 col-xlg-6 entry-header__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"component component-single-header\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__misc text--subtitle text--uppercase text--small\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/glossary\/\" class=\"entry-header__link\">Glossary definition<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-title-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"entry-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat are Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)?\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"single-post-details container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"reading-time\"> min read<\/span>\n\t\t<button\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\tclass=\"social-share-button button button--icon button--secondary js-social-share-button\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-title=\"What are Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)?\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-url=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/glossary\/generally-accepted-accounting-principles-gaap\/\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-text=\"Please read this interesting article\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__share-label\">Share<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-label\" hidden>Copy Link<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\" hidden>Copied<\/span>\n\t\t<\/button>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-generally-accepted-accounting-principles-gaap\">Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Generally accepted accounting principles, commonly abbreviated to GAAP, are the set of standardized principles accountants are required to follow in the preparation of financial documents. GAAP accounting practice is mandatory for CPAs in all publicly traded companies and commonly-followed in the private sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Specific GAAP standards vary between jurisdictions, but typically require basic compliance in the following three categories:<br>\n\u2022 general assumptions<br>\n\u2022 rules or principles<br>\n\u2022 constraints or restrictions<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Enforced by the SEC, a U.S. government agency, GAAP principles are set in place to ensure consistency and transparency across organizations and to eliminate the potential for misleading financial reporting practices. These general accounting principles promote uniformity between organizations and allow for the accurate comparison of financial documents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) Generally accepted accounting principles, commonly abbreviated to GAAP, are the set of standardized principles accountants are required to follow in the preparation of financial documents. GAAP accounting practice is mandatory for CPAs in all publicly traded companies and commonly-followed in the private sector. Specific GAAP standards vary between jurisdictions, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1682","sage_glossary","type-sage_glossary","status-publish","hentry"],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice Canada English","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/sage_glossary\/1682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/sage_glossary"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/sage_glossary"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/sage_glossary\/1682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}