Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) are the common set of standards, principles, and procedures that public companies in the U.S. must follow when compiling their financial statements. GAAP provides the authoritative framework for financial reporting, explicitly prescribing the format, content, and classification of items on a Balance Sheet. This ensures that financial statements are consistent, comparable, and transparent across different organizations. The goal is to present a company's financial position accurately through a standardized structure of assets, liabilities, and equity.

A. Business Partner: A business partner is an external commercial entity and has no authority to dictate the accounting standards or financial reporting formats of another company.

C. Customers: Customers are consumers of a company's goods or services and are not involved in establishing or enforcing financial accounting and reporting regulations.

D. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB): While the FASB is the organization responsible for establishing and improving GAAP in the United States, GAAP itself is the set of principles that prescribes the format. FASB is the source, but GAAP is the standard.

1. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). "About the FASB." Accessed 2023. The FASB website states its mission is "to establish and improve financial accounting and reporting standards to provide useful information to investors and other users of financial reports and educate stakeholders on how to most effectively understand and implement those standards." This confirms FASB creates the standards (GAAP).

Source: https://www.fasb.org/page/PageContent?pageId=/about-us/the-fasb.html

2. FASB Accounting Standards Codification®. Topic 210, "Balance Sheet." This topic provides specific guidance on the form and content of the balance sheet under U.S. GAAP, including the classification of assets and liabilities as current or noncurrent.

Reference: FASB ASC 210-10-45, "Balance Sheet - Overall - Other Presentation Matters."

3. MIT OpenCourseWare. 15.511 Financial Accounting, Fall 2004. Lecture Notes, "Lecture 2: The Balance Sheet." The course materials explain that the Balance Sheet is one of the main financial statements prepared according to the rules of GAAP, which governs its structure and content.

Source: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/15-511-financial-accounting-fall-2004/resources/lec2bshandout/ (Page 1).