All Accounting & Auditing articles – Page 102
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Blog
Errors Persist Into 2014 Year-End XBRL Filings
Image: With another round of annual reports mostly filed through the early part of 2015, experts are assessing the quality of XBRL filings—and seeing not much improvement. Scale errors continue to be the most common problem, says Alex Rapp, co-founder of Calcbench. “Unfortunately, many filers don’t appear to realize this ...
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Audit Relations Continue to Be Strained
Image: Tensions over the audit of internal controls over financial reporting were in focus at the Compliance Week 2015 conference last week, with many saying corporate audit committees will ultimately need to resolve the problem. “We hear the concerns, even frustrations, from company officials over the level of audit work ...
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Why Simplification Isn’t Simple
Simplicity in accounting is always a great idea, yet complexity always seems to be intruding into reality. This week, Compliance Week columnist Scott Taub tries to deconstruct why complexity endures, and why we may even see it creep into the ostensibly simplified new rule for revenue recognition. “Despite 10 years ...
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COSO Implementation Gets Gritty
Whether you adopted the new COSO framework for internal control last year or stalled into 2015, a chorus of voices say now is the time for implementation (or even polishing last year’s implementation) once and for all. “This year is the time to adopt,” says KPMG partner David Middendorf. Inside, ...
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Monitoring and Auditing Performance-Enhancing Risks
Every executive knows that what gets measured gets done; the trick for compliance and audit executives is to assure that the metrics you use don’t lead employees to do something reckless. This week, columnist Jose Tabuena looks at the risks of incentives: where they can go wrong, how to help ...
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FASB Proposes Simplification to M&A Accounting
The Financial Accounting Standards Board is proposing a change to the rules around how to adjust provisional amounts recorded at the time of a transaction to simplify the accounting for business combinations. FASB says stakeholders say current rules are costly and complicated and don’t significantly improve the information available to ...
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PCAOB to Audit Committees: Help Us Help You
Image: The PCAOB’s latest guidance to audit committees will help them understand how to push their audit firms to dig deeper into risk. It may also, however, nudge audit committees to undertake risk and audit oversight the PCAOB itself cannot do. “In places like China, the PCAOB cannot inspect, but ...
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Revenue Recognition Implementation Brings Big Challenges
Companies in the vanguard of implementing the new revenue recognition standard are finding it a daunting task requiring major planning and coordination. At the Compliance Week 2015 conference, Bavan Holloway, vice president of corporate audit at Boeing, said companies need to have a strong change management process in place. “It’s ...
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Blog
Compliance Leaders Like Three Lines of Defense
Image: At Compliance Week’s annual conference this week, Jose Tabuena, chief compliance officer for NextHealth, advocated for the three lines of defense model. “I’ve worked with the accounting firms and those working with the COSO framework, and I find three lines of defense easier to explain,” he said. “The board ...
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Blog
FASB Proposes Changes to Revenue Standard
FASB has issued proposed revisions to the revenue recognition standard intended to head off the potential for varied interpretation of the standard and to simplify and reduce the cost of compliance in some areas. The board has focused the amendments on identifying performance obligations and accounting for revenue arising from ...
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IIA to Push More Flexible Internal Audit Planning
Image: The Institute of Internal Auditors will unveil an overhaul of its professional practices framework this summer, including a push for audit executives to be more flexible in their audit planning. Whether that means a “rolling audit plan,” contingency funds for surprise risks, or other methods, many say the idea’s ...
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Blog
Investors Protest Private Company Standards
Efforts on the part of standard-setters to wring some complexity out of financial reporting might be helpful to preparers of financial statements, but investors are starting to pipe up in protest.
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New Alliance to Serve Specialty Pharmacy Industry
CohnReznick, an accounting, tax, and advisory firm, has created a collaborative market solution with healthcare law firm Frier & Levitt and specialty pharmacy consulting firm CSI Specialty Group. The alliance will provide a comprehensive array of services tailored to the specialty pharmacy industry. Details inside.
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SEC Chief Accountant Retreats From IFRS Filing Idea
Image: SEC chief accountant James Schnurr is distancing himself from an idea he floated last year that the Commission might allow U.S. companies an option to report under International Financial Reporting Standards. Schnurr says staff outreach revealed “little support” for that idea, essentially leaving convergence to standard setters. Details inside.
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Blog
PCAOB Gives Audit Committees Oversight Cheat Sheet
As inspectors begin looking at 2014 public company audit files, they will be tuning in to emerging market risks around mergers and acquisitions, falling oil prices, undistributed foreign earnings, and the quality of audit work as firms grow other business lines. The PCAOB published a new paper reaching out to ...
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FASB Issues New Rules, Proposals on Narrow Areas of GAAP
The Financial Accounting Standards Board has been busy the past few weeks pushing out some narrowly focused changes to accounting standards that address earnings per share, fair value measurement, intangible assets, and compensation, not to mention additional proposals involving liabilities associated with gift cards, hedging for energy concerns, and benefit ...
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Parsing the Data on Financial Restatements
Image: The data behind financial restatements tell a fairly positive tale for 2014, with improvements in financial reporting across many variables (unless you’re an accelerated filer, where restatements edged up from the prior year). Inside we have a close look at which companies restated for what reasons, and whether improvement ...
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Blog
FASB Plans Next Phase of Big Accounting Changes
Image: As FASB wraps up some major projects in coming months, it is starting to wonder: what’s next? The board plans to publish a discussion paper seeking input on what revisions should be added to the agenda, but it will likely focus on clarifications to revenue recognition, income taxes, business ...
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FASB Seeks Comment on Revenue Delay, IASB Opts to Defer
The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued a formal proposal to delay the effective date of the revenue recognition rule by one year, just as the International Accounting Standards Board voted to propose a one-year deferral for the international standard. FASB’s proposal is seeking comment on whether a two-year delay ...
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Study: Disclosing Control Weaknesses Does You Few Favors
Companies that disclose control problems ahead of restatements get no pat on the back or other indicators of gratitude from investors, according to a recent academic study. On the contrary, they are more likely to face harsher consequences for their transparency than companies that provide no advance warning. More inside.