All Accounting & Auditing articles – Page 106
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Dueling Thresholds Emerge on Going-Concern Warnings
Image: A new accounting standard meant to give investors more warning of when a company is in trouble could actually lead to less warning of trouble. Audit and accounting professionals are struggling over conflicting interpretations of “substantial doubt,” and the answer is not easy. “I’m not sure if the standard ...
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When Revenue Recognition and Executive Pay Collide
Image: The impending new accounting standard for revenue recognition already has corporate accountants buzzing; now compensation committees should brace for impact. The standard redefines a host of terms under the heading of “revenue,” and that will affect pay plans. “To the extent executive compensation is triggered by company performance … ...
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Blog
New Ideas on Disclosure Reform
Disclosure reform is one of the more intractable problems of corporate reporting. The SEC says it will work to move that issue forward this year, and inside, Compliance Week columnist Robert Herz offers his view on how to reinvigorate that project: Aim for a system of one corporate “evergreen” file ...
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Blog
FASB, IASB Staff Call for Changes to Revenue Rules
Staff members of both the U.S. and international accounting rulemakers are recommending that their boards re-open their massive joint standard on revenue recognition to answer specific questions around implementation. The Joint Transition Resource Group has fielded nearly 40 issues that companies have encountered; FASB began to consider possible changes this ...
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Blog
AICPA Offers Advice for Conflict Minerals Audits
The AICPA has published new guidance for conducting independent audits of companies asserting that their products are conflict-minerals free. Published in Q&A form, the guidance addresses the representation letters auditors should obtain from management as they review conflict- minerals reports.
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Blog
Survey: Cyber-Risk Is Big, but Regulatory Risk Trumps Again
Image: In a recent poll by Protiviti and North Carolina State University of 277 board members and top executives, 67 percent identified regulatory risk as the top concern for the third time since the survey began. Protiviti managing director Jim DeLoach says, “The fact that this is so top of ...
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Blog
Shake-up in T&E Providers Leads Companies to New Solutions
Image: Big changes for expense management system providers, such as the acquisition of Concur Technologies by SAP and the earlier IBM move of cutting its Global Expense Reporting Solutions as a standalone product, has led to more business for up-and-comers like Chrome River. Chrome cofounder Alan Rich says, “The companies ...
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What Critics Say on Three Lines of Defense
The Three Lines of Defense model for risk oversight—business units in the first line, compliance in the second, internal auditors in the third—has been hugely popular in recent years. Proponents love it, and regulators have come to expect it. Critics, however, say the Three Lines model is too simplistic a ...
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The Slog Begins for New Revenue Standard
Image: FASB’s effort to implement its new standard for revenue recognition by 2017 is bumping against business reality, as different parts of Corporate America grow vocal about their ability—or lack thereof—to manage the task. “A lot of companies are trying to correlate the messaging around a potential deferral and potential ...
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Blog
Study: Companies Taking Own Action on Clawbacks
Even ahead of any new clawback rules mandated by Congress or the SEC, companies are moving ahead themselves to add clawback provisions to executive compensation arrangements—and are swallowing some added accounting and financial reporting complexity to do so. PwC recently analyzed 100 large public companies and found 40 percent of ...
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Blog
SEC Ends Standoff With Big 4 China Affiliates
The SEC has settled its action against Big 4 affiliates in China that had stymied investigations into possible accounting fraud by refusing to hand over audit work papers. The SEC fined each of the Big 4 affiliates $500,000 while acknowledging that the firms eventually began providing documents.
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Blog
SEC Approves PCAOB Budget, Wants Improvements
Image: The SEC has approved a 2015 budget of $250.9 million for the PCAOB, 3 percent less than its 2014 budget but 8 percent more than the board actually spent in 2014. PCAOB Chairman James Doty said that the decrease “reflects an appropriate reassessment of assumptions relating to personnel and ...
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More Hints on Audit Report 2.0
New international requirements for an expanded audit report are providing a teaser for what the United States should expect in coming years. The new international standard is modeled on an earlier U.K. version, and it’s similar to a proposal expected from the PCAOB this year. The details differ, but the ...
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Blog
FASB May Offer Deferral, Early Adoption on Revenue Rule
The Financial Accounting Standards Board is considering both a deferral of its sweeping new revenue recognition rule and early adoption for companies ready to proceed, a FASB spokesman said Monday. FASB will decide later this spring on those ideas, after hearing more input from companies preparing for the current 2017 ...
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Blog
New Promotions at Haskell & White
Haskell & White, an accounting, auditing and tax consulting firm, has promoted two individuals in its Audit and Business Advisory Services Department. Details inside.
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Blog
Study Says Investors Need to Know About Audit Offshoring
Apparently doubting the quality of the audit, investors punish companies when they first learn that others from outside the principal audit firm had a hand in assuring the company’s financial statements.
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Blog
Ford Feels Venezuela Pinch With $800 Million Charge
Ford Motor Co. is taking a one-time $800 million charge to earnings in its 2014 fourth quarter because of continued currency problems with Venezuelan operations. In a filing with the SEC, the company said the currency woes have constrained parts availability, which makes normal production difficult to maintain. Details inside.
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Blog
FASB Proposes Simplifications to Income Tax Accounting
The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued two proposed accounting standard updates to simplify the accounting for income taxes. One would simplify accounting for the tax effects of intra-entity asset transfers, while the other focuses on the classification of deferred tax assets and liabilities that are carried on the balance ...
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COSO Tacks Toward Cyber-Security
As cyber-security works its way onto the corporate board agenda, COSO is suggesting ways that its frameworks for internal control and risk management can be a starting point for companies to anticipate fast-emerging risks. “Just as the board is responsible for enterprise risk management, this is very similar,” says Mike ...
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Blog
How Good Ideas Still Lead to Bad Reporting
Every role in financial reporting is generally clear, which should lead to a relatively smooth process to issue financial reports—and yet, no. This month, Compliance Week columnist Scott Taub examines the peculiar inefficiency we have around adjustment of immaterial items. Even as participants in the reporting ecosystem all do their ...