All articles by Tammy Whitehouse – Page 42
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The Popularity, and Peril, of Structured Payable Programs
Image: Structured payable programs have become increasingly popular in recent years as companies and their lenders search for new ways to access working capital. But according to Robert Rostan, CFO and principal at education firm Training The Street, such arrangements could turn short-term accounts payable into longer-term debt that requires ...
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Blog
FASB Tests Materiality Ideas With Fair-Value Disclosure Proposal
As part of its effort to improve disclosure requirements, FASB is proposing new disclosure provisions around fair-value measurements to make fair-value disclosures more meaningful to investors. The proposal says entities would provide required disclosures if they are material, and would remove phrases such as “an entity shall disclose at a ...
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IT Audit Executives Struggle With Pace of Change, Survey Shows
Image: Rapid innovation, disruption, and growth in cyber-security risks are the biggest technology challenges for IT auditors, a survey from ISACA and Protiviti says. Managing Director David Brand says, “IT audit professionals have recognized the need to grow their knowledge and expertise while also updating their policies, processes, people, and ...
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Blog
SEC Charges Grant Thornton, Two Partners
The SEC delivered a heavy blow to Grant Thornton and two of its engagement partners last week with charges they ignored red flags and fraud risks at two public companies that ultimately faced enforcement actions of their own. Grant Thornton agreed to a penalty of $3 million, forfeited $1.5 million ...
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PwC Reports on Efforts to Raise Audit Quality
Image: PwC has issued a report to answer questions about what it is doing to better address regulatory demands for better audits. The company is investing in technology, developing talent, and adjusting its audit approach to meet rising expectations. “We understand the importance of maintaining our focus on delivering quality, ...
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Internal Audit Needs to Better Measure Performance, IIA Says
Internal audit departments might better demonstrate the value they bring to public companies if they had a more robust way of measuring their own performance.
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The Technology Transforming Your Annual Audit
Image: The audit profession is slowly retooling itself for the modern IT age, after decades of reliance on random sampling and manual methods that now fail to meet today’s expectations for precision. “Ultimately, this is how the industry will finally achieve its long-term goal of continuous auditing,” says Joanna Schultz ...
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PCAOB Nears New Rule on Naming Engagement Partners
Image: PCAOB Chairman James Doty believes the board will be in a position “very soon” to finalize a rule requiring audit firms to submit a new form, Form AP, to the PCAOB naming engagement partners and other accounting firms that contribute to the final audit opinion for public companies. Doty ...
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FASB Proposes Changes to Business Definition
FASB is proposing some clarifications to how a business is defined, to help companies following accounting rules related to acquisitions, disposals, goodwill, and consolidation. The board says stakeholders have reported that applying the current definition, as spelled out in U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, sweeps in transactions that don’t really ...
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How to Panic Effectively With So Many Effective Dates Coming
Image: Revenue recognition, leasing, financial instruments—the accounting standards for all three have major changes looming, and that means financial reporting executives have lots of implementation to juggle in a short period. This week we look at how to manage so much change well and which companies face the most work. ...
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FASB Drops Deferred Tax Classification Requirement
Companies seeking an easier way to classify deferred taxes on the balance sheet have gotten their way: FASB has eliminated that requirement, as part of its effort to simplify accounting standards. The change to accounting rules now makes U.S. GAAP requirements more consistent with those in International Financial Reporting Standards. ...
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PCAOB Explores Tension Over Internal Control Audits
Image: The PCAOB apparently is taking seriously complaints that its inspection process is driving unnecessary audit work. At a recent conference, PCAOB member Jay Hanson said the board has studied its inspection process to assure that inspections are not imposing new audit requirements. Still, he said, “we cannot rule out” ...
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Inspection Results Vary Even Within Global Networks, PCAOB Member Says
Image: Global affiliates of the six largest accounting firms turn in strikingly different inspection results compared with their U.S. affiliates. PCAOB research shows. Deloitte U.S., for example, has been reducing the rate of deficiencies in its inspections from 2011 through 2013, but Deloitte’s global affiliates have turned in much higher ...
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Early 2015 Inspection Results Hint to Some Improvements
Image: PCAOB Chairman Jim Doty met recently with FASB’s Standing Advisory Group to provide an early look at 2015 inspection results. “Overall early results indicate that the number of deficiencies identified in the engagements inspected appears to be declining from the 2014 inspections results,” he said. “These results vary for ...
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FASB Ideas on Materiality Reform Draw Heat, Questions
Image: An effort to align the accounting world’s definition of materiality with how the idea is widely understood in legal circles is sparking a fierce debate in corporate accounting circles, with potentially big consequences for financial reporting. “More information or more disclosure is better than less, in general,” said Damon ...
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FASB Sets Dates for Financial Instruments Standards
In addition to finalizing and setting a 2019 effective date for a new standard on leasing accounting, FASB has wrapped up its long-running work on changes to the way companies will classify and measure financial instruments and has directed its staff to prepare the final language of the Accounting Standards ...
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FASB Sets 2019 Effective Date on Lease Standard
Image: FASB will issue its final leasing rule in 2016, effective 2019. IASB’s new leasing requirements will follow roughly the same timeline, although the boards still differ on how to reflect lease obligations in the income statement. “We believe that this new standard is important because it will provide investors, ...
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Final TRG Session Leaves Lingering Questions on Licenses
FASB and IASB’s Transition Resource Group met one final time to work through questions surrounding revenue recognition. While the group forged ahead with such issues as treating customer options for additional goods and services, pre-production activities, and fixed-odds wagering contracts, uncertainty still exists for licensing. Big 4 accounting firm PwC ...
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PCAOB Delivers Harsh Inspection Findings to KPMG
The PCAOB’s 2014 inspection report for KPMG found fault with 28 of 52 audits selected for inspection, marking the first time errors have been found in more than half of the audits selected at a Big 4 firm. KPMG’s rate has crept upward every year since 2009 when the PCAOB ...
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Revenue Standard Update: Companies Still Ducking It
Image: Corporate finance departments are playing the silent type right now about how they plan to implement the new revenue recognition standard—which is not quite the amount of disclosure the SEC and others want to see in year-end filings. Those businesses not doing or saying much could be in for ...