All articles by Tammy Whitehouse – Page 46
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Hertz Restatement Drives Home Top-Level Control Issues
Image: Car rental kingpin Hertz Corp. is nearly finished with its sweeping restatement of several years’ worth of financial statements, and it’s giving compliance and audit executives plenty of cautionary tales to read. Its latest annual report outlines—in frank detail—more than a dozen failures, most of them in senior leadership. ...
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Blog
PCAOB Sanctions Small Firms for Quality Reviews
Audit regulators have disciplined seven small audit firms and some of their employees for lapses in internal reviews of audit engagement reviews. The PCAOB censured the seven firms, from across the country, together with seven individuals and the companies for their violations of Auditing Standard No. 7: Engagement Quality Review. ...
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IASB Follows Suit on Deferring Revenue Recognition One Year
Image: The International Accounting Standards Board has decided to delay the effective date of its revenue recognition standard by one year, just as FASB pushed out its required implementation date to 2018. IASB is delaying the standard because it is working on clarifications to help implementation and because it “keeps ...
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Blog
PwC Shows Small Improvement in Latest Inspection Report
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board found fault with 29 percent of the 58 audits inspected at PwC in 2014, a slight improvement over the 32 percent reported in 2013. The PCAOB says out of 17 of the flagged audits, nine contained problems with both the financial statement audit and ...
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Rotation May Hinder Audit Quality, Study Says
A new study from the American Accounting Association suggests rotating auditors may not be such a good idea, especially as regulators are getting tough on auditors to show more skepticism. “Rotating auditors, aware that they will not be in a long-term relationship, will ... likely perceive themselves to be less ...
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Extra Year on Revenue Standard Means More Time to Sweat
Image: Don’t let your accounting department get too excited with that additional year FASB has granted to adopt the new standard for revenue recognition. Experts helping companies’ implementation efforts say that extra time is much needed, with plenty of questions about the standard remaining unanswered. And don’t forget, “half of ...
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Blog
Hertz Restatement Reveals Depth of Control Issues
Image: As Hertz investigated a handful of accounting anomalies that would lead to restatement, the list of accounting and internal control problems ballooned considerably—but that’s all in the past. The company has updated its SEC filings, correcting accounting errors dating back to 2011. “Today’s filings are an important step forward, ...
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Committee Suggests New Rules for XBRL Filings
A self-appointed committee of XBRL advocates has developed guidance and rules that will help preparers roll out better quality XBRL filings. The Securities and Exchange Commission requires that companies provide data in XBRL, but has done little beyond occasional public remarks for companies to improve the quality of their XBRL ...
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Study Exposes Holes in Governance Performance
Image: Most companies are weak in their implementation of corporate governance processes, suggesting directors at the board level are not adequately involved, according to a global study out of Belgium. “The findings are a call to action for board members to take responsibility for ensuring that their organization’s information and ...
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FASB Nears Proposal on Hedge Accounting
After several years of relative inaction on hedge accounting, the Financial Accounting Standards Board is near issuing a proposed update to accounting standards that would have a big effect on what would qualify for hedge accounting and how the accounting would be explained in financial statements. According to PwC, “[t]he ...
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New IIA Framework Pushes Audit Executives to Think Forward
Image: The Institute of Internal Auditors has unveiled its new professional practices framework, guidance intended to drive auditors to think more critically about risk management and organizational improvement. “It’s about making sure we understand the changes taking place in business and learning to use those to our advantage,” says Larry ...
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Blog
FASB Approves One-Year Deferral for Revenue Recognition
As long expected, FASB has approved a one-year deferral of the effective date of the new standard on revenue recognition, pushing the adoption requirement out to 2018. The board will also allow companies to adopt the standard as of the original effective date, January 2017, if they are inclined to ...
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Deloitte Survey Shows Audit Stakeholders Want More From Audit
Image: A Deloitte survey shows that a big majority want to see auditors providing assurance on more than just financial statements, and they want to see auditors making better use of technology. “Many investors are looking for broader and deeper insights that can help them make smarter, more informed decisions,” ...
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PCAOB, SEC Redouble Efforts on Audit Quality
Image: The SEC and PCAOB are pushing this summer to clarify and improve “audit quality.” That might be a proposal to name the engagement partner working on corporate audits (PCAOB idea), or an exploration of new disclosure requirements for audit committees (SEC idea), or both. “I would urge commenters to ...
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Internal Auditors Get Revised Global Framework to Govern Practice
Image: The Institute of Internal Auditors has unveiled the latest enhancements to its nearly 70-year-old framework that governs the internal audit profession globally. Larry Harrington, senior vice chairman of the IIA’s global board, says the updates are intended to strengthen the position of internal audit as a key player in ...
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SEC Poses Long List of Possible Audit Committee Disclosures
Only a day after audit regulators have proposed a new method for extracting from audit firms the names of engagement partners on each public company audit, the SEC blew open the discussion with a long list of its own questions about whether audit committees should provide that and many more ...
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SEC Slaps Deloitte for Auditor Independence Violations
The SEC has charged Deloitte & Touche with violating auditor independence rules after it failed to notice a consulting affiliate had a business relationship with an audit client. Deloitte says it discovered the violation and reported it after the firm put in place enhanced independence measures. Deloitte will settle charges ...
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Blog
EY Shows Improvement in Latest Inspection Report
EY earned a 36-percent deficiency rating in its latest audit inspection report, with the majority of the busted audits showing problems in both the financial statement audit and the audit of internal control over financial reporting—an improvement over its 2013 record failure of 49 percent, but not enough to beat ...
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PCAOB Revisits Naming Engagement Partner, Audit Quality Metrics
Audit regulators are trying again to propose a rule that would give investors more information about who is working behind the curtain when an audit firm files its final report on a company’s financial statements.
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A Debt Is Owed, No Matter How You Want to Account for It
Image: Even the simplest accounting issues, it seems, can be anything but simple. Rulemakers were reminded of that recently when they tried to simplify how companies account for the cost of securing debt. “Most people get confused by it,” says Diana Gilbert of RoseRyan. “People get wrapped around the axle ...