All articles by Tammy Whitehouse – Page 49
-
Blog
IASB Considers Deferral for Revenue Recognition Standard
Now that the new revenue recognition standard is likely to be delayed by a year in the United States, the International Accounting Standards Board is recommending a delay until Jan. 1, 2018, for those who file under International Financial Reporting Standards. “We think that it is less confusing for the ...
-
Blog
EY Settles Lehman Allegations for $10 Million
Image: New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has announced a $10 million settlement with EY over its role in auditing Lehman Brothers financial statements, which hid tens of billions in leverage before collapsing in 2008. Schneiderman says the $10 million will be distributed as restitution to Lehman Brothers investors. More ...
-
Blog
FERF Updates Latest Fraud Defense Tactics
The Financial Executives Research Foundation has put some fresh research and analysis to the fraud conundrum, offering companies some new insights on how to address an old problem. FERF says fraud risk is growing rather than declining for companies, despite plenty of regulatory and legislative efforts to the contrary. More ...
-
Article
Audit Inspections: Improvement? Maybe. Costs? Yes.
Image: Five years of increasingly rigorous PCAOB inspections have driven audit firms to improve their efforts at scrutinizing corporate financial statements and internal control. Companies receiving that pressure say the heightened scrutiny is clear; the question is whether it is making audits better, or just bigger and more expensive. “Companies ...
-
Blog
Report: Majority Adopt New COSO Framework
With more than 3,000 filings collected through early April, three-fourths of publicly traded companies have disclosed that they have adopted the 2013 COSO internal control framework, with the rest either remaining on the 1992 framework or not disclosing what framework they followed, according to a study published by Protiviti.
-
Blog
Study Shows No Better Reporting After Auditors Cut Tax Services
U.S. auditor independence rules targeted at tax work have done nothing to improve financial reporting quality, according to new academic research out of Singapore. The study found a big shift in non-audit services provided by audit firms, leading to a significant drop in auditor-provided tax services, especially among firms that ...
-
Blog
FASB Simplifies Presentation of Debt Issuance Costs
FASB has approved a measure to revise the presentation of debt issuance costs. Financial statement preparers told the board that existing rules establishing different balance sheet presentation requirements were unnecessarily complicated. FASB now says companies should treat debt issuance costs as they do debt discounts in the balance sheet, deducting ...
-
Blog
FASB Shifts Gears on Cash-Flow Classification Issues
Image: FASB has asked its Emerging Issues Task Force to dig into nine specific cash-flow issues to see if it can suggest some changes to existing guidance to make this area of accounting more straightforward. “We’re going to continue with the project, but change the dynamic,” said FASB Chairman Russ ...
-
Article
PCAOB Inspection Data: Shifting Standards, Shifting Insights
Image: If you want to be panicky or cynical about audit firms’ performance, citing failure rates in PCAOB inspection reports is a great way to do it. The truth is more complex. In Part II of our series looking at PCAOB inspection data, we delve into how inspections have changed ...
-
Blog
PCAOB Routs Nevada Firm Where Beckstead Landed
The PCAOB has thrown the book at a small Nevada audit firm for a long list of audit violations, including a suspension for Brad Beckstead, former partner with Beckstead and Watts. Beckstead challenged audit inspections and the existence of the PCAOB before the U.S. Supreme Court, which has created uncertainty ...
-
Blog
Accounting-Related Class-Action Lawsuits Jump in 2014
Image: A Cornerstone Research report says securities class-action filings involving allegations of accounting improprieties jumped sharply from 47 in 2013 to 69 in 2014. Senior adviser Laura Simmons said Cornerstone expected the SEC’s increased focus on financial reporting issues might lead to an increase in class actions with these issues. ...
-
Blog
FASB Votes for One-Year Deferral on Revenue Recognition
Image: FASB will propose a one-year delay in the effective date of its new revenue recognition standard, while allowing adoption of the original effective date for companies ready to move forward. FASB member Daryl Buck, though initially skeptical of a delay, said, “It would be very difficult to expect [media ...
-
Blog
PCAOB Reorganizes Auditing Standards by Topic
The PCAOB is reorganizing its audit standards, integrating standards the board wrote with historical standards it adopted on an interim basis under Sarbanes-Oxley. “The standards will be organized by topics that generally follow the flow of the audit process, making their use easier and more efficient for auditors,” said PCAOB ...
-
Article
PCAOB Inspection Reports at 5: What Can We Learn
The compliance and audit community have pored over PCAOB inspection data on audit firms for five years now. What does the data tell us, really? This week Compliance Week begins a special series looking at the insights that the inspection process can give—starting with how much value the disclosure of ...
-
Blog
FASB Mulls Deferral on New Revenue Rule
Image: FASB will review research behind a possible delay in the new revenue recognition standard. The board might also consider allowing early adoption, currently prohibited under FASB’s standard. SEC Chief Accountant James Schnurrif said, “If the parties determine there are implementation issues that require additional standard setting, I would think ...
-
Blog
Study Finds Blind Spot in Audit Quality Reviews
New research suggests audit reviewers may sometimes give audit teams the benefit of the doubt when reviewing a team’s work. The study found reviewers who had no knowledge of any ill feelings on the part of the audit manager reached judgments consistent with the audit evidence. Those who were aware ...
-
Blog
Internal Audit Wrestles With Pace of Change, Survey Suggests
A PwC poll suggests internal audit still struggles to keep up with the rapid pace of change in the business environment. Nearly 70 percent of organizations said they are going through or have recently gone through a significant transformation in the business, yet only 11 percent of chief audit executives ...
-
Article
Report Spotlights the Underbelly of ‘Audit Politics’
Image: A new report finds corporate political pressure on chief audit executives to alter audit plans or results is “extensive and pervasive,” and it underlines the need for audit professionals to master the art of office politics. “We were really surprised by the extent of pressure,” says Larry Rittenberg, co-author ...
-
Blog
New Lease Accounting May Favor IFRS Filers
Image: New standards on accounting for leases are likely to be more flattering to the bottom lines of companies that use international accounting standards rather than U.S. GAAP, the International Accounting Standards Board said recently. Beth Paul, a partner with PwC, said during a webcast that the key difference will ...
-
Blog
Big 4 Lose Audits to Smaller Firms in 2014, Data Shows
Big 4 firms lost a combined 64 public company audit engagements in 2014 as second-tier national firms snatched up a combined 58 new clients, according to Audit Analytics. The company’s annual summary of auditor changes says KPMG is the only Big 4 firm to win more new engagements than it ...