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Featured Databases

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GRC Illustrated Series

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Compensation Survey

 Compliance, Audit & Risk Compensation Survey
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2009 Global Integrity Survey
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Accounting And Auditing

Below is some of the most recent Compliance Week coverage on issues related to accounting and auditing. Coverage focuses on developments emanating from FASB and the PCAOB—on issues as diverse as FIN 48, “fair value,” auditor independence and more—but extends to broader financial reporting issues as well. The list below shows the most recent articles first.

  Title & Description Date Type of Article
1. Financial Restatements Drop Again in 2009; Will It Last?
The financial-reporting community has good news to celebrate this spring, with restatements falling 27 percent in 2009 to numbers not seen since before passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002.
 		03/16/10 Compliance Week Coverage
2. Questions Remain on Testing Goodwill Impairment
As companies begin filing first-quarter financial statements, the task is being done with a bit of guesswork about how the Securities and Exchange Commission will react to their treatments of goodwill.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
03/09/10 Compliance Week Coverage
3. Internal Audit’s Role in Preventing FCPA Violations
It seems like old news, but no matter how often Corporate America says it knows what to do, we just keep hearing about high-profile cases of violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
 By José Tabuena
03/02/10 Columns & Editorials
4. IRS Preps Push to Disclose Uncertain Tax Positions
The Internal Revenue Service is gearing up a new campaign to have companies disclose the uncertainty they have about positions they’re claiming on the corporate tax return.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
03/02/10 Compliance Week Coverage
5. New Glimpse Into M&A Accounting Reassures
After some notable angst over whether new accounting rules for mergers and acquisitions might muck up M&A activity, early data suggests public companies aren’t tying themselves into knots seeking workaround solutions.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
02/17/10 Compliance Week Coverage
6. Koss Fraud Spotlights Small Filers’ Internal Control Issues
As Congress debates whether to exempt non-accelerated filers permanently from internal control audits—and that debate may take much longer than many expect—lawmakers might want to ponder the breathtaking fraud at Koss Corp. and its implications for external auditors’ role in preventing and detecting management deception.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
02/02/10 Compliance Week Coverage
7. SEC Warns on New Interpretations of Revenue Rules
Rigid accounting rules for revenue recognition may be giving way to more use of judgment, but the Securities and Exchange Commission is warning companies not to rush to judgment too quickly.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
01/26/10 Compliance Week Coverage
8. Internal Auditors Face New Challenges in 2010
As corporations try to find their way out of the economic crisis and back into healthy growth, boards may be leaning more on internal audit departments to help them find the way.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
01/20/10 Compliance Week Coverage
9. SEC Cracks Down on Gussied Up M&A Values
The staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission recently took a subtle but significant swipe at an accounting practice now steadily falling out of vogue: structuring business mergers and other transactions so they look pretty on financial statements.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
01/12/10 Compliance Week Coverage
10. PCAOB Looks to Improve, Expand Auditing Rules
Regulation of the auditing world is shifting gears, moving beyond the early, intense focus on internal controls to find new ways to improve auditing more broadly. Yet a pall of uncertainty remains over where that oversight of the profession should go next.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
01/05/10 Compliance Week Coverage
11. Conflict Exists Over How to Calculate Cash Flow
Every year I attend Financial Executives International’s annual Current Financial Reporting conference. The 2009 conference, held in November, was its usual excellent event, addressing everything from new accounting rules for mergers to new guidance on fair value to the future of financial statement presentation.
 By Colleen Cunningham
12/22/09 Columns & Editorials
12. SEC Curious About Drop in Material Weaknesses
Staff at the Securities and Exchange Commission are beginning to wonder whether an impressive drop in the number of disclosed material weaknesses is really due to better internal control environments—amid the most horrendous economic climate in 80 years—or is a case of companies and auditors failing to identify where weaknesses truly are.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
12/22/09 Compliance Week Coverage
13. Battle Continues Over PCAOB and SOX Future
The future of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board—and, by extension, the future of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act—may be in jeopardy, following a U.S. Supreme Court hearing last week where several justices criticized the accounting overseer as having too much independence.
 By Jaclyn Jaeger
12/15/09 Compliance Week Coverage
14. Regulators Advise on New Off-Balance-Sheet Rules
New accounting standards are about to take effect that will unmask assets and liabilities that companies have been hiding away off the balance sheet, and regulators are offering tips on how to assure compliance with the spirit of the rules.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
12/15/09 Compliance Week Coverage
15. Podcast: AICPA Update
Compliance Week editor Matt Kelly does a quick recap of the 2009 AICPA annual conference with Chris Wright, managing director at Protiviti.
 		12/11/09 Compliance Week Coverage
16. Tax Agencies Start Circling on Transfer Pricing
Corporate transfer pricing—that is, the price a company records for subsidiaries doing business with each other—has become a target for tax authorities around the world as they turn over every rock in search of revenue.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
12/08/09 Compliance Week Coverage
17. Your Checklist of Year-End Close Headaches
The economic problems that dogged businesses all year long will hang like a dark cloud over the 2009 year-end close, giving companies good cause for plenty of planning this year to avoid unpleasant audit surprises.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
12/01/09 Compliance Week Coverage
18. A Bundle of Concerns on New Revenue Rules
I recently wrote about the opportunities and challenges that the new Financial Accounting Standards Nos. 166 and 167 bring to U.S. financial reporting. My fear was that the new standards won’t help improve financial reporting not because of shortcomings in the standards themselves, but because experience suggests that implementation of the standards might not go the way we all would like.
 By Scott Taub
11/24/09 Columns & Editorials
19. Goodwill Impairments May Return Yet Again
A wave of goodwill writedowns in late 2008 and early 2009 may be followed by more in the latter part of this year as companies continue to wrestle with the accounting difference between fair value and book value amid economic uncertainty.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
11/24/09 Compliance Week Coverage
20. Pitfalls Emerge in New Merger Accounting
Corporate America has now had nearly a full year to adjust to new rules that radically changed how mergers and acquisitions are accounted for. It’s been a bumpy ride, and at least some companies have found themselves stuck in valuation sinkholes.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
11/17/09 Compliance Week Coverage
21. Tricky Accounting for Restructuring Debt, Leases
Companies restructuring debt and renegotiating leases are sometimes encountering accounting surprises when they explain the new terms to auditors.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
11/10/09 Compliance Week Coverage
22. IRS Gives Wiggle Room on Pension Costs
Companies that still sponsor defined-benefit pension plans have won some subtle but significant relief in funding requirements, and more may be coming. But the provisions require companies to do some quick, careful analysis and make some short-term choices that could have significant long-term implications.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
11/03/09 Compliance Week Coverage
23. FASB, IASB Plod Toward Convergence on Revenue
For an economy that isn’t seeing enough revenue these days, the United States certainly does have a lot of ways companies can try to recognize it.
 By Colleen Cunningham
10/27/09 Columns & Editorials
24. Auditors Take Closer Look at Deferred Tax Assets
With losses mounting at many companies and forecasts offering scant hope for recovery, auditors are starting to ask hard questions about the deferred tax assets companies are reporting.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
10/27/09 Compliance Week Coverage
25. Hard Work to Implement Amended Revenue Rules
At first glance, the new accounting rules for recognizing revenue from “bundled” products should have the tech sector and other industries doing handsprings—but on closer examination, it won’t be that simple.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
10/20/09 Compliance Week Coverage
26. Auditors to Maintain Pressure on Going-Concerns
Perhaps the economy has indeed begun to revive, but auditors’ questions about going concerns aren’t going away any time soon.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
10/13/09 Compliance Week Coverage
27. PCAOB Reports Set High Bar for Auditors
Corporate America should take note that auditors may soon be upping their game when it comes to performing internal control audits over financial reporting, following a recent regulatory report that highlights areas where more work is needed.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
10/06/09 Compliance Week Coverage
28. How to Handle the Five Habits of Difficult Auditors
In previous columns here, I’ve often talked about how to handle difficult accounting issues. I have not, however, talked about how to handle auditor issues. It’s time that I do.
 By Scott Taub
09/29/09 Columns & Editorials
29. New Off-Balance Sheet Rules Not Just for Banks
Companies outside the financial services industry may want to pay heed to new securitization rules that, under the surface, extend far beyond bank balance sheets.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
09/29/09 Compliance Week Coverage
30. Cash Flow Undergoes Changes, Becomes Relevant
Cash flow and its proper representation in financial statements has gained a lot of respect in recent years, and companies would be wise to give it more than an afterthought going forward.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
09/22/09 Compliance Week Coverage
31. Ruling Leaves Companies Exposed to Data Scrutiny
Companies may want to reconsider how they assess and document their tax and litigation risks these days, after a federal appeals court ruling that gives potential adversaries unprecedented access to work papers that previously were more protected.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
09/15/09 Compliance Week Coverage
32. Know Your Nexus: States Dig Deep for Unpaid Taxes
Starving for tax revenue, state governments are turning over every rock in search of unpaid taxes—and they are often finding corporate taxpayers long overdue in filing and telling them to pay up.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
09/09/09 Compliance Week Coverage
33. Help Arrives for Fair Value of Liabilities
Corporate accounting departments finally have more guidance to help them pin fair-value measurements onto their liabilities—and the guidance reflects a realization that in some cases, the concept of fair value is much simpler than the practical reality.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
09/09/09 Compliance Week Coverage
34. GE Restatement: What About the Auditors?
General Electric may have settled its accounting dispute with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but questions remain about repercussions for KPMG, the audit firm that gave its blessing to GE’s erroneous accounting.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
08/25/09 Compliance Week Coverage
35. Post-Mortem: GE’s $50 Million Accounting Glitch
Anyone in the financial reporting world seeking further proof of just how complex hedge accounting can be, please review General Electric’s latest corporate filings.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
08/18/09 Compliance Week Coverage
36. Tax, Complexity, Restatements
Companies have made some strides toward improved reporting of tax assets and liabilities in their financial statements, but they still face a long journey to eradicate this common tripping point that leads to material weaknesses and restatements.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
08/11/09 Compliance Week Coverage
37. PCAOB Cracks Whip on Audit Quality
Regulators are pressuring auditors to do a better job with new measures intended to make auditors more cautious and more skeptical when reviewing clients’ financial statements.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
08/04/09 Compliance Week Coverage
38. Hints That Lease Accounting Reform Will Hurt
A final rule on accounting for leases is still several years in the future, but financial executives should brace themselves now for a new approach that will probably bring a rush of assets and liabilities onto the corporate balance sheet.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
07/28/09 Compliance Week Coverage
39. Farewell to the QSPE; FASB Makes a Fresh Start
With the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s recent publication of standards No. 166, Accounting for Transfers of Financial Assets, and No. 167, Amendments to FASB Interpretation No. 46(R), the end of the qualified special purpose entity is, thankfully, close at hand. We should all celebrate.
 By Scott Taub
07/28/09 Columns & Editorials
40. In Fits and Starts, Revisions to Revenue Recognition
Companies may soon be allowed a faster way to recognize revenue on bundled product-and-service offerings, but it won’t necessarily be easier.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
07/21/09 Compliance Week Coverage
41. PCAOB Inspection Reports Still Not Up to Par
Regulatory inspection of auditing firms finally seems to be settling into a groove, but inspection reports still aren’t the scorecard of auditing expertise that corporations and investors had hoped for.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
07/21/09 Compliance Week Coverage
42. Accounting Pressure in Obama Regulatory Reform?
The Obama Administration’s plans to reform financial regulation pin part of their hopes on changes to accounting rules. Some of those changes, however, harken back to Enron-era tactics for earnings management and may undercut much of the push for transparency seen this decade.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
07/14/09 Compliance Week Coverage
43. Auditing GRC: Getting Down to Brass Tacks
In my last two columns I’ve been delving into the challenge of auditing governance, risk, and compliance in a unified fashion. I still have a final column to write on that subject (auditing GRC from a governance perspective) but I want to interrupt things this month to talk about the skills and knowledge an auditor needs—because auditing GRC is not for the faint of heart.
 By José Tabuena
07/07/09 Columns & Editorials
44. What Qualities Make a Sound Financial Expert?
Many audit committee members and chairs are voicing concerns these days about the proper level of financial expertise required to oversee the rapidly changing, and increasingly complex, range of financial issues companies face. How much technical accounting expertise should audit committees have in the current business environment?
 By K. Sue Redman
06/30/09 Compliance Week Coverage
45. Regulators Need to Get Moving on IFRS
Despite an apparent drop in momentum recently, the United States and the world are on a clear path to move to one set of global accounting standards. In fact, the only common theme we’ve seen in comments about the Securities and Exchange Commission’s plan to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards is that everyone believes we should have one standard.
 By Colleen Cunningham
06/30/09 Columns & Editorials
46. Fair Value Today: Just Document Everything
Following a flurry of confusion and demands for guidance on how to measure fair value in the midst of economic chaos, the accounting practice is settling on the immediate solution: document everything.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
06/30/09 Compliance Week Coverage
47. Going-Concern Warning, Even for Healthy Cos.
Companies fortunate enough to dodge the “going concern” bullet for annual reports filed this spring aren’t necessarily out of the woods, according to audit firms that remain on the lookout for indicators of distress.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
06/16/09 Compliance Week Coverage
48. Preparing Financial Statements in Codification Era
With the adoption of the Accounting Standards Codification structure for accounting rules, financial reporting executives have a new job in front of them: simply assuring they refer to accounting rules correctly.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
06/02/09 Compliance Week Coverage
49. Finding Firmer Ground for Your Accounting Ideas
The Commissioners and staff at the Securities and Exchange Commission are great people: smart, talented, personable. Nonetheless, I would guess that most Compliance Week readers would like to interact with them as little as possible. I'm here to help.
 By Scott Taub
05/27/09 Columns & Editorials
50. Navigating Codification: Where to Begin?
The Accounting Standards Codification is about to become the new rulebook for accountants, yet many who use and research accounting standards still have a lot to learn about what it is and how it works.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
05/27/09 Compliance Week Coverage

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