Robert Herz

The program of converging accounting standards between the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board is nearing an end after more than a decade. The effort started in 2002 with the Norwalk Agreement under which the two boards committed to work together to make their standards “compatible “ and from 2006 onwards […]

The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board expect to soon issue converged standards on revenue recognition. For FASB, the issuance of the final standard will represent the culmination of an endeavor that has been in the works for over a decade. The project was added to its agenda in May 2002 […]

Most people involved in the reporting process are probably familiar with the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the International Accounting Standards Board, and, perhaps, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board. But do you know about the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)? If not, you’ll probably be hearing more about this organization and its work in the near […]

Hedge accounting is one of the more complex accounting subjects. Over the years, it has caused headaches for corporate risk managers and company accountants alike, as they sought to properly reflect the results of their company’s risk-management activities while also ensuring compliance with accounting rules. The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) plans to issue a […]

The results of a recent survey by the Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF) provide some interesting findings on the practices employed by a cross-section of SEC registrants in preparing and filing their quarterly and annual financial reports. The FERF survey, which includes responses from 416 companies and is titled SEC Reporting Practices and the Impact […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission staff issued a final report this summer on its work plan on International Financial Reporting Standards. While the report provides a thorough and thoughtful discussion of the many areas addressed by the SEC staff in their over two-year examination of whether, when, and how to incorporate IFRS into financial reporting […]

The Financial Accounting Standards Board issued an invitation to comment on its project to develop a “Disclosure Framework” in July. The project focuses on ways to improve the effectiveness of disclosures in the notes to financial statements through clearer communication of the information that matters most to users of a particular reporting entity’s financial statements.  […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement has been burning the midnight oil lately. In 2011 the SEC brought a record 735 enforcement actions and obtained $2.8 billion in penalties and disgorgements.  That trend has continued this year, with the SEC bringing numerous new enforcement actions against companies in various industries.  As has been […]

With much attention in financial reporting currently focused on matters such as the major projects of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the impending decisions by the Securities and Exchange Commission on International Financial Reporting Standards, the future of private-company accounting standards in the United States, and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s projects on the […]

I began my career as an accountant almost 40 years ago, and since then many technological advances have been brought to bear on various aspects of the financial reporting process including the use of accounting software packages and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, computer auditing and electronic audit work papers, the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s […]