Every role in financial reporting is generally clear, which should lead to a relatively smooth process to issue financial reports—and yet, no. This month, Compliance Week columnist Scott Taub examines the peculiar inefficiency we have around adjustment of immaterial items. Even as participants in the reporting ecosystem all do their jobs here, the result still is wasted time on issues irrelevant to investors. How did we get here? How do we get out?
Scott Taub
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Your 10-K Is Too Long; Here’s How to Shorten It
Chances are your annual and quarterly financial reports are too long, and it’s not just that regulators and rulemakers require too much information. Lots of words in your filings are neither useful nor required. Since they aren’t important or necessary, take them out. Inside, columnist Scott Taub makes some suggestions for eliminating the unnecessary information and verbiage from your financial filings.
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Some Puzzling Developments in Financial Reporting and Auditing
Normally, I have no problem deciding what I want to write about, but this month, it was difficult. It’s not because there’s nothing interesting going on in financial reporting and auditing—there is plenty happening. But I usually like to give some insight into why things are happening the way they are, and I can usually […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
10 Things You Should Know About the New Revenue Standard
At long last, we finally have a new accounting standard on revenue recognition. It’s comprehensive, converged, and principles-based. This standard has been a long time coming, and it might well be the most significant improvement in global financial reporting we’ve seen or will see in a long time. There has already been much written about […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Busting Some Myths About IFRS
Guess what? Some commonly held beliefs about International Financial Reporting Standards are just plain wrong. My six-year term as a member of the IFRS Interpretations Committee (IFRIC) ends this month, and I hope that I have helped to improve the international accounting standards during that time. Either way, I have learned an awful lot about […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Reporting Problems Old and New That Trouble Companies
Annual reports for calendar year-end companies have now just about all been issued. While it may seem that this reporting season has been relatively quiet, behind the scenes, it has had its share of tough issues, new developments, and even a big surprise. While there weren’t any major new accounting standards to incorporate or […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
With Convergence Over for Now, What’s Next?
For most of the past decade, the quest for global accounting standards has captured the attention of the U.S. financial reporting community. The International Accounting Standards Board and the Financial Accounting Standards Board have worked to converge U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Standards with International Financial Reporting Standards. The Securities and Exchange Commission has allowed foreign […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Private Company Accounting: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
It’s been less than a year since the first meeting of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Private Company Council. The PCC is charged with identifying areas where Generally Accepted Accounting Principles can be simplified for private companies because the users of their financial statements do not need the information imparted by the more difficult or […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Accounting Should Follow, Not Drive, Decision Making
I recently came across some evidence that stock option issuance is down significantly, as many companies switch to other forms of compensation, such as restricted stock. This move is consistent with the views of many compensation experts who say restricted stock is a more efficient means of compensation that better aligns management and shareholder interests. […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
How the SEC’s Authority Helps Resolve Accounting Issues
For the past five years, I have served on the IFRS Interpretations Committee, the body that issues authoritative interpretations of International Financial Reporting Standards. During that time I have learned a great deal about how financial reporting works outside of the United States. There are several important differences, of course, some of which are immediately […]
