Tammy Whitehouse

PricewaterhouseCoopers and Crowe Chizek are the latest auditing firms taken to task by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board for shoddy audit practices in 2007. The PCAOB flagged six audits by PwC and two by Crowe Chizek in its 2007 inspection cycle, for violating numerous auditing standards. The reports, published earlier this month, are part […]

The debate over how to define and present fair value in financial statements plunged last week to the core of accounting theory: whether accounting should reflect business decisions, or drive them. A Securities and Exchange Commission roundtable on July 9 brought both views to the table for a debate over whether the evolution toward fair-value […]

Audit firms are making their case to the Treasury Department to provide public policy recommendations that would relieve what the audit firms describe as a risky, unfair exposure to legal damages. In an extensive, first-of-its-kind report to Treasury’s Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession, the Center for Audit Quality says that as of mid-March, the […]

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board got an earful recently about how much it should rely on other countries’ regulators to help carry out its duty to regulate audit firms doing business in U.S. capital markets. The PCAOB held a roundtable to get views on its proposed policy statement establishing criteria for when it would […]

Death, taxes—and now, conversion to international accounting standards. It’s that real. David Schmid at PricewaterhouseCoopers says he was frustrated for months by the number of non-believers he confronted. Players in U.S. capital markets simply weren’t prepared to accept that the United States would eventually move to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards. Schmid “I couldn’t get […]

Companies can expect to see a series of roundtables at the Financial Accounting Standards Board later this year to debate some of the biggest accounting challenges on FASB’s agenda. During a recent Webcast to update capital markets on the future direction of accounting rules, FASB Technical Director Russ Golden said the Board hopes to hold […]

When accounting rulemakers say they want to get back to basics on good financial reporting, they mean it: The rules will soon contain new directives on how to define “sold.” The concept would seem straightforward enough: Party A gives an asset to Party B, who gives money to Party A in exchange. Sold. Well, not […]

Brace for bigger liabilities on the balance sheet and a larger ratio of liabilities to equity if the Financial Accounting Standards Board stays the course in redefining preferred stock as a liability. As complexity of financial engineering has blurred the line between liabilities and equities, FASB is working on a comprehensive project to help redefine […]

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has adopted two new rules to keep a closer eye on auditing firms, including one that requires firms to provide a comprehensive report of their doings to the PCAOB annually. The rules apply to all 1,800 firms currently registered to audit public companies in the United States. The annual […]

A simpler rule for hedge accounting is on the horizon, but don’t place any bets that the rule will actually make hedge accounting, you know, simpler. The Financial Accounting Standards Board unveiled last week its long-anticipated proposal to unravel Financial Accounting Standard No. 133, Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities—which many criticize as the […]