With year-end financial reporting now winding down, audit inspection teams are hitting the ground under strict orders to see whether Auditing Standard No. 5 is indeed taking root at audit firms. The Public Company Accounting Board went so far as to hold a special two-day training session for its inspectors in April to indoctrinate them […]
Tammy Whitehouse
Posted inInternal Controls
SOX Costs Down; FASB News; More
Audit costs related to Sarbanes-Oxley compliance for public companies declined for the first time in 2007 as companies and auditors alike grew accustomed to the process, but the joy is muted by a slight increase in overall audit costs. Audit costs related to Sarbanes-Oxley compliance for public companies declined for the first time in 2007 […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
IASB, FASB Spar Over Unified Accounting
The Financial Accounting Standards Board and its international counterpart have set a mid-2011 target date to eliminate major differences between U.S. and global accounting standards, but they still face a minefield of complexities and disagreements on the path to convergence. FASB and the International Accounting Standards Board met in London last week to firm up […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
PCAOB Acts on Auditors, Singapore; IFRS
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has codified its final views on how auditors should maintain their independence from tax services, after a three-year debate over unintended consequences. In a meeting last week, the Board adopted an amendment to Rule 3523, Tax Services for Persons in Financial Reporting Oversight Roles, narrowing the timeline on tax […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Grant Thornton Rebuked; Minority Interest Rules; More
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has given auditing firm Grant Thornton a stern rap on the knuckles, saying the firm failed in five audits to perform adequate testing on financial statement assertions to support its audit conclusions. In its first report on a major audit firm from the 2007 inspection cycle, PCAOB inspectors picked […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
PCAOB Ponders Global Auditing Standards
With accounting standards well on their way to globalization, pressure is growing on the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to follow suit with its standards for auditing U.S. public companies. In a recent speech to the American Accounting Association, PCAOB Board member Bill Gradison said the Board will move the issue of multiple auditing standards […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
FASB Speaks on Fair Value of Liabilities; More
Searching for a way to guide a confused market on measuring the value of illiquid liabilities, the Financial Accounting Standards Board wrestled last week yet again with how exit prices should be used to determine the fair value of liabilities. FASB met last week to hammer out revisions to its proposed guidance in FASB Staff […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Tax-Hungry States Complicate FIN 48
With Sarbanes-Oxley tamed and states hungry for new revenue, tax professionals say 2008 will be a year of reckoning for corporate finance staffs booking tax benefits and liabilities in accordance with Financial Interpretation No. 48, Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Tax. FIN 48 is the requirement that preparers disclose in financial statements where they may […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
FASB One Step Closer to Eliminating QSPEs
The Financial Accounting Standards Board hammered the first nail into the coffin of qualified special purpose entities, the centerpiece accounting conundrum that has complicated and muddied visibility into the full scope of the credit market meltdown. At its board meeting last week, FASB voted to begin a short-term project to wipe the concept of QSPEs […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
When Bear Stearns Rammed Into Fair Value
Experts seem to disagree how much fair-value accounting may or may not have played a role in Bear Stearns’ downfall. While some argue that the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s new fair-value standard—Financial Accounting Standard No. 157, Fair Value Measurement—caused a write-down spiral that is still descending rapidly, others argue that the financial firm’s valuations of […]
