Tucked away at the bottom of its 2005 income statement issued last week, Ford Motor Company delivered a $251 million answer to a new accounting question—one that experts say is catching many companies unaware or just starting to get their attention. Ford booked a $251 million charge to earnings to comply with Interpretation No. 47, […]
Tammy Whitehouse
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Canadian Compliance Woes; FASB Eyes Pension Rules
A group of Canada’s provincial securities regulators have put Canadian-listed companies on notice that they’re displeased with a spot check recently performed to determine whether companies are in compliance with audit rules. The staff of regulatory authorities in five provinces reviewed a sample of 95 issuers from across Canada to determine how well they complied […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
FASB Calms Fears Over Payout Clauses In Option Plans
Quieting another ripple of panic around the implementation of stock option expensing, the Financial Accounting Standards Board proposed new guidance last week that relaxes language on how to account for options that are granted with a cash-settlement feature attached. Companies had worried that FASB’s Statement No. 123R, the controversial stock-option expensing rule that went into […]
Posted inTechnology
Report: IT Spending On Compliance Triples Since ’04
Spending on technology to grapple with Sarbanes-Oxley and other compliance obligations is consuming voracious amounts of corporate IT budgets, as companies double or even triple their expenditures, according to a new survey. The Gartner Group says preliminary results from its 2005 financial compliance survey show companies will increase their IT spending on financial compliance management […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Canada Embraces IFRS Accounting, Snubs U.S. GAAP
Canada, the United States’ largest and most important trading partner, has decided to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards for its public companies—yet another feather for the fast-growing accounting standard, and a rebuke to U.S.-style Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Canada’s Accounting Standards Board said last week it will pursue separate strategies for public companies, private companies […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
IMA Seeks SOX Role; Audit Fees Increasing Overseas
The Institute of Management Accountants is developing a control framework that it hopes will rival the widely accepted COSO framework for helping companies establish an internal control environment to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley requirements. THE FRAMEWORK The Institute of Management Accountants recently announced plans to expose for comment a “management centric” risk and control assessment framework […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
FASB Issues Positions On Loan Terms, Intangibles; More
The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued staff positions and a proposed staff position that offer guidance on loan terms that may trigger a concentration of credit risk, investment contracts, and the amortization of intangible assets. In its staff position titled “Terms of Loan Products That May Give Rise to a Concentration of Credit Risk,” […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Reform Would Mandate Greater Disclosure On Pensions
Companies clutching the remains of pension plans and other benefits paid to retirees may consider loosening their grip and making cuts as momentum for pension reform continues to grow. Gamzon IBM last week joined the fold of companies freezing pension plans and steering employees toward defined contribution plans, where costs are more predictable. IBM said […]
Posted inUncategorized
FASB Finalizes Stock Option Expensing Rule
As expected, last week The Financial Accounting Standards Board delivered its final statement on share-based payments, bringing stock options and other forms of equity-based compensation out of the footnotes and onto the balance sheet. The Board’s statement, officially dubbed Statement No. 123: Share-Based Payment, requires companies to begin expensing equity-based awards in the first annual […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Audit Rules Proposed On Banned Services For Public Cos.
Accounting firms got their first look last week at proposed new rules that would govern how accountants can serve their public company audit clients—no contingent fees, no tax shelters for audit clients, and no personal tax services for officers with financial oversight responsibility. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board issued its proposed ethics rules following […]