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Accounting & Auditing Update

The "Accounting & Auditing Update" is written by Tammy Whitehouse, a veteran business writer who has been a regular contributor to Compliance Week since 2005. Her work has also appeared in industry journals and periodicals including Journal of Business Strategy, Strategy & Leadership, Compensation & Benefits Review, Inc, Buyside, and myriad others. Whitehouse welcomes questions and comments from readers; she can be reached via e-mail at twhitehouse@complianceweek.com.
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Accounting & Auditing Update Blog
CAQ Tool Meant to Help Steer Auditor Judgments
Tammy Whitehouse | August 28, 2014
Aug. 28—The Center for Audit Quality has released a teaching tool meant to help auditors make sound judgments, despite pressures in the marketplace that make it difficult. The Professional Judgment Resource walks an auditor through five actions—defining the issue, gathering facts, performing analyses, making a decision, and documenting the decision’s rationale. “It is critical for the public and capital markets to have trust and confidence in the reasonableness of judgments made by public company auditors,” says CAQ Executive Director Cindy Fornelli. More inside.
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Accounting & Auditing Update Blog
CAQ Survey Shows Slow Return of Investor Confidence
Tammy Whitehouse | October 10, 2014
Oct. 10—Slowly but surely, investors are starting to show a little more confidence in investing in U.S. capital markets and in auditors and audit committees to watch out for their interests. The annual “Main Street Investor Survey” says 80 percent of retail investors expressed confidence in U.S. public companies this year, only a slight increase from the 79 percent last year but the highest level ever recorded since the Center for Audit Quality began conducting the survey in 2007. As for confidence in capital markets in general, 73 percent of investors said they have at least some confidence, up from 69 percent in 2013. More inside.
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Accounting & Auditing Update Blog
SEC Warns on Foreign Business vs. Joint Venture
Tammy Whitehouse | January 23, 2015
Be careful what you call a “foreign business.” The Securities and Exchange Commission says it is seeing too many instances of companies trying to call their joint ventures “foreign businesses” for financial reporting purposes. Perhaps that’s because the reporting requirements might be easier to meet. See inside.
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Accounting & Auditing Update Blog
Ford Feels $800 Million Pinch From Venezuela Strife
Tammy Whitehouse | January 27, 2015
Ford Motor Co. is taking a one-time $800 million charge to earnings in its 2014 fourth quarter because of continued currency problems with Venezuelan operations. In a filing with the SEC, the company said the currency woes have constrained parts availability, which makes normal production difficult to maintain. Details inside.
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Accounting & Auditing Update Blog
Audit Committees Get Fresh Tips on Evaluating Auditors
Tammy Whitehouse | June 3, 2015
The Audit Committee Collaboration, backed by seven groups with various missions around corporate governance and investor advocacy, has updated its External Auditor Assessment Tool, tips to help audit committees conduct their evaluation of external auditors. Cindy Fornelli, executive director of the Center for Audit Quality, says the tool “can help audit committees address evolving challenges with a focused yet scalable approach.” Details inside.
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Accounting & Auditing Update Blog
CAQ Echoes Regulatory Warnings for Year-End Audits
Tammy Whitehouse | October 13, 2015
The Center for Audit Quality has issued an alert to auditors advising where they should focus their audit attention this year. First up is professional skepticism and internal control over financial reporting, followed closely by risk assessments, cyber-security, revenue recognition, and related parties. “These alerts reflect the public company auditing profession’s strong commitment to continuously strengthening audit quality,” CAQ Executive Director Cindy Fornelli says. Details inside.
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Accounting & Auditing Update Blog
Audit Committees Voluntarily Disclosing More
Tammy Whitehouse | November 5, 2015
As the SEC considers the potential for new disclosure requirements for audit committees, audit committees themselves are volunteering more, according to recent analysis by the Center for Audit Quality and Audit Analytics. The analysis revealed one-fourth of companies in the S&P 500 enhanced their discussion around the audit committee’s appointment of the audit firm in 2015, roughly double the number the year before. Details inside.
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Accounting & Auditing Update Blog
CAQ Chooses Path Forward on Identifying Quality Indicators
Tammy Whitehouse | January 19, 2016
The Center for Audit Quality, which represents auditors, has issued a new report on its effort to pilot test its approach to defining audit quality indicators and its suggested path forward on how to identify the most effective way to define and then measure audit quality. The CAQ says it has learned through its roundtable discussions and pilot testing that the determination is “more art than science,” and audit committees are looking for guidance on how to grasp the more qualitative aspects of external audit.
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Accounting & Auditing Update Blog
CAQ gives auditors some year-end planning tips
Tammy Whitehouse | October 5, 2016
Companies beginning to prepare for year-end audits can get a sense of what might be on their auditors’ minds through a new alert from the Center for Audit Quality. More from Tammy Whitehouse.
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Accounting & Auditing Update Blog
Cyber-security storms internal audit plans, poll finds
Tammy Whitehouse | March 3, 2016
A new survey from Protiviti of 1,300 internal audit professionals shows that companies have made big progress in the past year integrating cyber-security risk into internal audit plans. Nearly three out of every four organizations include cyber-security risk in their internal audit plans, according to the poll, up from only half of organizations in 2015. Nearly 60 percent of auditors said their companies have received inquiries from customers, clients, or insurance providers about the entity’s readiness to withstand a cyber-attack.
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Accounting & Auditing Update Blog
CAQ offers audit committees tool to assess non-GAAP use
Tammy Whitehouse | July 5, 2016
The Center for Audit Quality has created a tool to help audit committees navigate the thicket of questions they should be asking in light of increased scrutiny of corporate use of non-GAAP accounting measures. Tammy Whitehouse reports.
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Accounting & Auditing Update Blog
CAQ: Audit’s role in cyber-security exams
Tammy Whitehouse | September 15, 2016
Public company auditors are suggesting that companies voluntarily submit to an independent cyber-security examination separate from the existing financial statement audit. Tammy Whitehouse explores a new process for examining and reporting on a company’s cyber-security risk management.
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Accounting & Auditing Update Blog
CAQ nudges audit committees on revenue recognition oversight
Tammy Whitehouse | December 13, 2016
Citing an “urgent” need for audit committees to get up to speed on implementation of the new revenue recognition standard, the Center for Audit Quality offers some pointers. Tammy Whitehouse has more.
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Accounting & Auditing Update Blog
CAQ, others issue update to auditor assessment tool
Tammy Whitehouse | April 19, 2017
Audit committees have an updated tool available for use to help them assess their external auditors, courtesy of a collaborative group of advocates for audit quality.
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Accounting & Auditing Update Blog
Auditors armed with new method to audit cyber-risk
Tammy Whitehouse | May 26, 2017
Auditors now have a new guide available to them to help examine and report on companies’ efforts to manage their cyber-risk, and the profession is touting their ability to contribute to the effort.
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Accounting & Auditing Update Blog
CAQ offers blueprint for asking auditors about Form AP filings
Tammy Whitehouse | June 20, 2017
Audit committees now have some talking points on how to engage auditors and management on the audit profession's new Form AP filing requirement.
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Accounting & Auditing Update Blog
Auditors get notice to scrutinize SAB 74 disclosures
Tammy Whitehouse | June 29, 2017
Auditors have been notified to be alert to whether corporate SAB 74 disclosures about pending new accounting standards are adequate.
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Accounting & Auditing Update Blog
Audit leaders issue another year-end alert on key risks
Tammy Whitehouse | October 13, 2017
Audit leaders have handed out yet another alert to auditors to dig into high-risk areas as they prepare for the upcoming year-end audit cycle.
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Accounting & Auditing Update Blog
Audit committees advance disclosure in 2017 yet again
Tammy Whitehouse | November 1, 2017
Audit committees took it up another notch in the past year in their voluntarily disclosures to investors, according to the latest analysis.
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Accounting & Auditing Update Blog
CAQ offers tips to audit committees on leasing
Tammy Whitehouse | April 3, 2018
The Center for Audit Quality is offering some tips to audit committees on how to query senior management regarding readiness for new lease accounting standards.
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Accounting & Auditing Update Blog
CAQ arms directors with cyber risk roadmap
Tammy Whitehouse | April 12, 2018
To stoke more board inquiry on cyber-security, the CAQ has published a primer on questions that management and external auditors should be ready to answer.
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Accounting & Auditing Update Blog
Audit leaders issue statement to new audit recruits
Tammy Whitehouse | July 27, 2018
As a new crop of college graduates joins the audit profession, U.S. audit leaders issued a joint statement to sell them on the viability of their career path.
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Accounting & Auditing Update Blog
Confidence in auditors tapers in 2018, poll says
Tammy Whitehouse | September 19, 2018
Investor confidence in auditors and in capital markets in general fell in 2018, according to the annual poll by the Center for Audit Quality.
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Accounting & Auditing Update Blog
Companies should revisit revenue compliance, SEC staff hint
Tammy Whitehouse | October 2, 2018
SEC staff have signaled companies might want to take a second look at their revenue recognition compliance as they approach their first year-end filing under ASC 606.
Displaying 24 results