Accounting & Auditing

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is gathering its advisers for a routine session on where regulators should focus their attention, but little of that attention is expected to turn to new or existing auditing standards. The PCAOB’s Standing Advisory Group will meet Oct. 5 in Washington, D.C., devoting most of its time to how […]

In the world of material weaknesses, taxes are emerging as one of Corporate America’s weakest spots in the financial-reporting process. In a Compliance Week analysis of 400 companies that reported material weaknesses in their most recent annual reports, one-third attributed problems at least in part to taxes. They get sympathy from tax experts who say […]

The trek toward a fair-value system of accounting—which critics have said sometimes feels like a forced march—took another step forward last week, as accounting rulemakers finally approved a way to establish fair value where it’s already required or permitted in existing accounting literature. The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued Financial Accounting Standard No. 157, […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission has decided it’s time for companies to clean up their financial statements this fall, shoring up errors that have been hiding like dust bunnies under the sofa for years. Under the leadership of newly appointed Chief Accountant Conrad Hewitt, the SEC staff has issued Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 108 to […]

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has finalized its position and its rationale for barring companies from using the accrue-in-advance method of accounting for future major maintenance costs. In its staff position, AUG AIR-1: Accounting for Planned Major Maintenance Activities, FASB says companies are prohibited from using the accrue-in-advance method—where companies project when a particular asset […]

You invest money, and eventually—if it was a good investment—you get money back. Do you call that return on investment, or return of investment? A potentially huge difference exists for accounting purposes, and some companies apparently have been getting it wrong. That’s according to a recent study, “The Cash Flow Classification of Distributions Received from […]

Now that Sarbanes-Oxley has made big progress buttoning down internal controls over financial reporting, the next great frontier for potential abuse is emerging: nonfinancial fraud. That’s the lesson, at least, from companies like BP and State Farm, both caught up in accusations that employees manipulated nonfinancial information in ways that seemed to achieve some immediate […]

In the complex world of accounting standards-setting and rulemaking, even a bedrock concept can become the subject of debate and analysis. Take, for example, the term “liability.” Practically any student of Accounting 101 could come up with the most basic principle behind a liability: It’s something you gotta pay. But in its decision to eliminate […]

A global review of internal control practices indicates the prescriptive, rules-based approach that drives Sarbanes-Oxley and its Section 404 reporting requirements does not breed good business practices, but merely a check-the-box compliance mentality. That’s the finding of a new report titled “Internal Control—A Review of Current Developments” from the International Federation of Accountants. It compares […]

In the latest of our conversations with governance leaders and regulators, we talk to Tom Seidenstein, director of operations at the International Accounting Standards Committee and point-man on global convergence of accounting rules. An index of previous conversations is available here. So far IASB has persuaded at least 100 nations to commit to International Financial […]