Merger activity continues to improve along with the recovering economy and stock market, as the number of deals in the first half of the year surged 10 percent while the value of total deals more than doubled the volume a year ago at this point, according to mergerstat.com. However, in a new report, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Transaction […]
Accounting & Auditing
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Will The SOX Earthquake Shake Up Internal Audit?
With the Nov. 15 deadline for Section 404 rapidly approaching, most corporate internal audit departments are right in the thick of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. INTERNAL AUDIT COMPARISON Below are examples of several internal audit functions at public companies, including their structure, membership and role in SOX 404 compliance: American Electric Power $14 billion utility Internal audit […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Comparing Audit, Non-Audit Fees; Comparison Of Costs In Three Major Cities
Every Tuesday, Compliance Week provides subscribers with a downloadable spreadsheet of all auditor changes during the previous week. The spreadsheet, which also includes year-to-date information, is valuable, but recently subscribers had been requesting additional depth on information about audit and non-audit fees. Chicago, New York & San Francisco At right are two different spreadsheets we […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
PCAOB Chair: Big Four Lack Thorough Documentation
In a speech to a House subcommittee, PCAOB Chairman William McDonough said a narrow review of last year’s audits conducted by the Big Four revealed “significant audit and accounting issues.”
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Nearly 1,000 Audit Firms Registered With Board
According to a speech delivered last week by William McDonough, chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, 977 accounting firms have registered with the PCAOB. In addition, over 200 firms are awaiting approval from the Board to audit U.S. public companies. If there was any doubt about audit firm consolidation, McDonough noted that there […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Audit Committees Must Be Told About Contingency Fees
In a meeting last week, SEC Chief Accountant Don Nicolaisen ordered accounting firms to disclose all contingency-based tax fees to company audit committees. Nicolaisen As we reported in our May 25 edition, those fees—which enable the auditor to take a cut of whatever savings the client was able to realize as a result of the […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
39 Questions To Expect From Your Audit Committee
Building a compliance program in line with Sections 404 and 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is a difficult task, one in which the audit committee plays a critical role. It is up to audit committee members to ask key questions and review relevant information throughout the process. By the time an external auditor assesses a […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Most Companies’ Non-Audit Fees Under 25% Total Fees
A survey of over 3,600 public companies shows that almost 45 percent of companies’ non-audit fees are less than 25 percent of total fees. The survey, conducted by Karl Nagel & Company, analyzed FYE 2003 audit fees, which totaled more than $4.3 billion in aggregate. 29 percent of companies’ non-audit fees were from one-quarter to […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
PCAOB Will Grill Audit Chairs On Non-Audit Services
Accounting fraud may have hogged the enforcement headlines for the past few years, thanks to high-profile scandals at Enron, Adelphia and Tyco International. But over the past few weeks, a number of accounting firms have learned that the Securities and Exchange Commission and other federal officials are still determined to crack down on auditor independence […]
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What If Your Audit Gets Inspected By The PCAOB?
As you likely know, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board will be conducting inspections of the Big Four and other accounting firms on a regular basis. However, if your company’s audit becomes the subject of a PCAOB inspection, you won’t find out from the Board. Sayther That’s according to Colleen Sayther, president and CEO of […]
