Accounting & Auditing

A Compliance Week analysis of January 2004 filings shows that average non-audit fees comprised 33.6 percent of payments to auditors. The average non-audit fee paid was more than $860,000.

A growing number of accounting firms are choosing to get out of the business of providing auditing work for publicly traded companies. In the past few months alone, at least four regional accounting firms have taken this route. They include Minneapolis-based Larson Allen, the 18th largest accounting firm, according to Bowman’s Accounting Reports. The other […]

Samuel L. Burke is the former associate chief accountant for the SEC, where he spent three years involved in resolving auditing and independence issues and participating in a variety of rulemaking projects, including the rules strengthening auditor independence that became effective March 31, 2003. Last July, Burke joined PricewaterhouseCoopers as a partner in its national […]

Two professors from the University of Michigan Business School and another at NYU notes that a “disproportionately large number” of companies just meet (or beat) earnings forecasts, and examines the managerial incentives that could that explain the phenomenon.

In case you missed the announcement right before Christmas, FASB finally issued its new accounting standards requiring greater disclosure about pension and other post-retirement benefits plans. As expected, companies must now provide a breakdown of plan assets by category, such as equity, debt and real estate. A “target allocation” percentage is also required for those […]

As most companies are aware, the new auditor independence rules adopted in January list nine non-audit services that are “outside the scope of practice of auditors.” That means they’re banned, courtesy of Sarbanes-Oxley Section 201. The services include: Bookkeeping or other services related to client’s accounting records or financial statements; Financial information systems design and […]

Last week, A group of Canadian-chartered accountants voted to adopt new auditor independence requirements that would hold auditors to higher professional and ethical standards. The new standard incorporates SOX requirements, as well as features of a similar standard issued by the International Federation of Accountants in 2001. Smith “This is a world-class standard,” said Canadian […]

A new GAO study states that mandatory audit firm rotation “may not be the most efficient way to strengthen auditor independence and improve audit quality.” The study, which was nearly four months late (it was mandated by SOX and was due back on July 30th), also stated that mandatory auditor rotation may cause a “loss […]

If your company hasn’t paid its “accounting support fee” to the new accounting oversight board, you may want to talk to the accounts payable department. According to PCAOB rules, a public accounting firm cannot sign an unqualified audit opinion with respect to an issuer’s financial statements if the issuer has “an outstanding past-due share of […]