Accounting & Auditing

Over the last six years or so, starting long before the current search for accounting reform, the two of us have gone through the process of changing the way we look at public financial reporting. Mind you, we didn’t just tweak our perspective but completely changed our views on the objectives and methods of financial […]

PART FIVE IN A SERIES Over the last month, we have had the opportunity to describe in these pages the basics of Quality Financial Reporting. QFR is our proposed alternative to management’s current dependence on compliance with generally accepted accounting principles to produce fully informed capital markets. Whereas the status quo paradigm looks for ways […]

PART FOUR IN A SERIES In the preceding three columns, we described the Quality Financial Reporting paradigm. It is an attitude, not a set of procedures. By adopting a QFR strategy, management tries to build positive and lasting partnership relationships with capital markets that lead to lower capital costs and higher stock prices. QFR is […]

PART TWO IN A SERIES Last week, we began a series on the new mindset that we call “Quality Financial Reporting.” At the heart of QFR is the axiomatic proof that voluntarily reporting more complete and useful information will reduce uncertainty and risk for financial statement users, and lead to lower capital costs and higher […]

PART THREE IN A SERIES In the last two columns, we introduced the paradigm-changing strategy of Quality Financial Reporting that involves a whole new attitude toward providing financial information to the capital markets. While traditional thinking causes management to be satisfied with providing the least amount of information allowable under GAAP and SEC regulations as […]

Faster. Better. Smarter. In today’s marketplace, these terms describe the expected. Faster response times, better communication tools, smarter computer chips. And now – under the Securities and Exchange Commission – faster, better, smarter closes. An estimated 6,500 public companies will be subject to the new SEC rule requiring more timely closing and reporting – closing […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted to adopt amendments to implement the mandate of Section 401(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Section 401(a) added Section 13(j) to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which requires the Commission to adopt final rules by Jan. 26, 2003, to require each annual and quarterly financial report required […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission today approved the adoption of Rule 2-06 of Regulation S-X to implement Section 802 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Documents to be retained – Rule 2-06(a) will require that accounting firms retain records relevant to the audits or reviews of issuers’ and registered investment companies’ financial statements, including workpapers […]

Section 401(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 directs the Commission to issue final rules by Jan. 26, 2003, requiring that any public disclosure or release of “pro forma financial information” by a public company be presented in a manner that (1) does not contain an untrue statement of a material fact or omit to […]

Original FASB proposal for a principles-based approach to standard setting to improve the quality and transparency of financial accounting and reporting in the United States.