October 2010 - Journal of Accountancy

Many AICPA members have expressed confusion about provisions covered under Interpretation 101-3, Performance of Nonattest Services, of the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct. For example, what nonattest services can a CPA perform for an attest client? What are the requirements involving management responsibilities to oversee the project? This quiz is

Sharp increases in the number of multinational audits being performed by U.S. accounting firms means that more CPAs are performing services under the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) audit and attest standards. Although auditors must comply with the specific standards adopted in each jurisdiction, familiarity with IFAC’s International Ethics Standards

Editor’s note: Also read “Cloud Computing: What Accountants Need to Know” in the October 2010 issue of the JofA.   Ample research must be done before selecting any vendor, but specific areas should be addressed when choosing to move your data to the cloud. The following are some questions to

This month, the Pathways Commission, a new commission on accounting higher education, will hold its first formal meeting to begin charting “a national higher education strategy for the next generation of accountants.” This commission is a joint effort of the American Accounting Association (AAA) and the AICPA. The commission is

Estates and nongrantor trusts must file income tax returns just as individuals do, but with some important differences. For one, their income is taxed at either the entity or beneficiary level depending on whether it is allocated to principal or allocated to distributable income, and whether it is distributed to

Ethical behavior is difficult for any researcher to measure and analyze, especially in real-life situations. Results are often imprecise due to the challenges inherent in quantifying what is ethical and what is not. Much of the work done is theoretical, and involves either creating or applying ethics models. To draw

A type of fraud has come into the public eye in the past year in which the criminal surreptitiously obtains financial banking credentials, hijacks a corporate computer, and steals money from the victim’s bank accounts. In this scenario, referred to as a fraudulent electronic funds transfer (EFT) transaction, a cybercriminal

There’s no arguing that “cloud computing” is gaining a great deal of momentum. Worldwide, cloud services revenue is forecast to reach $68.3 billion in 2010, a 16.6% increase from 2009 revenue of $58.6 billion, according to analyst firm Gartner Inc. So what does this mean to the accounting profession? What