EXECUTIVE SUMMARY More CPAs are finding themselves working with foreign statements. As progress is made in convergence and harmonization between FASB and the IASB, the interpretation of foreign financial statements should become easier. CPAs in the United States should watch these developments carefully and familiarize themselves
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Accounting & reporting
Partners Pose Info Security Risk
Partners Pose Info Security Risk Here’s one to share with your business- owner clients: Nearly 75% of responding companies said their information security risk had increased because of their business partners, according to a survey of more than 200 businesses worldwide by security consulting company Cybertrust ( www.cybertrust.com ). While
Countries for Easy Tax Filing
Countries for Easy Tax Filing * 1. Maldives 2. Ireland 3. Oman 4. United Arab Emirates 5. Hong Kong 6. Saudi Arabia 7. Switzerland 8. Singapore 9. St. Lucia 10. New Zealand *Based on number of payments and time required to file taxes and total tax rate. Source: Paying Taxes—The
Changes in Accounting for Changes
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Companies have always faced a major issue of how to reflect changes in accounting methods and error corrections in financial statements. In 2005 FASB issued Statement no. 154, Accounting Changes and Error Corrections. The new rules are effective for fiscal years ending after December
Financial Reporting
IFRS 8 replaces IAS 14, Segment Reporting, and aligns segment reporting with FASB Statement no. 131, Disclosures About Segments of an Enterprise and Related Information. The change is part of a joint short-term convergence project the IASB and FASB have under way to reduce the differences between international financial reporting
Jackie Mason Quote
AS QUOTED “I have enough money to last me for the rest of my life. Unless I buy something.” —Jackie Mason IN THE SPOTLIGHT A Student Threepeat J eanette Maier-Lytle and her team of talented young CPAs-to-be from the University of Southern Indiana set a new record in
New Fraud Guidance
January 2006 > New Fraud Guidance COMPILATIONS / REVIEWS Communication is the name of the game where fraud is suspected. New Fraud Guidance BY J. RUSSELL MADRAY EXECUTIVE SUMMARY SSARS NO. 12, Omnibus Statement on Standards for Accounting and Review Services—2005, amended SSARS no. 1, making specific changes
The Future of Corporate Sustainability Reporting
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY To satisfy the information needs of external and internal stakeholders, more organizations are measuring and reporting on their social and environmental performance. CPAs can play an important role in providing the needed information and helping to verify its accuracy. Corporate sustainability reporting (CSR) involves reporting financial and nonfinancial
Account Reconciliation: An Underappreciated Control
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Since the advent of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, companies no longer can rely on their external auditor as an internal control. They must report most errors the auditor finds as material misstatements and material weaknesses unless they can prove their own controls would have found the error. Balance sheet
Institute Briefs Congress on Its Financial Reporting Innovations
AICPA President and CEO Barry C. Melancon testified at a March hearing of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises regarding two AICPA-launched initiatives—extensible business reporting language (XBRL) and enhanced business reporting (EBR)—that are key elements in a new financial reporting model much needed
Cherry-Picking Sarbanes-Oxley
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Private companies and charities aren’t required to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. But they can adopt some of its requirements as best practices. Cherry-picking the provisions that will help them the most means they can get maximum benefit at minimum cost. Among the private entities that might want
Options and the Deferred Tax Bite
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any more complicated. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Implementation of FASB Statement no. 123(R) goes beyond selecting a method to value employee stock options. CPAs also must help companies make the necessary tax accounting adjustments to properly track the tax benefits from stock-based compensation. Statement no.
The MD&A Challenge
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CPAs HELPING COMPANIES DRAFT THEIR MD&A do so at a time when the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance is increasingly unhappy with the quality of these disclosures, and in the wake of civil fraud charges against the former CEO and CFO of Kmart alleging the MD&A in a
New Fraud Guidance
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY SSARS NO. 12, Omnibus Statement on Standards for Accounting and Review Services—2005, amended SSARS no. 1, making specific changes regarding the practitioner’s consideration of fraud and illegal acts in compilation and review engagements. ALTHOUGH COMPILATION AND REVIEW performance standards don’t require CPAs to assess the risk of fraud,
How to Excel at Options Valuation
Editor’s note: This article uses a simplified example to illustrate how a lattice model works. In the exhibits, the option term is only four years—much shorter than the 10-year life of a typical employee stock option. So in practice the calculations will be more extensive than in these exhibits and
To Consolidate or Not
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AMONG ENRON’S PROBLEMS WAS ITS USE of variable interest entities, which allowed it to leave significant amounts of debt off its balance sheet. In response to concern about this practice, FASB issued Interpretation no. 46 in January 2003 and a revised version in December 2003 to help companies
The Change Game
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY FASB HAS ISSUED STATEMENT NO. 154 PROVIDING rules for how companies should treat changes in accounting principle. The statement requires retrospective application in all comparative financial statements for prior years. UNDER THE IMPRACTICABILITY EXCEPTION, when companies can’t determine either the period-specific or cumulative effects of a change on
Valuing IP Post-Sarbanes-Oxley
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ALTHOUGH SARBANES-OXLEY SETS NO SPECIFIC requirements for CPAs valuing intellectual property, it does put greater emphasis on accurate valuation of all assets and imposes punishments on CEOs and CFOs for failure to do so. RUSS BANHAM is a freelance business writer. His e-mail address is bzwriter@aol.com . efore
XBRL: Its Unstoppable
f you thought Lotus 1-2-3 revolutionized spreadsheets, get a good grip on your mouse because XBRL will do even more for financial reporting and analysis. Here’s the breakthrough: XBRL (extensible business reporting language), a new global open standard for formatting financial information, makes reporting and analysis faster, cheaper and significantly
EBR: The Next Step
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ENHANCED BUSINESS REPORTING (EBR) WILL IMPROVE the quality of information companies provide so investors can make better decisions about a company’s situation and prospects. The EBR Consortium is leading the effort to improve the quality, integrity and transparency of nonfinancial information. MEMBERS OF THE EBR CONSORTIUM WILL DEVELOP
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How to find the right CAS clients
The key to success with CAS is selecting the best clients. Tools like ideal client profiles (ICPs), buyer personas, and even artificial intelligence can help identify the businesses that best fit each CAS practice.
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