Audit & Accounting

Norwalk, Conn. - Governments have always found it difficult to properly report fund balances when the uses of various fund amounts were restricted in a number of ways. A dollar that couldn't be spent did not combine well with a dollar that could only be spent for a specific purpose, or a general fund dollar that could be spent without constraint.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board issued a summary of the board's actions when it modified the standards for fair value and mark-to-market accounting in response to congressional demands:

Among the tragedies inflicted on thousands of victims by Bernard Madoff was that perpetrated on a tiny accounting firm in New City, N.Y., a hamlet some 30 miles north of New York City.

The realities of volatile capital markets and a struggling global economy confront management decision-making at every turn. In recent years, the challenge of managing costs has become increasingly complex, due, in part, to relentless competition, complex global operations, compliance, efficiency imperatives, proliferating risks and the sheer speed of change.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued a proposed standard on the fair value measurement of liabilities, seeking to clarify the thorny issue of fair value a bit further.

Accounting firm leaders, standard-setters and industry accountants called for more certainty in the roadmap to International Financial Reporting Standards.

The International Federation of Accountants has released the 2009 Handbook of International Standards on Auditing and Quality Control.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has published a staff audit practice alert explaining the potential auditing and review implications of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s recently revised standards on fair value accounting.

Less than half the CFOs polled in a recent survey by Grant Thornton were aware of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Accounting Standards Codification project, which is set to become the authoritative source of U.S. GAAP on July 1.

Barry Melancon, president and chief executive of the American Institute of CPAs, welcomed more than 350 AICPA Council members to the nation’s capital and told the state delegations to get ready to meet with legislators on pressing issues in the profession.