Audit & Accounting

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has expanded and updated its guide to understanding local government financial statements, and plans to publish more taxpayer-oriented guides later this year.

A new academic study finds that when public companies give their shareholders a vote on the selection of an external auditing firm, they are less likely to make financial restatements than those that don’t.

The Financial Accounting Foundation intends to conduct post-implementation reviews of several business and government accounting standards pertaining to business combinations, reportable operating segments, deposits, investments, and repurchase agreements, to see how well they have worked in practice.

Members of the Financial Accounting Standards Board held a two-day meeting this week with officials from the Accounting Standards Board of Japan how they could better align accounting rules.

IMGCAP(1)]Check out the digital edition of the February 2012 issue of Accounting Today.

Firm News - February 10

The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy is awarding $25,000 in grants to academicians and post-doctoral researchers to research educational issues that affect CPAs, the public accounting professions and the responsibility of state accounting boards to protect the public.

Diamond Foods Inc removed top management after a probe by its audit committee found that the company improperly accounted for payments to walnut growers, sending its shares down 40 percent in after-hours trading.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has imposed a $2 million civil penalty against Ernst & Young, the largest civil money penalty to date in the PCAOB’s 10-year history, and censured the firm for audit failure, while sanctioning four of E&Y’s current and former partners.

Professional accountants need to respond to increasing demand from investors for non-financial information, specifically environmental, social and governance disclosures, according to a new report.