Audit & Accounting

Check out the digital edition of the July 2011 issue of Accounting Today.

Officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board are heading to China later this month to meet with officials there to try to resolve the growing problems with audits of U.S.-listed Chinese companies.

Hans Hoogervorst, who took over as chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board this month, said he anticipates the U.S. will ultimately adopt International Financial Reporting Standards.

SEC RELEASES WORK PLAN ON IFRS TRANSITION

The financial crisis may be in the rear-view mirror, but as companies start to look ahead to how they can achieve growth and profits, they will be asking more questions concerning risk.

This column was almost ready to submit when the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board announced that they changed some tentative decisions concerning lease accounting. Before the announcement, we identified six unproductive positions. That list has now been reduced to four-and-a-half, leaving most of our criticisms unchanged, but at least now we have a glimmer of hope that they will produce a better standard.

The pace of change in the accounting profession is not just constant - it takes place at breakneck speed.

AT LAST, SORT OF

Sixty-one of the top 100 recipients of federal small business contracts for fiscal year 2010 were large companies, according to a new report.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has launched a new Web portal for nonpublic entities as the board tries to retain its role as the standard-setter for private company accounting.