Audit & Accounting

CPAs advertising their services used to be against the rules, until regulators began loosening those restrictions about 25 years ago.

In a resounding salvo aimed at pending proposals on business combinations and consolidated financial statements from the Financial Accounting Standards Board, two major financial associations - Financial Executives International and the Institute of Management Accountants - have roundly criticized not only the board's approach to those proposals, but also a broad spectrum of related issues.

London - The trustees of the International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation have begun deliberations on an increasingly political review of its constitution.

Audits have gotten more complicated, and that means more auditors will be using more specialists. But what qualifications does a specialist need to be entrusted with a role in an audit?

Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement director Stephen M. Cutler, whose tenure included investigations of some of the largest financial reporting failures in the nation's history, is leaving the commission next month to return to the private sector, the agency said. The agency has not yet named a successor.

Amid an investigation into its disclosures and accounting practices, Raytheon Co. placed its chief financial officer on leave at the same time that it announced that it had submitted a settlement offer to the Securities and Exchange Commission and settled a shareholder lawsuit.

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted to delay the effective date of a Financial Accounting Standards Board rule that requires companies to treat employee stock options as expenses.

Customer relationship management software maker Siebel Systems Inc. has tapped board member and former Andersen Consulting chief George T. Shaheen as its chief executive officer.

Paisley Consulting, a provider of business accountability software, revealed two online services this week for their compliance and risk management software - the Standard Hosting Model and the ASP Pricing Model.

The cost of compliance associated with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act are expected to drop significantly for some companies, according to a report commissioned by the Big Four audit firms.