Financial Executives International has released two research studies on fraud prevention and financial reporting.
One of the reports, "FERF Fraud Risk Checklist," from FEI's Financial Executives Research Foundation, presents a series of questions to help companies assess the potential risk factors associated with fraudulent financial reporting and misappropriation of assets. The checklist provides a framework for evaluating a company's reporting, along with a sample structure to use in documenting management's thought process and conclusions. The
The other new study, "What's New in Financial Reporting: Financial Statement Notes from Annual Reports," examines disclosures from the 2006 annual reports of the 100 largest publicly traded companies that used innovative techniques to address difficult accounting issues.
The study identifies and analyzes recent reporting trends and common practices in financial statements. For example, 25 out of 100 filers in the 2006 reporting season reported tangible asset impairments as a critical accounting policy. The
