Audit & Accounting

The worst is over for accounting firms, said Allan D. Koltin, chief executive of Koltin Consulting Group, in his keynote address at the Thomson Reuters Users’ Conference for Professional Tax & Accounting Firms.

The American Institute of CPAs’ Financial Reporting Executive Committee has published a working draft of a new AICPA Accounting and Valuation Guide, “Testing Goodwill for Impairment.”

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has proposed a set of improvements in financial reporting on consolidations that would affect all companies required to evaluate whether they should consolidate another entity.

Value pricing, also known as fixed-fee billing, is attractive on some levels to both accountants and their clients: accountants, because they get their fee up front, normally at a premium above their time-based billing; and clients, because it provides them with certainty about the services they will receive and the fee they will be billed.

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

The Financial Accounting Foundation plans to host a series of three public roundtables early next year and a live webcast later this month to give constituents an opportunity to provide their feedback on its recent proposal to create a Private Company Standards Improvement Council.

The spectacular bankruptcy of MF Global this week has led to speculation about what led to the brokerage firm’s downfall.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has agreed to cooperate with Israeli financial regulators on exchanging confidential information about auditing and accounting firms.

FASB ISSUES MULTI-EMPLOYER PENSION PLAN STANDARD

The American Institute of CPAs has thrown down the proverbial gauntlet to the Financial Accounting Foundation, passing a resolution giving its board the option to create a separate body to develop accounting standards for private companies.