Audit & Accounting

The Securities and Exchange Commission's top accountant has added his thoughts on how to properly account for stock options in the historical financial statements of public companies.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it has filed and settled financial fraud charges against bank holding company Doral Financial Corp.

A church in Pasadena, Calif., says that the Internal Revenue Service has asked it to turn over all the documents and e-mails it created during the 2004 election year containing any references to political candidates.

A couple of months ago I came across the television and radio commercials of GoodAccountants.com and they got my back up.

The Government Accountability Office has released an updated listing of public companies that have made a financial restatement announcement because of financial reporting fraud or accounting errors.

You can hear it in their voices: There's something about providing accounting work for not-for-profit entities that produces a smile of satisfaction. These people like what they're doing for a living."They very much appreciate what you do for them. They're not out just to increase the bottom line of the organization - they're out there to do a service for the community, and they appreciate anything you can do to help them," said Rob Fleming, shareholder director of the Not-for-Profit Services Group at the Bellevue, Wash.-based firm of Clark Nuber.

Recent headlines surrounding the ordeal of 104-year-old socialite Brooke Astor chronicled a lawsuit filed by her grandson that accused his father of mismanaging his grandmother's financial affairs.For once, maybe the rich aren't so different: Experts predict that, for millions of Americans, the problems associated with relatives acting as trustees, guardians or conservators will only grow as the population ages. Policymakers are focusing on solutions that may well affect the way CPAs serve clients in the coming years.

UBIQUITEL RETAINS KPMG: UbiquiTel, a subsidiary and provider of Sprint communications services throughout midsized markets in the Western and Midwestern U.S., named Big Four firm KPMG as its new independent accountant.KPMG replaces PricewaterhouseCoopers as auditor to the Conshohocken, Pa.-based company. According to a filing, PwC's reports on UbiquiTel's financials for the years ended Dec. 31, 2004 and 2005, did not contain any adverse opinion or disclaimer of opinion, and were not qualified or modified as to uncertainty, audit scope or accounting principle.

Sometimes things become so commonplace that people stop giving them a second thought, even though they deserve one, or even more than one.Like a great many others, recent events have caused us to realize that we may have become complacent about the magnitude of executive compensation. Those at the top rung of corporate America make what seems to everyone but them to be truly staggering amounts of money each year.

ADP TO SPIN OFF BROKERAGE ARM: Payroll and benefits outsourcing concern Automatic Data Processing Inc. will spin off its massive brokerage-services unit, an arm that observers project would have a market cap of more than $3 billion. ADP said that as a result of the spinoff - which should be completed by the end of fiscal 2007 - it expects to receive a distribution of $500 million to $700 million from the business in the form of a tax-free dividend.ADP said that the decision to spin off the unit came after a year-long strategic review. In that process, the company mulled an initial public offering, as well as an outright sale of the business. Although ADP is better known for its signature payroll unit, its brokerage-services business both processes and clears trades of securities, along with handling the distribution of related materials such as proxy reports. It generated roughly $2 billion in revenue for its most recent fiscal year, accounting for about 20 percent of the company's overall revenue figure.