Audit & Accounting

The quantity of financial restatements from public companies has leveled off in the past four years and the severity of those restatements has remained low, according to a new report from the research firm Audit Analytics, but restatements have increased from accelerated filers for the third straight year.

The Center for Audit Quality and the American Institute of CPAs have issued a member alert discussing regulatory changes for audits and attestation engagements of brokers and dealers and futures commission merchants, including entities that are dually registered.

Paid-for stock research has generally elicited widespread skepticism, but a new scholarly paper by three accounting professors suggests that paid-for analysts are more like auditors and credit-rating firms than is generally believed.

Awards, divorce services, PwC US’s latest trendsetter barometer and more…

The Financial Accounting Foundation has issued its 2013 Annual Report, entitled “The Road Ahead,” outlining the future direction of the FAF and the standard-setting boards it oversees, the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued a proposed accounting standards update on “pushdown accounting” from FASB’s Emerging Issues Task Force.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has issued a supplemental request for comments on its proposal to reorganize the existing PCAOB auditing standards, while also providing an online demonstration of the proposed reorganization, presenting the existing auditing standards as they would look if reorganized according to the proposed framework.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has announced settled disciplinary orders against two audit firms and four individuals for violating federal securities laws, including one case of fraud, and violating PCAOB rules and auditing standards relating to auditor independence, quality control and audit documentation.

The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy and the International Integrated Reporting Council said Wednesday they are creating a public sector pioneer network to promote the implementation of integrated reporting in the public sector.

Ever since the earliest spreadsheet software, people have been relinquishing many tasks and responsibilities to this ubiquitous tool, and for good reason: spreadsheets are easy to set up, perform all but the most complex functions, and are available everywhere.