Audit

The two firms brought on the most new SEC audit clients

Tim Gearty of Becker Professional Education discusses how the CPA Exam is testing for recent accounting standards updates, in an interview with Accounting Today editor-in-chief Dan Hood.

New tools can make spreadsheets manageable

Auditing firms (especially the Big Four) have been increasingly seeking "boomerang" auditors - individuals who, after working as auditors, take a position as a manager or CFO at a company, and then return to auditing. Driving this "boomerang" hiring trend is the belief that being able to take the perspective of a manager makes for a better auditor - one who is better able to tell when a manager is overstating or exaggerating earnings. A new study - the first to measure auditor accuracy in assessing earnings bias - confirms that belief.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board announced that the next meeting of its Investor Advisory Group.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has entered into an arrangement with the Hellenic Accounting and Auditing Standards Oversight Board relating to the oversight of audit firms.

Almost nine in ten audits of broker/dealers examined in 2014 had deficiencies, according to a new Public Company Accounting Oversight Board report, and almost a quarter had independence issues.

The Financial Accounting Foundation has named Candace Wright as the next chair of the Private Company Council.

Last December, based on a recommendation from the Private Company Council, the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued a notable accounting standards update for intangible assets in business combinations.

The American Institute of CPAs' Auditing Standards Board has issued a new exposure draft proposing amendments to the auditing standard on auditor’s reports.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has issued final guidance that requires state and local governments for the first time to disclose information about tax abatement agreements.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued an accounting standards update on derivatives and hedging related to electricity contracts.

The causes behind Greece’s ever-worsening debt crisis have been attributed to different factors, including widespread tax evasion, harsh austerity measures, an underground economy, and predatory investment banks and hedge funds, but according to one expert, the main culprit is bad accounting.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board issued an accounting standards update on Wednesday deferring by one year the effective date of the converged revenue recognition standard that it released last year with the International Accounting Standards Board.

By definition, analytical procedures involve a process of analytically detecting ways to decrease time and increase efficiency.

The American Institute of CPAs has sent a comment letter to the Financial Accounting Standards Board weighing in on proposed changes in accounting standards for not-for-profits and saying they could create divergence from the financial reporting model used by for-profit businesses.

The Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh have signed a memorandum of understanding to provide an online CPA Certificate in IPSAS Financial Reporting in Bangladesh.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is seeing some improvements in audits of internal control over financial reporting, but also some contradictory findings.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued an interpretive rule clarifying that whistleblowers are protected by retaliation by employers even if they have not reported their concerns to the SEC first.

Financial Accounting Standards Board chairman Russell Golden explained how FASB is working with both the International Accounting Standards Board and other national standard-setters, including China and Germany, as FASB moves past the convergence process.