Audit

The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board has released a strategy and work plan for improving audit quality in the new few years.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has released guidance to improve the way private companies account for intangible assets in a business combination.

In early 2014, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board in the U.S. announced that it was officially abandoning its pursuit of mandatory audit rotation—the somewhat controversial practice that requires publicly traded companies to change their auditor after a designated number of years.

Did you know that I had a Radical CPE Event last week? It was totally successful but I will let the Twitter feed explain the day!

Partnerships, office moves and more …

The Financial Accounting Standards Board said Thursday the the 2015 GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy is now available, although it is pending final acceptance by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has announced a settled disciplinary order against a partner of Grant Thornton Taiyo ASG LLC, Grant Thornton’s member firm in Japan, for his failure to properly address numerous risks of material misstatement of which he was aware in a 2010 audit of Baldwin-Japan Limited.

Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (CFB Board) announced on Wednesday the formation of the Women's Initiative (WIN) Council - a group of experts supporting and advising CFP Board in its efforts to increase the overall number of women entering the financial planning profession, including women CFP® professionals.

The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board has released a set of provisional sustainability accounting standards for 10 industries within the services sector.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has imposed sanctions against Baker Tilly Hong Kong Limited and two of its accountants for failing to properly audit year-end financial statements of a company that the SEC has charged with fraud.

With the holidays upon us, many firms and businesses are feeling charitable and giving what they can in the spirit of the season. One such organization, Legacy Professionals LLP, has implemented "Wear-It-Wednesdays" this year, in which staff can pay $5 each to wear jeans to the office, with collected donations put into the “Employees of Legacy Making a Difference Fund.” The money is then put towards local organizations nominated by Legacy's staff.

U.S. regulators and Chinese affiliates of the four largest accounting firms said they can probably reach an agreement within a few months to end a standoff over access to audit documents belonging to the firms’ clients.

Members of the Institute of Financial Accountants in the United Kingdom have voted to amalgamate with Australia’s Institute of Public Accountants to form one of the largest international organizations of accountants who focus on small and midsize enterprises and accounting practices.

Global Upside released their holiday card this past week, featuring worldwide staff of the global services company taking part in the holiday favorite, "Let It Snow."

On Monday, the American Women's Society of Certified Public Accountants (AWSCPA) of Georgia announced their Legacies, Leaders & Luminaries Celebration Dinner to be held on January 8, 2015 at the National Center for Civil & Human Rights. The AWSCPA will honor Johnnie L. Clark, CPA, MBA, Ph.D. and other rising stars in the profession.

The AICPA issued a concept paper on Monday concerning the future of peer review, seeking input on the CPA profession’s practice monitoring of the future. The paper, “Evolving the CPA Profession’s Peer Review Program for the Future,” explains how the current peer review program for firms’ accounting and auditing engagements could be changed into a technology-driven, quasi-real time practice monitoring process.

The American Institute of CPAs is looking for advice on ways to revamp its peer review program for the future to leverage technology to do continuous monitoring of how CPA firms perform audit and accounting work.

Firm awards, relocation and more…

Earlier this month, CPA.com released their CPA of the Future Study at the Digital CPA Conference. The Study is designed to measure CPA firms’ ‘future readiness,’ a concept developed by futurist and business advisor Dr. James Canton, CEO of the Institute for Global Futures, which conducted the research for CPA.com. "Future readiness" was defined as, “the capacity to be aware, predictive, and adaptive of emerging challenges, tech innovations, and trends and changes in business, population and social environment,” according to Dr. Canton.

After years of heralding China as one of its best markets, Wal-Mart in August said its performance there was among the worst in its major countries. A management shake-up and job cuts have followed.