Audit

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has entered into an agreement with the Financial Supervisory Commission of Taiwan to cooperate on oversight of auditors who practice in either the U.S. or Taiwan.

The Private Company Financial Reporting Committee held what is likely to be one of its final meetings last week as the PCFRC gets ready to disband.

A bipartisan pair of influential senators introduced legislation Friday that would make disciplinary hearings against auditing firms public.

Small businesses and nonprofit organizations often overlook the warning signs of employee fraud, especially by senior managers, according to accounting firm Marks Paneth & Shron.

The Texas Society of CPAs has weighed in on the Financial Accounting Foundation’s controversial proposal to set up a Private Company Standards Improvement Council and sent a letter expressing its “respectful disagreement.”

The Financial Accounting Foundation has sent a comment letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission supporting the so-called “condorsement” approach to incorporating International Financial Reporting Standards into the U.S. financial reporting system, but with some important changes.

Investors and financial executives are increasingly feeling overloaded by the volume and complexity of financial disclosure information in annual reports and other financial filings, according to a new study.

Financial Executives International has teamed up with the Center for Audit Quality, the Institute of Internal Auditors and the National Association of Corporate Directors on a new anti-fraud quiz.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board published revised proposals Monday for revenue recognition as part of their continuing efforts at convergence.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved new rules that will make it more difficult for foreign companies to go public on the three major U.S. exchanges through a reverse merger with a U.S. shell company.

The International Federation of Accountants’ Small and Medium Practices Committee has released the third edition of its Guide to Using International Standards on Auditing in the Audits of Small- and Medium-Sized Entities.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has added two new projects to its agenda aimed at improving financial reporting by not-for-profit organizations.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is proposing to defer some of the changes it required earlier this year in the presentation of other comprehensive income on financial statements after hearing objections from various quarters.

Securities and Exchange Commission chief accountant James Kroeker criticized the American Institute of CPAs’ resolution of disapproval against the Financial Accounting Foundation’s proposal to set up a Private Company Standards Improvement Council, calling it a “clear threat to the independence of the FAF.”

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.

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