Audit

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board plans to hold an open meeting next Tuesday to discuss its proposed regulations calling for greater auditor independence and mandatory rotation of audit firms.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s new whistleblower program took effect Friday, and the SEC has created a new Web page where people can report a violation of the federal securities laws and apply for a financial award.

IMGCAP(1)]Try typing the word “outsourcing” into Google and you’ll receive a list of over 122 million Web sites in the U.S. alone. Why is one word used so frequently in various publications?

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has approved an updated accounting standard to simplify how an entity should test goodwill for impairment.

The International Federation of Accountants’ Professional Accountants in Business Committee has published a new paper on the changing expectations of employers for professional accountants in the business world.

States are coping with revenue shortfalls by getting rid of sales tax holidays and ratcheting up their audits of corporate sales and use taxes, according to new research.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has released an updated manual for companies filing financial reports in the SEC’s Edgar online system.

IMGCAP(1)]For all of those private companies frustrated with being forced to spend $25,000 on a valuation of intangible property or goodwill, or to spend hours drafting disclosures that users may not read, and be burdened with a myriad of other financial reporting responsibilities of public companies, there may be some relief on the way.

Officials from the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board have met with Chinese officials to try to resolve the impasse over inspections of accounting firms in China that audit Chinese companies whose stocks trade on U.S. exchanges.

The U.S. CPA Exam was successfully administered at five international test sites: Japan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates.

The New York State Society of CPAs sees comparability and quality as two of the main obstacles to the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards in the U.S.

KPMG has agreed to pay $37 million as part of a $627 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit brought by institutional investors over its former audit client Wachovia.

ARC Logics, a Wolters Kluwer business, has released version 10 of its CCH TeamMate internal auditing software, designed to help internal auditors manage each step of the audit process more efficiently.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board intends to host a pair of public roundtable meetings in the fall to discuss issues related to private company accounting and reporting standards.

The International Accounting Standards Board has proposed delaying by two years the mandatory effective date for its IFRS 9 standards for financial instruments, postponing them from Jan. 1, 2013 to Jan. 1, 2015.

IMGCAP(1)]Remember the fall of Enron? What about Tyco International, Adelphia and WorldCom?

A new report from Ernst & Young finds that many companies can improve their Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.

About a year and a half ago, our editorial team was involved in the annual ritual of envisioning new products that our sales team could potentially take to market and, hopefully, attract several interested sponsors.

A federal judge has thrown out most of the key claims in a class-action lawsuit against Ernst & Young over its audits of Lehman Brothers.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has disciplined a pair of Ernst & Young auditors after they allegedly provided misleading documents and information to PCAOB inspectors and altered and backdated working papers.