Audit

Officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board are heading to China later this month to meet with officials there to try to resolve the growing problems with audits of U.S.-listed Chinese companies.

Hans Hoogervorst, who took over as chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board this month, said he anticipates the U.S. will ultimately adopt International Financial Reporting Standards.

SEC RELEASES WORK PLAN ON IFRS TRANSITION

The financial crisis may be in the rear-view mirror, but as companies start to look ahead to how they can achieve growth and profits, they will be asking more questions concerning risk.

This column was almost ready to submit when the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board announced that they changed some tentative decisions concerning lease accounting. Before the announcement, we identified six unproductive positions. That list has now been reduced to four-and-a-half, leaving most of our criticisms unchanged, but at least now we have a glimmer of hope that they will produce a better standard.

Sixty-one of the top 100 recipients of federal small business contracts for fiscal year 2010 were large companies, according to a new report.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has launched a new Web portal for nonpublic entities as the board tries to retain its role as the standard-setter for private company accounting.

The American Institute of CPAs has issued new attest guidance that enables CPAs to report on the controls at a service organization, particularly ones that provide outsourced services to other companies via technologies like cloud computing.

Accounting Today is expanding its Facebook community with a new contest that gives readers a chance to win a free iPad.

Accounting Today is issuing a call for nominations for its annual Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting list.

The Private Company Financial Reporting Committee received an update on the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s efforts to bring U.S. GAAP into line with International Financial Reporting Standards, especially in how that effort would relate to private companies.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board is expected to issue new proposals this week that would require state and local governments to be more open about their pension-funding obligations.

Many CPAs in the U.S. already have some knowledge of International Financial Reporting Standards and have begun to develop greater expertise as U.S. and global authorities work to converge U.S. GAAP with IFRS, according to a new survey by the American Institute of CPAs.

Global business consulting and internal audit firm Protiviti Inc. has added a Time & Expense Management module to the Protiviti Governance Portal for Internal Audit, which lets organizations access a comprehensive internal auditing workflow anywhere, anytime.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has issued a concept release that aims to overhaul the auditor’s reporting model, describing different alternatives to provide more information to investors from the auditors of publicly traded companies.

Total goodwill impairment charges continued to fall sharply across a number of industries nationwide throughout 2010, and the number of companies recording goodwill impairment charges dropped by 41 percent, according to a new study by KPMG.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board issued amendments Thursday to improve and align the presentation of items of other comprehensive income in financial statements prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards and U.S. GAAP.

Accounting Today has introduced a new app for the Apple iPad and iPhone that lets readers access the magazine’s features and content from the palm of their hand.

The Securities and Exchange Commission unanimously proposed amendments Wednesday to the broker-dealer financial reporting rule to strengthen audits of broker-dealers as well as the SEC’s oversight of the way broker-dealers handle their customers’ securities and cash.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board agreed Wednesday to re-expose their revised proposals for a common revenue recognition standard, allowing people to offer further suggestions for changes.