Audit

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., said he anticipates an exemption for small and midsized public companies from Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404(b) requirements for independent audits of their internal controls to remain in the final version of the financial regulatory reform bill.

Thirty-seven percent of U.S. CFOs and senior controllers believe that a balance sheet should display both the fair value (exit value) and amortized cost of assets, according to a new survey by Grant Thornton, consistent with a forthcoming proposal from the Financial Accounting Standards Board regarding the presentation of financial instruments.

In an effort to draw a wider population of qualified people into the accounting profession, members of the American Institute of CPAs’ governing council unanimously approved revisions to expand its membership categories.

Members of the American Institute of CPAs heard an update from the chairman of the Blue Ribbon Panel, the task force charged with addressing how GAAP accounting standards can best meet the needs of users of private company financial statements, at the AICPA’s Spring Council meeting.

IMGCAP(1)]Let’s be honest. Between the thousands of quality audits done every day by diligent CPAs and the headline-grabbing debacles like Madoff and Enron, which do you think sticks out more in the public’s mind? We all know the answer to this.

A professor of accounting at the Carroll School of Management at Boston College is the 2010 recipient of the Distinguished Achievement in Accounting Education Award from the AICPA.

Since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and Auditing Standard No. 5 were issued, momentum continues to shift towards continuous monitoring or automation solutions.

New York - A class-action lawsuit by former shareholders of Lehman Brothers has been amended to add the defunct investment bank's auditor, Big Four firm Ernst & Young, as a defendant.

More than a decade ago, my wife and I lugged ourthen-small offspring for a number of weekends one summer on car-shoppingexcursions.

The Center for Audit Quality and the Council of Institutional Investors are protesting two proposed amendments to the financial regulatory reform bill that would exempt smaller public companies from compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404(b) audits of their internal controls.

IMGCAP(1)]Last month, the AICPA issued a set of standards that CPAs who do assurance engagements at service companies should examine carefully.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board continues to encounter resistance in inspecting foreign accounting firms that audit the books of non-U.S. companies whose stock trades on U.S. exchanges.

Trust in financial institutions has been severely eroded by the financial crisis, but a new survey has found that the majority of Americans find statements by spokespeople from accounting firms believable.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Schapiro tried to explode some of the “myths” about the agency’s drawn-out convergence of U.S. GAAP with International Financial Reporting Standards, insisting the SEC is committed to global accounting standards and not simply protecting America’s “parochial” interests.

IMGCAP(1)]From a compliance perspective, the new U.S. health care law raises a number of issues for corporate America.

The Institute of Internal Auditors has published a new practice guide to provide an overview of key executive compensation risks that should be understood before assessing whether the controls and governance over executive compensation and benefits programs are effective.

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board has published its 2010 Handbook of International Public Sector Accounting Pronouncements.

The International Accounting Standards Board has published a proposed set of changes in the accounting standards for financial liabilities to address what it calls the “counter-intuitive” effects of fair value measurement.

The American Institute of CPAs took the wraps off its redesigned Web site, AICPA.org, with new multimedia and social networking features.

CaseWare IDEA has inked a deal with SymSure Limited to acquire SymSure’s intellectual property and other assets.