Audit

We all want to do more productive, efficient work.

CCH has enhanced the Audit Public Library in its Accounting Research Manager database with a set of questions and answers about Financial Accounting Standard 157 for fair value measurements.

We all want to do more productive, efficient work.

Japanese electronics giant NEC has settled with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over charges that it improperly booked revenue from its customer contracts and did not maintain accurate books and records, causing the company to miss filing financial statements two years in a row.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved a one-year extension of the compliance date for smaller public companies to meet the Section 404(b) auditor attestation requirement of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Try this on for size. A new study shows that of some one million 401(k) portfolios, some 69 percent of participants have portfolios with inappropriate risk or diversification, 36 percent hold high concentrations of company stock, and 33 percent fail to contribute enough to receive the full company match. While groups of participants are taking full advantage of their 401(k) plans, participants with lower salaries, lower plan balances, and those closer to retirement tend to make the most costly mistakes.

Cohen & Co. has acquired Mercurio & Bridgford, expanding the Ohio-based firm's presence in Florida.

A jury awarded investors approximately $58 million in a lawsuit against a former Oregon Republican Party chairman who was accused of defrauding three venture capital funds he founded, and the funds' now-defunct accounting firm, Arthur Andersen.

Financial regulators from around the world are setting up a monitoring group that will work with international accounting standards-setters.

The labor union Unite Here has started a Web site to provide information about the progress of a class-action lawsuit against PricewaterhouseCoopers over the firm's overtime policies.

Citigroup settled a longstanding civil complaint from the Securities and Exchange Commission over improper accounting during the economic crisis in Argentina in late 2001.

Accounting firm Blackman Kallick announced the death of former managing partner Dan Fensin, who retired from the firm late last year after running it for 17 years.

The Internal Revenue Service has recently published an online guide to help its examiners assess the validity of businesses' claims for the research credit.

The Treasury Department's Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession convened an open meeting to hear testimony on its draft report on recommendations for improving the profession, as well as to discuss an addendum with additional recommendations.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a notice providing guidance on the effect of adding liquidity facilities to support auction rate preferred stock on the equity character of the stock.

In a long-awaited shift in purview, the Auditing Standards Board has eliminated its standard on the hierarchy of generally accepted auditing standards just as the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued a new standard establishing the same hierarchy.Chuck Landes, the American Institute of CPAs’ director of auditing and attestation, said that the ASB fully approved of the shift in a vote at its quarterly meeting in May.

With all the recent brouhaha over the subprime controversy and claims that mark-to-market accounting contributed to or even caused problems for investors in collateralized debt obligations, lots of people have been commenting on the relative usefulness of original cost and estimated market/fair value.One of the recurring themes raised by the chorus of critics (who shall remain nameless) is that original cost is preferable because it’s more reliable than estimated value.

The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards has established a Jan. 1, 2009 enforcement date for its revised "Standards of Professional Conduct," allowing members more leeway before enforcement takes effect.

BKD said it is combining forces with the Hanke Group, allowing the Springfield, Mo.-based accounting firm to expand to Hanke's San Antonio and south Texas markets.

The American Institute of CPAs has published the second edition of "Audit Committee Toolkit: Public Companies," a guidebook to help audit committees carry out their corporate governance responsibilities.