Audit

The American Institute of CPAs has begun a two- to three-year project to revise its auditing standards in an effort to achieve greater clarity.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox said that regulators in different countries should avoid revising International Financial Reporting Standards to meet the needs of local markets.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has appointed Paul A. Beswick to serve as senior advisor in the SEC Office of the Chief Accountant.

The KPMG tax shelter case got underway with jury selection and a drastically reduced set of defendants.

CaseWare IDEA Inc. and Audimation Services Inc. have released IDEA Version 7.2, the latest version of their software to give accounting and financial professionals additional capabilities to assist with audits, detect fraud and meet documentation standards.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has set up a new unit to speed the move to interactive financial reporting by public companies.

Parente Randolph has acquired the Pittsburgh office of Terry & Stephenson, bringing the total number of staff members in Parente's Pittsburgh office to more than 35.

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan has acquired investment research company Glass, Lewis & Co., for $46 million, bringing ownership of the proxy advisory provider back to North America.

ATM machine maker Diebold has been in talks with the Office of the Chief Accountant at the Securities and Exchange Commission about its practice of recognizing certain revenue on a "bill and hold basis."

The Center for Audit Quality (CAQ) is living up to its name, as it has issued three white papers in response to the so-called “liquidity crisis” that began in the subprime mortgage-related markets and, according to CAQ, has spread to other corners of the credit markets with “a potentially pervasive impact on public companies generally with respect to investments held.”

'Truth" and "accounting" should not be concepts that are terribly hard to reconcile - unless you're also trying to bring "government" into the formula.Uniting those three ideas has been Sheila Weinberg's goal ever since she had a baby. Not that the baby had anything to do with it, but motherhood gave her some time off from her career as a CPA.

IBC JETTISONS KPMGFinancial holding company International Bancshares Corp. said that its audit committee has dismissed KPMG as its auditor and replaced the Big Four firm with McGladrey & Pullen.

We are long-time critics of generally accepted accounting principles' historical cost tradition in financial reporting. We argue for providing market values to give users the up-to-date information they need to make rational investment and credit decisions.We have had some fun in the past describing the limitations in cost-based GAAP by offering other acronyms: PEAP (Politically Expedient Accounting Principles), WYWAP (Whatever You Want Accounting Principles) and POOP (Pitifully Old and Obsolete Principles). Despite the humorous undertone, our ultimate point is serious: The current financial reporting system needs to provide better support for the capital markets. After all, they are the foundation of our economy, and work best when market participants are quickly and fully informed.

Leave it to the guys from Harvard, eh? Right now, when everybody and his cat are trying to figure out what’s happening in the stock market, three entrepreneurs out of Cambridge, Mass. are gathering the best financial minds in the business to figure it all out for you. It’s called Fantasy Investing and it can be found at www.updown.com. This is a Web site launched by these Harvard Business School students. Each partner, it is said, has a significant start-up experience, and shares a common vision to revolutionize the investing world. In effect, The UpDown is a community for stock investors.

Tennessee accounting firms Petty & Landis and Lattimore Black Morgan & Cain have merged their practices, giving Nashville-based LBMC a physical presence in the Chattanooga market.

The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board issued new requirements for auditing group financial statements.

Ernst & Young Chairman and CEO James S. Turley has been appointed chair of the governing board of the Center for Audit Quality to help improve investor confidence in the audit process.

Tax technology vendor Vertex said it planned a major hiring initiative that would double the size of its consulting group over the next six months.

Software developer Rivet Software is introducing software to convert financial reports and documents into the interactive format that the Securities and Exchange Commission has been promoting.

AICPA CEO Barry Melancon and other accounting profession luminaries have been appointed to the Treasury Department's new Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession.