Audit

Foundation Software, a national developer of construction accounting systems, will unveil a new CPA Audit/Review Module at the AICPA Construction Conference next week.

AMR Research estimates that companies will spend $6 billion on complying with Sarbanes-Oxley Act requirements in 2006, close to the $6.1 billion they will spend in 2005.

The U.S. Treasury and Internal Revenue Service have issued guidance relating to provisions of the Katrina Emergency Tax Relief Act of 2005 that allow Hurricane Katrina victims to access employer-sponsored retirement plans and IRAs.

Former Congressman Bill Gradison has been named acting chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board issued a report saying that while the initial implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley and, specifically, Section 404, has not been without its challenges, the board is confident the process will be easier in the future.

Investors punish firms that disclose internal control weakness as required by Sarbanes-Oxley provisions, but having a Big Four auditor mitigates the negative price hit, according to new research out of Indiana University.

The Securities and Exchange Commission unanimously voted to request public comment on rules that will allow companies to use the Internet to satisfy proxy material delivery requirements.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers has requested the dismissal of a mult-million-dollar claim filed following the bankruptcy of Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities.

Diane M. Rubin, a partner at San Francisco-based Novogradac & Co. LLP, was recently installed as chairwoman of the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy for 2005-06.

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. has again put off filing financial statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Giovanni Prezioso, general counsel at the Securities and Exchange Commission, said he would leave the regulator to return to a post in the private sector.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and Grant Thornton International, along with Bank of America, have been named as defendants in two lawsuits seeking almost $1 billion for a trio of Cayman Islands companies.

Big Four firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and its global network reported combined member firm revenues of $20.3 billion for the year ended June 30, 2005, a nearly 17 percent rise in U.S. dollars versus the previous year.In local currencies, the firm's growth was about 12 percent. Excluding expenses reimbursed by clients, net aggregate revenues for the global network were $19 billion in U.S. dollars.

* FIELDSTONE JETTISONS KPMG: Fieldstone Investment Corp. has dismissed KPMG as its auditor and named Big Four rival Deloitte as its replacement.Fieldstone, a Columbia, Md.-based residential mortgage banking concern, reported no unresolved accounting disagreement with KPMG for its two most recent fiscal years.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board approved its budget for 2006, which will also allow for a reduction in the support fees paid by publicly traded companies.

As the American Institute of CPAs' director of auditing and attestation, Chuck Landes has guided the Auditing Standards Board through the upheavals of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and in late October, he saw the board issue 11 inaugural standards for the audits of private companies."This was a monumental meeting," Landes said of the most recent ASB meeting. "I am just thrilled. I'm very proud of the technical staff, who have worked very hard and are finally seeing the fruits of all their labor come to fruition in the issuance of these new auditing standards. These standards make significant changes in how some auditors perform their work, and clearly they will improve the quality of auditing."

The Financial Services Authority, re gulator of financial service providers in the U.K., has expressed worries about the systemic risk that comes with the dominance of the Big Four accounting firms.

KPMG LLP has been selected by the YAI/National Institute for People with Disabilities Network as its 2005 Corporation of the Year. Past honorees include Pfizer, Avon Products, RJR Nabisco and Time.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board will meet prior to the Thanksgiving holiday in order to address a number of items.

In one of his last public speaking appearances before stepping down as chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board November 30, William McDonough told a roomful of financial and accounting executives that, while much progress had been made in restoring public confidence, maintenance is an ongoing mission.