Audit

Back in the 1960s, Arlo Guthrie arrived on the scene with a song that lasted about 40 minutes if every part was performed. The enduring refrain is, "You can get anything you want at Alice's restaurant."

The American Institute of CPAs has finalized several documents that should improve the auditing of private companies and the development of nonaudit reports and compilations.

The preparers of financial statements have long been grumbling about accounting standards, which they say are needlessly complex and painfully burdensome. The users of financial statements, on the other hand, have generally advocated detail and transparency.

The U.K.'s Accountancy Investigation and Discipline Board said that it is looking into the audit and advisor work that Deloitte performed for bankrupted car manufacturer MG Rover.

OpenPages, a provider of Sarbanes-Oxley software, unveiled SOX Express 3.1, their latest Web-based software for compliance with Sections 302 and 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

A $193 million settlement may be close for thousands of PNC Financial Services Group shareholders who joined a class-action lawsuit stemming from a 2001 accounting scandal.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's annual Small Business Capital Formation Forum will be held in conjunction with a meeting of the commission's advisory committee on smaller public companies, Sept. 19 and 20 in San Francisco.

A former accountant at bank HVB Group pleaded guilty in the first prosecution arising from a Senate investigation of tax shelters.

The third edition of PricewaterhouseCoopers' study, "Audit Committee Effectiveness: What Works Best," warns that given their increased workload, audit committees need to resist the temptation to try and do everything themselves.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board issued a revised exposure draft, titled, "Accounting for Transfers of Financial Assets."

Negotiations are continuing between federal prosecutors and KPMG, and an indictment of the firm for its role in selling tax shelters appears to have been ruled out, according to published reports.

Management consulting firm Navigant Consulting Inc. will acquire Canadian forensic accounting practice Kroll Lindquist Avey for $20 million.

An independent committee has finished its report into accounting practices at Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc., and the country's second-largest doughnut chain has announced plans to reduce past income statements by more than $25 million.

United Rentals Inc. will hold off on finalizing its recent earnings statements until it finishes an accounting inquiry and restates more than three years of results.

Convergys Corp., a provider of customer care, human resources and billing services, completed its acquisition of the finance and accounting business process outsourcing line of Deloitte Consulting Outsourcing LLC, a subsidiary of Deloitte Consulting LLP.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has broadened its four-month-old voluntary Extensible Business Reporting Language filing program to allow mutual funds to file exhibits to their annual report to shareholders and quarterly statements of portfolio holdings using XBRL.

Sandra Harris, who co-headed the Securities and Exchange Commission's Pacific Regional Office for more than 10 years, said that she will leave the regulator for a post in the private sector, though she has yet to announce the specifics of the new job.

Over the last month, at least a handful of lengthy feature stories have come my way about Supreme Court nominee John Roberts -- but the same can't be said about coverage of President Bush's other summertime nominee, Christopher Cox, who was sworn in as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission on Aug. 3.

Auto-parts manufacturer Visteon Corp. expects to report a loss of $1.2 billion in its second quarter after reducing the value of assets it will transfer to Ford Motor Co.

The Governmental Accounting Standard Board recently published a guide to its statements 43 and 45, both which address post-employment benefits besides pensions.