The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board concluded its first International Auditor Regulatory Institute last week.

A veteran business reporter once advised me that if I really wanted to gauge the culture and future of a company I was writing on, check out their customer service department.

Criticism is nothing new to either the Financial Accounting Standards Board or the Governmental Accounting Standards Board. They get it from investors who want more information. They get it from corporations that say they already offer too much information. And recently, they've gotten it from both the Securities and Exchange Commission and from a former SEC chairman.

The Securities and Exchange Commission endorsed the recommendations of the agency's professional staff to eliminate "waste and duplication" in companies' compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley. The change is particularly aimed at providing relief for smaller companies.

In recent hearings before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures, both the American Institute of CPAs and the New York State Society of CPAs called for the repeal of the oft-debated alternative minimum tax.

Appointed to serve as the first executive director of the Center for Audit Quality, Cindy Fornelli is guiding the new organization in its mission to bolster confidence in the audit process, and to aid investors by promoting constructive suggestions for change.Still affiliated with the American Institute of CPAs, the center is the revamped version of the AICPA’s former Center for Public Company Audit Firms. The CAQ Governing Board consists of representatives from the AICPA, the major public company auditing firms and independent public members.

In a major shift of its normal timetable, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board issued its 2006 inspection report for Ernst & Young this week.

The Government Accountability Office has asked Congress to consider enacting a statute period longer than three years for taxpayers involved in questionable offshore activities.

"Boomers have both unrivaled influence and rich networks of peer advisors,” says Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross, chief reputation strategist at Weber Shandwick, one of the world’s leading public relations firms.

The International Accounting Standards Board has published its preliminary views on accounting for insurance contracts in a discussion paper.

While the percentage of employers offering health benefit has fallen over the past five years, employers, individuals and government must share responsibility for providing heath and retirement benefits while allowing companies to remain competitive in the global marketplace, according to a study from the Government Accountability Office. In the report, the GAO examined the practices that employers are using to control the costs of benefits including * the current and emerging practices employers are using to control the costs of health care benefits; * The current and emerging practices employers are using to control the costs of retirement benefits and; * Employers' workforce restructuring changes. According to the auditor general, the share of employers offering health benefits dipped due in part to an 8 percent plunge in the small business sector offering benefits. Meanwhile, despite active participation in define- benefit plans falling from 29 million in 1985 to 21 million in 2003 as employers terminated existing plans or froze benefits for active employees, active participation in defined-contribution plans rose from 33 million in 1985 to 52 million in 2003, as employers increased their offerings of these plans. The GAO said that like health and benefits coverage for active workers, an increasing share of retiree health benefits costs is being shifted to retirees, and many employers have terminated benefits for future retirees. The study pointed out that the challenges workers face in assuming greater cost, risk, and control of their health and retirement benefits make it more difficult for low-wage earners to afford health care coverage and save for retirement -- trends the investigative arm of Congress said would continue.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is soliciting nominations and re-nominations for members of its Standing Advisory Group. Created in 2003, the 31-member SAG assists the audit firm overseer in carrying out its standards-setting responsibilities. The PCAOB is currently seeking nominations and re-nominations annually to fill 15 positions. Appointments are for two-year terms. Nomination forms are available on the PCAOB Web site, www.pcaobus.org. The deadline for submissions is June 15, 2007. Appointments will be announced by the end of October, and the new terms will begin in January 2008. The group, chaired by the PCAOB chief auditor and director of professional standards, Thomas Ray, meets roughly three times a year.

In the ongoing movement toward the convergence of U.S. and international accounting standards, President Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have sealed an agreement that would clear a path toward a unified set of accounting standards by 2009. The agreement will establish a "Transatlantic Economic Council" to help lower regulatory barriers between the U.S. and the European Union. The council, will co-chaired by White House economic adviser Allan Hubbard and European Commission vice president Guenter Verheugen and will submit annual reports on the progress top both EU and U.S. leaders. The signing comes as the Securities and Exchange Commission is mulling whether to allow foreign companies registered in the U.S. to file their statements using international financial reporting standards in lieu of generally accepted accounting principles.

The Center for Audit Quality, the group backed by the profession's six largest audit firms as well as the American Institute of CPAs, has lured aboard a pair of high-level staffers from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Lori Schock, the SEC's acting director of investor education, and general counsel Robert Burns will join the new group in May. Schock will assume the post of director of outreach, while Burns becomes the CAQ's new director of research. The group, which evolved from the AICPA's Center for Public Company Audit Firms, currently has about 800 members. Its executive director, Cindy Fornelli, and director of operations, Jane Cobb, are both former senior-level directors at the SEC. Fornelli served as deputy director of the SEC's investment management division, while Cobb helmed the regulator's legislative affairs office. Fornelli and several of the CAQ board are scheduled to embark on a multi-city "listening tour" to elicit feedback from investors, regulators, academics and business leaders to hone the business reporting model.

Financial Executives International, a 15,000-member body of chief financial officers, controllers and other c-level financial executives, has thrown its support behind the Senate's efforts to modify Sarbanes-Oxley's Section 404. In a letter to Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the chairman and ranking Republican, respectively, of the Senate Banking Committee, FEI president and chief executive Michael Cangemi lauded their leadership in "allowing the SEC and the PCAOB to resolve the challenges of improving Section 404." Cangemi told Dodd and Shelby that FEI's position is that "Section 404 needs to be made more efficient. However, we remain encouraged that the forthcoming SEC and PCAOB guidance will achieve a greater balance in the implementation of the annual compliance process of Section 404." FEI's letter comes on the heels of an overwhelming 62-35 defeat in the Senate of an amendment put forth by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., which would have made 404 compliance optional for companies below a certain market cap. Shortly thereafter, the chamber voted unanimously 97-0 to approve an amendment from Dodd, suggesting that the SEC and the PCAOB forge ahead with their previously announced plans to develop guidance for smaller filers to make SOX more manageable.

Thomson Tax & Accounting has released "PPC's Guide to Audits of Nonpublic Companies," which helps integrate the requirements of the newly released risk assessment standards that go into effect for financial statement audits beginning on or after Dec. 15, 2006. The new tome fuses two existing products -- "PPC's Guide to Audits of Small Businesses" and "PPC's Guide to Risk-Based Audits" - into a single guide for all nonpublic, non-industry-specific audit engagements. The manual includes checklists, forms and audit programs to help firms transition their audit approach to reflect the new standards. The guide is available in a variety of formats including TTA's proprietary Checkpoint platform. The risk-assessment guide also contains in-depth coverage of new requirements for communicating internal control deficiencies under SAS No. 112 and communicating with those charged with governance under SAS No. 114.

When I was 15, my father caught me sneaking a cigarette in our backyard. It was dusk and I thought I had successfully camouflaged myself behind our hedges to avoid detection. Following a fleet introduction between my backside and his size 12 Bostonian loafer, he informed me that not only was I grounded for two weeks, but my TV viewing privileges were revoked as well. When I protested that it should be one or the other, he introduced me to the concept of bargaining leverage in a negotiation and, as a rule, teenagers, caught smoking in a house where it was prohibited were not imbued with a whole lot of it. Since my younger brother was with me, he was on the receiving end of the punishment as well, even though he had not violated the no-smoking policy at Chez Carlino. My father called it guilt by association. As a result, I read roughly four books in that span and, in retrospect, undoubtedly came out better for it. I was reminded of my tobacco-induced quarantine last week when I attended a financial reporting conference keynoted by former Maryland Senator Paul Sarbanes, one-half of the now-famous hyphenate that drastically reshaped the corporate landscape. The senator told attendees that when he assumed the chairmanship of the Senate Banking Committee, he was more concerned with drafting money-laundering legislation in the wake of 9-11 than reforming the financial reporting process. But then the floodgates of scandal began to creak and, eventually, burst open with billion-dollar restatements and bankruptcies headlined by the poster children for corporate greed and fraud, Enron and WorldCom. Hence we were introduced to Sarbanes-Oxley, which no doubt gave as big a jolt to corporate America as my father's right foot did to my ability to sit down. Unfortunately, like my younger brother who endured being homebound for a fortnight for a peccadillo he didn't commit, many public companies that had adhered to ethical and legal financial reporting standards were also bound to its time-consuming and often expensive compliance. In the nearly five years that SOX has been law, there have been myriad opinions of whether the legislation has accomplished what it intended to - coupled with occasion movements toward full or partial rollbacks. But if there was any doubt as to whether lawmakers were solidly behind the bill or portions of it, I offer up last week's overwhelming defeat of an amendment put forth by Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who proposed that filers with a market cap of less than $700 million would be able to opt the act's 404 requirement. The measure was routed out of the chamber by a 62-35 margin. By contrast, lawmakers also voted 97-0 to approve an amendment from Sarbanes' successor at the SBC, Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., suggesting the SEC and the PCAOB forge ahead with their previously announced plans to develop guidance for smaller filers to make SOX more manageable. A long time ago I learned about bargaining power and when you don't have it. Unfortunately those companies that conducted business in an above-board fashion, were lumped in with those that didn't. And now as a result of compliance requirements, their costs have risen. I guarantee my brother can vouch for their pain.

In an effort to ease the implementation of the new risk-assessment standards from the American Institute of CPAs, tax and accounting products provider CCH has released ProSystem fx Knowledge Tools -- a product collaboration between CCH and audit process and services concern AuditWatch. The new offering, which is predicated on the guidelines of the knowledge-based audit, is available as an integrated module for ProSystem fx Engagement, or as a stand-alone application. The Knowledge Tools' KBA methodology uses a set of integrated procedures, from the pre-engagement stage through evaluating, concluding and reporting. The results from each audit stage are fed into a communication "hub," which enables audit team members to view summaries of the significant matters, risks and findings uncovered during the audit. The KBA documents contain steps and procedures required by generally accepted auditing standards. In addition Knowledge Tool users have access to: * Practice points - additional information in completing the associated section of the audit program, checklist, or workpaper; * Audit alerts - information such as upcoming changes to audit pronouncements; * Examples - example workpapers and explanations regarding how a section could be completed; * Optional workpapers - workpapers that can be brought in to complete the documentation for a specific step; and, * References - links to books, such as industry guides, and original pronouncements. CCH said it would offer training in the new methodology, as well as training on the Knowledge Tools software. For more information, go to

In working toward finalizing a reporting system and rules, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board today pushed back the 2007 deadlines for the first round of annual reports to be filed and registration fee payments by accounting firms. Last May, the audit watchdog proposed that the first annual reports would need to be filed by June 30, 2007, with the first annual fee payment due by July 31, 2007. However, since the board had not finalized its rules and forms for either, it said it would push back both to as-yet-undetermined deadlines. The board said that once the rules become final, it would give registrants enough lead time to comply.

Norwalk, Conn. -- The Financial Accounting Foundation, overseer to both the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, appointed Girard Miller and Jan I. Sylvis to five-year terms on GASB. Their terms begin July 1. Miller and Sylvis will succeed outgoing GASB board members Cynthia Green and Edward Mazur, respectively. Miller previously served as president of Janus Funds and chief operating officer of asset manager Janus Capital Group. Sylvis currently is the chief of accounts for Tennessee's Department of Finance & Administration, where she serves as state controller.