Among all the joint tech and accounting initiatives out there XBRL seems to be the one gaining a steady amount of steam towards making real news and producing real returns for a wide audience. What remains to be seen is who’s actually able to realize real returns out of the technology.

Grant Thornton commissioned two research studies to ask if a company can switch from a Big Four audit firm to another qualified global, national or regional firm -- such as say, Grant Thornton -- without affecting stock price.

A report was recently released at an international conference in Paris. The 20-page report is entitled “Global Capital Markets and the Global Economy: A Vision from the CEOs of the International Audit Networks,” and its authors are the heads of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Grant Thornton International, Deloitte, KPMG International, BDO International, and Ernst & Young.The report is intended to promote “a robust dialogue about how global financial reporting and public company auditing procedures must adapt to better serve capital markets around the world.”

CBiz and Mayer Hoffman McCann PC announced the expansion of its not-for-profit practice through the acquisition of CPA David Brown Jr.’s Minneapolis-area practice.Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Brown and several of his associates will be located in the downtown Minneapolis office of CBIZ and MHM.

A committee within the International Federation of Accountants has drafted new guidance to assist companies and their professional accountants in developing and implementing a code of conduct.The proposed new good practice guidance, from the Professional Accountants in Business Committee, “Defining and Developing an Effective Code of Conduct,” provides practical guidance on design and development, as well as highlighting the roles accountants in business take in driving and supporting organizational ethics.

Michael Haubrich, is a certified financial planner with more than 20 years experience. He is the owner of Financial Service Group a fee-only firm in Racine, Wisconsin, with some 100 million dollars in assets under management.He tells a tale that recently he met with a new client who experienced “free financial planning.” According to Michael, the client’s free planning started with a free dinner meeting, followed by a free financial consultation, and then a free financial plan that ultimately ended with an annuity sale resulting in $9,000 in commission to that financial “consultant.”

In search of a happy medium for the smaller public companies that have loudly complained about the cost of audits of their internal controls, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox said a new auditing standard is on the way.In an interview with the New York Times, Cox said that he has been in regular contact with the chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to develop and propose the auditing standard. Right now, Cox said that the timetable would be for the SEC to hopefully approve the standard by the spring.

A lack of practical implementation guidance and the incomplete nature of the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations’ 1992 framework -- in assessing effectiveness of internal controls over financial reporting -- are two of the key cost drivers for public companies complying with Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 (SOX) requirements, according to a new study.

The Big Four, plus major audit players Grant Thornton and BDO International, have joined forces to call for a new business reporting model.In a paper, the firms endorse the concept of accounting rules that are standards based, offering fewer details but giving more responsibility to auditors to interpret those rules. According to the six, the concept should lead to less fraud and more useful financial information -- and ideally protect their businesses from the liabilities audit work opens a firm up to.

With the close of 2006 approaching, we asked industry leaders to share their ideas of what the accounting profession will look like in five years: What will be its major concerns? Challenges? Hot new service areas? What will shape will the firm landscape have taken?

Merck & Co. disclosed four separate tax disputes that have combined potential liabilities for the drug maker of more than $5.5 billion.

The International Federation of Accountants is seeking proposals for the development of an explanatory guide on implementing its quality control standard.

The bankrupt maker of Twinkies and Wonder Bread has reportedly settled a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into its recordkeeping and accounting.

To flatlanders, climbing a mountain may seem like a straightforward task. After all, from down below and at a distance, the summit can be seen clearly, even obviously. But experienced mountaineers know they face a different perspective when they hit the trail toward the top.Specifically, as climbing angles steepen, the summit in their view - seemingly so easily conquerable - is nothing more than a "false summit." False summits are intervening ridges or other terrain features that are positioned between the climber and the real pinnacle in such a way that the latter is obscured.

NASD FINES METLIFE UNITS $5M: The National Association of Securities Dealers imposed a $5 million fine against three MetLife Inc. units - MetLife Securities Inc. of New York, New England Securities Inc. of Boston, and Walnut Street Securities Inc. of St. Louis.In response to an inquiry that it sent in September 2003 centering on the late trading of mutual funds, the NASD said that the MetLife trio provided inaccurate and misleading responses. The MetLife firms neither admitted nor denied the charges, but consented to the entry of the NASD's findings.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed and settled enforcement actions against former officers and directors of Spiegel Inc., the owner of catalogue retailers Spiegel, Eddie Bauer and Newport News.

CPAs in Congress came to the rescue of their profession with the passage of a bill that eliminated the need to send privacy notices to clients."The Financial Services Relief Act of 2006 is a common-sense bill that will give CPAs more time to serve their clients," said Rep. Colin C. Peterson, D-Minn. "As a CPA myself, I can tell you that it's more important to spend time working with clients than it is to be filling out redundant paperwork."

Representatives from industry, government and the accounting profession called on Congress to reform the nation's business tax structure, warning that the current web of corporate tax incentives and penalties is pressuring companies to adopt inefficient practices.Tax Executives Institute International president David Bernard urged the Senate Finance Committee to abandon the current "patchwork of tax incentives and inducements" for businesses, and switch instead to a "simpler, more administrable code" that will promote sound tax policy. Rather than legislating business tax preferences in an effort to "pick winners and losers" in the marketplace, he recommended a broader tax base with lower rates for all businesses.

With the nation in an uproar over widespread pension fund problems, the Financial Accounting Standards Board has set a standard that will soon require companies to fully recognize on the balance sheet either an asset for a pension plan's overfunded status, or a liability for a plan's underfunded status.Standard 158, Employers' Accounting for Defined-Benefit Pension and Other Post-Retirement Plans, would eliminate companies' ability to only partially report the funded status of a post-retirement benefit plan - that is, the difference between the plan's assets and liabilities.

Harmonization of corporate taxation rates in the European Union took a small step forward with a ruling by the European Court of Justice in favor of Cadbury Schweppes, where the ECJ found against the British government's policy of applying its own higher national tax rates to a company's subsidiaries in another, lower-taxed, EU member nation.However, despite the positive implications of the ruling for the British confectionery and soft drinks company, observers said that any move towards a serious union of corporate tax policy in Europe still faces a long road.