A new academic study finds that when public companies give their shareholders a vote on the selection of an external auditing firm, they are less likely to make financial restatements than those that don’t.

The Financial Accounting Foundation intends to conduct post-implementation reviews of several business and government accounting standards pertaining to business combinations, reportable operating segments, deposits, investments, and repurchase agreements, to see how well they have worked in practice.

irs, retirement planning, treasury

Members of the Financial Accounting Standards Board held a two-day meeting this week with officials from the Accounting Standards Board of Japan how they could better align accounting rules.

IMGCAP(1)]Check out the digital edition of the February 2012 issue of Accounting Today.

Firm News - February 10

The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy is awarding $25,000 in grants to academicians and post-doctoral researchers to research educational issues that affect CPAs, the public accounting professions and the responsibility of state accounting boards to protect the public.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has imposed a $2 million civil penalty against Ernst & Young, the largest civil money penalty to date in the PCAOB’s 10-year history, and censured the firm for audit failure, while sanctioning four of E&Y’s current and former partners.

Professional accountants need to respond to increasing demand from investors for non-financial information, specifically environmental, social and governance disclosures, according to a new report.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has named Jeanette M. Franzel, a managing director of the Government Accountability Office, as a member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

Firm News - Feb. 3

Financial Accounting Standards Board chair Leslie Seidman provides an update on the progress FASB is making on converging U.S. GAAP with IFRS and the SEC's delayed decision on incorporating IFRS in the U.S. financial reporting system in an interview with Accounting Today editor-in-chief Bill Carlino.

We're drafting this column in January, when many were surely puzzling over Securities and Exchange Commission Chief Accountant Jim Kroeker's December announcement that the commission would not, after all, decide by year end whether the International Accounting Standards Board and International Financial Reporting Standards would replace the Financial Accounting Standards Board and U.S. GAAP.

The column you regularly publish by Profs. Miller and Bahnson has finally reached the point where it can no longer be ignored. While I cannot be labeled a regular reader, I do gaze at it just to see who or what they have decided to flagellate.

A SLOW START

President Obama encouraged Congress to act on a package of legislative proposals to expand tax breaks and financing for startups and small businesses.

The American Institute of CPAs and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants formally launched their Chartered Global Management Accountant designation on Tuesday with a joint event in New York and London.

The Blue Ribbon Panel on Private Company Financial Reporting has recognized that there are many issues in the way private companies and small businesses use GAAP.

Auditor reports are oftentimes misinterpreted, misread or not read at all, according to a new study that calls for significant changes in the reports.

Baker Tilly International said Friday that revenues of its global accounting firm network grew 5 percent to $3.2 billion for the year ending June 30, 2011.