Hans Hoogervorst, who took over as chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board this month, said he anticipates the U.S. will ultimately adopt International Financial Reporting Standards.

This column was almost ready to submit when the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board announced that they changed some tentative decisions concerning lease accounting. Before the announcement, we identified six unproductive positions. That list has now been reduced to four-and-a-half, leaving most of our criticisms unchanged, but at least now we have a glimmer of hope that they will produce a better standard.

The pace of change in the accounting profession is not just constant - it takes place at breakneck speed.

AT LAST, SORT OF

While Congress debates the debt ceiling and spending cuts, government contractors and entities - and the accounting firms that serve them - are functioning under an increasing regulatory environment that's testing some of their business fundamentals.

Sixty-one of the top 100 recipients of federal small business contracts for fiscal year 2010 were large companies, according to a new report.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has launched a new Web portal for nonpublic entities as the board tries to retain its role as the standard-setter for private company accounting.

The American Institute of CPAs has issued new attest guidance that enables CPAs to report on the controls at a service organization, particularly ones that provide outsourced services to other companies via technologies like cloud computing.

Accounting Today is expanding its Facebook community with a new contest that gives readers a chance to win a free iPad.

Accounting Today is issuing a call for nominations for its annual Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting list.

The Private Company Financial Reporting Committee received an update on the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s efforts to bring U.S. GAAP into line with International Financial Reporting Standards, especially in how that effort would relate to private companies.

The National Society of Accountants has created a new social network for tax preparers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged two former executives from a defunct California water treatment company with accounting fraud.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board is expected to issue new proposals this week that would require state and local governments to be more open about their pension-funding obligations.

The Financial Planning Coalition has sent a letter.to the Securities and Exchange Commission, accompanied by a petition signed by more than 5,200 financial planners, urging the SEC to apply a uniform fiduciary standard to anyone providing personalized investment advice to retail clients.

The American Accounting Association reassured its members last week about its legal standing after a professor raised questions about several errors in the series of entities set up by the group of accounting educators and researchers.

Many CPAs in the U.S. already have some knowledge of International Financial Reporting Standards and have begun to develop greater expertise as U.S. and global authorities work to converge U.S. GAAP with IFRS, according to a new survey by the American Institute of CPAs.

The National Society of Accountants and its affiliates have selected Thomson Reuters Checkpoint Learning brand as the exclusive affinity provider for webinars that award continuing professional education credit.

The International Accounting Education Standards Board has proposed a revision of the entry requirement standards for a professional accounting education.

A new salary survey by the Institute of Management Accountants has found that Certified Management Accountants and CPAs earn substantially more than those without certification.