The Pan African Federation of Accountants held its first meeting in Dakar, Senegal, this week.

The American Institute of CPAs told a congressional subcommittee that it should urge the U.S. Small Business Administration to increase its small business size standards for small business accounting firms to $25.5 million from the current $8.5 million.

Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Chairman James Doty plans to unveil a new model for the auditor's report and said he wanted to see disciplinary proceedings for auditing firms to be made public.

The issue includes articles on the following topics and more:

IMGCAP(1)]Check out the May 2011 issue of Accounting Today.

The International Federation of Accountants’ Professional Accountants in Business Committee has issued proposed guidance on how accountants can help businesses and their own firms do better forward-looking analysis.

The American Institute of CPAs has decided to consolidate its continuing professional education operations in North Carolina, which will result in the closure of its Texas office by next March.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued an Accounting Standards Update that would revise the rules for how companies can deal with repurchase agreements like the kind Lehman Brothers used to temporarily move billion of dollars of assets temporarily off its books before reporting its quarterly results.

The American Institute of CPAs said Wednesday that it is expanding the registration and exam options for its specialty credentials, providing CPAs with more flexibility and opportunity to pursue designations that help differentiate them in the market.

Accounting and business consulting firm J.H. Cohn announced revenues of $236 million for the fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2011.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has released a study recommending that the existing auditor attestation requirement in Sarbanes-Oxley be kept in place for companies with a public float of between $75 million and $250 million.

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board has published its 2011 Handbook of International Public Sector Accounting Pronouncements.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued an exposure draft of a proposed Accounting Standards Update that aims to simplify how an entity is supposed to test goodwill for impairment.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board provided a progress report Thursday on the latest timeline for their major convergence projects.

United States District Court Judge J. Michael Seabright sentenced Kauai tax preparer Dennis Nimkie, age 66, to 18 months imprisonment for falsifying information on an income tax return he prepared for another person. Nimkie pled guilty to one of 26 charges but agreed that the conduct on the remaining charges could be considered in determining his sentence and the amount of restitution owed the government.

The American Institute of CPAs has included the latest guidance from the Financial Accounting Standards Board on accounting for mergers and acquisitions in the newest edition of its book Accounting Trends & Techniques.

The International Accounting Education Standards Board proposed changes in its ethics standards to provide for learning and development activities in professional values and ethics for accountants throughout their careers.

Leaders of the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board said Thursday they have pushed back their work on the handful of “priority” projects they had committed to complete this year.

The National Association for the Self-Employed advised small business owners who have put off doing their tax returns not to panic.