The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has released updated staff guidance to help accounting firms outside the U.S. to register with the board even if their countries do not allow the PCAOB to inspect them or answer some of the questions on a PCAOB application form.

Check out the digital edition of the June 7-20, 2010 issue of Accounting Today.

The California Society of CPAs has honored seven CPAs with its Women to Watch Awards at its recent Women's Leadership Forum here.

The International Accounting Standards Board has proposed changes in the standards for presenting items under other comprehensive income.

President Barack hosted a group of award-winning small business owners from around the country in the White House Rose Garden and used the occasion to prod Congress to pass the administration’s Small Business Jobs Package.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued an eagerly anticipated exposure draft of a proposed accounting standards update for financial instruments, a major sticking point in FASB’s efforts to converge U.S. GAAP with International Financial Reporting Standards.

Barry Melancon has been president and CEO of the American Institute of CPAs since 1995. Under his leadership, the AICPA has spearheaded a number of initiatives to benefit the profession and the general public, including private company reporting standards and 360 Degrees of Financial Literacy. He is a member of the AICPA’s delegation to the International Federation of Accountants, chairman of XBRL-US, vice chairman of the Center for Audit Quality, and a founding board member of the Global Accounting Alliance. He serves on the board of the U. S. Chamber Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., said he anticipates an exemption for small and midsized public companies from Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404(b) requirements for independent audits of their internal controls to remain in the final version of the financial regulatory reform bill.

Thirty-seven percent of U.S. CFOs and senior controllers believe that a balance sheet should display both the fair value (exit value) and amortized cost of assets, according to a new survey by Grant Thornton, consistent with a forthcoming proposal from the Financial Accounting Standards Board regarding the presentation of financial instruments.

In an effort to draw a wider population of qualified people into the accounting profession, members of the American Institute of CPAs’ governing council unanimously approved revisions to expand its membership categories.

Members of the American Institute of CPAs heard an update from the chairman of the Blue Ribbon Panel, the task force charged with addressing how GAAP accounting standards can best meet the needs of users of private company financial statements, at the AICPA’s Spring Council meeting.

Redefining the landscape is the mantra here at the American Institute of CPA’s Spring Council and president and chief executive Barry Melancon hit that message home during his report to members on Monday.

IMGCAP(1)]Let’s be honest. Between the thousands of quality audits done every day by diligent CPAs and the headline-grabbing debacles like Madoff and Enron, which do you think sticks out more in the public’s mind? We all know the answer to this.

The American Institute of CPA is teaming up with the Society for Human Resource Management to create a national award that recognizes employers who offer financial education programs for their staff.

A professor of accounting at the Carroll School of Management at Boston College is the 2010 recipient of the Distinguished Achievement in Accounting Education Award from the AICPA.

The American Institute of CPAs recognized Birmingham-based Barfield, Murphy, Shank & Smith with a public service award during its 2010 Spring Council on Sunday.

IFAC TO BEEF UP ACCOUNTING EDUCATION STANDARDS

UBS AND E&Y SETTLE HEALTHSOUTH LAWSUIT

In the years I have opined on these pages, I've devoted a fair amount of space to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Whether it was critiquing a regime change, calling for a bigger budget or trying to comprehend the regulator's vacillating stance with regard to adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards, the commission has served as a rather convenient editorial subject.

We begin by repeating this Feb. 24, 2010, quote from the American Institute of CPAs' Barry Melancon: "Our increasingly global economy makes it clear that the U.S. should move toward a single set of high-quality, globally accepted accounting standards for public companies."