Associations

The American Institute of CPAs has named two recipients of its Outstanding CPA in Government Award and said it has leased more than half its office space in New Jersey.

Executive CPA leaders from 81 of the top 100 accounting firms in the U.S. visited Capitol Hill to discuss some of the key legislative issues confronting the accounting profession.

Three professional accounting organizations have jointly released new guidelines for combating fraud.

The AICPA 2008 Succession Survey, as you would expect, has a great deal of information about the current state of succession at multi-owner firms and recommended best practices for those firms. What will come as a surprise to some is there is an equivalent amount of information, observation of trends, and recommended best practices for the sole practitioner.

The American Institute of CPAs plans to offer training in International Financial Reporting Standards and the Extensible Business Reporting Language.

The Center for Audit Quality has sent a comment letter to the Treasury Department's Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession recommending that it pay more attention to the litigation risk for audit firms.

The American Institute of CPAs has awarded research grants to accounting and management professors from the University of California, Rice University and the University of Melbourne, Australia.

The Internal Revenue Service should make several changes in its electronic filing system to address concerns raised by the American Institute of CPAs and others, according to two new reports.

Bob Graham paid a visit to the American Institute of CPAs' Spring Council Meeting last month to learn more about what the profession was doing, especially in the way of education for the newly approved forensic accounting credential as well as international accounting. A former U.S. senator, Florida governor, and presidential candidate, he recently opened the Bob Graham Center for Public Service at the University of Florida. Sen. Graham spoke to WebCPA about his views on education in the accounting profession.

The American Institute of CPAs has formed an online Succession Planning Resource Center to help small and midsized firms deal with questions of how their firm should be managed in the future.

The SEC is coming under increasing pressure to decide on what date it will start requiring accounting firms to file financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards.

All eyes are on the Securities and Exchange Commission as it prepares to issue a detailed roadmap this summer for the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards, but some representatives gave hints about what might be in that roadmap at a conference held by the Financial Accounting Standards Board in New York.

After floating the proposal roughly one year ago, the American Institute of CPAs has approved the creation of the Certified in Financial Forensics credential, a new designation that will include expertise in a range of areas such as bankruptcy and insolvency, computer forensics, economic damages, family law, fraud investigations and litigation support.Approval for the credential — which will be the fourth offered by the institute, joining the Personal Financial Specialist, the Accredited in Business Valuation and the Certified Information Technology Professional — was approved at the annual meeting of Spring Council here.

In a long-awaited shift in purview, the Auditing Standards Board has eliminated its standard on the hierarchy of generally accepted auditing standards just as the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued a new standard establishing the same hierarchy.Chuck Landes, the American Institute of CPAs’ director of auditing and attestation, said that the ASB fully approved of the shift in a vote at its quarterly meeting in May.

The American Institute of CPAs has introduced a new service called Financial Reporting Alerts to help financial managers and audit committees identify current accounting and regulatory developments that affect financial reporting.

The American Institute of CPAs has published the second edition of "Audit Committee Toolkit: Public Companies," a guidebook to help audit committees carry out their corporate governance responsibilities.

As corporate demand for analytics and business intelligence keeps rising, CPAs need to play a major role in helping drive BI projects, providing both analysis and expertise as well as determining the critical metrics needed to ensure the success of the enterprise-wide initiative.

The snowballing growth of WiMax, a number of blockbuster acquisitions that may unfold over the next few years, and the potential for SmartPhones to feature the capabilities of a PC are just some of the future events that will shape the landscape of technology in the not-too-distant future.

The American Institute of CPAs has chosen Paychex as its preferred provider for administering 401(k) plans for members who participate in the AICPA's firm retirement program.

Simplicity and virtualization will be two emerging trends over the coming year as technology providers focus on intelligent design rather than previous business models of one size fits all.