Associations

The American Institute of CPAs has released two exposure drafts, one tackling standards for attestation engagements, another amendments to auditing standards.

The American Institute of CPAs Alliance for CPA Firms, PCPS, and the Texas Society of CPAs have launched the 2006 National Management of an Accounting Practice Survey.

A joint initiative by FASB AND AICPA is seeking feedback on proposed enhancements to the FASB's standard-setting procedures that would determine whether the Board should consider differences in accounting standards for private companies within Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

While the American Institute of CPAs' recent efforts have focused on strengthening its advocacy and outreach programs, more traditional accounting issues such as peer review, private company GAAP and the ongoing relocation to North Carolina headlined the institute's 2006 Spring meeting of Council."This has been a year of significant transformation," institute president and chief executive officer Barry Melancon told attendees at the three-day confab, held here. "We've wrestled with some difficult and emotional issues."

In a terrific ad campaign that aired many years ago, luggage manufacturer American Tourister showed a behind-the-scenes parody of what transpired just moments after airline passengers checked their bags.

The Auditing Standards Board is issuing a new standard on auditing internal controls. By adopting definitions from Auditing Standard No. 2 of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the standard will make audits of public and private companies more similar."This standard is important because it requires the auditor to communicate with management those areas of their internal control system that are not up to par," said AICPA vice president of professional standards and services Chuck Landes. "We want to make it clear that management has a responsibility for not only their financial statements but their internal control systems, and they are responsible to take appropriate action with respect to any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies that the auditor may identify."

The American Institute of CPAs and the American Accounting Association's Management Accounting Section are teaming up to research non-financial performance measures.

The American Institute of CPAs will merge the management of its Extensible Business Reporting Language and Enhanced Business Reporting programs.

The new risk assessment standards are all about getting back to basics, said expert Hiriam Hasty while speaking at the New York State Society of CPAs' annual Accounting and Auditing in the Nonpublic Environment Conference.

Victor Hugo once wrote that the one thing more powerful than all the armies on earth was an idea whose time has come.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the American Institute of CPAs issued a proposal aimed at improving the financial reporting process for private companies.

CPA2Biz Inc., the online marketing and technology portal for the American Institute of CPAs, announced that it expects to deliver a second year of profitability when its fiscal year closes July 31.Executives for CPA2Biz said that projections show that the Web site's overall revenues should increase by 6 percent this year, to about $15.2 million. Their forecasts call for about $600,000 in net income.

I couldn't believe the number of American Idol votes. The voters couldn't have been just those in their teens and twenties. Perhaps it isn't a coincidence that the votes were being cast as I was flying back from attending the AICPA Spring Council meeting in Salt Lake City.

Calling it a year of "significant transformation" at the American Institute of CPAs, president and chief executive Barry Melancon updated members of the Governing Council on a number of institute initiatives, including progress on the relocation of major AICPA functions to Durham, N.C., advocacy and outreach programs, peer review and the institute's push for private company financial reporting.

The American Institute of CPAs voted to allow non-public members on its Peer Review Board as part of the ongoing restructuring of that senior committee.

While a resident of Arizona in the early 1980s, I heard reams of anecdotes about the benefits of making Southwest Airlines your preferred carrier. I even shared a house with two people who worked for the airline and talked about its colorful founder, Herb Kelleher, in almost reverential terms.

A missing hard drive has led the American Institute of CPAs to issue a warning to all of its approximately 330,000 members, warning them that their names, addresses and Social Security numbers were among the data on the drive.

CPA2Biz Inc., the online marketing and technology portal for the American Institute of CPAs, announced that it expects to deliver a second year of profitability when its fiscal year closes July 31.

In the latest turf battle to come to light between the two groups, the American Institute of CPAs and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy skirmished over NASBA's interest in the details of public company audit inspection reports.In a recent alert sent out from the AICPA Center for Public Company Audit Firms, director Lillian Ceynowa wrote that member firms were not required to comply with inquiries from some state boards requesting the identities of individuals and companies referred to in Public Company Accounting Oversight Board inspection reports.

The Internal Revenue Service heard from a variety of groups on a proposed rule change that the agency says would strengthen taxpayer control over tax information in the hands of tax preparers or tax software companies.