Financial reporting

Reactions among tax preparers to Friday’s court decision striking down the legality of the IRS RTRP mandate ranged from relief to recognition that the tax prep industry needs standards. But a survey of various tax prep-related groups on LinkedIn shows that the decision mostly raised questions.

The Institute of Management Accountants and the American Accounting Association’s Management Accounting Section have teamed up on an accounting educational framework that they hope will be used to re-orient undergraduate and MBA accounting curricula to match on-the-job demands.

The Financial Accounting Foundation has completed a post-implementation review of an accounting standard dating back to 1996 that aimed to improve the way public companies report financial information about their business segments, and found that it generally achieved that purpose, although some companies are being less than forthcoming about all of their business segments.

While still predicting contraction in both the short- and the mid-term, the January edition of Accounting Today’s monthly Accountants Confidence Index rose somewhat from the previous month’s reading.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued for public comment a proposal to improve financial reporting about repurchase agreements such as the type used by Lehman Brothers.

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board has issued the first four chapters of its Conceptual Framework for General Purpose Financial Reporting by Public Sector Entities.

International Accounting Standards Board chairman Hans Hoogervorst said the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board is not likely to face obstacles in joining the new multinational Accounting Standards Advisory Forum that is being set up to provide input to the IASB on setting future accounting standards, even though the Securities and Exchange Commission has not formally committed to supporting International Financial Reporting Standards.

The Big Four accounting firms saw solid revenue growth last year following strong performance in 2010 and 2011 after a severe revenue decline in 2009, according to a newly published analysis.

Private company stakeholders have never been in a better position to have their concerns addressed in the standard-setting process, according to Billy Atkinson, the chair of the new Private Company Council: “We have the wind in our sails.”

For accounting professionals and consultants alike, the past year has been filled with talk of the cloud, mobile and compliance and I daresay we're in for more of the same, but with a few additions to our regular vocabulary.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has approved a new standard intended to improve accounting and financial reporting for state and local governments’ combinations and disposals of government operations.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued a proposed clarification to a fair value disclosure exemption affecting private companies and nonpublic not-for-profit organizations.

Check out the digital edition of the January 2013 issue of Accounting Today.

An executive summary of our monthly ACI for January 2013

Office relocation, fiscal cliff tax briefing and Hurricane Sandy relief efforts…

Commerce, billing and compensation product maker MetraTech Corp. has partnered with platform-as-a-service accounting product provider VerticaLive to enable customer enrollment, billing and payment management for ISVs and application developers using the VerticaLive Business Framework and for VerticaLive's new SMB-focused cloud accounting product.

Sikich LLP has merged with Achieve Consulting, a supply chain consulting firm based in Warrenville, Ill.

Top 100 Firm, Kahn, Litwin, Renza & Co. Ltd., has agreed to merge with Fay & Associates.

Top 100 Firm, CliftonLarsonAllen LLP has merged with the Racine, Wis.-based CPA firm Jenkins & Vojtisek SC.

Global tax services firm Ryan LLC has acquired the Property Tax Services business from Thomson Reuters for an undisclosed amount.