Financial reporting

The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board appear to be growing tired of trying to resolve their many disagreements after 10 years of ups and downs in their relationship, and the main question now seems to be whether it will be an amicable split.

Financial Accounting Standards Board chair Leslie Seidman advocated a cautious transition to International Financial Reporting Standards during a speech Tuesday in which she said the board should retain its control over U.S. GAAP.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will delay its eagerly anticipated decision for a few more months on whether or not to incorporate International Financial Reporting Standards into the U.S. financial reporting system.

BDO International said Friday the worldwide revenue of its network of accounting firms increased 7.36 percent for the year ended Sept. 30, 2011, to $5.672 billion, mainly due to growth in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

SEC WARNED AGAINST CONDORSEMENT APPROACH

'Wow" would be sort of an understated onomatopoeia to describe the past year in terms of events, changes and headlines within the accounting profession. As this is my 11th end-of-the-year column, I'll again foolishly predict that 2012 could not possibly top the previous year, despite a decade of being proved wrong. Perhaps this is why I rarely gamble while attending various events in Las Vegas.

Your November coverage of the Chartered Global Management Accountant accreditation, in addition to your, "AICPA, CIMA Plan Push for New Management Credential," (AccoutingToday.com, October 18) sheds light on the critical role management accountants play in today's competitive global marketplace. What this article fails to share is that there are, in fact, gaps with regard to the testing, assessment and measurement of critical skills during the first three years of this venture.

The European Commission has proposed a draft law that could split up the largest auditing firms and force them to use a separate entity and name for their advisory and non-audit practices.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has added a new project to its agenda aimed at reducing or eliminating the need for private companies and not-for-profit organizations to provide as many fair value measurement disclosures as public companies.

PCAOB Expands Standing Advisory Group

Accounting firm Clifton Gunderson said Tuesday it is intensifying its efforts to persuade the Financial Accounting Foundation to set up an independent board to set accounting standards for privately held companies.

International Accounting Standards Board chairman Hans Hoogervorst said that regardless of which way the Securities and Exchange Commission decides to go on supporting International Financial Reporting Standards, the main thing that is needed from the U.S. right now is “clarity.”

Trilogy Software Inc. has completed its first-round equity offering of $3.3 million, which will be used to launch the company’s DoxCycle intelligent tax source document management software and to explore opportunities in the professional tax and accounting industry.

The American Institute of CPAs settled its copyright infringement lawsuit Tuesday with KAPLI Inc., a provider of review course materials, over the company’s alleged use of some of the questions and test items from the AICPA’s Uniform CPA Exam that had not previously been made public.

The International Accounting Standards Board and the International Federation of Accountants agreed Tuesday to strengthen their cooperation on developing accounting standards for both the private and public sectors.

The Private Company Financial Reporting Committee held what is likely to be one of its final meetings last week as the PCFRC gets ready to disband.

The Financial Accounting Foundation’s board of trustees has appointed 13 new members to the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council and five new members to the Governmental Accounting Standards Advisory Council, effective January 1.

The Texas Society of CPAs has weighed in on the Financial Accounting Foundation’s controversial proposal to set up a Private Company Standards Improvement Council and sent a letter expressing its “respectful disagreement.”

The Securities and Exchange Commission has released two eagerly anticipated staff papers comparing International Financial Reporting Standards with U.S. GAAP and analyzing IFRS in practice at foreign companies.

The Financial Accounting Foundation has sent a comment letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission supporting the so-called “condorsement” approach to incorporating International Financial Reporting Standards into the U.S. financial reporting system, but with some important changes.