Financial reporting

Investors and financial executives are increasingly feeling overloaded by the volume and complexity of financial disclosure information in annual reports and other financial filings, according to a new study.

Financial Executives International has teamed up with the Center for Audit Quality, the Institute of Internal Auditors and the National Association of Corporate Directors on a new anti-fraud quiz.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board published revised proposals Monday for revenue recognition as part of their continuing efforts at convergence.

Mike Karlins, a partner at the Woodlands, Texas-based CPA firm Karlins & Ramey LLC, was recently accepted into membership of Construction Industry CPAs/Consultants Association by executive director John Corcoran in Chicago during CICPAC’s recent annual conference.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has added two new projects to its agenda aimed at improving financial reporting by not-for-profit organizations.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is proposing to defer some of the changes it required earlier this year in the presentation of other comprehensive income on financial statements after hearing objections from various quarters.

Securities and Exchange Commission chief accountant James Kroeker criticized the American Institute of CPAs’ resolution of disapproval against the Financial Accounting Foundation’s proposal to set up a Private Company Standards Improvement Council, calling it a “clear threat to the independence of the FAF.”

The worst is over for accounting firms, said Allan D. Koltin, chief executive of Koltin Consulting Group, in his keynote address at the Thomson Reuters Users’ Conference for Professional Tax & Accounting Firms.

The American Institute of CPAs’ Financial Reporting Executive Committee has published a working draft of a new AICPA Accounting and Valuation Guide, “Testing Goodwill for Impairment.”

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has proposed a set of improvements in financial reporting on consolidations that would affect all companies required to evaluate whether they should consolidate another entity.

Value pricing, also known as fixed-fee billing, is attractive on some levels to both accountants and their clients: accountants, because they get their fee up front, normally at a premium above their time-based billing; and clients, because it provides them with certainty about the services they will receive and the fee they will be billed.

Check out the digital edition of the November 2011 issue of Accounting Today.

The Financial Accounting Foundation plans to host a series of three public roundtables early next year and a live webcast later this month to give constituents an opportunity to provide their feedback on its recent proposal to create a Private Company Standards Improvement Council.

The spectacular bankruptcy of MF Global this week has led to speculation about what led to the brokerage firm’s downfall.

FASB ISSUES MULTI-EMPLOYER PENSION PLAN STANDARD

The American Institute of CPAs has thrown down the proverbial gauntlet to the Financial Accounting Foundation, passing a resolution giving its board the option to create a separate body to develop accounting standards for private companies.

Accounting firms that have been able to report increased revenues during the economic downturn often have niche services, strategic promotion of these services, and a hard push behind their best people and expertise to thank for that growth.

SPLITTING THE DIFFERENCE

The head of a British accounting group is warning the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Accounting Standards Board against pursuing a so-called “condorsement” approach to International Financial Reporting Standards.

Accounting Today handed out the awards for the Best Accounting Firms to Work For 2011 at the Accounting Today Growth & Profitability Summit in Las Vegas.