Financial reporting

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

Officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board are heading to China later this month to meet with officials there to try to resolve the growing problems with audits of U.S.-listed Chinese companies.

Hans Hoogervorst, who took over as chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board this month, said he anticipates the U.S. will ultimately adopt International Financial Reporting Standards.

This column was almost ready to submit when the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board announced that they changed some tentative decisions concerning lease accounting. Before the announcement, we identified six unproductive positions. That list has now been reduced to four-and-a-half, leaving most of our criticisms unchanged, but at least now we have a glimmer of hope that they will produce a better standard.

The pace of change in the accounting profession is not just constant - it takes place at breakneck speed.

AT LAST, SORT OF

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has launched a new Web portal for nonpublic entities as the board tries to retain its role as the standard-setter for private company accounting.

The American Institute of CPAs has issued new attest guidance that enables CPAs to report on the controls at a service organization, particularly ones that provide outsourced services to other companies via technologies like cloud computing.

Accounting Today is expanding its Facebook community with a new contest that gives readers a chance to win a free iPad.

Accounting Today is issuing a call for nominations for its annual Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting list.

The Private Company Financial Reporting Committee received an update on the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s efforts to bring U.S. GAAP into line with International Financial Reporting Standards, especially in how that effort would relate to private companies.

The National Society of Accountants has created a new social network for tax preparers.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board is expected to issue new proposals this week that would require state and local governments to be more open about their pension-funding obligations.

The American Accounting Association reassured its members last week about its legal standing after a professor raised questions about several errors in the series of entities set up by the group of accounting educators and researchers.

Many CPAs in the U.S. already have some knowledge of International Financial Reporting Standards and have begun to develop greater expertise as U.S. and global authorities work to converge U.S. GAAP with IFRS, according to a new survey by the American Institute of CPAs.

The National Society of Accountants and its affiliates have selected Thomson Reuters Checkpoint Learning brand as the exclusive affinity provider for webinars that award continuing professional education credit.

The International Accounting Education Standards Board has proposed a revision of the entry requirement standards for a professional accounting education.

A new salary survey by the Institute of Management Accountants has found that Certified Management Accountants and CPAs earn substantially more than those without certification.

A federal appeals court ruled in favor of PricewaterhouseCoopers during a lawsuit involving overtime pay for junior accountants.

Total goodwill impairment charges continued to fall sharply across a number of industries nationwide throughout 2010, and the number of companies recording goodwill impairment charges dropped by 41 percent, according to a new study by KPMG.