SEC approves PCAOB audit standard

about communication with audit commitees.   http://journalofaccountancy.com/News/20127041.htm

Clarified Auditing Standards

and some of the substantive changes made are detailed in this short blog post; report headings, opening balances and engagement letters changes are discussed.  http://blog.aicpa.org/2012/12/how-the-clarified-auditing-standards-will-affect-you.html#sthash.zPTJ7o5C.sM1EXIWF.dpbs

PCAOB pushes back agenda to accomodate

a cost benefit study to comply with JOBS (Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act) that has provisions related to regulations that can impact emerging companies.   An interesting piece here about how new regulations are to be scrutinized in advance for their potential impact.    http://www.complianceweek.com/pcaob-backs-up-agenda-for-cost-benefit-studies/article/269010/

Infographic about money

and electronic payments.  Shows a few trends and data points visually.  Likely to impact auditing.  http://readwrite.com/2012/12/13/the-wallet-revolution-infographic

Internal Control Report Deficiencies

from 2010 have been released by PCAOB.   http://pcaobus.org/Inspections/Documents/12102012_Release_2012_06.pdf

This Journal of Accountancy article summarizes some of the findings of the 31 page report http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/News/20126978.htm

Professional skepticism

 is discussed in this article http://journalofaccountancy.com/News/20126953.htm
related to the PCAOB Staff Audit Practice Alert  #10 that was just issued.   The 16 page document discusses this issue, citing examples in current audits where it is especially relevant.    http://pcaobus.org/Standards/QandA/12-04-2012_SAPA_10.pdf

PCAOB board member expresses skepticism of

mandatory audit firm rotation.   Discusses the kind of data and analysis that would have to be done prior to making this decision and expresses these as hurdles.  This is one member on the Board's opinion only.   http://journalofaccountancy.com/News/20126956.htm

SEC files charges against

audit firms for failure to turn over reports on Chinese companies.  These are foreign offices of the big 4 and one other large firm.    http://accounting.smartpros.com/x74423.xml

Continuous Auditing

  Check out this 16 page assessment by the AICPA Assurance Services Executive Committee (ASEC) Emerging Assurance Technologies Task Force as it looks at the current state of Continuous Auditing  http://www.aicpa.org/InterestAreas/FRC/AssuranceAdvisoryServices/DownloadableDocuments/Whitepaper_Current-State-Continuous-Auditing-Monitoring.pdf 

Testing fraud IQ and data sets

in this Journal of Accountancy article.  http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/Issues/2012/Dec/20126200.htm

SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro stepping down

Elisse Walter to replace her.   Center for Audit Quality recognized Schapiro for her leadership during a period of turmoil in U.S. Capital Markets.  http://journalofaccountancy.com/News/20126902.htm

Study finds a woman on corporate board is

associated with greater integrity of financial reporting (fewer restatements).  Full study is reported in December 2012 issue of Accounting Horizons; this summary highlights some of the findings.   Authors surmise it to be attributed to independence issues

   http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/Women-Corporate-Boards-Encourage-Better-Financial-Reporting-64656-1.html

The PCAOB and China inspections

and document discussions are underway.  http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/08/us-usa-audit-china-idUSBRE8A71DR20121108

COSO paper discussing

the optimal risk taking zone.  You will find a link to the 28 page document at this CGMA site.  http://www.cgma.org/Magazine/News/Pages/20126739.aspx

Internal standards effective in the new year

bring role of internal audiors closer to the Board.  eisneramper-institute-of-internal-auditors-chief-audit-executive-standards

Trying to clarify the clarified audit standards

 in this discussion at http://blog.aicpa.org/2012/10/clarifying-clarified-auditing-standards-on-group-audits.html

Board seats - CFOs

This article from the Wall Street Journal discusses the push for independent directors
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443624204578058642536086764.html?mod=djem_jiewr_AC_domainid

Compromise Agreement for PCAOB

to "observe" audits in China, a step back from the desired full inspection.  An incremental policy making approach.  http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/09/tax-pcaob-china-idUSL1E8L9GOP20121009

Steps to detect fraudulent financial reporting

are discussed in this article.   I like the one about the skeptics on the Board.   I believe the role of devil's advocate is an important one to bring to the board group, to keep people alert and focused on issues that may emerge.  Consider rotating the skeptic's role, so the skeptic doesn't become labeled a rebel rouser!  http://www.cpa2biz.com/Content/media/PRODUCER_CONTENT/Newsletters/Articles_2012/CPA/OCT/FraudDetectionPrevention.jsp

PCAOB and Chinese firm inspections

Some agreements to move ahead in a sort of trust building exercise.  http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/pcaob-china-audit-firm-inspections-64051-1.html

White paper released on financial statement

preparation being a non-attest service.  http://blog.aicpa.org/2012/09/why-financial-statement-preparation-is-proposed-to-be-a-nonattest-service.html

Fraud reports amongst employees

is climibing.  http://www3.cfo.com/article/2012/9/regulation_fraud-whistleblower-sec-jimmy-lin-jonny-frank

Ethics classes

Does teaching this make a difference today?  http://accounting.smartpros.com/standard/ima/IMA_0912i.html

Fraud reporting incidents increased

after a two year decline.   This is per the 2012 Corporate Governance and Compliance Hotline Benchmarking Report from BDO Consulting as summarized by the IMA.     http://accounting.smartpros.com/standard/IMA/IMA_0812t.html

Penalties for noncompliance with regs

by 1/3 of midsized companies.  http://accounting.smartpros.com/standard/IMA/IMA_0812p.html

Audit Committee Effectiveness Center

While some of the resources are limited to AICPA members, there are some good articles and links that are open  free of charge.  http://www.aicpa.org/ForThePublic/AuditCommitteeEffectiveness/Pages/ACEC.aspx

Accounting and auditing regulations

This cartoon says it all  http://tedgoff.tumblr.com/post/30937501208/would-you-mind-if-we-keep-one-hundred-crates-in

A neat antitrust brief

Well this doesn't have much to do with auditing, except lawsuits can take place and auditors have to address disclosures, so I'll sell it here on that point.   I really just want to keep this one handy so I don't lose it.

What - a comic strip embedded in a legal brief!  http://ia601206.us.archive.org/6/items/gov.uscourts.nysd.394628/gov.uscourts.nysd.394628.110.0.pdf

And here is some background on it.  Enjoy!

http://legalblogwatch.typepad.com/legal_blog_watch/2012/09/lawyer-files-extraordinary-amicus-brief-in-form-of-a-comic-strip.html

New GAAP taxonomy unveiled

and awaiting comments.  See article at http://www.complianceweek.com/fasb-unveils-proposed-2013-gaap-taxonomy/article/257035/

Leaving public accounting at the 3-6 year mark

According to a recent research report.   Also check out the comments.  http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/leave-public-accounting-coehnen-brothers-63814-1.html

whistleblower reward

from SEC, sparks concerns that some individuals will prefer to go that route, instead of reporting first in-house.   8 tips a day since the program was implemented last year.
http://www3.cfo.com/article/2012/8/risk-compliance_sec-iia-whistleblower-chambers-goldman

PCAOB giving out more bad grades

in its inspections of firms.  What is behind this?   New York Times takes some perspectives.  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/business/bad-grades-rising-at-audit-firms.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 

Fake audit in New Mexico Finance Authority

begets concerns in subsequent treatment.   Internal controls, transparency, objectivity, responsibility of the audit committee are issues to consider.  http://accounting.smartpros.com/standard/IMA/IMA_0812c.html

Internal audit survey results

In a survey conducted by E&Y, 61% of respondents acknowledged they had no documented mandate aligning internal audit with the organisational strategy.  Four steps to formalize this are presented. http://www.cgma.org/Magazine/News/Pages/20126134.aspx

Internal Audit Leaders Report

Volume 8 of Internal Auditing Around the World focuses on leading global companies and how their internal audit functions help develop others

http://www.protiviti.com/iaworld

Spikes in the number of inspection findings

by PCAOB for 2010 audits as compared to earlier years....and not limited to just one firm.  http://www.complianceweek.com/crowe-horwath-sees-spike-in-audit-inspection-findings/article/252603/

The going concern blog post generates much discussion with the comments related to the inspection processes.
http://goingconcern.com/post/crowe-horwath-may-have-worst-pcaob-inspection-report-yet

The importance of relationships

between auditors and audit committees and CFOs are highlighted in this article that summarizes a recent PCAOB report in which re-educating about the PCAOB inspection process was part of the aim.   Also the article highlights discussion from an AICPA forum.    http://www3.cfo.com/article/2012/8/auditing_pcaob-audit-rotation-audit-committee-aicpa

Cybersecurity

Mobile and cloud presents risks along with the opportunities  http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/Issues/2012/Aug/20125900.htm

Confidentiality of client information is key

This article has 7 elements to help CPAs in the area of ensuring privacy   http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/Issues/2012/Aug/20125580.htm

How SOX has changed corporate culture

After ten years, reflection upon this by the former lawmakers who sponsored it.  http://journalofaccountancy.com/news/20126140.aspx

10th Anniversary of SOX

has them still debating..   The impact on IPOs, restatements and other matters are alluded to.  http://journalofaccountancy.com/News/20126125.htm?cm_mmc=smartbrief-_-27Jul12-_-CPALD-_-SOXHouse&utm_source=smartbrief&utm_medium=12Jul12&utm_term=CPALD&utm_content=SOXHouse&utm_campaign=smartbrief

Holistic Risk

Article on 8 question to ask toward a holistic approach to risk.  http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/News/20126025.htm

A funny acronym that rhymes with GAAP

This article references that GAAP can sometimes be CRAP   (Cleverly Rigged Accounting Ploys).   The article is summarized at http://accounting.smartpros.com/x73821.xml

A Fraud quiz oriented to banking

From the Journal of  Accountancy  http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/Issues/2012/May/Fraud-IQ-20124994.htm

The questions and answers to the quiz are informative.

COSO release postponed to

first quarter 2013, to allow Board to look at comment letter.http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/News/20125621.htm 

AICPA on COSO

A whitepaper at http://www.aicpa.org/InterestAreas/FRC/AuditAttest/DownloadableDocuments/COSO/COSO-2012_Whitepaper.pdf

Congress, PCAOB, and auditor rotation

An amendment to Sarbanes-Oxley Act has been proposed to prevent the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board from requiring companies to rotate auditors. http://www.complianceweek.com/congress-moves-to-block-pcaob-on-auditor-rotation/article/233485/

Also see this letter where AICPA opposes mandatory audit rotation, so AICPA and PCAOB appear to disagree on this topic.http://www.aicpa.org/InterestAreas/ProfessionalEthics/Community/CommentLetters/DownloadableDocuments/aicpa-letter-pcaob-concept-release-mfr.pdf

This article from Journal of Accountancy covers related issues http://journalofaccountancy.com/Web/20125365.htm

Also panelists highlight issues http://www.cgma.org/Magazine/News/Pages/20125371.aspx

Risk Appetite in ERM

Thought Paper published by COSO http://www.coso.org/documents/ERM-Understanding%20%20Communicating%20Risk%20Appetite-WEB_FINAL_r9.pdf

PCAOB reflects on audit committees

One of the founding members as he retires looks back on the experience http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/PCAOB-Daniel-Goelzer-Reflects-History-Future-61908-1.html

Second video on financial statement auditing

from the center of audit quality. http://www.caqforinvestors.org/

Fraud Literacy Quiz

located here http://www.financialexecutives.org/KenticoCMS/Knowledge-Center/quizzes/Anti-Fraud.aspx

Avon fires former CFO

in an ongoing investigation http://accounting.smartpros.com/x73348.xml

Communicate your risk appetite

according to COSO http://www.coso.org/documents/ERM-Understanding%20%20Communicating%20Risk%20Appetite-WEB_FINAL_r9.pdf    According to the research report, this is part of ERM.   The report has examples of such statements.

E & Y Fraud investigation and dispute services

I enjoy the articles linked from this page about fraud and corruption http://www.ey.com/US/en/Services/Assurance/Fraud-Investigation---Dispute-Services

COSO update: management of risk appetite

is essential  http://journalofaccountancy.com/Web/20125020.htm

COSO Update

A proposal to the 20 year old COSO framework http://www.complianceweek.com/coso-unveils-proposed-update-on-internal-controls-framework/article/220011/