Traditionally, the key parties involved in maintaining effective corporate governance have included company management, the board of directors (including the audit committee), and the external…
The development of auditing software and technology applications has lagged behind that of other practice areas, but a steady evolution of automation and data analytics…
Audit Implications of the New Revenue Reporting Standard
A Panel Discussion
About the Panelists The panel featured Meredith Canaday, CPA, partner in the department of professional practice at KPMG; Sheri Fabian, technical partner in the national…
CPAJ News Briefs
FASB, Audit Practice News
FASB News SEC Disclosure Rules to Be Pulled Into GAAP As part of a broader effort to simplify compliance without significantly altering the total mix…
Auditors serving smaller businesses know that those clients often need help navigating the highly technical and overwhelming body of accounting standards. They also know that…
The Importance of Audit Partners’ Background
Insights from the New PCAOB Form AP
Public company audit partners are trusted as watchdogs of the capital markets. A forthcoming study by the authors of this article finds that audit partners'…
About the Panelists The panel featured Brian Croteau, CPA, partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers; Kyle Owens, CPA, professional practice standards senior manager at Crowe LLP; and Phil…
ICYMI | Auditors’ Increased Responsibilities Under the PCAOB’s New Audit Reporting Standards
Communicating Critical Audit Matters
In Brief For more than 70 years, the auditor's report has remained virtually the same, following a simple pass/fail template. Recent changes issued by the…
The PCAOB as Third-party Payer
A Proposal to Address Concerns over Public Company Auditor Independence
The idea of introducing a third-party payer into the auditor-client relationship has received some attention from regulators, academics, and accounting firms in recent years. Years…
About the Panelists The panel featured Noel Allen, JD, outside legal counsel for the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy; Marc Panucci, CPA, a…
What Is the ‘Cost’ of Audit Committees?
Letter to the Editor
I read with some concern the article by Arthur J. Radin, “Are Audit Committees Worth the Cost?” published in the August 2018 CPA Journal (http://bit.ly/2pkOuCA). How does…
In the August 2018 article, “Are Audit Committees Worth the Cost?” (http://bit.ly/2pkOuCA), Arthur Radin suggests that audit committees be eliminated. Unfortunately, the article focuses entirely…
A report on research into the effect of audit committees in the March 2018 CPA Journal (April Klein, “Questioning the Effectiveness of Independent Audit Committees: Does the…
The IRS's streamlined filing procedures for offshore assets were announced in 2012 for non-U.S. residents and extended to U.S. residents in 2014. The streamlined procedures…
Control Issues in Charter Schools
An Examination of New York State Comptroller’s Audits
In Brief Charter schools are a controversial topic in education and politics because the public funding they receive makes them quasi-public organizations; thus, political groups,…
The June 2017 installment of this column covered “Reporting on Restatement Adjustments after an Auditor Change” (http://bit.ly/2pQMClB). This installment expands on that theme, providing guidance…
Shaping Financial Reporting Across the Globe
The Journey to Rediscovering a Passion
When I first enrolled for an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, in 1987, I never would have envisioned a…
The Importance of Independence
Considerations for Growing Firms
The “urge to merge” has profoundly affected the public accounting profession in recent years, as firms combine, acquire smaller boutique firms, expand service lines, and…
Questioning the Effectiveness of Independent Audit Committees
Does the Current Regulatory Regime Improve Reporting Quality?
In Brief At the root of over a decade of regulation and best practices is the premise that the structure and independence of a company’s…
I was reading the December 2017 issue of The CPA Journal, and saw letters (“Continuing the Discussion on the Meaning of Fiduciary,” Vincent J. Love and…
Audit vs. Fraud Examination
What’s the Real Difference?
In Brief Contrary to what many think, the typical audits of financial statements do entail certain responsibility for the detection of fraud. The author examines…
Auditors’ Increased Responsibilities Under the PCAOB’s New Audit Reporting Standards
Communicating Critical Audit Matters
In Brief For more than 70 years, the auditor's report has remained virtually the same, following a simple pass/fail template. Recent changes issued by the…
ICYMI | The Future of Auditing
A Roundtable Discussion
In Brief Technology has transformed the way that businesses operate. The auditing profession is no exception. The SEC's recently released statistics for fiscal year 2016…
This episode of our Voices of the Profession video series features an interview with Sal Collemi, entrepreneur and consultant to the CPA profession. Sal discusses…
In the October 2017 CPA Journal (“Auditors Are Fiduciaries, but in No Way Can We Be Considered Truly Independent,”’ Letters to the Editor, p. 20), William Miller…
Before I talk about the state of audit quality, I want to provide a quick snapshot of the PCAOB. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act [of 2002] was,…
Alignment Sought For Asset Acquisition, Business Combinations Guidance
FASB/AICPA/IFAC News
FASB News Alignment Sought for Asset Acquisition, Business Combinations Guidance FASB is considering beginning a project to reduce the differences between business combinations and acquisition…
Ever since the double-entry bookkeeping system was created in 1340, accountants and business owners have been focused on the fidelity of financial reporting systems. The…
Over the last several years, audit committees have fine-tuned their oversight relative to internal controls and financial reporting, but as this process has matured, many…