Category: Financial Effectiveness Perspectives

This isn’t our usual fare, but we found it pretty fascinating. The Journal of Accountancy has a great article running on the CPA as a Criminal Pursuing Agent. Durkin was an FBI agent working undercover as he had a drink with known members of an organized crime group at a fancy restaurant in Los Angeles. …

Writing in CFO Magazine, David Axson, Managing Director of  Accenture’s Strategy, CFO & Enterprise Value practice tells us that the finance organization of the future will be nothing like that of  today: Finance 2020 — tomorrow’s digital finance organization — is a radical departure from the status quo. It deals in analytics and forward-looking decisions to …

Hat tip to CFO Magazine. Atlanta based consulting firm Acuitas recently released a survey of Fair Value Audit Deficiencies (pdf) covering the period 2009-2013.   The survey is based on an in depth analysis of PCAOB data from the same time period.    What they found is that Fair Value Measurement audit deficiencies continue to …

Note: You can read our entire comment letter to the PCAOB on the Audit Quality Indicator Exposure draft The PCAOB recently released an exposure draft for a set of proposed Audit Quality Indicators.    In releasing the exposure draft for comment, the Board stated the following goals: The goal of the AQI project is to improve …

Writing in Forbes,  Jay Humphries notes that “The pressure for an accelerated accounting close can be relentless”.    We agree, and have seen this pressure through industry.  In addition, Humphries notes that while technology can help to overcome some challenges, by itself, it is an incomplete approach, and that “A successful, holistic approach must account for …

Jason Bramwell at AccountingWeb reports on the Annual Audit Fee Survey from  Financial Executives Research Foundation . Among the key findings: Audit fees paid by SEC filers last year averaged $1.5 million Nearly 21 percent of SEC filers reported ineffective internal controls over financial reporting Public companies as a whole realized a 3.1 percent median increase …

CFO Magazine just tweeted out a cool Metric of the Month Fast Fact: The top 25% of companies can finish the close-to-disclose cycle in 12 days or less. http://t.co/Q5NTX4mRIM pic.twitter.com/iVTIYrSH2G — CFO.com (@cfo) October 17, 2015 We followed the link, and found a great article (as usual) by Mary Driscoll “Metric of the Month: Close-to-Disclose …

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is seeking input on a recently released an exposure draft of proposed changes to chapter 3 of the Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting.  The proposed changes effect the concept of materiality. There are a number of changes, but the most significant is that the board acknowledges that in the United …

The “Three Lines of Defense” model is widely used throughout industry as a framework for addressing risks in today’s increasingly complex world.  Originally proposed in a position paper from the Institute of Internal Auditors in 2013, the model proposes a “streamlined approach to risk management and control built on three layers — operational management, risk …

The Institute of Internal Auditors is seeking the input of audit stakeholders, board members and C-Suite executives for their Internal Audit Common Body of Knowledge (CBOK) stakeholder survey. The purpose of this phase of the study is to gain a global perspective and better understanding of stakeholder expectations of internal audit’s purpose, function, and performance. …