- SEC Extends 404 Deadline For Small Businesses
The SEC offered further relief for smaller public companies and newly public companies on Friday by further postponing the date by which they must comply with the internal control reporting requirements mandated by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. [more]
- SEC Meeting Yields Progress on SOX 404, Deregistration
The SEC made a few decisions at its much anticipated open meeting on December 13 (one of the longest on record), most notably voting to propose interpretive guidance for management to improve Sarbanes-Oxley 404 implementation. [more]
- PCAOB To Propose Revised Auditing Standard Dec. 19
You have to love the language of government regulators -- they're the only ones who will call a meeting to "consider proposing" a revised standard. [more]
- Is Paulson Commission Report DOA?
Most of the recommendations made by the committee on US capital market regulation in its recent capital markets report will have the proverbial "snowball's chance" of being implemented due to the Democratic sweep of the House and Senate, experts told a New York Stock Exchange panel last week. [more]
- XBRL Makes Some Noise
XBRL isn't sexy -- but it sure is getting some attention. [more]
- Taming Sarbanes-Oxley
According to Ventana Research, public companies are the winners in the latest set of reforms regarding the interpretation and enforcement of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. [more]
- Most Restatements Due to Basic Accounting Errors
SEC deputy chief accountant Scott Taub told attendees at the annual conference of Financial Executives International (FEI) that about 55 percent of recent company restatements were due to the misapplication of basic accounting rules or data integrity problems. [more]
- Huron Consulting Group Releases Audit Committee Research Report
Huron Consulting Group has released its Audit Committee Research report, based on a sample of more than 700 audit committee members at 178 public companies from the NASDAQ 100 and Fortune 100 listings. [more]
- Budgeting Made Easier
When people think about building a budget, it's usually with a sense of dread. [more]
- How Technology Is Changing Auditing
Audit processes are undergoing a sea change, driven by the mutual evolution of better software tools for analysis and tighter standards for documenting and testing internal controls. [more]
- PCAOB's Olson Defends SOX at FEI Conference
Mark W. Olson, chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), made comments last week at the Financial Executives International Shaping the Future of Financial Reporting Conference that clarified the PCAOB's stance on improving the implementation of Auditing Standard No. [more]
- Paulson Calls for "Regulatory Balance," Tougher Enforcement
In his first major speech addressing the growing concern that U.S. [more]
- SEC's Full-Text Search Tool Now Live
Just last week, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox broke communication precedent by posting a letter on Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz's blog. [more]
- Europe Closes the GAAPs
Last year some 8,000 listed companies in the European Union were required, for the first time, to file their statutory financial statements using International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) instead of their national GAAPs. [more]
- Spreadsheets Shouldn't Be Tossed Yet
Spreadsheets, an essential budgeting and accounting application, are adored by many users for their flexibility and power but have been vilified by others who see them as a personal analysis tool that can't handle the demands of an enterprise system. [more]
- Major Accounting Firms Propose New Reporting Model
The remaining "Big Four" accounting firms have teamed up with Grant Thornton and BDO International to call for a new business reporting model that would ideally lead to less fraud and more useful financial information. [more]
- No End in Sight for Backdating Scandal
Post-Enron corporate governance reforms should have put a halt to stock option backdating, but a just-released analysis by proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis & Co. [more]
- Fixing the Broken Budgeting Process
You've no doubt perused countless articles and white papers recounting the evils of the traditional top-down budgeting process, but it doesn't hurt to read one more, right? [more]
- Is SOX a Dead End for America?
Paul Sharman, president and CEO of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), thinks it has the potential to be. [more]
- Drowning in Business Performance Acronyms?
Confused about the difference between BPM and EPM? [more]
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