Posts Tagged ‘financial reporting’
A Better Understanding of Estimates
Last month the PCAOB published fresh guidance on how to audit accounting estimates. Today let’s take a deeper look at what that guidance says, because the principles it recommends can be quite useful for compliance and risk officers too. To begin with the obvious: Yes, this guidance is written for audit firms that are inspecting…
Read MoreNew PCAOB Guidance on Estimates, Specialists
Heads up, audit professionals: the PCAOB has released fresh guidance on how to audit accounting estimates and how to use specialists in complex audit work — two issues that are the subject of new audit standards going into effect in 2021. Each subject has two pieces of staff guidance, so that’s four PDFs for you…
Read MorePodcast: Lease Accounting Compliance Update
Confession: I love the new accounting standard for companies to report their costs for leases. Not so much because I applaud what the standard tries to accomplish (although I support that too) but rather, because implementation of the standard demonstrates so many compliance and internal control headaches today. Hear me out. The new standard —…
Read MoreDiscrepancies in Corporate Disclosure
Several weeks ago we had an update here about the SEC’s idea to relax quarterly reporting rules, perhaps in favor of letting companies disclose more via their earnings release. Today let’s explore two practical challenges with that notion: companies can omit unwelcome numbers in their earnings releases, and change what those numbers are by the…
Read MoreUpdate on Semiannual Reporting: Zilch
Corporate disclosure mavens, we have an issue that needs attention: Nobody is talking about the SEC’s recent call for comments about moving to a semiannual corporate reporting regime. As you might recall, the SEC published its call for comment in December — 31 pages of questions, asking investors, corporations, and all other interested parties whether…
Read MoreHertz, Estimates, and Internal Controls
Who says a government shutdown means no news for internal control and compliance? On New Year’s Eve the Securities and Exchange Commission served up another juicy enforcement action, hitting Hertz Corp. with a $16 million penalty for sloppy accounting practices that led to a financial restatement in 2015. The case is worth a look because…
Read MoreSEC Asks Disclosure Reform Questions
The Securities and Exchange Commission is asking for opinions about the quarterly reporting system again, the latest volley in what could be a contentious debate in 2019 about corporate disclosure. The request for comment, published Tuesday, runs 31 pages long. It asks whether some disclosures in the Form 10-Q quarterly report could be abolished if…
Read MoreNon-GAAP Reporting, Popular as Ever
Non-GAAP financial metrics are back in the news today thanks to a fresh report from Audit Analytics, which finds that almost all large companies now report at least one such metric in their financial statements, and that the number of non-GAAP metrics the average filer reports has tripled in the last 20 years. Audit Analytics…
Read MoreThoughts on Semiannual Reporting
Many moons ago — OK, actually 10 days ago, but that qualifies as many moons ago these days — President Trump floated the idea of letting U.S. companies adopt to semiannual corporate reporting rather quarterly. For a day we were all verklempt, torn between the lure of less short-term focus on Wall Street and our…
Read MoreThoughts on Changes to Lease Accounting
Today we pivot back to financial reporting, and the impending new rule on accounting for lease expenses. That rule is coming into effect at the end of this year, and the more you study it, the more implications emerge — for everything from accounting and audit functions, to document management systems, and even incentive compensation.…
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