Posts Tagged ‘financial reporting’
Bitcoin, We Have a Problem
I have tried my best for years to avoid this subject, but the time has come at last. Compliance officers, we need to talk about bitcoin. Specifically, we need to talk about certain operating businesses in the world that now purchase and hold bitcoin as a corporate strategy. Because some companies are doing exactly that,…
Read MorePCAOB Previews Inspection Focus
The PCAOB plans to shake up how it will inspect audit firms this year, with a specific focus on how the pandemic has challenged financial reporting and audit risks and a promise to “reduce the predictability” of this year’s inspections. The agency published a staff alert on Tuesday outlining its priorities for 2021 inspections, so…
Read MoreSEC Talks Covid Disclosures
Just in time for the end of second quarter, the Securities and Exchange Commission has published another dollop of guidance about financial disclosures companies should keep in mind as they navigate Covid-19. The statement came Tuesday from chief accountant Sagar Teotia. It’s the latest in a series of pronouncements SEC officials have made since early…
Read MoreRelief on Covid-19 Lease Accounting Burdens
Good news for financial reporting and corporate disclosure folks: the Financial Accounting Standards Board says companies do not need to go through a potentially mind-numbing examination of how the accounting for operating leases might change due to Covid-19. The guidance came from FASB on Friday. It says that companies do not need to account for…
Read MoreDispatches From FEI 2019 Conference
Financial Executives International is hosting its annual Corporate Financial Reporting Insights conference in New York this week, a who’s who of financial reporting regulators, executives, and other thought leaders. Radical Compliance couldn’t attend FEI in person this year, so as usual, we’ve collected a bundle of dispatches from social media to call out interesting points…
Read MoreA 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…
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