The Future of Private Company Reporting?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, IFRS.

IFRS( International Financial Reporting Standards)  for SMEs (Small Medium Enterprises) is a separate comprehensive set of standards for non-publicly accountable entities that is the result of a five-year development process with extensive consultation with SMEs worldwide. It simplifies many of the principles in full IFRSs for recognition and measurement, omits topics not relevant to SMEs,… Read more »

Going Full Throttle towards IFRS, could this cause more Accounting Shenanigans?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Fraud Accounting, IFRS.

Canada is in the midst of a seismic shift in accounting standards— one that will tie the country more tightly to international commerce, but might also result in investors being taken for a ride. Starting this year, Canadian public companies will issue financial statements using international financial reporting standards (IFRS) instead of the generally accepted… Read more »

A Nation of Swindlers

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Fraud Accounting, IFRS.

The chair person of the Ontario Securities Commission noted that companies and their auditors “stretch the interpretation of accounting standards beyond all reasonable limits. In many cases, the reasoning to support positions is weak or nonexistent. In other cases, it is clear that conclusions are based on narrow interpretations of a few words in a… Read more »

When to Recognize Revenue ?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Financial Accounting, IFRS, Intermediate Accounting.

Despite a reliance on umpteen pages of principles and prescriptive rules for the preparation of financial statements, much depends on professional judgment and corporate governance. That’s why the quality of the company’s reported earnings is such an important consideration for analysts and investors. REVENUE RECOGNITION The question of when to recognize revenue is quite straightforward… Read more »

GAAP : Private Matters

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, IFRS.

“Give us standards that meet the needs of the people who use our financial statements.” That’s the message standard setters have heeded in developing new standards for private enterprises. The profession has been waiting for this for a long time and finally, things are changing. The conventional wisdom in accounting standards used to be one size… Read more »

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Background

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, IFRS.

Background Origins of IFRS A single set of global accounting standards has been under development for over three decades since the International Accounting Standards Committee (“IASC”) was first established in 1973. It wasn’t until 2005, with the advent of the European Commission’s requirement for public companies reporting within the European Union (“EU ”) to prepare… Read more »

How Low Can the Costs Go?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, All Articles, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Managerial Accounting.

India has developed the world’s cheapest laptop – a touchscreen device which resembles Apple’s wildly popular iPad but will cost just £23. The prototype was unveiled this week by Kapil Sibal, the country’s human resource development minister, who said 110 million Indian schoolchildren would be the first recipients. Questions: 1.  Find the current exchange rates and calculate… Read more »

New Revenue Recognition Standards on the Way for Contractors

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Intermediate Accounting, Managerial Accounting.

Contractors should be educating themselves on the impact of the new proposed revenue recognition standards and the recently published (June 24, 2010) exposure draft pertaining to revenue from contracts with customers. Public comments are due October 22, 2010, and it is expected the standards will be finalized in 2011. Questions: 1. What are some of… Read more »

Mortgage Fairs

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Intermediate Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Video Updates.

Given the last year’s trend, is there an end in sight to new record-low interest rates? For example, on July 22, Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey, which provides a snapshot of national average mortgage rates, reported a national average rate of 4.56% with 0.7 points on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. At the same time… Read more »

Bank of America: It Depends On How You Define Materiality

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Video Updates.

Bank of America incorrectly classified as much as $10.7 billion in short-term lending and repurchase deals for mortgage securities as sales. This claim surfaced in a May 13 letter to the SEC where the banking corporation alleges that the transactions were immaterial and that it would be beefing up its internal accounting controls.  This letter… Read more »