... What role does professional research play within an accounting firm or department? Who primarily conducts the research? Government, accounting, auditing, and tax research is significant to an accounting firm or department. The professional research is conducted by accountants and they are in charge of interpreting firm policies in the framework of particular clients. Resolving technical and auditing issues during a client engagement; this is done by research units when the local office is not able to come up with the conclusion. 7. Identify and explain some basic questions the researcher must address in performing accounting, auditing, or tax research. The researcher must ask the following questions when performing accounting, auditing, or tax research: A. Do I have complete knowledge to answer the question, or must I conduct research to consult authoritative references? B. What is the law (tax law) or authoritative literature? C. Does the law or authoritative literature address the issue under review? D. Where can I find the law or authoritative literature and effectively and efficiently develop a conclusion? E. Where can I find international accounting and auditing standards? F. If there is no law or authoritative literature directly addressing the topic at issue, what approach do I follow in reaching a conclusion? G. What professional databases or other sources on the Internet should I access for research process? H. If more than...
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...TOPIC: THE RESEARCH PROCESS – RESEARCH TOOLS When attempting to find resolution to accounting issues, a key component of the research process is being aware of and utilizing research tools. Research tools may consist of many types of media, resources, and viewpoints. Because accounting is ever evolving, it is imperative to know where to go to remain informed of relevant changes and clarifications. The AICPA & PCAOB websites can be good places to start. There are links to white papers, exposure drafts, articles, accounting and auditing standards, and areas of interest like XBRL. Additionally, the Big 4 accounting firms publish guidance, interpretations, and literature in their public online libraries. There is also accounting research software, one of which is called “Accounting Research Manager, the ultimate research tool.”1 This software provides updated information from FASB, AICPA, the FASB’s EITF (Emerging Issues Task Force), IASB, and industry-specific guidance.1 Also, IASPlus.com and IFRS.com are useful research tool websites when exploring current events and international accounting. EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval) is an online, publicly accessible tool best used when researching US SEC registrants and their filings. Lastly, any search engine, such as Google, can be helpful when navigating the rough waters of online research. As graduate students, we find that professors can be a wonderful resource. They are passionate about their particular...
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...Identification of an AIS research topic. (5%) Description: Your report should be organized in the following fashion: Page 1: Select an AIS-related topic that you plan to research and present for the term project, write a brief report to explain why your research is relevant to AIS. Page 2: Prepare an outline of your research. Please refer to guidelines provided in the Term Project folder in Blackboard for examples of a good outline. Part 2: Submission of your partially-completed research paper. (5%) Description: By now you should have conducted preliminary research on your selected subject, and have partially completed your paper. Part 2 of the project simply requires you to submit whatever you have completed till now in order to ensure your timely completion of the paper near the end of the semester. Your paper should be at least six pages in length, with solid content and good format. Note: The first two parts of the research project are pretty much just some evidence to prove your timely progress on your term project. There will only be limited feedback from the instructor. Part 3: Submission of your completed term project report. (10%) Description: Completed report in good format and content. The report should be at least 12 pages in length, but no more than 16 pages (including all charts and tables.) Please refer to guidelines provided in the Term Project folder in Blackboard for examples of good format and content for research papers. Grading Standards: ...
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...available at www.emeraldinsight.com/1176-6093.htm Research in management accounting innovations An overview of its recent development Nur Haiza Muhammad Zawawi Department of Accounting and Finance, University of Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia and School of Accounting, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, and Management accounting innovations 505 Zahirul Hoque School of Accounting, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia Abstract Purpose – The purpose of paper is to present a review of the literature on management accounting innovations (MAIs). Specifically, it explores recent developments in research on MAIs and offers suggestions for future research. The review differs from existing reviews by its specific focus on MAIs and the recent time period covered. In this paper, MAIs refer to the adoption of “newer” or modern forms of management accounting systems such as activity-based costing (ABC), activity-based management, time-driven ABC, target costing, and balanced scorecards. Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents a review of findings from journal articles published in 22 notable accounting journals. Findings – The review finds that research on MAIs has intensified during the period 2000-2008, with the main focus on exploring the extent to which a host of organizational and environmental factors influence the implementation and use of MAIs in organizations. In addition, research on MAIs indicates the dominant use of sociological theories...
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...Keller Graduate School of Management Accounting 540: Accounting and Auditing Research Professor: Michael Abner Course Project Week 6 April 11, 2015 Abstract In week 6 assignment, I will write a short essay to sum up my recommendation and conclusion about my finding to present to my client, the director of ABC Investment Group. Since the Director has a limited understanding the US GAAP regarding Debt security, therefore I have to be concise in my presentation. ABC Investment Group is an investment company, and they deal with debt security. Their main concerns are how to recognize and record the transaction on unrealized gains/losses in their holding debt securities, and when they should write down debt securities. The key to the problem lies on how the ACB Investment Group treat their investment. According to FASB ASC 320-10-25 the debt securities are classified in three groups as Trading Security (TD), Available For Sale (AFS), and Held To Maturity (HTM); and each class of debt investment has different accounting method to recording its transaction. Trading Security uses the Fair Value method in account for the gains/losses, and this debt security is the most active portfolio to the company because the objective of this portfolio is to generate profit in a short term by participating in the buying and selling of debt securities. When unrealized gains/losses for trading securities are recognized, they need to record as an earning in income statement, and trading...
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...Grace Lau December 18, 2014 Page 2 Conclusions and Recommendation Based on our research and facts provided to us, the consulting bill of WesternGraphics and staff salaries should be expensed as either incurred or when the first time the marketing project starts (FASB ASC 720-35-25). You could capitalize the costs incurred only if the costs qualify as direct response advertising. According to FASB ASC 340-20, direct response advertising costs are intended “to elicit sales to customers who should be shown to have responded specifically to the advertising and that result in probable future benefits”. Although there might be future benefits resulting from marketing strategy, the company didn't create any tangible or intangible asset. The slogan created by WesternGraphics has been rejected and no asset has been created on the company books. In our opinion, the consulting fees and staff salary didn't create an asset either. Since the company operates in a highly competitive industry, it’s uncertain whether the company will derive future benefits from marketing strategy. The asset is unidentified and generally such costs should be expensed. Although the company created the game (an asset), the consulting fees and staff salaries incurred do not qualify as production costs to be capitalized. According to FASB 985-2025, only costs “of producing product masters incurred subsequent to establishing technological feasibility shall be capitalized. Those costs include coding and testing...
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...Evidence from Vietnam of Public Sector in Current Conditions In recent years, Vietnam has made a significant progress in completing the legal system in general and the regulations on accounting and auditing in particular, including the regulations to ensure the efficient management of public expenditure and to create a more favorable environment for the operations of the public sectors (Kara, 2012). The actual implementation of current legal framework of accounting in public sectors, however, shows the lack of consistency among the accounting system of state budget revenue and expenditure, the accounting of entities financed by the budget (general budget fund), and the accounting of entities financed by financial funds (off-budget funds). Therefore, Vietnam needs a uniform legal framework for the implementation of accounting. This is not only the external objective requirement but also the internal requirement of Vietnam’s economy itself, because current financial and accounting information in the public sector, through actual implementation, shows inconsistency between the current accounting systems and incompliance with international practices. Meanwhile, the participation in international and regional economic organizations such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), Vietnam-US bilateral trade agreement, and the commitment to financial organizations such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank (WB), International Monetary Fund (IMF), etc. of Vietnam have created the...
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...ACC 310 Fall 2013 Research Case Two 1. International Financial Reporting Standards, abbreviated “IFRS”, are a set of high quality, understandable, enforceable, and globally accepted rules for companies to use all over the world. These IFRS are permitted or required in around 120 countries. Companies, securities regulators, investors, creditors, and other business people alike prefer to have comparable financial statement information when making business transaction internationally. IFRS presents a solution to this problem. These standards are set by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). Consisting of 16 members from various countries, the IASB structure is similar to that of the FASB in that they have a parent organization entitled the IFRS Foundation (Accounting Textbook, 1-17). The phrase “International Convergence of Accounting Standards” refers to both a goal and the path that is necessary to achieve it. Ultimately, the FASB would to like to be able to provide a unified set of superior quality, international accounting standards that companies worldwide would implement for both domestic and cross-border financial reporting, thus accomplishing convergence. However, until that time, FASB is committed to working with other accounting standard setting bodies to help to eventually develop a converged system without compromising quality (fasb.org). 2. Perhaps one of the most convergence hindering differences between IFRS and U.S. GAAP is the way in...
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...Equity and Debt Investors FROM: Alexander Eaton DATE: September 4, 2014 SUBJECT: Cohen & Zarowin 2010 Analysis The purpose of this memo is to analyze and explain the findings of Cohen and Zarowin 2010. Cohen and Zarowin 2010 is an academic research paper that looked into the difference between real activities and accrual management post-seasoned equity offering performance. It mainly addresses the severity of engaging in manipulations in each of those management activities. This memo will first cover the main question and importance of the research. Then, it will discuss what accrual based and real earnings management are. Next, it will discuss what the two types of earnings management are and the key difference between the two. Next, it will discuss the main findings of the paper. At the end it will discuss whether this information would be useful to debt or equity investors. The main research question that was being answered was whether, and how, firms engage in real earnings management around SEOs and how real and accrual-based earnings management interact around these important corporate events. This is interesting and important because this area has been receiving increasing interest, yet this particular research has never been done. It will answer a question that will affect many companies. Equity and Debt Investors September 4, 2014 Page 2 This paper defines accrual-based management as firms managing their earnings upward around SEOs. This misleads the...
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...article analyzes the future of management accounting and the underlying issues it faces. He is worried that the transpiring changes in this field will not be “conducive to advancing our understandings of the functioning and continued development” of the constantly changing business world. The issues discussed are among mainstream tendencies, increasing autonomy, and changes occurring throughout the world. Hopwood expresses concern of the narrowing outlook of management accounting research, where there appears to be more careerist-oriented rather than curiosity-oriented research occurring. The number of business schools seeking accreditation has continued to increase, requiring faculty to engage in research. Because the faculty does not have the necessary skills, their research tends to look for “simplicity and certainty rather than complexity and challenge” and they often use previous findings as their data and abstract theories that differ from how accounting actually operates. If this continues, the changes seen underway will be difficult to implement. Autonomy is another issue affecting the future of management accounting. As mentioned above, there is an increase in the number of accounting researchers who are less and less knowledgeable about the accounting practice. This causes a colossal separation between the two. Hopwood uses the medical science field as an example. He explains that there are people who not only conduct research, but also deal with patients. This way,...
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...1970’s was a time where there was an emergence of new research directions around the organizational and social aspects of accounting. During this time the accountancy profession was rapidly growing and moving into many new areas, there was a new standard-setting process, greater use of accounting controls in both private and public-sector enterprises, new forms of social accounting, intervention by government in the inflation accounting debate and calls on accounting to change in diverse directions. All of these rapid changes were forcing accounting academics to analysis the changing world of accounting more closely. (p454 30 years of historical accounting research) One of the changes in accounting analysis was a move towards accounting history. Hopwood (1976)called for historical studies in terms that would later be labelled as “traditional”, despite the label it would receive in the future, it still represented an awareness that historical studies would soon be an important source of understanding of the roles of accounting in organizations and society (reference 30 years of historical accounting research). Historical research was slow to emerge, as was highlighted in the Accounting, Organizations and Society journal where between 1976 and 1985 only 13 historical papers were published. Historical research came to the fore during the period from 1986 and 1990 where 22 historical papers were published in the journal Accounting, Organizations and Society, this period was also the...
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...The Journal of Applied Business Research – July/August 2010 Volume 26, Number 4 A New Look At Management Accounting Mohammad Talha, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Saudi Arabia John B. Raja, Multimedia University, Melaka, Malaysia A. Seetharaman, S P Jain Center of Management, Singapore ABSTRACT This paper presents a comparison of the traditional management accounting with the new approach of management accounting with the use of latest information technology and manufacturing technologies. The information and data of the research were gathered from various sources of secondary data. Many online articles and journals were available through these search engines such as Google, Infoseek, Lycos, Excites and Altavista. These articles were downloaded from Internet Websites including IFAC library, CPA online newsletters, Institute of Management Accountants, CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants), Technical Bulletin and Institute of Commercial and Financial Accountants. The modern techniques used in Management Accounting are discussed. TQM (Total Quality Management), ABC (Activity Based Costing) and BSC (Balanced score card) are some of the tools that are introduced in management accounting to keep up with the latest technology. This research highlights the emergence of new, more proactive management accounting that increasingly becomes part of the management team with the business process. The future roles and expectations of these accountants in...
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...http://accountingonion.typepad.com/theaccountingonion/2011/08/let-the-condorsement-games-begin.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2Ftheaccountingonion+%28The+Accounting+Onion%29 August 18, 2011 Let the "Condorsement" Games Begin The SEC has finally conceded that its efforts to adopt IFRS have failed. Damage control has begun in earnest, but the ship is still taking on water. The SEC took a tentative poke at the problem last May with the publication of a Staff Paper, Exploring a Possible Method of Incorporation (with emphasis, supposedly, on "exploring"). Once upon a future time, the staff fantasized, it will be possible that financial statements prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP will simultaneously comply with IFRS as issued by the IASB. Known informally as 'condorsement', the paper describes the staff's wishful thinking in the form of three "convergence" phases and a final "endorsement" phase. Convergence Phase I — Would somehow complete the few surviving MoU convergence projects by the end of this year, but even those have since been shot full of enough holes to push the timeline out by at least another year. The SEC will not acknowledge this, but everyone pretty much agrees that the decade-long effort to converge U. S. GAAP and IFRS has been marked by many more failures than successes. Convergence Phases II and III — Would take an additional 5 to 7 years and require the FASB to formulate plans for merging active IFRS...
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...Student Cases with Solutions to accompany Accounting & Auditing Research: Tools & Strategies (7th edition) NOTE: In addition to the in-chapter and end-of-chapter exercises which serve as short cases you will find the following short cases arranged by course title that can also be utilized as short cases that require the student to access the authoritative literature to address the issue presented in the case. Other excellent sources of longer and more detailed cases include the Deloitte Trueblood cases (www.deloitte.com/more/DTF/cases_subj.htm), as well as the AICPA cases (www.aicpa.org). A topical listing of the cases is presented with the case and solution following the listing. Topical Index of Student Cases INTERMEDIATE ACCOUNTING Cases Case 1: Reporting acquisition and repayment transactions in the Statement of Cash Flows Case 2: Recording a forfeited payment Case 3: Revenue and expense recognition associated extended warranties Case 4: Accounting for “due on demand” note payable Case 5: Purchase of a controlling interest with a greenmail premium Case 6: Revenue recognition in the construction industry Case 7: Accrual and measurement of interest payments Case 8: Recognition of an asset transfer when title has not yet been received Case 9: Capitalization of interest and property taxes on a construction project Case 10: Deferred compensation and life insurance policy recognition Case 11: Reporting earnings per share balances...
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...a loss be accrued, if so at what amount? 2. What disclosures should be made on the company’s financial statements? Analysis Should a loss be accrued, if so at what amount? ASC 450-20 states the following conditions need to be met for the loss to be accrued: 25-2 An estimated loss from a loss contingency shall be accrued by a charge to income if both of the following conditions are met: * a. Information available before the financial statements are issued or are available to be issued (as discussed in Section 855-10-25) indicates that it is probable that an asset had been impaired or a liability had been incurred at the date of the financial statements. Date of the financial statements means the end of the most recent accounting period for which financial statements are being presented. It is implicit in this condition that it must be probable that one or more future events will occur confirming the fact of the loss. * b. The amount of loss can be reasonably estimated. Par 25-2 states that as long as a loss is reasonably estimated and information is available before the financial statements are issued or are available to be issued, then the loss should be accrued. Since the lawsuit satisfies both conditions the loss can be accrued. 30-1 If some amount within a range of loss appears at the time to be a better estimate than any other amount within the range, that amount shall be accrued. When no amount within the range is a...
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