...United States of America Adopt the International Financial Reporting Standards? Since 1936, accountants in the United States have been following a set of generally accepted guidelines, historically set by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, for their practices. These guidelines have come to be known as the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP. Since their creation, these principles have protected companies and investors from fraud, as accounting practices can sometimes be questionable. The GAAP holds companies accountable for their financial reporting activities and includes rules accountants must follow regarding recording transactions and preparing financial statements. Recently, there have been questions regarding the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the United States as opposed to the International Financial Recording Standards, or IFRS ; and whether or not the United States should adopt these new accounting standards. There are a number of pros and cons to the International Financial Recording Standards as well as the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles; however, I do not think that the United States should fully adopt the IFRS considering the history of the GAAP and the reason for the creation of its principles. As previously mentioned, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) has been responsible for setting accounting standards. In 1973, the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the Governmental...
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...accounting + auditing Intro to XBRL Patricia Francis xbrL Is resHApING tHe FINANcIAL reportING LANDscApe WorLDWIDe, AND LooKs set to Do tHe sAme IN mALAYsIA oNce FuLLY ImpLemeNteD bY LocAL reGuLAtors AND busINesses. Are You xbrL reADY? The objectives of SSM’s SDP II are: • To enhance delivery and improve accuracy of information; • To achieve a standardised and consistent mode of reporting with enhanced analytical capabilities; • To promote data usability and exchange flow with external stakeholders. According to Nor Azimah, SSM also promotes the adoption of XBRL as a nationwide format to be used by key agencies such as the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN), Securities Commission (SC) and Bursa Malaysia and the building of extension taxonomies by the mentioned agencies. The said adoption will provide SSM, other regulators and businesses with detailed data which can be aggregated and made available to stakeholders in the form of industry analysis for industrial benchmarking. The move to XBRL-based reporting is also in line with plans to transform Malaysia into a digital country by 2020, as XBRL reports form part of the digital reporting chain. At the recent Digital Malaysia Press Conference held on 5 July 2012 by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) along with Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, CEO of MDeC told the media that Digital Malaysia will help drive automation and technology adoption to ensure productivity and...
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...Will there be one set of accounting standards in use throughout the world in the next five years? As American companies continue to expand their businesses abroad, the need for a single set of accounting standards is growing. Currently there are about 12,000 companies that are operating in more than 100 countries, each of which requires their financial statements to be reported under the same guidelines and standards. All of these countries abide by the International Financial Reporting Standards, making it easier for companies abroad to have financial cohesion. Unfortunately the United States has yet to adjust their financial standards, but many feel this necessary change is coming. Signs of a possible change arose when the SEC approved the use of International Financial Reporting Standards by non-U.S. registrants as long as they included reconciliation between the IFRS and the U.S. GAAP standards. Further signs of change arose when the SEC dropped this reconciliation requirement only a year after enacting it. As the SEC is noticing, the need for a uniform financial standard is not only growing but it is a necessary change as there is many advantages to having one set of accounting standards. One of these advantages is that having one global set of accounting standards will eliminate the costs of preparing multiple financial statements under various standards. Another advantage is that this will also reduce the need for multiple audit opinions that multinational firms...
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...this essay is to discuss financial reporting is both a reflection and creator of our perception of social reality and is consistently evolving. By means of research of these source collections, relevant evidence is selected, evaluated and organized into three key areas: the Carbon tax legislation represents a creation of a new social reality and the impact on sustainability in business. The carbon tax would be represented in the financial reports. To introduce the particular company and legislation impacts on that company. The Framework shows that the financial reporting is present relevant and reliable information. Some experts considered that the insufficient information on financial reporting impact on social reality. Thus, the Sustainability reporting occurs to fix up the fanatical reporting gaps. Introduction Financial reporting is both a reflection and creator of our perception of social reality and consistently evolving. Currently, accounting system is not only focus on the data of how much company earns, it also shift towards to social responsibility. As the dramatic of pollutions, especially that of the developing nations is extremely harmful not only to the surrounding environment, but also to the inhabitants of that country as well. Thus, financial reporting take concern on such problems and create out Sustainability reporting which help to reduce the pollutions. This essay is to discuss the both reflection and creator of financial reporting in reality social and...
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...Accounting Standard Boards Paper ACC/541 September 09,2013 Heber Howard Accounting Standard Boards Paper In the business of accounting two boards stand out the first one is the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), and the second is the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). The two boards are putting together this joint adventure to have a universal standard recognized internationally by entities for reporting of financial statements. This adventure will help to ensure that reporting of financial information is consistent globally and in the United States. The adventure will also help investors, stakeholders, the public, and financial institutions to read the financials in a clearer format. This paper will provide a brief understanding of the two boards joint adventure referred to as the convergence project. After discussing the relationship between the two boards along with the equivalents of the FASB original pronouncements, the paper will explain briefly how the MSA program prepares students for a professional life within the accounting vocation and how he or she will be able to make ethical business decisions. IASB and FASB The IASB is an independent regulatory body based in the United Kingdom, which aims to develop a set of global accounting standards (Investopedia, 2013). The IASB has 14 board members 12 are full-time and two are part-time and was established in 2001 as the successor to the International Accounting Standards...
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...Board Paper Financial Accounting Standard Board (FASB) is a private, not-for-profit organization responsible for setting accounting standard for public companies in the United States. It was created in 1973 as a replacement for the Committee on Accounting (CAP) and the Accounting Principle Board (APB). Financial Accounting Standard Board mission is stated as “to establish and improve standards of financial accounting and reporting that foster financial reporting by nongovernmental entities that provides decision-useful information to investor and other users of financial reports.” The International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) is an independent, privately funded accounting standard-setter based out of England. It replaces the International Accounting Standard Committee and was founded April 1, 2001. International Accounting Standard Board is responsible for development and publication of International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS). The International Accounting Standard Board mission is to converged global accounting standard; develop a single set of high quality, understandable, and enforceable global accounting standards; provide high quality transparent and comparable information in financial statement and help the world’s capital market and other financial statement user make sound economic decision. Since more companies are doing business and seeking financing from outside their home countries, investors from other countries are now reading their financial statement...
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...[pic] SOUND FINANCIAL REPORTING IS A GOOD THING FOR BRINGING CONFIDENCE BACK TO THE CORPORATE WORLD Submitted By: Ahmed Shafiul Huq 801414063 Principle of Accounting (EIB505) Section: B Executive Master of Business Administration Submitted To: Mr. Mohammad Rakib Uddin Bhuiyan Assistant Professor Department of International Business Faculty of Business Studies EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A company’s financial reporting amalgamates important documents to create an effective spreadsheet to simplify the financial data of an organization. It captures much of the information that organizations prepare, publish, and use. Financial reporting plays an integral role in the capital markets and economic stability and growth, and efforts to enhance its quality are vital. A Sound Financial Reporting provides us relevant, meaningful, reliable, accurate and comprehensive reporting of management stewardship whether in the form of numbers or other operating data. It is increasingly important for businesses to be financially transparent and for governments to establish a sound regulatory environment for corporate financial reporting. Sound financial reporting can benefit business by some ways just like valuing business, easy to identify...
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...A critical review of the trade-offs between the concepts of relevance and reliability in financial reporting Theme: Financial Accounting Classification: M41 Author: Prof D Coetsee Affiliation: Department of Accountancy, University of Johannesburg, South Africa Contact address: Department of Accountancy R-Ring 607 University of Johannesburg PO Box 524 Auckland Park Johannesburg South-Africa 2006 Telephone: +27-11-559-3047 Fax: +27-11-559-2777 E-Mail dcoetsee@uj.ac.za A critical review of the trade-offs between the concepts of relevance and reliability in financial reporting |Abstract | |In an information orientated system of financial reporting the move from historical cost to fair value | |accounting has created numerous debates surrounding the trade-offs of the concepts of relevance and | |reliability. This article contributes to the debate by critically reviewing the current developments of | |these trade-offs to determine whether current financial reporting guidelines are appropriate to deal with | |the difficulties and uncertainties of financial reporting. The article found that the proposals of the joint| |framework discussion paper goes a long way in resolving the issues around the trade-offs of relevance and | |reliability. Changing the concept of reliability to faithful representation...
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...reasoning for financial reporting harmonisation…………………………….………………………………..3 3. Approaches to harmonisation………………………………………………………………………..…………………………..4 4. Obstacles in harmonisation………………………………………………….……………………………………………………..6 5. The convergence between IASB and FASB today and the Changes within the IASB towards achieving their goal ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………7 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………8 References & bibliography………………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………..9 1. Harmonisation – what it means Harmonisation is the process which aims to converge the accounting practices around the world and to increase the compatibility between countries in regards to financial statements. However, we must keep in mind that this process does not target uniformity in the accounting practice, but to reduce the differences over time. Standardising the accounting practices around the world comes as a boomerang effect of capitalisation. We have companies that trade in different countries and thus they must oblige with each of the accounting practices of every country where the company produces financial statements. This leads to the situation where you have a company reporting a shareholders’ equity of just over $15 million under the UK regulations, while in accordance with the US accounting rules the same company reports a shareholders’ equity value of $32 million, a difference of over 100% between the two financial statements...
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...programs by unauthorized personnel; and The use of computer programs that have not been authorized. *Accounting estimate—An approximation of a monetary amount in the absence of a precise means of measurement. This term is used for an amount measured at fair value where there is estimation uncertainty, as well as for other amounts that require estimation. Where ISA 540 2 addresses only accounting estimates involving measurement at fair value, the term “fair value accounting estimates” is used. *Accounting records—The records of initial accounting entries and supporting records, such as checks and records of electronic fund transfers; invoices; contracts; the general and subsidiary ledgers, journal entries and other adjustments to the financial statements that are not reflected in formal journal entries; and records such as work sheets and spreadsheets supporting cost allocations, computations, reconciliations and disclosures. Agreed-upon procedures engagement—An engagement in which an auditor is engaged to carry out those procedures of an audit nature to which the auditor and the entity and any appropriate third parties have agreed and to report on factual findings. The recipients of...
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...THE ROLE OF SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL REPORTING IN THE ORGANIZATIONS Author: Mohamed Anas (2015) INTRODUCTION There has been an increase in demand for environmental and social reporting as well as other non-financial information by shareholders and users of financial statements. In early 2000’s the stakeholders and shareholders are only concerned with the financial performance but now the trend has changed as that the shareholders and stakeholders who believed that the organization should be responsible to the environment and society in which they operate the business, and therefore it needs to be good for the community. This has caused that many laws and regulations such as environmental and social laws, employment laws, anti-corruption laws and good governance laws developed by the states to protect the environment and social issues icons. The concept of social responsibility has been raised in the context of this because the organization must be committed to run the business ethically and contribute for the growth of the economy, and at the same time improving the standard of life of employees and their families as well as for the society they operate their business and future generation. REQUIREMNT OF THE CURRENT CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK Conceptual framework is a guideline issued by international accounting standard board (IASB) for the development of international accounting standards (IAS). It is a practical tool that assist IASB to develop standards and assist preparers...
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...Excello Telecommunications Abstract This paper will explain the legality and ethicality of financial reporting as it pertains to the Excello Telecommunications case. Other topics that will be touched on will be reporting standards, SOX Act criteria, and alternatives for Excello. Excello Telecommunications Introduction Excello has a dilemma with end of year reporting and in meeting their earnings estimates in accordance to calculations at the beginning of the year. What the CFO wishes to achieve is finding a way to include a large sale in the 2010 year-end reporting statements. By having a hold on the sale, and it remains on their property, they cannot claim this revenue. The team has to look into alternatives that will not only allow this claim but will also meet all GAAP standards. The Legality Mr. Reed discussed the issue with the controller Mr. Fuller and explained what he wanted to obtain on the reports. During this conversation Mr. Fuller advised Mr. Reed of legal criteria in reporting and Mr. Reed indicated that he did not want to break any laws, but he still needed to find a way around certain rules of accounting. When a meeting was called with the accounting department he made sure that the team understood both important aspects of the decision, which are to record the sale and to maintain all GAAP guidelines. At first this sounded like what Mr. Sullivan did is the previous case of Ms. Cooper and WorldCom but then after reading the section in Chapter...
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...NiCE Working Paper 09-108 April 2009 Quality of Financial Reporting: measuring qualitative characteristics Ferdy van Beest Geert Braam Suzanne Boelens Nijmegen Center for Economics (NiCE) Institute for Management Research Radboud University Nijmegen P.O. Box 9108, 6500 HK Nijmegen, The Netherlands http://www.ru.nl/nice/workingpapers 1 Abstract We construct a compound measurement tool to comprehensively assess the quality of financial reporting in terms of the underlying fundamental qualitative characteristics (i.e. relevance and faithful representation) and the enhancing qualitative characteristics (i.e. understandability, comparability, verifiability and timeliness) as defined in ‘An improved Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting’ of the FASB and the IASB (2008). The operationalization of these qualitative characteristics results in a 21-item index. Using 231 annual reports from companies listed at US, UK, and Dutch stock markets in 2005 and 2007, we test our compound measurement tool on internal validity, inter-rater reliability (Krippendorff’s alpha) and internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha). Our findings suggest that the measurement tool used in this study is a valid and reliable approach to assess the quality of financial reports. The measurement tool contributes to improving the quality assessment of financial reporting information, fulfilling a request from both the FASB and the IASB (2008) to make the qualitative characteristics operationally...
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...ACC 410 Assignment 1 Financial Statement / Audit Report Review Follow Below Link to Download Tutorial https://homeworklance.com/downloads/acc-410-assignment-1-financial-statement-audit-report-review/ For More Information Visit Our Website ( https://homeworklance.com/ ) Email us At: Support@homeworklance.com or lancehomework@gmail.com Assignment 1: Financial Statement / Audit Report Review Due Week 4 and worth 240 points Select one (1) local government in your state or area and review the financial statements and audit report for the county or municipality. The financial statements of the government you selected should have at least three (3) funds. Refer to the continuing problem homework for Weeks 1 through 3 for this assignment. Write a three to five (3-5) page paper in which you: 1.Compare and contrast the comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR) of the selected local government entity with the city of Austin report from Week 1 homework. In your comparison, include: a.Publication method of the CAFR b.Audit and budget information in the CAFR c.The type of audit report issued d.Existence or non-existence of an internal audit function within the government entity 2.Prepare the analysis for the selected local government entity, including information on the introduction, financial section, and statistical section prepared in the city of Austin’s CAFR from chapter 2. 3.Analyze the methods used by the selected local government entity in comparing...
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...were created in (Wiecek and Young, 1-2). The increase in globalization coupled with related regulations has given rise to the need for a common set of global accounting standards – International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Leading the charge, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), formerly known as the International Accounting Standards Committee, has begun a movement toward harmonization and convergence of GAAP. More than 100 countries currently use IFRS, so if your business goals include global expansion, it is critical to educate yourself about the impact of IFRS on your financial reporting processes and business now (U.S. GAAP vs. IFRS). This paper will focus specifically on the differences and similarities between IFRS and U.S. GAAP with respect to accounting for the effects of changes in foreign exchange rates. The guidance related to accounting for foreign currencies in U.S. GAAP is included in Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) Topic 830, Foreign Currency Matters. In IFRS, the guidance related to accounting for foreign currency issues is contained in International Accounting Standard (IAS) 21, The Effects of Changes in Foreign Exchange Rates. Additional IFRS guidance is contained in IAS 29, Financial Reporting in Hyperinflationary Economies. Before delving too deep into the significant differences between U.S. GAAP and IFRS, it is important to understand the terminology used within the two standards...
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