Category: Accounting and Auditing
SEC permits use of Inline XBRL — will it be enough to make XBRL great?
by Cydney Posner Until now, companies have been required to provide the financial statements accompanying their periodic and current reports in “structured,” i.e., machine-readable, format using XBRL and to provide this XBRL data as an exhibit to their filings. Today, the SEC issued an order allowing companies, on a voluntary […]
Could disclosure avert a decline in investment in human capital?
by Cydney Posner Much attention has been paid to the decline in spending on R&D and capital investments attributed to short-termist myopia. Hedge fund activists have been impugned for pressuring companies to return capital to shareholders in the form of buybacks and dividends at the expense of funding R&D and […]
House passes bill for five-year extension of JOBS Act exemption from auditor attestation requirement
by Cydney Posner On Monday, the House passed the Fostering Innovation Act of 2015, notwithstanding this letter to Paul Ryan and Nancy Pelosi from the SEC’s Investor Advocate urging a vote against it. The bill, which presumably now moves to the Senate for consideration, amends Section 404(b) of SOX (internal […]
SEC posts new and revised CDIs on non-GAAP financial measures
by Cydney Posner The SEC’s verbal blitzkrieg on abuses of non-GAAP financial measures has finally made its way into some new and revised CDIs. As discussed in this PubCo post, in early May, SEC Deputy Chief Accountant Wesley Bricker, speaking before the 2016 Baruch College Financial Reporting Conference, emphasized that the […]
They’re baaack! PCAOB reproposes disclosure of “critical audit matters”
by Cydney Posner Last week, after five years of outreach, the PCAOB once again attempted to make the auditor’s report more relevant and informative to investors by reproposing the auditor reporting standard, The Auditor’s Report on an Audit of Financial Statements When the Auditor Expresses an Unqualified Opinion, and related […]
SEC approves PCAOB rule requiring identification of audit engagement partner on Form AP
by Cydney Posner On Monday, the SEC approved PCAOB rules requiring that, for each audit report, audit engagement partners be named on a new Form AP. The form will also disclose the names and Firm IDs, locations and extent of participation of any other accounting firms, outside of the principal auditor, […]
SEC staff continues to admonish companies on problematic use of non-GAAP measures
by Cydney Posner In remarks today before the 2016 Baruch College Financial Reporting Conference, SEC Deputy Chief Accountant Wesley Bricker discussed one of the SEC’s topics du jour, non-GAAP reporting. Recently, the SEC and staff (Chair White, Chief Accountant James Schnurr, Corp Fin Director Keith Higgins) have been barnstorming the […]
Taking on “management review controls”
by Cydney Posner In a speech at the end of 2015 to the AICPA National Conference on Current SEC and PCAOB Developments, SEC Chair Mary Jo White emphasized that “it is hard to think of an area more important than ICFR [internal control over financial reporting] to our shared mission of providing […]
SEC Chief Accountant addresses the new revenue recognition standard in the context of the life sciences industry
by Cydney Posner In late March, SEC Chief Accountant, James Schnurr, delivered remarks before the 12th Annual Life Sciences Accounting and Reporting Congress. The remarks addressed the new revenue recognition standard and internal control over financial reporting as applied in particular to life sciences companies, and also cautioned companies regarding […]
Is it just a brush-back pitch or will the SEC take steps to rein in the use of non-GAAP financial measures?
by Cydney Posner Reporting on an industry conference sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the WSJ advises that SEC Chair Mary Jo White is considering whether to restrict the use of non-GAAP financial measures. In a speech to the conference, Chair White advised the audience that “[y]our investor relations folks, your […]
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