Boo! Consider a surprise audit to keep your accounting department on its toes

One of the best ways to tackle financial statement fraud is to conduct periodic surprise audits. In fact, surprise audits were associated with at least a 50% reduction in both median loss and median duration, according to Occupational Fraud 2022: A Report to the Nations published by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) earlier […]

Ratio analysis: Extracting actionable data from your financials

What do you do with your financial statements when your auditor delivers them? Resist the temptation to just file them away — they’re more than an exercise in compliance. With a little finagling, you can calculate key financial ratios from line items in your company’s financial statements. These metrics provide insight into historical trends, potential […]

SEC Chair Gensler warns about conflicts of interest

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler spoke during a recent webcast to commemorate the 20-year anniversary of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Gensler recommended that the SEC take a “fresh look” at its rules on the issue of auditor conflicts of interest. He also asked the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) to add auditor […]

FASB proposes last-minute changes to lease accounting rules

Accounting Standards Codification Topic 842, Leases, requires organizations to report the full magnitude of their long-term lease obligations on their balance sheets — a historic first. For private companies and nonprofits, the changes take effect this year. Public entities adopted the rules in 2019. While the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) conducts its post-implementation review […]

How auditors use Benford’s Law to assess transactions

An interesting tool called Benford’s Law can be effective in detecting fraud. But it also can be used during external auditing procedures to test journal entries for unusual numeric patterns. Here’s what you should know about this statistical technique, including its potential limitations. Random data sets According to Benford’s Law, in sets of random data, […]

Using agreed-upon procedures to target specific items of concern

Your CPA offers a wide menu of services. One flexible offering, known as an “agreed-upon procedures” engagement, provides limited assurance on a specific aspect of an organization’s financial or nonfinancial information. What’s covered? Agreed-upon procedures can cover various items. For example, a CPA could provide a statement about the reliability of a company’s accounts receivable, […]

Why auditors prefer in-person interviews to assess fraud risks

Auditing standards require financial statement auditors to identify and assess the risks of material misstatement due to fraud — and to determine overall and specific responses to those risks. Here’s why face-to-face meetings are essential when assessing these risks. Audit inquiries Fraud-related questions are a critical part of the audit process. The AICPA requires auditors […]

Is your current bad debt allowance reasonable?

In today’s volatile market conditions, it’s important to review your accounts receivable ledger and consider writing off stale, uncollectible accounts. The methods that you’ve used in the past to evaluate bad debts may no longer make sense. Here’s how to keep your allowance up to date. Know the rules Under the accrual method of accounting, […]

New law puts “book income” in the crosshairs

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) could have congressional lobbyists nipping at its heels over a “book minimum tax” rule in the newly enacted Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA). This would be the first corporate alternative minimum tax based on financial statement book income since the 1980s. And many in the accounting profession are […]

Are your risk-management practices keeping up with the times?

Risks abound in today’s uncertain marketplace. Nearly two-thirds of senior finance leaders said that the volume and complexity of corporate risks have changed “mostly” or “extensively” in the past five years, according to a new report published by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and North Carolina State University. Surprisingly, this report, 2022 […]