In the News: Private Company Standards are Coming

The big accounting news this week was the Financial Accounting Foundation’s Wednesday announcement that it was creating a body to set differences in U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, where appropriate, for privately held companies. The private company standards set by the new Private Company Council might make it easier for the roughly 28 million privately held companies in the United States to follow certain accounting standards.

The AICPA announced its support for the Private Company Council on Wednesday shortly after the news broke.

Barry Melancon, CPA, CGMA, president and CEO of the AICPA, spoke about the developments in a video to members.

“With the news announced today by the FAF, we recognize and appreciate that the FAF has taken solid steps in the right direction regarding the Private Company Council. The AICPA is encouraged by this approach and awaits more of the details of the FAF decision.  We look forward to continuing to work together to effect meaningful changes in U.S. GAAP for private companies and the users of their financial statements,” said Melancon,

And The Survey Says... Increasing Demand for Forensic Accounting

Infographics may be the rage these days, but I still like good old-fashioned statistics, data points and most of all, survey results. Maybe it's because I spent a lot of time watching Family Feud as a child, but when I look at survey results the voice in my head announces ‘and the survey says…’

If 100 CPAs across the country were asked ‘what is the fastest growing area in accounting,’ it is highly likely that forensic accounting would be one of their top answers. Backing up what many in the profession have long suspected to be true are the latest results from the AICPA Forensic and Valuation Services Trend Survey: and the survey says that forensic accountants are seeing a noticeable increase in demand for their services.

AICPA Tells Congress to Keep Oversight of Investment Advisers with SEC

As the AICPA gears up for our 125th Anniversary next week, here’s a wrap up of a few interesting accounting topics recently making the news. You can follow @AICPANews on Twitter to stay on top of all the latest official AICPA news as well as articles impacting the profession.

CFO.com wrote that the AICPA raised concerns over the Investment Adviser Oversight Act of 2012 and urged Congress to keep oversight of investment advisers with the SEC. Introduced in the House of Representatives on April 25, the bill would transfer oversight of investment advisers from the SEC to a self-regulatory organization."Many of our members work for a firm that is registered as, or affiliated with, a registered investment adviser," Barry Melancon, CPA, CGMA, AICPA president and CEO, said in a statement. The AICPA's stance is that the system proposed under the bill would cost advisers much more in fees than current SEC oversight would.

On January 19, 2011, the SEC issued a staff report that found the current SEC-registered investment-adviser examination program faces hefty capacity and funding challenges. Three options were proposed to offset these challenges.  One would be to impose "user fees" on SEC-registered investment advisers to fund oversight. A second would authorize one or more SROs to examine investment advisers, with oversight from the SEC. A third choice would be to authorize the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a leading broker-dealer SRO, to examine dual registrants for compliance with the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. All three options require congressional action. "We believe that the SEC's core mission to protect investors requires adequate regulation of the investment advisory profession. The SEC remains the proper regulatory body to protect the public's best interest." Melancon said, "Providing the SEC with resources to properly enforce their rules is the best solution for investors and the public."

4 Tips to Stay in the Loop on your Finances

I recently read a blog post that talked about ‘the loop,’ which is essentially the browsing cycle we go through on the internet. This caused me to reflect upon my own habits on the web when I’m home relaxing in front of the computer. I found out that I have a regular routine of scanning the news, checking for any new sports information, seeing what my friends had for breakfast on social media and ensuring any emails are responded to promptly. I do this two or three times on an average night and as many as a dozen times on the weekends (please don’t judge me).

However, I’ve recently made it a point to expand the loop at least once daily to include checking my bank account and recent credit card spending, as well as my 401(k) and investment portfolio. Because as Jordan Amin, CPA, chair of the National CPA Financial Literacy Commission puts it, “the first rule of personal finance is be informed.”

Technology Risks and Rewards: A Balancing Act

The AICPA has long recognized the impact that technology has on the accounting profession. In fact, for over two decades, we’ve been reaching out to members and key stakeholders to better understand how it can be effectively harnessed through our Top Technology Initiatives Survey.

Back in the early 1990s when the survey debuted, the technologies we take for granted today would have been impossible to fathom. In an era when only early adopters had digital answering machines, the idea of a personal computer, which could obtain almost any piece of information in the world was beyond most people’s comprehension. Now, we carry these devices around in our pockets, take pictures with them and call them phones.