5 Things CPAs Need to Know about Integrated Reporting

Last week, my blog post discussed that Integrated Reporting <IR> represents an important shift in corporate reporting in which CPAs can play a key role providing consulting services, implementation or report preparation. In today’s blog, I’m drilling down into some of the key concepts of the recently released Consultation Draft of the International <IR> Framework that are important for CPAs to understand.

Five features of the Draft Framework are:

Tax Reform: The Crystal Ball Never Lies

People often ask me, “Ed, when do you think we’ll finally see tax reform?”

“Not before 2014,” I respond with assurance.
“How can you be so sure, Ed?” they say.
“My crystal ball never lies!

But I started getting a bit nervous about sounding so confident.  After a little digging, I found out my crystal ball had once predicted that the Titanic was unsinkable, yet it went down on April 15, 1912. How’s that for foreshadowing?! That forced me to do some soul searching and thinking.

Flash back to November 2011. I was sitting next to Pat Thompson, who chaired the AICPA Tax Executive Committee.  We were listening to Don Longano, former House Ways and Means Committee Chief Counsel and Washington tax insider, share his views on the prospects for tax legislation at the National Tax Conference.

SEC Using XBRL to Flag Reports for Review

Seal of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Not too long ago, I heard Craig M. Lewis, Director and Chief Economist of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Risk, Strategy and Financial Innovation, give a presentation on the SEC’s new predictive accounting quality model, nicknamed “RoboCop” by the trade press, which will enable the SEC to monitor and flag reports for further review.

What makes AQM so useful, Mr. Lewis said in an interview with Merrill Compliance Solutions, is that, by using XBRL, the tool can be “applied broadly to the entire filer space.” Previous versions of the tool used Compustat data, which did not include all filing companies. With XBRL, 100 percent of filing companies will be analyzed by AQM.

3 Things to Know About Proposed Ethics Code Revisions

CPAs know how seriously our profession takes ethics. The AICPA’s Code of Professional Conduct applies to all AICPA members. In addition, many state CPA societies and state boards of accountancy either incorporate it by reference or use it as a starting point for their codes. The Code of Professional Conduct provides guidance on areas such as client relationships, maintaining independence and adhering to the technical standards of GAAP, GAAS and others.

The AICPA's Professional Ethics Division acts as the steward of the Code of Professional Conduct, taking a 360 degree view of ethics. It publishes a free newsletter, Ethically Speaking, which helps CPAs better understand ethics-related issues (send an email to ktruman@aicpa.org to subscribe). The Professional Ethics Division establishes, interprets and enforces these standards. To carry out its charge, the Professional Ethics Division provides a hotline that helps members understand and apply the Code of Professional Conduct properly. What’s more, monitoring hotline inquiries is one of the ways the Professional Ethics Division identifies topics that require standard setting. Using this real-time feedback, the Professional Ethics Division has been able to tackle topics that are important to the profession. 

The latest exposure draft issued by the Professional Ethics Division reorganizes the Code of Professional Conduct to make it easier to navigate, understand and apply. Watch this video to learn more about the Ethics Codification project.

How Would an Unlimited Vacation Policy Work in Your CPA Firm?

After this crazy, compressed tax season, you and your employees are certainly ready and deserve a vacation. But do you give your employees enough vacation time? How much paid vacation time is enough? Can you imagine that the answer might someday be “as much as they want?” Some companies are shifting toward an unlimited vacation policy because they believe it can enhance morale and minimize stress. Although only 1% of organizations offer unlimited paid time off, according to a Society for Human Resource Management survey, it is surprisingly most often used at smaller organizations. There are a number of advantages to offering unlimited vacation time in your CPA firm. They include: