Audit TrailAudit TrailAudit Trail is the official blog of Approva- tracking the latest news, opinions and trends in governance risk and compliance. Audit Trail provides visitors with informed views on issues that matter to finance compliance, and audit professionals. Articles
Is It Opposite Day? Accounting Hire Slowdowns and Falling CEO Pay
2008-05-16 07:11:00 So, all that talk about the accountant shortage and this year’s resulting banner crop of shiny new accounting grads? Looks like the Big 4 may have hired all the accounts they care to for the time being. Apparently, smaller outfits are still hiring, but things are sloowww — and worse than slow ... More About: Hire , Daily News , Accounting , Opposite
Econ Snapshots and a Flashback from the Singing CPA
2008-04-16 22:17:00 So much in the news this week! First up, all kinds of economic news, most of which can be categorized as less than optimistic. Reuters reports that bankruptcies were up by 38% last year. Global food prices are on the rise, fueling inflation domestically and elsewhere. (You think .3% is bad? ... More About: Daily News , Flashback , Econ , Singing
Government Risk and Compliance ? No, It?s Not a Typo
2008-04-09 17:51:00 Of course we usually use this space to address GRC issues — that is, Governance, Risk and Compliance . But today the news is all-too full of government risk and compliance issues. First-up, news that internal auditors reviewing the finances of the District of Columbia are calling the CFO’s office a “material weakness” that ... More About: Government , Daily News , Typo
Another day, another exec pay story (or two)
2008-04-07 22:57:00 It seems like exec pay issues are generating even more ink than usual these days. This week is no exception. Today’s NYT is following up on last week’s piece with one today contrasting predictions for what 2008 would mean for exec pay with what’s actually happening. So far, we haven’t seen nearly ... More About: Story , Daily News
Jump-starting the Conversation Between Boards and Auditors
2008-04-05 04:47:00 I so often hear (from auditors) that boards don?t listen to their auditors or (from boards) that auditors don?t talk in a way boards can understand or use. It really is sad that such an important conversation so frequently leaves both participants unsatisfied. The best way to get the conversation started, in my experience, is for ... More About: Industry News , Jump , Conversation
Wall Street Woes Make Congress Go, ?More Oversight!?
2008-03-21 04:28:00 News this week continues to be dominated by economic issues. The WSJ explores limit to the SEC’s oversight of investment banks, and the NYT has the details on calls from Congress for more regulation and oversight. In light of the above, we aren’t surprised to read news from executive search firm AE Feldman that there’s a surge ... More About: Wall Street , Daily News , Street , Wall
Market Waves and Audit Raves
2008-03-19 16:51:00 Happy Wednesday, everyone. Lots of news this week. On the heels of Bear Stearns’ collapse, USA Today provides interesting analysis of what preceded this latest meltdown, as well as an interesting (if gloomy) take on the macro and even global effects of what’s happened to our financial system in the wake of ... More About: Market , Daily News , Raves , Audit , Waves
What to Look For in an Audit Committee
2008-03-18 17:38:00 The main requirements for an audit committee are members that understand what they are auditing and that are independent enough to give an unbiased opinion of the results of their audit. Most global corporate governance codes call for the audit committee to be comprised of a majority (and preferably entirely) of independent non-executive directors. In ... More About: Industry News , Audit , Committee
SEC Working on ?Fair Value? Accounting Tips for Wall Street; and Jihad is D
2008-03-15 15:14:00 On Friday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it is crafting tips for Wall Street firms that use “fair value” accounting methods to value hard-to-price assets such as mortgage-backed securities. What does this mean? According to BloggingStocks, it means that companies closing their Q1 books can paint a rosier picture for ... More About: Breaking News , Tips , Jihad
CFOs: SOX rocks! But not the way you think.
2008-03-05 20:01:00 Happy Wednesday, everyone. This week’s chock-full of SOX analysis. Don’t pretend it doesn’t give you a little thrill. First, WebCPA has the lowdown on a study from research firm Audit Analytics showing how financial restatements actually dropped in 2007 — for the first time since 2001. SOX fans will point to ... More About: Daily News , Rocks
The Dish on the Drama Behind AS5
2008-02-27 19:09:00 Some folks may be angling for the very latest on Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan. To each her own. For us, serious quality dish is like the scoop out today from Compliance Week, where a former PCAOB staffer goes on record with Tammy Whitehouse about the lively debate between the SEC and ... More About: Drama , Daily News , Dish
What?s Your Controls Monitoring IQ?
2008-02-19 18:26:00 Last week, AMR Research vice president and research fellow John Hagerty, along with Dana Hamerschlag, Sr. Director, Product Marketing from Approva presented a webcast on, ?What?s your Controls Monitoring IQ?? John began the Webcast with a discussion of just how far GRC has evolved out of the focus in recent years on increased compliance requirements ? ...
PCAOB Voted to Adopt Standards for Evaluating Financial Statements
2008-02-01 19:37:00 This week, the PCAOB voted to adopt standards for evaluating the consistency of financial statements. What does this mean? Auditors would need to specify why financial statements were changed ? and whether these changes were caused by mistakes. According to the Compliance Blog, ?this will change the face of internal controls.? ... More About: Standards , Daily News , Financial , Adopt
Big Guys, Smaller Ones, and R.O.O.
2008-01-29 22:50:00 There?s been an interesting discussion in the blogosphere lately on the significance of recent big-name acquisitions of smaller role management and identity vendors ? namely, Sun?s acquisition of VAAU and Oracle?s of Bridgestream. Our own Ian Glazer?s been musing on what this means for the big guys and for other IdM vendors ? and ... More About: Daily News , Guys
What Happens When We Synchronize People, Process & Technology
2008-01-25 16:55:00 Last week, several of us at Approva got together to talk what we’re hoping to accomplish in the year ahead, with a special emphasis on how best to leverage innovation to meet our goals. During that time, we talked a good bit about one of our core business values: bringing people, process and ... More About: Technology , People , Daily News , Process , Synchronize
FERF Study on Assessment of Reporting Issues and Internal Controls
2008-01-09 19:46:00 The highly regarded Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF), the research arm of Financial Executives International (FEI), recently announced the findings of a key study that examined annual report disclosures from the top 100 publicly traded companies. AccountingWeb.com provided a very detailed and clearly written break down of all the results. The one quick take ... More About: Study , Daily News , Issues , Internal , Assessment
The Four Tiers of a Successful Compliance Protocol
2008-01-08 19:52:00 We at Approva like to talk about how important it is to have cross-functional, cross-application controls monitoring solutions ? how crucial it is to ensure that risks are monitored and addressed across disparate job functions and varied ERPs. In order to illustrate exactly how this works, I thought it might be useful to outline the tiers ... More About: Compliance , Protocol , Proto
Study: Shareholders Pushing Governance Evolution
2008-01-05 00:10:00 The folks at the law firm of Shearman & Sterling have released an interesting study on how public companies are continuing to adapt governance and disclosure policies — and the leadership role that shareholders are taking in these efforts. What struck us is that while several of these are clear responses to SEC disclosure ... More About: Evolution , Study , Daily News , Shareholders , Governance
Tis the Season for Year-End Reviews
2007-12-28 15:56:00 In light of this week’s light breaking industry news, we’re going to refer you to some interesting year-end round-ups from the good people of CFO.com. This one on the top stories in Accounting for 2007 provides a nice wrap up of everything from AS5 to the rise of fair value accounting, and this one ... More About: Reviews , Daily News , Season , Year
Everybody?s talking SOX
2007-12-04 17:34:00 Good morning, everyone. Some interesting reading today: a survey examining how Sarbanes-Oxley regulations have affected the composition of corporate boards. Bottom line ? corporate boards are enlisting more outsiders, more financial experts, and fewer directors who serve on multiple boards. Meanwhile, our friends at Compliance Week have released a study a substantial ... More About: Daily News , Talking , Everybody
Approva Governance, Risk and Compliance Survey Results
2007-11-26 16:13:00 Ladies and Gentlemen, the results are in. We?ve tallied the responses to our industry survey on GRC ? Governance , Risk and Compliance ? and you can click HERE for an analysis of what you and your peers have to say about GRC. We?ve also prepared a press release on the findings. Many ... More About: Survey , Results
D.C. Tax Workers Charged In Embezzlement Scam
2007-11-08 17:22:00 Washington D.C. is abuzz with shock as two employees of the District’s Office of Tax and Revenue have been charged with creating phony tax refunds and depositing them into fake business accounts, according to today’s Washington Post. The damage to the city? A whopping $16 Million. Since there seems to be a ... More About: Breaking News , Workers , Scam , Worker , Char
$5 Million in Compliance Savings = How Many Dead Lions?
2007-11-08 00:49:00 We know we didn’t warn you that there would be a quiz for today’s Weird Wednesday, but don’t worry, we are going to give you all of the necessary information to arrive at the answer. In news reported by Bloomberg today, (thanks to our friends at Dealbreaker) it appears that the price of hunting ... More About: Dead , Lions , Million , Compliance , Savings
Winning Big at Approva
2007-10-17 04:17:00 Lots of big news to announce, as its been a big week for Approva. The SSPA awarded us with the Star Award for Emerging Business Support. And, if that wasn’t enough, our marketing team took home the IABC’s Silver Inkwell Award for Audit Trail. And we’ve got to admit, it feels great ... More About: Winning
Daily News: Risky Business News From China
2007-09-24 22:54:00 Today?s reading is full of not-great news out of China . First, the FT has the lowdown on a study by brokers CLSA and the Asian Corporate Governance Association, a lobby group for institutional investors ? a study that found that regulators and market participants in China have become ?complacent? about governance, and predicting that ... More About: News , Business , Daily , Daily News
An Oracle Love Story: Addressing the Top Five Audit Challenges in Oracle E-
2007-09-21 21:16:00 In need of some love? Then join Approva and John Hagerty, Vice President and Research Fellow at AMR Research next Tuesday, September 25th for a webcast where you will learn how you can reduce compliance costs by implementing an automated controls monitoring program that lowers audit preparation costs and prevents corporate fraud. The ... More About: Love , Story , Oracle , Audit , Love story
Daily News: Good Audit, Bad Audit
2007-09-18 23:24:00 Talk about loving audit. Some folks apparently love it so much that they couldn?t wait for mandatory registration with the PCAOB before getting started. The PCAOB, alas, is none too pleased, and has charged 37 audit firms and 32 audit partners with reviewing financials without registration. 28 firms and 22 partners have ... More About: News , Daily , Daily News , Audit , Good
Good GRC Drives an Improvement in Profitability and Competitive Advantage
2007-09-18 16:42:00 Recently Audit Trail sat down with Dana Hamerschlag, senior director of product marketing at Approva to understand some of the key technology related features that will affect your Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) efforts. Audit Trail: What is the main focus of your role as senior director of product marketing at Approva? Dana Hamerschlag: The main focus ... More About: Improvement , Good , Competitive , Petit , Improv
Daily News: Buzz Around Audit, AS5, Risk Management, IT
2007-09-14 18:50:00 CSC detects accounting errors from a decade ago. AS5 tips abound. Including, but not limited to, work well with others, think about the big picture and create measurable goals. Sounds like some of those early lessons from kindergarten, but no less applicable. Risk management continues to buzz about the IT space. As noted by Maxine ... More About: News , Daily , Management , Risk Management , Daily News
Daily News: Mortgage Market Woes Worsen
More articles from this author:2007-09-12 23:59:00 Rain. Snow. Recession. All forecasts we don?t like to hear about, but can?t afford to ignore. Literally. As mortgage woes continue and the credit crisis worsens, economists surveyed by WSJ.com increased their estimates of a recession in the next 12 months, upping the ante by 8% to a 36% likelihood ... More About: News , Daily , Market , Daily News , Mortgage 1, 2, 3 |
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