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Accounting Research
Manager(TM)
Weekly Summary of
Developments
April 20-24, 2009
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Accounting Research
Manager subscriber,
The Accounting Research
Manager database now contains this week's weekly summary of developments. Click
the link below to access and print the fully-formatted Weekly Summary:
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If you do not have immediate
Internet access to the Accounting Research Manager database, below is the text
of this week's Weekly Summary.
Accounting and SEC
Headlines
Loan Losses -- FASB Discusses Loan Loss Disclosures
Fair Value Measurements -- PCAOB Staff Issues Audit Practice
Alert
PCAOB Inspections -- SEC Issues Proposed Rule Changes to
PCAOB Inspections of Foreign Firms
SEC Filings -- SEC Publishes Updated EDGAR Filer
Manual
International Accounting -- IASB Publishes Improvements to IFRSs
Auditing and Internal
Controls Headlines
Auditing and Attestation -- Interpretations Addressing Use of
Electronic Confirmations, Internal Control, and Preparation of Financial
Statements for Use by an Entity’s Auditors Discussed
Fair Value Measurements -- PCAOB Staff Issues Audit Practice
Alert
PCAOB Inspections -- SEC Issues Proposed Rule Changes to
PCAOB Inspections of Foreign Firms
Government Headlines
Codification -- GASB Issues Codification of Accounting
and Financial Reporting Guidance Contained in the AICPA Statements on Auditing
Standards
Fund Balance Reporting -- GASB Standard Discussed
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ACCOUNTING AND SEC HEADLINES:
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Loan Losses -- FASB
Discusses Loan Loss Disclosures
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
As reported in its
"Summary of Board Decisions" publication, the FASB met on April 22,
2009, and discussed its loan loss disclosure project. The FASB continued to
discuss how to improve disclosures about the allowance for credit losses
associated with loans and finance leases and made the following additional
decisions:
-A creditor would be required
to disclose the fair value of financing receivables on a loan portfolio segment
basis;
-APB Opinion No. 28, Interim
Financial Reporting, would be amended to require entities to provide the
proposed disclosures in interim-period financial information;
-An entity would be required
to provide the disclosures beginning with the first interim or annual reporting
period ending after December 15, 2009; and
-At initial adoption, the
guidance would not require an entity to provide the required disclosures for
comparative periods, however in periods after initial adoption, an entity would
be required to provide comparative disclosures for comparative periods that
ended after initial adoption.
The FASB directed its staff
to proceed to a draft of the proposed Statement for vote by written ballot. The
comment period for the proposal is expected to be 60 days.
Fair Value Measurements --
PCAOB Staff Issues Audit Practice Alert
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
The PCAOB issued Staff Audit
Practice Alert No. 4, Auditor Considerations Regarding Fair Value
Measurements, Disclosures, and Other-Than-Temporary Impairments, to inform
auditors of public companies about potential implications on reviews of interim
financial information and annual audits of the following recently issued
guidance from the FASB:
-FASB Staff Position (FSP)
FAS 157-4, Determining Fair Value When the Volume and Level of Activity for
the Asset or Liability Have Significantly Decreased and Identifying
Transactions That Are Not Orderly;
-FSP FAS 115-2 and FAS 124-2,
Recognition and Presentation of Other-Than-Temporary Impairments; and
-FSP FAS 107-1 and APB 28-1, Interim
Disclosures about Fair Value of Financial Instruments.
This practice alert provides
specific guidance on considering the above FSPs in
the following areas:
-Reviews of interim financial
information;
-Audits of financial
statements, including integrated audits;
-Disclosures; and
-Auditor reporting
considerations.
PCAOB Inspections -- SEC
Issues Proposed Rule Changes to PCAOB Inspections of Foreign Firms
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
The SEC has issued for public
comment, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board; Notice of Filing of
Proposed Amendment to Board Rules Relating to Inspections. This proposal
includes rule amendments the PCAOB filed with the SEC and which the SEC is now
soliciting public comments on. This proposal includes an amendment to PCAOB
Rule 4003, Frequency of Inspections, which would extend to 2009 the
deadline for the PCAOB's first inspection of 21 of
the 52 non-U.S. firms for which the first inspection deadline had been 2008.
All comments on this proposal
are due May 15, 2009.
SEC Filings -- SEC
Publishes Updated EDGAR Filer Manual
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
The SEC has published final
rule, Adoption of Updated EDGAR Filer Manual. This rule includes revisions
to the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval System (EDGAR) Filer
Manual to reflect updates to the EDGAR system. According to the SEC, the
revisions contained in this final rule were made primarily to improve the Form
D filing process, including allowing filers to save a partially completed Form
D filing offline to a designated location on their computer. These revisions
are in addition to the recent updates to the EDGAR system discussed in our
Weekly Summary for the week of April 13-17, 2009.
This final rule is effective
April 23, 2009.
International Accounting
-- IASB Publishes Improvements to IFRSs
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
The IASB has published, Improvements
to IFRSs. This document contains amendments to IFRSs and related bases for conclusions and guidance made
in the IASB’s annual improvements project. The annual
improvements project provides a vehicle for making non-urgent but necessary
amendments to IFRSs. This document includes
amendments to the following standards:
-IFRS 2, Share-based
Payment;
-IFRS 5, Non-current
Assets Held for Sale and Discontinued Operations;
-IFRS 8, Operating Segments;
-IAS 1, Presentation of
Financial Statements;
-IAS 7, Statement of Cash
Flows;
-IAS 17, Leases;
-IAS 18, Revenue;
-IAS 36, Impairment of
Assets;
-IAS 38, Intangible
Assets;
-IAS 39, Financial
Instruments: Recognition and Measurement;
-IFRIC 9, Reassessment of
Embedded Derivatives; and
-IFRIC 16, Hedges of a Net
Investment in a Foreign Operation.
The effective date of each
amendment is included in the standard affected.
Some of the documents
listed above may not be accessible under your current subscription. For
information about upgrading your subscription to include additional content,
click here:
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
=======================================
AUDITING AND INTERNAL
CONTROLS HEADLINES:
=======================================
Auditing and Attestation
-- Interpretations Addressing Use of Electronic Confirmations, Internal
Control, and Preparation of Financial Statements for Use by an Entity’s
Auditors Discussed
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
We have added a GAAS Update
Service that provides discussion and analysis of:
-Auditing Interpretation No.
1 of AU Section 330, Use of Electronic Confirmations, which provides
guidance on the use of electronic confirmations and their reliability in the
confirmation process;
-Attest Interpretation No. 7
of AT Section 101, Reporting on the Design of Internal Control, which
addresses various issues related to the practitioner’s responsibilities when
asked to report on the suitability of the design of an entity’s internal
control over financial reporting or a portion thereof; and
-Accounting and Review
Services Interpretation No. 31 of AR Section 100, Preparation of Financial
Statements for Use by an Entity’s Auditors, which provides guidance for
situations in which a client engages an accountant, other than its auditor, to
prepare unaudited financial statements on behalf of
management and in which those financial statements are provided by management
to its outside auditor for the purposes of the annual audit.
Fair Value Measurements --
PCAOB Staff Issues Audit Practice Alert
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
As discussed above in our
Accounting and SEC Summaries, the PCAOB issued Staff Audit Practice Alert No.
4, Auditor Considerations Regarding Fair Value Measurements, Disclosures,
and Other-Than-Temporary Impairments, to inform auditors of public
companies about potential implications on reviews of interim financial
information and annual audits of the following recently issued guidance from
the FASB:
-FASB Staff Position (FSP)
FAS 157-4, Determining Fair Value When the Volume and Level of Activity for
the Asset or Liability Have Significantly Decreased and Identifying
Transactions That Are Not Orderly;
-FSP FAS 115-2 and FAS 124-2,
Recognition and Presentation of Other-Than-Temporary Impairments; and
-FSP FAS 107-1 and APB 28-1, Interim
Disclosures about Fair Value of Financial Instruments.
This practice alert provides
specific guidance on considering the above FSPs in
the following areas:
-Reviews of interim financial
information;
-Audits of financial
statements, including integrated audits;
-Disclosures; and
-Auditor reporting
considerations.
PCAOB Inspections -- SEC
Issues Proposed Rule Changes to PCAOB Inspections of Foreign Firms
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
As discussed above in our
Accounting and SEC Summaries, the SEC has issued for public comment, Public
Company Accounting Oversight Board; Notice of Filing of Proposed Amendment to
Board Rules Relating to Inspections. This proposal includes rule amendments
the PCAOB filed with the SEC and which the SEC is now soliciting public
comments on. This proposal includes an amendment to PCAOB Rule 4003, Frequency
of Inspections, which would extend to 2009 the deadline for the PCAOB's first inspection of 21 of the 52 non-U.S. firms for
which the first inspection deadline had been 2008.
All comments on this proposal
are due May 15, 2009.
Some of the documents
listed above may not be accessible under your current subscription. For information
about upgrading your subscription to include additional content, click here:
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
======================
GOVERNMENT HEADLINES:
======================
Codification -- GASB
Issues Codification of Accounting and Financial Reporting Guidance Contained in
the AICPA Statements on Auditing Standards
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
The GASB issued GASB
Statement No. 56, Codification of Accounting and Financial Reporting Guidance
Contained in the AICPA Statements on Auditing Standards. GASB 56
incorporates accounting and financial reporting guidance previously only
contained in the AICPA auditing literature into the GASB's
accounting and financial reporting literature for state and local governments.
GASB 56 addresses three issues from the AICPA's
literature: (1) related party transactions; (2) going concern considerations;
and (3) subsequent events.
GASB 56 brings existing
guidance (to the extent appropriate in a governmental environment) without
substantive changes into the GASB's body of
standards. GASB 56 is part of the GASB's effort to
codify all generally accepted accounting principles for state and local
governments so that they derive from a single source. This is intended to make
it easier for preparers of state and local government financial statements to
identify and apply relevant accounting guidance.
GASB 56 is effective April
16, 2009.
Fund Balance Reporting --
GASB Standard Discussed
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
We have published a
Governmental GAAP Update Service which is the first of a two-part series on
GASB Statement No. 54, Fund Balance Reporting and Governmental Fund Type
Definitions. GASB 54 is intended to improve the usefulness of information
provided to financial report users about fund balance by providing clearer,
more structured fund balance classifications, and by clarifying the definitions
of existing governmental fund types. GASB 54 establishes a hierarchy of fund
balance classifications based primarily on the extent to which a government is
bound to observe spending constraints imposed upon how resources reported in
governmental funds may be used.
This Update covers the
following topics:
-New classification of fund
balances;
-Illustrated classification
of fund balances;
-Disclosure requirements;
-Late modifications to GASB
54; and
-Effective date and
transition provisions.
Some of the documents
listed above may not be accessible under your current subscription. For
information about upgrading your subscription to include additional content,
click here:
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com