Ironic Photo of the Day: Paperless Audit Edition

Posted on November 12, 2009 by Caleb Newquist

A friend of GC passed along the following photo:

Telling us: “This is our paperless audit training. An associate had to print out 46 copies. He stayed late on Friday and used three printers.”
Oh the humanity.

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Barney Frank Doesn’t Legislate Accounting, He Only ‘Exerts Pressure’

Caleb Newquist
August 5, 2009

As you may know, the mere thought of Congress legislating accounting rules makes us nauseous to the point of passing out. Barney Frank, in an attempt to alleviate this common malady among accountants, has been quoted by Web CPA saying that “We will never legislate accounting while I’m chairman [of the Financial Services Committee]”.

According to the piece, Barn says that when he, and the rest of the committee, whipped Bob Herz, FASB Chairman, into submission over changes in mark-to-market rules, this was not legislating, this was “exerting pressure”.

Depending on who you ask (ahem, Hank Paulson), exerting pressure could easily be confused with “threatening” and threatening is clearly how legislation gets done in this country, whether it’s got a signature on it or not. So call it what you like, Barney-boy, we’re on to your doublespeak .

Barney Frank: ‘We Will Never Legislate Accounting’ [Web CPA]

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Grant Thornton Survey: 40% of CFOs Never Ever Ever Want IFRS to Replace GAAP

Caleb Newquist
October 26, 2009

All this IFRS hubbub is going to be expensive and time consuming anyway so let’s just forget it, shall we?
Eh, not so fast, IFRS haters. The remaining 60% of the respondents did state that they thought that IFRS should be required at some point in time, including 7% that want it ASAP, thanks.
Part of the resistance may be that lots of CFO/controller types have got no idea how IFRS is going to affect their company’s reporting. GT’s survey shows that 90% of the respondents don’t use IFRS currently and earlier this summer another survey cited that many CFOs weren’t even sure how IFRS would affect their reporting.
The IASB is clearly serious about the whole thing, and the FASB, while less excited, seems to be on board, along with big shots like Jim Turley. Finance execs can stall all they want but eventually IFRS will be all up in their business. Probably should get crackin’.
40% of U.S. senior financial executives don’t want IFRS to replace GAAP [GT Press Release]