Shares of telecom equipment maker Nokia dropped more than 8 percent last Friday after the company revealed that it is investigating potential compliance problems at its Alcatel-Lucent unit, which it acquired in 2016. The Finnish company disclosed the investigation into certain transactions of the unit in its annual report, which Read More
Nearly two-thirds of corporate controllers feel pressure to “cook the books,” according to a new international survey, and many of them feel that misrepresenting their company’s performance is just part of their job. The survey, by FloQast, a provider of close management software for corporate accounting departments, found that 64 Read More
The Securities and Exchange Commission has settled charges against four public companies for failing to maintain internal control over financial reporting (ICFR) for several annual reporting periods. Two of the charged companies also failed to complete the required evaluation of the effectiveness of ICFR for two consecutive annual reporting periods. Read More
An internal investigation launched at the behest of the audit committee of USA Technologies, a cashless payments processor for vending machines, has found revenue recognition and other accounting problems. The company is working to remediate the problems and enhance internal controls and governance. The probe found that for some transactions Read More
Hertz Global Holdings has agreed to pay $16 million in fines to settle charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission over accounting errors at the rental car giant that led to financial misstatements. According to the SEC filing, from February 2012 to March 2014 Hertz’s public filings “materially misstated pre-tax Read More
Could the audit profession be in danger of dying out in the coming years? At least one professor thinks that audit (and to be clear we are talking about external audit firms that provide an independent opinion on the integrity of corporate financial statements) could be replaced in the next Read More
Two new separate analyses by research firm Audit Analytics, finds that even as the use of non-GAAP metrics is growing, the topic has dominated SEC enforcement efforts with a high percentage of SEC comment letters referring to potential misuse of non-GAAP metrics.
It’s been 16 years since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act took effect in 2002, and companies are still wrestling with SOX compliance. Now, a new study shows they are paying more to meet the regulation’s requirements and have generally not done a good job of using technology to automate controls and ease Read More
(Photo: Audit Report by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 ImageCreator) The Center for Audit Quality has issued some much-needed guidance on critical audit matters (CAMs), a new reporting requirement that external auditors will need to start including in their audit reports as early as next year. While the new requirements Read More
Companies are moving to add more automation to their internal controls over financial reporting and plan to increase their investment in automation of ICFR in the next 6-to-18 months, according to a new study. The survey, conducted by the Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF), found that more than 80 percent Read More
