New Revenue Standard

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) on Wednesday voted to approve a one-year delay in the effective date of the converged revenue recognition standard. The delay keeps IASB’s effective date in line with that of the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), which also voted in favor of a one-year deferral earlier this month.

The new effective date of IFRS 15, Revenue From Contracts With Customers, is January 1st 2018.

Preparers applying IFRS continue to have the option to apply the standard early; preparers using US GAAP are permitted to apply the new standard early on the original effective date. The IASB plans to publish the formal amendment specifying the new effective date in September.

 

 

Ajit S. Chawla, CPA, CA, CGMA

Partner

Affluent Financial Services LLC

Certified Public Accountants

9711 Washingtonian Boulevard, Suite 550

Gaithersburg, MD 20878

301-978 3016

www.affluentcpa.com

 

 

IAASB completes amendments to auditing standards focused on disclosures

IAASB completes amendments to auditing standards focused on disclosures 

International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) has issued revised international auditing standards designed to sharpen auditors’ focus on disclosures and to drive consistency in the application of the standards.

The IAASB released the revisions, called the International Standards on Auditing, Addressing Disclosures in the Audit of Financial Statements, on Wednesday.

The standards have an accompanying publication that describes financial reporting disclosure trends and possible implications from an audit perspective. The publication is “intended to help the consistent, effective, and proper application of the ISAs when addressing disclosures as part of an audit of financial statements, and may be particularly relevant to small and medium practices implementing the changes to the ISAs,” according to a news release.

 

 

Ajit S. Chawla, CPA, CA, CGMA

Partner

Affluent Financial Services LLC

Certified Public Accountants

9711 Washingtonian Boulevard, Suite 550

Gaithersburg, MD 20878

301-978 3016

www.affluentcpa.com

 

 

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Sage announced several product revamps to kick off the 2015 Sage Summit Tuesday, including Sage X3 in the cloud, an update of Sage ERP X3 that’s also available on-premise, and Sage Live, formerly known as Sage Life and developed in partnership with Salesforce.

In conjunction with these product releases, Sage stressed “the death of ERP,” which chief technology officer and head of strategy Himanshu Palsule explained was an outdated term for Sage’s flagship enterprise solution.

 

Daily News Updates

The Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General issued a report criticizing PricewaterhouseCoopers’ audit of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and has referred to the matter to the American Institute of CPAs’ Professional Ethics Division.

The report, which the Inspector General issued Monday, concerns a quality control review of a PwC audit of Big Brothers Big Sisters for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011. An earlier audit report by the Inspector General from June 2013 regarding over $23 million in grants awarded between 2009 and 2011 to Big Brothers Big Sisters by the DOJ found that the organization was in material noncompliance with the majority of grant requirements tested. As a result, the Inspector General questioned over $19 million in funding that the charity had received.

 

FASB Approves EITF Proposals on Hedge Accounting, Employee Benefit Plans as Final Amendments to U.S. GAAP

FASB Approves EITF Proposals on Hedge Accounting, Employee Benefit Plans as Final Amendments to U.S. GAAP

The FASB on July 9 approved two proposals from its Emerging Issues Task Force (EITF) and agreed to issue them as final updates to U.S. GAAP.

Under Proposed Accounting Standards Update (ASU) No. EITF-15A, Derivatives and Hedging (Topic 815): Application of the Normal Purchases and Normal Sales Scope Exception to Certain Electricity Contracts Within Nodal Energy Markets—a Consensus of the FASB Emerging Issues Task Force, certain specialized contracts for the physical delivery of electricity qualify for an exception to hedge accounting. Specifically, if the contracts meet the “normal purchases and normal sales” exception to Topic 815, Derivatives and Hedging, they will not be considered derivatives and recognized at fair value.

The exception applies to forward contracts to purchase a stated volume of electricity from a power-generating company at a fixed price for delivery to a hub location within an interconnected electricity grid called a nodal energy market. Nodal markets are run by independent operators with established prices on each node or hub location, according to the FASB's research staff.

The FASB also agreed to a task force amendment to simplify the method for measuring employee benefit plans and scale back some disclosure requirements. The proposal contained a plan to allow the measurement of retirement plan assets and liabilities as of the last day of the month closest to the end of the plan's fiscal year.

Ajit S. Chawla, CPA, CA, CGMA

Partner

Affluent Financial Services LLC, CPA's

http://affluentcpa.com

SEC Small Business Panel to Continue Discussion on Disclosure Reform

SEC Small Business Panel to Continue Discussion on Disclosure Reform

As discussed in the article entitled “Small Business Panel to Continue Discussion on Disclosure Reform” in the June 29, 2015, issue of Accounting & Compliance Alert, the SEC's Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies is scheduled on July 15 to continue its discussion of disclosure effectiveness.
The panel plans to hold a phone meeting to consider the same set of issues from its June 3 meeting. Also part of that discussion: How the SEC should treat “finders,” unregistered intermediaries who connect companies with investors in private placements.
Debate over disclosure effectiveness has increased this year, with proposals both on Capitol Hill and within the SEC seeking to update Regulation S-K, which contains the commission's over-arching disclosure framework, and Regulation S-X, which governs financial statements.
The staff in the Division of Corporation Finance is in the midst of an initiative to “improve the effectiveness of the public company disclosure regime for investors and companies,” Chair Mary Jo White said in remarks prior to that June 3 meeting. The agency's staff is working to bring a set of recommendations to the commission, she said.
House Republicans want significant roll-backs on filing requirements for small public companies. The House Financial Services Committee in May advanced a bundle of bills to reduce the reporting rules for small companies. One of those bills, H.R. 1525, the “Disclosure Modernization and Simplification Act of 2015,” would require the SEC to remove needless or outdated disclosure mandates from Regulation S-K, with a focus on smaller issuers.

Ajit Chawla

Affluent Financial Services LLC, CPA's

http://affluentcpa.com