• Return to previous page.

Text size:

Printable Version

Surviving Complexity Top Accounting Challenge for 2007, Leading Accountants Say

NEWS RELEASE

Contacts:
Mark Carrington
(202) 530-1728

Washington, DC (February 7, 2007) – A tightening web of complexity in the financial reporting process could increasingly ensnare accounting and auditing practitioners in 2007, according to a new report from BNA Tax and Accounting, published in Accounting Policy & Practice Report™.

The Outlook 2007 piece was drawn from comments by leading industry and academic professionals who serve on the advisory board for BNA’s Accounting Policy & Practice Series™. The advisory board members – high level corporate accountants from Corning, Microsoft, and Eli Lilly and Co., as well leading academics and advisors – named complexity as a key topic when asked to name top issues for 2007.

“The rules have become so complex and twisted in some areas that compliance to the literal level regulators expect is not a reasonable expectation,” according to Tim Lucas, of Lucas Financial Reporting, Wilton, Conn.

The way out of the trap is unclear, observed Jane Poulin, chief accounting officer with Corning Incorporated, Corning, N.Y.  “Do we try to reduce complexity in the accounting standards . . .?  Do we try to live with the complexity and skill up?’’

Individual advisory board members also identified irrelevant financial reporting, convergence with international accounting standards, the push into fair value reporting for financial instruments, and the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s codification project as key issues for the coming year. 

Other topics addressed in the article include the increase in financial restatements in recent years, the interplay between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, and a review of how the PCAOB has done in overseeing audit firms.

The article offers a useful overview of key accounting issues facing corporate financial statement preparers as well as the accounting standard-setters themselves.

The Accounting Policy & Practice Series, from BNA Tax and Accounting, includes:

• Detailed analysis and explanation of accounting, audit, and financial reporting obligations in an ever-expanding series of Portfolios. Respected portfolio authors offer plain-English discussions, sample journal entries, illustrative forms and sample plans, and real-life examples. Newly released in January: “Contingent Environmental Liabilities: Disclosures and Accounting.”
• The biweekly Accounting Policy & Practice Report, which tracks news and developments from FASB, AICPA, SEC, PCAOB, IASB and more, and offers expert perspectives from respected accounting authorities.
• Special Reports on selected accounting and reporting topics offer in-depth analysis on hot issues. Recent special reports have tackled FASB’s FIN 48, and FAS 158.

Who are the Advisory Board Members?

Advisory Board Chairman: Peter Knutson, associate professor emeritus, University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, now residing in Edmunds, Wash.

Charles Bowsher, former Comptroller General of the United States, Bethesda, Md.

David Cairns, visiting professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, London

Jack Ciesielski, publisher of The Analyst's Accounting Observer, Baltimore, Md.

Eugene Imhoff, Ernst & Young professor of accounting, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Arnold Hanish, chief accounting officer, Eli Lilly and Co., Indianapolis

Henry Jaenicke, C.D. Clarkson emeritus professor of accounting, Drexel University, now residing in Dallas

Bob Laux, technical accounting and reporting director, Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash.

Timothy Lucas, consultant, Lucas Financial Reporting, Wilton, Conn.

April Mackenzie, executive director of global standards, Grant Thornton International in New York, N.Y.

Robert Mednick, retired managing partner of Andersen Worldwide, former chairman of AICPA, now residing in Chicago

John M. Morrissey, operating controller General Electric Co., Fairfield, Conn.

Jane Poulin, chief accounting officer, Corning Incorporated, Corning, N.Y.

Katherine Schipper, Thomas F. Keller Professor of Business Administration, Duke University

For more information about the Accounting Policy & Practice Series, call 800-372-1033.

# # #

About BNA®
BNA is the foremost publisher of print and electronic news, analysis, and reference products, including the recently launched Accounting Policy & Practice Series.  It provides intensive coverage of legal and regulatory developments for professionals in business and government. BNA is the oldest wholly employee-owned company in the United States, and produces more than 200 news and information services — including Daily Labor Report and Daily Tax Report — widely respected for comprehensive and objective reporting and analysis.