Professional Documents
Culture Documents
HODGSON
HOLMES
TARCA
CHAPTER 14
EMERGING ISSUES IN
ACCOUNTING AND
AUDITING
XBRL
XBRL = Extensible business reporting
language
Allows financial information to be
presented in an interactive way that in
turn allows individual items of data to be
extracted by software to produce reports
custom designed by individual users
SEC (2008)
500 of largest US companies
2009 financial reports
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XBRL
XBRL will loosen the control
managers currently have on data
aggregation decisions and place their
performance under greater scrutiny
Reactions by standard
setters
IASB (October, 2008) changed rules so that
losses from changes in market values of
financial assets could be reclassified under
certain circumstances avoiding charging
mark-to-market losses to the income
statement
FASB (2009) introduced a ruling to allow
banks to use their own judgement in
determining the fair value of assets, rather
than using markets
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International auditing
standards
Auditing standards are also being
internationalised
have been redrafted
growing international acceptance
International auditing
standards
Both the auditing and accounting
standards boards must deal with
issues relating to their independence
and governance before both sets of
standards are truly global
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Sustainability
accounting, reporting and
Companies are issuing sustainability
assurance
reports
Sustainability accounting is a subset of
social accounting
Sustainability can be regarded as meeting
the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs
environmental protection
justice between peoples and generations
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Recent developments in
sustainability reporting
Global reporting initiative (2006)
Accounting for carbon emissions
Sustainability reports are increasingly
being either audited or reviewed by
independent auditors
companies with the most to gain from
increasing the credibility of their reports are
more likely to seek assurance
little authoritative guidance
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Trends in sustainability
reporting
Some companies are now seeking
assurance for their sustainability
reports
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Other non-financial
accounting and reporting
Water accounting applies accrual
issues
Summary
One of the major influences on accounting
and auditing practice and research is the
growing internationalisation of accounting
and auditing standards
There have been recent developments in
sustainability reporting and assurance
Water accounting and greenhouse gas
emission accounting are new
developments
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XBRL
Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002
Fair value accounting and the GFC
Auditors and the GFC
Convergence project
Sustainability accounting and assurance
Water accounting
Greenhouse gas emission accounting
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