We recently spoke with Baruch Lev, the Philip Bardes Professor of Accounting and Finance at New York University Stern School of Business. In “The End of Accounting and the Path Forward for Investors and Managers,” Prof. Lev and Feng Gu, associate professor at the University of Buffalo, propose a new system to improve transparency of corporate accounting. This system aims to make public accounting disclosures more useful to investors. They encourage investor relations professionals to begin discussions with management to increase the usefulness and relevance of company disclosures for investors.
Disclosure, Investor Relations, Public Accounting, accounting regulations, IR Recommendations
In this two-part conversation, public accounting experts from the CPA firm Wolf & Company provide insights on current trends in public company compliance. In our second conversation, we discuss accounting standards changes and other audit committee related topics with Jim Kenney, Scott Goodwin and Dan Morrill from Wolf.
The Podium: Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us. In today’s discussion, we wanted to address the major trends you see coming to public company accounting in the near term. Let’s start with revenue recognition. A brand-new standard has been issued for public companies. What does it entail, and when will it be coming?
Scott: That’s right. The new standard, which goes into effect in 2018, accomplishes several objectives. It removes inconsistencies and weaknesses in existing revenue recognition guidance and provides a more robust framework for addressing revenue issues. It also provides, for the first time, a single revenue recognition standard that will be applicable across entities, industries, jurisdictions and capital markets, and provides more useful information to users of financial statements through improved disclosure requirements. One good thing is the rules are now all in one place.
SEC, Investor Relations, Public Accounting, GAAP, revenue recognition, regulation, fraud, fraud inquiries, lease standards, sale-leaseback, accounting regulations
