Reaching Key Financial Reporting Decisions: How Directors and Auditors Interact - Hardcover

Fearnley, Stella; Beattie, Vivien; Hines, Tony

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0470748745 ISBN 13: 9780470748749

Verlag: Wiley, 2011

Inhaltsangabe

The regulatory framework for financial reporting, auditing and governance has changed radically in recent years, as a result of problems identified from the Enron scandal and more recently from the drive to implement global standards. In a key regulatory change, a company audit committee is now expected to play a significant role in agreeing the contents of the financial statements and overseeing the activities of the auditors. Finance Directors, Audit Committee Chairs and Audit Engagement Partners are required to discuss and negotiate financial reporting and auditing issues, a significant process leading to the agreement of the published numbers and disclosures, and to the issuing of the auditor's report which accompanies them, but which is entirely unobservable by third parties.

Reaching Key Financial Reporting Decisions: How Directors and Auditors Interact is a fascinating, behind-the-scenes examination of this closed process. The authors draw on the results of face to face interviews, and an extensive survey of finance directors, audit committee chairs and audit partners, and present nine company case studies highlighting the process of discussion and negotiation and the methods by which the agreed financial reporting outcome was reached. Detailed analysis of the case studies:

• Allows those involved in the process to benchmark their behaviours against those of others
• Enables a comparison between the previous and current regulatory environments to see what has changed, and sheds light on the sorts of behaviours the current regulatory framework encourages
• Evaluates the effectiveness of the changed regulatory regime, providing evidence relevant to current policy debates concerning the value of audit, IFRS and the relative merit of rules-based versus principles-based accounting standards in relation to professional judgement and compliance

The unprecedented access and unique insights offered by this book make it invaluable for audit firm staff and partners, audit committee chairs and company directors involved in agreeing the published financial statements, as well as those who have an interest in the financial statements, but do not have access to the negotiation process.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Vivien Beattie is Professor of Accounting and Director of Research at the Business School, University of Glasgow. She is a member of the Accounting Standards Board's Academic Panel, a member of the Accounting Standards Committee at The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and was a panel member for Accounting and Finance in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise conducted in the UK. She has published over 100 academic journal articles, research reports, books and professional articles. Her co-authored research book Behind Closed Doors: What Company Audit is Really About was awarded the prestigious Deloitte/American Accounting Association Wildman Medal in 2007.

Stella Fearnley BA FCA is Professor in Accounting at the University of Bournemouth Business School. Stella spent 16 years with Price Waterhouse and Grant Thornton before becoming an academic. Her research interests cover audit and financial reporting and she has received over £700,000 funding. She has published over 100 articles in professional and academic journals and national newspapers and is co-author with Vivien Beattie of Behind Closed Doors. Stella was a member of the UK Financial Reporting Council's Professional Oversight Board from 2004 to 2009 and was an elected member of the ICAEW Council from 1992 to 2004.

Tony Hines MSc FCA is Head of the Department of Accounting and Finance at Portsmouth Business School. He trained with Coopers and Lybrand and became an academic shortly after qualifying as a chartered accountant. Tony's main research interests are the Financial Reporting Review Panel and the regulation of financial reporting and audit and he has published widely on these issues.

Reaching Key Financial Reporting Decisions: How Directors and Auditors Interact is a fascinating, behind-the-scenes examination of this closed process. The authors draw on the results of face to face interviews, and an extensive survey of finance directors, audit committee chairs and audit partners, and present nine company case studies highlighting the process of discussion and negotiation and the methods by which the agreed financial reporting outcome was reached. Detailed analysis of the case studies:

• Allows those involved in the process to benchmark their behaviours against those of others
• Enables a comparison between the previous and current regulatory environments to see what has changed, and sheds light on the sorts of behaviours the current regulatory framework encourages
• Evaluates the effectiveness of the changed regulatory regime, providing evidence relevant to current policy debates concerning the value of audit, IFRS and the relative merit of rules-based versus principles-based accounting standards in relation to professional judgement and compliance

The unprecedented access and unique insights offered by this book make it invaluable for audit firm staff and partners, audit committee chairs and company directors involved in agreeing the published financial statements, as well as those who have an interest in the financial statements, but do not have access to the negotiation process.

Aus dem Klappentext

"Public discussion of corporate reporting and auditing is frustrated by the fact that directors and auditors debate issues and take decisions in private. The need to respect confidentiality means that policy makers and the public find insiders' accounts of what happens bland and unconvincing. The resulting lack of public information is particularly dangerous at the present time when the financial crisis is prompting questions about whether new regulation is called for. Through this book, Beattie, Fearnley and Hines provide a way forward by presenting case studies that tell the reporting and auditing stories of 9 companies based on interviews with their finance directors, audit committee chairs and lead auditors. This research should be required reading for anybody who has ever wondered whether to trust what companies report. And even those who are directly involved in reporting decisions will find insights that challenge them to raise their game."
Robert Hodgkinson, ICAEW Executive Director, Technical

"For auditors, financial directors, regulators, standard setters, audit committee members and the whole gamut of stakeholders on whose behalf they act, there is much of interest in this revealing, behind the scenes view of the corporate financial reporting process. The great claim of hindsight is that things could have turned out differently if the situation in hand had been better understood. While largely leaving such reflective questions to the intrigue and imagination of the reader, Beattie et al's study is a real stimulant for debate and critical reflection - especially in terms of the changing orientation of, and respect for, professional accounting and auditing judgement processes, and the impact and achievements of global standard setting and regulatory regimes. Future practice development and regulatory policy action in the corporate financial reporting arena will certainly not be able to be excused on the grounds that we didn't fully appreciate our initial starting point."
Professor Christopher Humphrey, Manchester Business School

"This book shines a strong light onto what really happens in the interactions between CFOs, audit committee chairs and audit engagement partners. It blows apart the myth that these interactions are cosy and provides first rate evidence which should be essential reading for policy makers, standard setters, academics, commentators and those involved with financial audits. It also gives clear insights into the success of the audit committee model and of the positive impacts being achieved by regulators in the UK. Stella Fearnley, Vivien Beattie and Tony Hines have delivered much to consider in terms of the nature of the standards that are actually required. They also highlight the need to focus more in the period ahead on the timeliness and quality of communications rather than yet more box-ticking and hobby horses related to audit that aren't actually supported by the evidence."
Martyn E Jones, National Audit Technical Partner, Deloitte LLP (United Kingdom), Member of the DTTL global Audit Technical Advisory Board

"Beattie, Fearnley and Hines' new book is a rich, revealing, and rewarding field study of negotiations among the chief financial officers, audit committee chairs, and audit engagement partners of British public companies. Firmly anchored in a careful theoretical framework, their examination and analysis of nine cases documents the consequences of the past decade's changes in governance, auditing and financial reporting regimes. Deep involvement of chairs of audit committees seems to have fulfilled the hoped-for gains of governance reforms. The push towards international financial reporting standards which ignores the national differences in audit and corporate environments has been less successful. This is a superb, well-written addition to their earlier prize-winning work on the subject. No legislator, regulator, CFO, audit committee, auditor or academic interested in auditing and financial reporting should miss reading the book."
Shyam Sunder, James L. Frank Professor of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Yale School of Management

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Wiley
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2011
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0470748745
• ISBN 13: 9780470748749
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 384
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: preigu; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; 49078; Deutschland