Accounting Profession

DO MILLENNIALS AND GEN Z CARE ABOUT THE ETHICS OF POTENTIAL ACCOUNTING EMPLOYERS?

Accounting Profession, Business Fraud, Ethical Culture, Ethical Leadership, Moral Values, Workplace behavior / 2 Comments /

ACCOUNTING FIRMS’ ETHICS SHOULD BE CAREFULLY SCRUTINIZED Having taught both millennials and Gen Z, I’ve always wondered the extent to which values and ethics are considered in the job search decision. Even if they want to consider it in their decision-making process, the question is how to do so. Candidates for positions can’t ask straight […]

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Honesty and Ethics of Professions 

Accounting Profession, Moral Values / Leave a Comment /

Who Do You Trust…Or Mistrust? According to a Gallup poll during December 2-18, 2024, three in four Americans consider nurses highly honest and ethical, making them the most trusted of 23 professions rated in Gallup’s annual measurement. Grade-school teachers rank second, with 61% viewing them highly, while military officers, pharmacists and medical doctors also earn high trust

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Changes in Ownership Structure for CPA Firms Raises Conflict of Interest Questions

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Is it Time to Break Up Professional Services Firms, aka CPA Firms? I can remember years ago when I was studying accounting that the form of ownership of CPA firms was a partnership with all partners being licensed CPAs. Over the years, the forms of ownership have broadened, in part to limit the liability of

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Undetected Material Weaknesses in Financial Reporting Controls: Who is to Blame?

Accountability, Accounting Profession, Workplace behavior / Leave a Comment /

Is it a Personnel Issue? Recently, a reporter from the Wall Street Journal, Mark Maurer, asked to interview me about the question: “Are companies picking a new finance chief after detecting a material weakness in their financial reporting controls, at least in part due to a shortage of skilled accounting staff?” The idea is that the two

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Does ESG Reporting Matter?

Accountability, Accounting Profession, ESG, Sustainability /

Measuring Sustainability Performance I have previously blogged about the link between ESG reporting and sustainability. In this blog, I will briefly address the question of whether gathering and reporting ESG data really matters. ESG reporting provides a specific framework for evaluating and measuring a company’s sustainability performance. It assesses a company’s ESG-related risks and opportunities by providing

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The Story of FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried

Accounting Profession, Business Ethics, Business Fraud, Whistleblowing, Workplace behavior / Leave a Comment /

An Example of Hubris, Incompetence, and Greed I always tell my students that the best way to learn about ethics, or the lack thereof, is through a case study. What follows is a mini-case study of the FTX fraud. Last week Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty of misappropriating and embezzling billions of dollars of his

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Does Private Equity Ownership of CPA Firms Violate Audit Independence

Accounting Profession / Leave a Comment /

Independence Standards at Risk Perhaps you are aware that private equity firms have started to acquire a controlling interest in accounting firms, which these days are better referred to as “professional services” firms. The first such acquisition was in August 2022, when Tower Capital Partners purchased the stock of Eisner Amper LLP, a majority-owned CPA

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Audit Firm Professionals Have Cheated on Ethics and Internal Training Exams

Accounting Profession /

How can it be that three of the big four CPA firms were caught cheating on external and internal ethics and continuing professional education (CPE) courses, given that their role as auditors is to protect the public interest and the capital markets that rely on audited financial statements? My blog today explains what happened and

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Do “Modernized” Independence Rule Changes Protect Investor Interests?

Accounting Profession, Workplace behavior /

Objectivity and Impartiality Replace the Strict Application of Independence Rules In June 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) made amendments effective for certain rules regarding auditor independence requirements (known as Rule 2-01 of Regulation S-X). The intention behind these amendments is to modernize the SEC’s rules governing auditor independence and more effectively focus the

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Is the PCAOB Protecting the Public Interest?

Accountability, Accounting Profession, Workplace behavior /

Examining the POGO Report and Other Matters It’s been twenty years since the Public Company Oversight Board (PCAOB) was created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). This is a good time to evaluate the mandate given to the board, its work during that period, and whether it protects the public interest. One way to

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