What accounting issues does the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 address?
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The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was passed in response to a number of major corporate and accounting scandals involving prominent companies in the United States. These scandals resulted in a decline of public trust in accounting and reporting practices. \n\nThe Sarbanes-Oxley Act's major provisions include:\n\n- Certification of financial reports by chief executive officers and chief financial officers \n-  Ban on personal loans to any Executive Officer and Director \n-  Accelerated reporting of trades by insiders \n-  Prohibition on insider trades during pension fund blackout periods \n-  Public reporting of CEO and CFO compensation and profits \n-  Additional disclosure \n-  Auditor independence, including outright bans on certain types of work and pre-certification by the company's Audit Committee of all other non-audit work \n-  Criminal and civil penalties for violations of securities law \n-  Significantly longer jail sentences and larger fines for corporate executives who knowingly and willfully misstate financial statements. \n-  Prohibition on audit firms providing extra "value-added" services to their clients including actuarial services, legal and extra services (such as consulting) unrelated to their audit work. \n-  A requirement that publicly traded companies furnish independent annual audit reports on the existence and condition (i.e., reliability) of internal controls as they relate to financial reporting.
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The term "generally accepted accounting principles" has a specific meaning for accountants and auditors. The AICPA Code of Professional Conduct prohibits members from expressing an opinion or stating affirmatively that financial statements or other financial data "present fairly... in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles," if such information contains any departures from accounting principles promulgated by a body designated by the AICPA Council to establish such principles.  \n\nGENERALLY ACCEPTED ACCOUNTING PRINCIPLES (GAAP) - Term used to describe broadly the body of principles that governs the accounting for financial transactions underlying the preparation of a set of financial statements. Generally accepted principles are derived from a variety of sources, including promulgations of the Financial Accounting Standards Board and its predecessor, the Accounting Principles Board, and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Other sources include the general body of accounting literature consisting of textbooks, articles, papers, etc. \n\n\n\nFor more information on GAAP or Generally Accepted Accounting Principles visit the FASAB web page listed under the Source.  \n\nWarning - You need approximately 2000 pages to list Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.  They can differ from industry to industry.  For an example of what you need to know if you want to know GAAP, here is a current study guide: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471726850.html
1102138
They passed the Sarbanes - Oxley Act of 2002. (Also called SOX) It requires a lot more paperwork & indepthness. It's purpose is to protect shareholders and increased accuracy on financial statements. The problem that still remains is "crooked" accountants that help these corporations cover up thier illegal activities.
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1)  Not everything that should be accrued was accrued.\n\n2)  The estimates/formulas used to determine the accrual numbers end up being inaccurate.
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Remember fraud and thievery have been around for a long time. No law can prevent these from happening. All it can do is to catch the thieves and punish them. If you look at Enron, Worldcom etc., the law worked. May be we should look at instilling a sense of honesty and integrity in present and future leaders of business.\n\nSarbox is fine. Those who cry "overregulation" want to dilute it.\n\ncc
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I don't know the full scope of Sarbanes-Oxley and what it is accomplishing in the grand sceme of things.  I will tell you that it is creating TONS of extra work for organizations and implementing it is really bogging down companies...making them drown in implementing process and controls.  What this is attempting to do isn't a bad thing...it's just really impacting the productivity of American companies in a negative way.
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No it got passed about a year and a half ago.  Most companies did their first financial reports under is this past year.
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Broadly, accounting is defined as the systematic recording, reporting, and analysis of financial transactions of a business. \n\nThere are different types of accounting, namely: Financial Accounting, Tax Accounting, Cost Accounting and Managerial Accounting.\n\nFINANCIAL ACCOUNTING is defined as “measuring and recording business transactions and providing financial statements that are based on generally accepted accounting principles. It focuses on external reporting. \n\nFinancial statements (financial data) tell us (1) the financial position of an entity at a certain date and (2) the results of its operations (profit/loss) and the changes in its financial position and variations in stockholder's equity (investment) in a period of time. (Historical information/past events).\n\nFinancial accounting aims at satisfying the interest of the "general user" which may include: shareholders, government agencies, creditors, and the general public.\n\nMANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING. Measures and reports financial and non-financial information that helps MANAGERS make decisions to fulfill the goals of an organization. It focuses on internal reporting. \n\nCOST ACCOUNTING is an information system that classifies, accumulates, controls and assigns costs to determine costs of activities, processess or products, facilitating decision making and managerial planning and control.\n\nCost accounting plays a role in both managerial and financial accounting. Some authors describe Cost Accounting as a unifying point between Managerial and Financial Accounting.\n\nTAX ACCOUNTING is used to communicate information to the appropriate taxing authorities. Generally, the Internal Revenue Service and state tax or revenue boards. It includes the procedures for determining taxes payable and compliance with other provisions of tax laws.\n\nHope this helps...
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I believe the short answer to your question is "not at all."  \n\nThe longer answer is that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is directed toward public accounting in the United States and publicly traded companies in the United States.  The general idea behind the act is to encourage regained trust in the credibility of US financial reporting.  As such, unless a foreign company is listed on a US exchange (and therefore under the jurisdiction of the SEC), this should have no impact on the firm.\n\nIf this is more than just idle curiosity, however, check with your attorney and/or CPA.
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It is basically all the accounting that goes into the figures for financial accounting, or the numbers that are reported on an annual report. This includes keeping track of cost of goods sold and all intracompany purchases and sales, that would normally not show up on a financial report, but is necessary to show departmental progress for the executives.
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http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/jul1999/financial_accounting.htm
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Accounting mistakes can be very costly for a business or firm, potentially leading to legal troubles or financial loss. Accountants are paid to not make mistakes.
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I was an accounting major.  I used the website assocatied with my text book.  Look in the front or back and see if there is a website.  what type of accounting problem is it, I might be able to help, although its been a few years.  IN the real world of accounting, you don't use alot of what we had to learn in school, so some of the things I had to learn the company does not use, so I may have forgotten it, but I still have my text books.
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There are many challenges in establishing good corporate governance in developing, emerging and transitional economies.  Here are a couple of my thoughts:\n\nCorporate governance typically means good internal controls and procedures that adhere to certain GAAP standards.  Unfortunately, in many developing companies the local practices do not conform to those standards in terms of paperwork, recordkeeping, etc., so its difficult to educate not only your employees but your suppliers and vendors on the need to do certain things.\n\nCorporate governance (and US law for that matter that governs US multinational corps) forbids bribes and other activities, which is laudable, but in many developing countries payments to officials or at least gift giving is a very intrinsic part of the local culture.
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from the horses mouth!\nguidelines\nhttp://www.irs.gov/publications/p561/ar02.html\n\nvalues\nhttp://tinyurl.com/28nan
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The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or SOX, is an attempt to implement accounting oversight and protect against Enron-type scandals.  It appears that many small companies affected by this law are finding it very expensive to comply.  This may make it difficult for any such company to carry on business, whether it be software testing or anything else.
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Here are the top 10 most important technology issues for 2006, along with their definitions. New items for this year are noted as such. \n \n1. Information Security: The hardware, software, processes, and procedures in place to protect information systems from internal and external threats.  It includes routers, perimeter firewalls, IP strategy, intrusion detection and reporting, content filtering, anti-virus, anti-spyware, password management, vulnerability assessment, patch management, personal firewalls, wireless security strategies, data encryption, locked facilities and user education.\n \n2. Assurance and Compliance Applications (e.g., SOX 404, ERM): Collaboration and compliance tools that enable various stakeholders to monitor, document, assess, test and report on compliance with specified controls. \n \n3. Disaster and Business Continuity Planning: The development, monitoring, and updating of the process by which organizations plan for continuity of their business in the event of a loss of business information resources due to impairments such as theft, virus infestation, weather damage, accidents, or other malicious destruction. This also includes business continuation and contingency planning.\n \n4. IT Governance: IT governance is a structure of relationships and processes to direct and control the enterprise in order to achieve the enterprise's goals by adding value, while still balancing risk versus return over IT and its processes. \n \n5. Privacy Management: Privacy encompasses the rights and obligations of individuals and organizations with respect to the collection, use, disclosure, and retention of personal information. As more information and processes are being converted to a digital format, this information must be protected from unauthorized users and from unauthorized usage by those with access to the data. This includes complying with local, state, national and international laws. \n\n6. Digital Identity and Authentication Technologies: A way to ensure users are who they say they are—that the user who attempts to perform functions in a system is in fact the user who is authorized to do so. This includes hardware and software solutions that enable the electronic verification of a user’s identity or a message’s validity, for example, digital certificates. This technology includes the use of bar codes, magnetic stripe, biometrics, tokens and access control for authentication, non-repudiation, and authorization.\n \n7. Wireless Technologies: Connectivity and transfer of data between devices via the airwaves, i.e. without physical connectivity. Wireless technologies include Bluetooth (PAN), infrared, WiFi (802.11 WLAN), Wi-Max (802.16), 2.5G & 3G (WWAN) and, satellite.\n \n8. Application and Data Integration: Using current and emerging technologies, including .NET, web-services, Java, XML (the foundation for XBRL)  and Ajax, to facilitate integration of data between heterogeneous applications. In its most basic format, XBRL focuses on the agreement to improve gathering, analyzing and sharing business reporting data. For example updating a field in one application and have it automatically synchronize with other applications. This allows organizations to select and seamlessly integrate “best of breed” applications.\n \n9. Paperless Digital Technologies: Document and content management includes the process of capturing, indexing, storing, retrieving, searching, and managing documents electronically including database management (PDF and other formats). Knowledge management then brings structure and control to this information, allowing organizations to harness the intellectual capital contained in the underlying data.\n \n10. Spyware Detection and Removal: Technology that detects and removes programs attempting to covertly gather and transmit confidential user information without his or her knowledge or permission. Spyware applications are typically bundled as a hidden component of freeware or sh