The Groupon-Facebook dichotomy, in which one accounting firm was responsible for two dramatically different approaches to GAAP, demonstrates the need for actual people at accounting firms taking personal as well as corporate responsibility for the financial statements that they audit.
"The Bush Administration has been unable, or unwilling, to do more for Lithuania than issue mildly sympathetic statements, an audit trail for the record calculated neither to perturb the Soviets nor materially assist the captive nation Moscow wishes to continue to dominate, " said Frank J.
And big accounting firms will refuse to audit financial statements if the company or creditors fail to provide data.
These measures include procedures for delivery of periodic statements of account, annual audit information, and information relating to the management of the mineral estate to the tribe.
Under Auditing Standard 5, passed in mid-2007, the audit of internal control over financial reporting is now integrated with the audit of the financial statements.
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The independent external auditor is a licensed professional who works for a public accounting firm and performs an audit of the financial statements of a company, government, individual, or any other legal entity or organization.
During the last four years, Deloitte has issued non-qualified audit opinions on the financial statements, in spite of ongoing material weaknesses in internal controls over their financial reporting.
Several audit firm professionals tried to convince the SEC and PCAOB staff that they were mistaken in the belief that broker-dealer auditors could not sign the broker-dealer audit opinion as well as help implement accounting software, prepare period-end journal entries and compile those same financial statements and regulatory reports that they would audit.
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Section 17(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (as amended by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002) requires every registered broker or dealer to annually file certain financial statements with the SEC that are certified by an audit firm that is also registered with the PCAOB.
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Those companies would have otherwise experienced the ignominy of admitting that a non-independent audit firm had attested to prior-filed financial statements.
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Most of the other global accounting firms have also separated their consulting arms from their audit divisions in an attempt to restore confidence in audited financial statements.
Rather, it means that the inspection staff has determined that, because of an identified error or omission, the firm failed to fulfill its fundamental responsibility in the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement.
The resulting lack of audit work can result in an auditor disclaiming an opinion on the financial statements.
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Audit Integrity looks beyond the raw data that companies report in their income statements and balance sheets to more than 100 factors that help it assess the true quality of accounting and management practices.
Because of the significance of the information that we did not audit, we are unable to, and do not, express an opinion on the accompanying financial statements and schedule taken as a whole.
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The bank simply certifies the accuracy and the completeness of the information submitted to the auditor and the auditor includes it in his financial report with the following gargantuan caveat: Because of the significance of the information that we did not audit, we are unable to, and do not, express an opinion on the accompanying financial statements and schedule taken as a whole (emphasis added).
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