Gaap Essay

According to section 140.2: A professional accountant should maintain confidentiality even in a social environment. The professional accountant should be alert to the possibility of inadvertent disclosure, particularly in circumstances involving long association with a business associate or a close or immediate family member [ (Chan, 2004) ].

Accountants should always carry out the public responsibility, meaning they have a responsibility to ensure that the accounting functions are performed to the highest possible standards and the information which an organisation provides for its stakeholders is true and accurate. To reach the goal of improving the performance of accountants, there might be several steps to undertake. There should be on-going education to keep abreast with the existing and emerging

The generally accepted accounting principal (GAAP) and international financial reporting standard (IFRS) are standards governing how economic events are reported. In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relies on the FASB, the accounting standard-setting body of the US, to develop accounting standards that public companies must follow when publishing financial statements. On the other hand, many countries outside of the Unite States have adopted the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) which

Professional behavior: A professional accountant should comply with relevant laws and regulations and should avoid any action that discredits the profession.

As professionals there is a level of confidentiality that is expected to be maintained. There are different Rules that govern how accountants and tax professionals preserve client confidential information (Desai & Roberts, 2013). Additionally information is not authorized to be disclosed without the client permitting such.

The Institute of Charted Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW) issued a technical bulletin Audit 01/03 recommending that audit reports now should have disclosure limiting liability (The Institute of Chartered Accounants In England and Wales, 2003). On the opposite side of the argument the question was raised as to whether the added disclaimers undermine the accounting profession and raise more unanswered question than they leave answered. The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) issued a technical factsheet regarding this disclosure stating the “their incorporation as a standard feature of the audit report could have the effect of devaluing that report” (Technical Factsheet 84 - The Use of Disclaimers in Audit Reports, 2004). Meanwhile, academic circles seemed to follow the factsheet from ACCA, Dr Hooper agued that the “disclaimers undermine the concept of public interest and are more like a screen to legitimate the profession (Hooper & Xu,

Each element of the ethical decision making model is interdependent. If an accountant is lacking in ability, i.e. professional competency and appears inept, a client would be well within their rights to withhold some level or all trust in its entirety. When considering the ability of an accountant, a good example of this is preparing annual reports for submission to the Securities Exchange Commission. Without the proper level of ability, the results could be erroneous. Incorrect financial statements damage the reputation of the accounting profession and weaken public confidence and trust. Ability is further developed by continuing education classes and staying current in evolving topics. (Tolleson & Guess, 2013)

Moreover, there is no denying the fact that when it matter to the concepts of professionalism as it relates to public accounting discipline there is some factor that have rather gone for a dramatic change all around, especially the involvement of independent governmental agency to review the audit process. And interestingly, auditing also have gone a notch above, given that laws in that regards are also passed with necessary reforms in order to propagate an image of the professional concepts as it relates to accounting discipline.

The Morley (2012) website states that generally accepted accounting principles are standards that determine how accountants in the U.S. “Conduct and format their reports are determined by the FASB, U.S. Accounting records must be seen by a number of people outside of the organization for transparency purposes” (Morley, 2012). The Morley (2012) website states that if each company created its own accounting reporting methods, comparing financial statements would be inefficient and hiding information would be easier. According to the FASB, entities such as the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants recognize FASB's authority to set standards. This law ensures that no money is pocketed without being taxed and that all revenues are reported. As far as general financial ethical standards, “financial professionals have obligations to be competent, accountants and financial professionals must not only have secured education and practice that prepares them for their positions, but they must also continue that education by learning new information that can affect their practices” (Morley, 2012). According to “Associations For Financial Professionals” (2012), “financial professionals have an obligation to their

This working paper was originally published as Gaffikin, M, Regulation: Standardising Accounting Practice, Accounting & Finance

Ethics in any industry is important, but for Accounting professionals and those in need of their services, it is a particularly stressed element. Information provided by accountants is used to make major decisions, including investing, downsizing, expanding, etc, so accountants are expected to be competent, reliable, and have a high degree of professional integrity. Because of these high expectations, the professional accountancy industry, like many other professions, has adopted professional codes of ethics (Woelfel, 1986). These ethical codes go above and beyond the requirements for state or federal laws and regulations. There are several professional organizations within the

Literature Review. The authors use a systematic review of literature in the research. The researchers examine studies of Frankel (1989), Backof and Martin (1991), and Beets (1991) to review the history of the progression of ethics in accounting industry. The accounting as other professions has its own ethics framework. The history of accounting profession demonstrates that competence, integrity, and independence always were essential to have a

In collaboration with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy, the AICPA published the first bill that would standardize the public accounting practice. This was legislated in the Uniform Accountancy Act. Moreover, the Restructuring Professional Standards to Achieve Professional Excellence in a Changing Environment was issued by the Anderson Committee as a reply to concerns regarding the profession’s competence to serve the public interest and maintain their trust.

SAICA, SAIPA, CIMA and the IRBA are just a few of the professional bodies, or institutions, found in South Africa with the purpose of developing and maintaining the professional standard of Chartered Accountancy perceived within this nation. The real question is though, how do they do it? Especially in such a way that sees South Africa renowned for the top seat in Chartered Accountancy standards. To understand how this feat is achieved it is important to first know what a profession is: A profession is an occupation organized in an institutional form, its members offer client services based on an intellectual body of knowledge and a specialised repertoire of skills, that are not ordinarily possessed by the non-professional, in order to explicitly serve public interest. (Lee. 1995, 49) These members are, in addition, required to practice and behave in an ethically and functionally sound way as set out by the

In Ireland, the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority (IAASA) was set up conformity to the provisions of Part 2 of the Companies (Auditing and Accounting) Act, 2003 (the Act). IAASA’s objectives under section 8 of the Act include the supervision of how the recognized accountancy organizations control and monitor their members and the promotion compliance to high professional standards in the auditing and accountancy profession