IBM study - The New Voice of the CIO

IBM has published a study called The New Voice of the CIO. This study explores how chief information officers (CIOs) are successfully growing profits for their businesses and issues they need to address during challenging times. Face-to-face conversations were held with more than 2,400 CIOs from over 75 countries and 15 industries.Key findings include the following:

• CIOs are increasingly recognized as members of the senior executive team actively engaged in setting strategy, enabling flexibility and change, and solving business problems, not just IT problems.
• CIOs spend 55% of their time on activities that spur innovation. These activities include generating buy-in for innovative plans, implementing new technologies and managing non technology business issues. The remaining 45% is spent on essential, more traditional CIO tasks related to managing the ongoing technology environment. This includes reducing IT costs, mitigating enterprise risks and leveraging automation to reduce costs elsewhere in the business.
• CIOs universally acknowledge that some of their most important objectives too often seem to clash: supporting the introduction of new services while avoiding the disruption of existing services; reducing costs while improving services; and balancing the need to influence business strategy with the need to provide top-notch IT support.

Canada - World Economic Forum 2010

Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper is in Zurich, Switzerland attending the World Economic Forum in the ski resort town of Davos. Harper, who is president of the G8 this year, is accompanied by International Trade Minister Peter Van Loan and by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. Harper's stay begins with a roundtable discussion with business leaders from around the world, where he is expected to argue that the world's banks must adhere to Canadian-style banking regulations to avoid another catastrophic economic crash. On Thursday, January 28, 2010, Harper will deliver a keynote address to the World Economic Forum, where he is expected to outline his desire to turn Canada's presidency of the G8 into an opportunity to improve the health of women and children in some of the world's poorest nations. The annual meeting in Davos has become a favorite stop for key players in the global economy and attracts more than 2,500 CEOs, heads of state, celebrities and representatives from leading non-governmental organizations. (For more information, read the National Post article Harper to G8: 'Less promises, more results'.)

Canada - Transition to IFRS and communicating the impact of the changeover

The Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) is providing guidance to help public companies summarize for investors the effects of the changeover to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Most Canadian public companies will commence reporting in accordance with IFRS in 2011. At that time, the changeover will potentially result in numerous changes to an entity’s financial statements. A new publication by the CICA titled Transition to IFRSs – Communicating the Impact of the Changeover focuses on using Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) to explain the effects of the move to international standards. Additional guidance is also available regarding Examples of IFRS transition-related disclosure in Canadian issuer MD&As.

US - FASB adds new XBRL functionality

Current changes to the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) Codification follow the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule effective April 13, 2009, that requires all public companies to begin providing XBRL versions of their SEC filings over a three-year phase-in period. Approximately 500 of the largest public companies, each with a worldwide public float greater than $5 billion, began filing for interim financial statements with periods ending on or after June 15, 2009. The new XBRL functionality provided by the FASB Codification Website will help entities as they prepare or plan to prepare XBRL financial statements using the US Financial Reporting Taxonomy. Users will be able to very easily identify the XBRL elements associated with specific Codification paragraphs. (For more information, visit the FASB Accounting Standards Codification Website.)

US - Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2010–2015

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has released its Draft Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2010–2015, which includes a continued commitment “to promote the establishment of high-quality accounting standards by independent standard setters” and support for “a single set of high-quality global accounting standards.” The draft Strategic Plan is a statement of the SEC’s mission, vision, values, strategic goals, planned initiatives and performance metrics.

US - SEC financial reporting issues facing smaller companies

During 2009 the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) hosted a series of Forums on Auditing in the Small Business Environment. At those Forums, the staff of the Division of Corporation Finance of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reviewed common financial reporting issues identified during their staff reviews of filings for smaller public companies. (View the SEC Staff Review of Common Financial Reporting Issues Facing Smaller Issuers (December 2009) and other SEC information for small businesses.)

IFAC 2009 Global Leadership Survey

The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) Third Annual Global Leadership Survey sought to obtain the views of presidents and chief executive officers of its member bodies and associates, regional organizations, and accountancy groupings on critical matters for the accountancy profession. With over 100 responses, key findings cover a wide-range of topics, including the need to support small and midsize businesses in the current environment, the increasing importance of adoption of international standards, and the issues and risks anticipated to be of most relevance in the next three years for their jurisdictions around the world. (Read the IFAC 2009 Global Leadership Survey.)

US - SEC guidance on non-GAAP financial measures

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) staff has issued Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations (C&DIs) on disclosure of non-GAAP financial measures. Among other things, the new guidance clarifies that the SEC does not discourage registrants from disclosing non-GAAP financial measures in filings with the SEC. For example, one of the new Q&A clarifies that there is no prohibition against disclosing a non-GAAP financial measure that is not used by management in managing its business. (Read the SEC Guidance on Non-GAAP Financial Measures issued on January 15, 2010.)

IT Security Predictions for 2010

Researchers from IBM and Sophos shared their thoughts on what the security threat landscape will look like for enterprises and consumers alike in 2010. Their predictions run the gamut from threats to social networking sites to an increase in attackers targeting hosted services. (Read the online article IT Security Predictions for 2010.)

Spotlight on Companies’ Response to Fraud

Fraud is on the increase as the global financial downturn takes hold. The Ernst & Young European Fraud Survey 2009 reveals that, despite the increasing risk of fraud, many companies appear to see combating fraud as someone else’s responsibility and place heavy reliance on internal and external audit to prevent and detect fraudulent activities.

Helping Business Owners Advance their Estate Planning

This lively, straightforward discussion by the authors of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) Estate Planning Toolkit for Business Owners focuses on the fundamental aspects of estate planning for business owners. Business clients may also access this free program to learn how they can assess where they are and where they’re headed … and how advisory services can help them attain their goals. This Estate Planning Webinar, sponsored by Robert Half Accounting and Finance, attracted over 2500 participants and is now available as an online archived version.

Leveraging sustainability to grow your brand

Leaders at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) explain how CPAs can grow their brand by linking reports on environmentally and socially responsible activities to company strategy and financial performance. (View the video Sustainability: The Role of CPAs in Business & Industry at Journal of Accountancy online.)

US - SEC webcast on XBRL phase II and detailed tagging

Representatives from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will offer tips on how to prepare for the detailed footnote disclosures tagging that is required under the SEC's second phase of the XBRL mandate at a webcast on XBRL - Preparing for Phase II and Detailed Tagging. Join this live video event on Wednesday, January 27 from 2:00pm to 3:30pm, ET and obtain the information needed to comply with the SEC's requirements.

Canada – Is IT ready for IFRS?

Publicly-accountable businesses in Canada now have their sights set on January 1, 2011, as the formal conversion date from Canadian GAAP to international financial reporting standards (IFRS). However, in addition to reporting under IFRS for the 2011 fiscal year, companies with a December year-end need to issue comparative financial statements for the preceding year under IFRS. This means many will need an IFRS-compliant opening balance sheet starting as early as this month -- January 2010. (Read the CAmagazine online article Is IT ready for IFRS?)

XBRL: The story of our new language

XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is a royalty-free, international information format designed specifically for business information, also referred to as “interactive data” by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The concept of XBRL is that all individual disclosure items within business reports are assigned unique electronically readable tags (like a barcode). These tags are mapped to taxonomies that are being developed by market constituents and are publicly available on the XBRL website. Taxonomies are, in essence, dictionaries of financial concepts in which each concept is defined and assigned a relationship to other concepts.

XBRL has been a journey of high and lows that met with great success in 2008. Success is defined as (1) the acceptance of this new tool in the broad-based business and business-reporting community and (2) the use of this tool in areas broader than just financial statement information. Those two fundamental beliefs grounded some early decisions that the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) believes will make XBRL a critical foundation for business and government in the decades to come. (Read the AICPA publication XBRL: The story of our new language.)

Sustainability Reporting and Assurance: The Way of the Future

Doing business ethically and in a responsible manner will not only contribute to the short-term profitability of a business, but will also ensure its long-term survival. The development of corporate governance over recent years has given prominence to the need for businesses to behave in a responsible and ethical manner, and this has resulted in a move from a focus on profits for shareholders only, to the recognition that business has a responsibility to those that give it its licence to operate, namely its stakeholders at large. This has given rise to the concepts of Corporate Citizenship, Sustainability and Triple Bottom Line Reporting. (Read the article Sustainability Reporting and Assurance in the GAA online newsletter.)

CO2 Pact Leaves Businesses Feeling Up in the Air

The agreement achieved at the Copenhagen climate summit leaves business leaders around the world close to where they began, facing uncertainty about how environmental policy will affect their costs and decisions about investments. Companies around the world had hoped the United Nations-sponsored talks would bring clarity on the new rules of the game in a new low-carbon world. They have had to think again. (Read the article CO2 Pact Leaves Businesses Feeling Up in the Air in the Wall Street Journal online.)

Global Accounting Alliance online journal

The Global Accounting Alliance (GAA), formed in November 2005, is an organization of the world's leading professional accountancy institutes. It was created to promote quality services, share information and collaborate on important international issues. As part of this effort, the GAA publishes a bi-monthly online journal to which its member organizations, including the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA), contribute in-depth articles. The December issue of GAA Accounting is now available online.

IASB - Podcast summaries of Board meetings

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has announced a trial of Board meeting audio summaries (podcasts). The podcasts are available to download for free through the IASB website, or if you subscribe to the iTunes store you will receive the podcasts through iTunes. A short (approximately 30 minutes) summary of the main topics and projects discussed during Board week will be recorded by IASB staff shortly after each Board meeting. (For more information, visit the IASB website.)

CICA Chronology of Sustainability Initiatives

The Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) has been addressing environmental accounting and reporting issues for almost 20 years. It was a founding member of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), whose guidelines for reporting on the social, environmental and economic aspects of a company’s operations are used today around the world. The CICA has also been addressing climate change issues for more than 10 years. It recognized early on the business, accounting and tax implications of climate change impacts and greenhouse gas reduction efforts. It was the first accounting body in the world to publish guidance regarding disclosures about climate change. The CICA Chronology of Sustainability Initiatives provides hyperlink access to PDF documents of selected research and guidance publications issued between 1992 and 2009.