accounting standards board paper Essays - Financial Regulation

Accounting Standards Boards Paper In 2001, the company Enron made financial history. This energy company was warehoused in Houston, TX. Due to poor financial reporting, and theft, this company became known for its bankruptcy. Thousands of employees lost their jobs and billions of dollars were lost. This act was done by strategically planned accounting fraud. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was also created as an outcome. However, accounting issues have gone back way before this incident. History of IASB and FASB Accounting dates as far back as thousands of years. Although they were not trained by any standard, there was someone who was responsible for calculating the finances of businesses. Books were written on the subject as early as the 1400s. ?In 1494, an Italian monk, Fra Luca Pacioli, wrote a book on arithmetic called Summa de Arithmetca Geometria Proportioni et Proportionalita (Schroeder et al., p. 3, 2005). People have always been curious on how much money they were making and how it was spent. For hundreds of years, a variety of groups, committees, and boards were formed to create some sort of system. Eventually, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) was founded in 1973. Its principal purpose is to create generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) with the public?s interest in mind. The FASB was to have members from various accounting groups instead of just one. There was one representative from the eight groups that were already formed and had special knowledge and interest in accounting (Schroeder et al., p. 10, 2005). The institution that presides over the FASB is the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF). The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) was originally called the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) and formed in 1973 also. This organization was similar to the FASB, but was to generate principles worldwide. Originally, it consisted of nine countries. In 2001 the IASB formed and kept all the original pronouncements from the IASC. Currently, the IASB consists of 15 members with various areas of expertise. IASB Equivalents for FASB In 2002, the Norwalk Agreement was issued. The Norwalk Agreement is a memo of understanding that was signed between the IASB and FASB in Norwalk, Connecticut. The general idea of this memo is that both of these groups have the same plans of developing first-rate standards. They are trying to make their current standards compatible with each other as well as collaborate a plan for the future to remain compatible. A few topics on the agenda are: business combinations, consolidations, performance reporting, and revenue recognition. According to Schroeder, et al., 2005 (p. 89), both boards agree to: 1.Undertake a short-term project aimed at removing a variety of differences between U.S. GAAP and IRFSs. 2.Remove any other differences between IFRSs and U.S. GAAP that remained on January 1, 2005, by undertaking projects that both boards would address concurrently. 3.Continue the progress on the joint projects currently underway. 4.Encourage their respective interpretative bodies to coordinate their activities. The goal of this project is to achieve compatibility by identifying common high-quality solutions. The SEC is supportive of this idea and thinks it would be beneficial to have one set of GAAPs globally to all stakeholders. The timeline was modified as recent as February. The new plan is designed to allow more time for all parties to extensively review suggestions brought forward. The goal on the decision to use IFRS in the financial reporting system for U.S. issuers is 2011 (www.sec.gov, 2010). MSA Program The Master?s of Science in Accounting (MSA) program is defined by the University of Phoenix (UOP) as ?The Master of Science in Accountancy program helps students master the theory and principles that frame a wide range of problems and issues encountered in the accounting profession. Coursework includes accounting theory and research, accounting information systems, managerial accounting, financial reporting, auditing, taxation, not-for-profit and government accounting, forensic accounting, and accounting ethics? (http://www.phoenix.edu/programs/degree-programs/business-and-management/masters/msa/v001.html). Majority of students in this program is preparing for the CPA exam. Each state has their own specific requirements. For this reason, ?we included exam preparation software that you will use throughout your courses and when you are finished with your degree and preparing for the CPA exam? (Lindquist, 2010). Accounting and finance is used in all businesses and industries in some way. Majority of institutions are for profit

Permeability of a Membrane Essays

Permeability of a Membrane Essays Permeability of a Membrane Essay Permeability of a Membrane Essay The starred result has been classed as an anomaly due to its lack of concordance with the other two. For this reason it was ignored when calculating the average.Visual ObservationsAt higher temperatures some water vapour was seen this may have made the pigment less dilute then it would have been had no water escaped. Also at higher temperatures the cubes were seen to float this would increase the surface area because at lower temperatures some faces of the cube were pressed against the sides of the test tube.ErrorsThe random errors were:* Maintaining the temperature of the water bath +/- 10% (this was the most significant)* Human error in reading the thermometer +/- 2%* Human error in reading the colorimeter +/- 2%The systematic errors were:* Inaccuracies in the thermometer +/- 1%* Inaccuracies in the colorimeter +/- 5%ConclusionsThe graph shows clear negative correlation (i.e. As the temperature goes up the light transmission falls). This indicates that the m embrane becomes more permeable at higher temperatures. The sharp fall between 65à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C and 70à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C is indicative of a breakdown of the membrane which is in holding with the fluid mosaic model of the membrane whereby at lower temperatures the membrane is tightly packed and gel like but at higher temperatures it becomes less tightly packed and more fluid until eventually it looses its structure and breaks down completely.EvaluationThe method selected would appear to be sound with most of the errors being quite low with only the temperature of the water bath being really significant. This could have been overcome if an automated water bath could have been used; unfortunately this was not possible due to lack of apparatus. Another related problem was reading off the thermometer as one had to make sure it was not at an angle and that the line of sight was directly at the top of mercury to make sure that it was at the right temperature. The results are all stated to two sig nificant figures, as it is reasonable to assume that the equitment was accurate to this degree of precision. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the conclusions drawn are both reliable and accurate.