New advancement in technology has made it easy for many CEOs to have the opportunity to loot their companies, and to engage in accounting irregularities. Technology has made improvements to the way a company does business with others, and also it has opened up ethical concerns for the way a company conducts their business. “Recently, accounting professionals have been placed under immense pressure by changes in the size and scope of financial markets” (Love, 2007 para. 1). Companies use the financial reporting system to communicate the financial effects of the company to outsiders (Love, 2007). This paper will discuss the legal, ethical, and technological concerns of the accounting, and financial reporting of businesses.
A concern that a company may have is with its accountants, and auditors. The company needs for its accountants and auditors to maintain a high level of ethics. The companies’ potential shareholders, current shareholders, and other possible users of the financial statements rely heavily on the yearly financial statements of a company to help give them information to help make an informed decision about an investment (Accounting ethics, 2011, para. 3). Accounting ethics has become very difficult for accountants, and auditors because they must consider the interest of the public, as well as maintain their employment with the company they are auditing. Accountants and auditors ethics comes into consideration when they are faced with the task of applying their accounting standards even if their standards may conflict with their employers. They are also faced with the possibility of causing the company to face significant loss, or even to be closed down.
Various companies dominated the news from their fraudu...
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...deter fraudulent accounting, and financial reporting of businesses, but professional needs to maintain their values, and ethics to allow them to operate successfully with integrity in this world.
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Ethics plays a vital role in developing accurate and high quality financial statements for management, financial institutions, and investors. As management utilizes financial statements to make decisions regarding the operations of the business, it is necessary to review accurate financial statements to make strategic decisions about the future of the organization. Investors and financial institutions require accurate financial statements to make informed decisions upon whether to invest funds into the organization or the wisdom of lending funds to said organization.
First, the Code of Professional Conduct encourages accountants to behave ethically. Encouraging accountants to behavior ethically is a strength because it helps create customer loyalty, positive work environments, and dedicated employees, which helps avoids legal issues. Accounting professionals have to behave ethically just because of the profession they are in. Accountants need to behave ethically because the investors, creditors, and rest of the public rely on an accountant’s professional judgment to make
Throughout the past several years major corporate scandals have rocked the economy and hurt investor confidence. The largest bankruptcies in history have resulted from greedy executives that “cook the books” to gain the numbers they want. These scandals typically involve complex methods for misusing or misdirecting funds, overstating revenues, understating expenses, overstating the value of assets or underreporting of liabilities, sometimes with the cooperation of officials in other corporations (Medura 1-3). In response to the increasing number of scandals the US government amended the Sarbanes Oxley act of 2002 to mitigate these problems. Sarbanes Oxley has extensive regulations that hold the CEO and top executives responsible for the numbers they report but problems still occur. To ensure proper accounting standards have been used Sarbanes Oxley also requires that public companies be audited by accounting firms (Livingstone). The problem is that the accounting firms are also public companies that also have to look after their bottom line while still remaining objective with the corporations they audit. When an accounting firm is hired the company that hired them has the power in the relationship. When the company has the power they can bully the firm into doing what they tell them to do. The accounting firm then loses its objectivity and independence making their job ineffective and not accomplishing their goal of honest accounting (Gerard). Their have been 379 convictions of fraud to date, and 3 to 6 new cases opening per month. The problem has clearly not been solved (Ulinski).
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With every business activity come opportunities for fraudulent behavior which leads to a greater demand for auditors with unscathed ethics. Nowadays, auditors are faced with a multitude of ethical issues, and it is even more problematic when the auditors fail to adhere to the standards of professional conducts as prescribed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). The objective of this paper is to analyze the auditors’ compliance with the code of professional conduct in the way it relates to the effectiveness of their audits.
Chesseman, Henry R. Legal Environment of Business: Online Commerce, Business Ethics, and Global Issues. 8th ed. N.p.: Pearson Education, Inc. , 2016. Print.
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Accounting ethics has been difficult to control as accountants and auditors must keep in mind the interest of the public while that they remain employed by the company they are auditing. The accountants should take into account how to best apply accounting standards when company faces issues related financial loss. The role of accountant is crucial to society. They serve as financial reporters to owe their primary constraint to public interest. The information provided is critical in aiding managers, investors and others in making crucial economic decisions. An accountant is responsible for any fraudulent financial reporting. Some examples of fraudulent reporting are:
The aim of this paper is to provide the framework of the current professional accounting code of ethics. What are the ethics and how we define them? In this report we try to determine the main ethical principles that will establish the right and
The evolution of auditing is a complicated history that has always been changing through historical events. Auditing always changed to meet the needs of the business environment of that day. Auditing has been around since the beginning of human civilization, focusing mainly, at first, on finding efraud. As the United States grew, the business world grew, and auditing began to play more important roles. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, people began to invest money into large corporations. The Stock Market crash of 1929 and various scandals made auditors realize that their roles in society were very important. Scandals and stock market crashes made auditors aware of deficiencies in auditing, and the auditing community was always quick to fix those deficiencies. The auditors’ job became more difficult as the accounting principles changed, and became easier with the use of internal controls. These controls introduced the need for testing; not an in-depth detailed audit. Auditing jobs would have to change to meet the changing business world. The invention of computers impacted the auditors’ world by making their job at times easier and at times making their job more difficult. Finally, the auditors’ job of certifying and testing companies’ financial statements is the backbone of the business world.
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