Companies don't look good for penalizing honest auditors, while other auditors don't look good for rendering slanted opinions.
Despite ongoing expectations to the contrary, complying with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act remains a moving target for companies.
While it may serve the interests of struggling companies, shopping for a favorable audit opinion lessens auditor independence and audit quality.
Study results contradict critics who are trying to water down the Sarbanes-Oxley requirement for auditing internal controls over financial reporting.
If the acquiring company elects to exempt the target from Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 internal controls attestation, negative stock returns may follow.
The startup, AuditBoard, offers a cloud-based platform for managing Sarbanes-Oxley compliance and other aspects of internal auditing.
Sarbanes-Oxley compliance costs shot up this year, underscoring the need for companies to automate more of their compliance activities.
Earnings management tends to occur not when a company is getting little or a lot of attention, but rather when it's in the middle of those extremes.
Companies should pay specific attention to risks arising from the increasingly common whistleblower complaints regarding data breaches and cybersecurity.
Merely requiring companies to periodically invite bids for their audit business, or change engagement partners at the incumbent firm, doesn't do the job.
The decision likely won't have a substantial effect on companies, as significant protections for whistleblowers remain in place.
Requiring top corporate executives to be only a year or two removed from a prior job with the company's auditor is insufficient, study suggests.
