Auditing

As if there weren't enough things keeping you awake at night, a University of Hawaii study has revealed that the vast majority of spreadsheets, 88 percent, have errors in at least one percent of all formula cells, according to MarketWatch. Given the size of many spreadsheets, having just one error can cause cascades of inaccuracies that can lead to conclusions that are, themselves, erroneous.

The Competition Commission, a UK regulator, has issued a report today that said the Big Four firms, which do accounting and auditing services for 90 percent of blue chip companies in the UK, lacked adequate competition, which has translated into higher prices, lower quality and less innovation, according to the

Santa Claus, that jolly old elf who brings cheer to good girls and boys across the world, runs quite an operation. Between the massive clerical task of processing the millions of letters sent every year and maintaining the world's only fleet of flying reindeer, Santa Claus is not running some two-bit arctic storefront but a gargantuan venture that the audit firm ParenteBeard has estimated costs roughly $42 billion to operate, according to Accounting Today.

Hewlett-Packard shareholders, incensed over an acquisition that quickly went sour, have filed suit against a host of companies that includes Big 4 members Deloitte and KPMG, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The lawsuit was launched in response to HP’s acquisition of British software company Autonomy last year, for which it paid $11 billion, according to the

The Securities and Exchange Commission released final rules for a new regulation that would mandate that public companies disclose whether or not the products they are responsible for manufacturing utilize what are commonly known as “conflict minerals,” minerals associated with human rights abuses, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where militias use sa

In a stroke of irony worthy of a Greek tragedy, a fraud prevention expert has pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering at a British bank, according to a New York Observer article on Tuesday.