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This real‐world inspired case describes an ethical dilemma for a recently hired auditor and new Certified Public Accountant (CPA)/Associate Chartered Accountant (ACA) who must choose between cheating on a mandatory firm audit training and exam and suffering the possibility of negatively affecting her advancement with the firm and future compensation. The purpose of this case is to provide students the opportunity to identify an ethical dilemma, apply accounting ethics codes to evaluate potential responses and recommend an ethical course of action. Students completing this case will (1) understand the common pressures and complexities associated with an ethical dilemma; (2) be exposed to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' (AICPA Code) Code of Professional Conduct and the International Ethics Standards Board (IESBA Code) International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants; (3) apply knowledge of the AICPA Ethics Decision Tree to a real‐world inspired ethical dilemma; (4) evaluate and analyse the various courses of action to an ethical dilemma; and (5) demonstrate the impact tone at the top and organizational culture have on employees and the firm. The case was very effective in exposing and enhancing student's overall knowledge 4.28 (σ = 0.57) and application 4.28 (σ = 0.65) of the AICPA Code. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the tone of editorials published in the Journal of Accountancy. Drawing upon prior historical accounting and linguistic-anthropological research, the study proposes that editorials in practitioner journals like the Journal of Accountancy communicate an expressive tone to internal audiences. This tone from the top is important because it communicates a professional worldview to a geographically dispersed and somewhat heterogeneous readership. The study utilises computerised methods to identify the tone expressed about key topics in 46,189 sentence-level editorial utterances published in the Journal between 1916 and 1973. The analysis illustrates that topics involving external social actors, institutions and events were more likely to use a negative tone compared to the topics speaking about internal aspects of the profession. The study contributes to our understanding of professional accounting narratives by enumerating the topics that Journal of Accountancy editorials speak about, by illustrating how sentence tone varies depending on the sentence topic and by documenting how the prevalence of certain topics changes over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inclusion of eight emerging topics on future Certified Public Accounting (CPA) exams challenges educators to prioritize these topics in the accounting curriculum. We analyze the emerging topics and discuss their importance and appropriate teaching locus in light of survey evidence collected from professionals. The results support the preeminence of data analytics above other emerging accounting topics and show the relative importance of other topics based on their statistically significant differences. The results are helpful as educators make decisions about where to teach particular topics as well as their relative emphasis. To augment the analysis, we also examine factors that influence professionals' judgement of the importance of data analytics to career success and find a positive relationship between years of experience and data analytics importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines which factors influence the number of master's programs being offered to complete the 150-hour accounting curriculum requirement and whether there is a link among the number of programs, accounting program performance, and market orientation. Survey responses were analyzed from 201 business school deans and accounting chairs from universities with undergraduate accounting programs in the United States. The results indicate that the number of accounting-related master's program offerings has increased in the last five years. The results also indicate that a significant relationship does not exist between the number of master's program offerings, accounting program performance, and market orientation, suggesting that quality, and not quantity, is important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professional integrity is a fundamental principle of the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants Code of Ethics (IESBA, in Code of ethics for professional accountants, IFAC, New York; IESBA, Code of ethics for professional accountants, IFAC, New York, 2016). This does not apply directly to members of a particular professional body, but rather member organizations from around the globe are required to adopt a code no less stringent than the principles in the IESBA Code. Hence, all professional accountants are required to possess integrity as a core ethical principle. In the USA, certified public accountants must, in addition, also adhere to the principle of client advocacy in relation to their tax clients. Despite extensive prior literature on accounting ethics, firm culture, and ethical codes, no prior research has tested whether the communication of an Integrity ethical standard actually affects practitioners' actual judgments and decisions. In this study, we use brief interventions to determine whether a prime of two ethical professional standards (Integrity; Advocacy) affects tax practitioners' recommendations to their clients. One implication for professionalism in tax practice is our finding that a brief intervention of professional standards can directly impact on practitioners' judgments. Most notably, a joint presentation of Advocacy and Integrity leads to contrasting results that depend on the order of the intervention. In sum, when the Integrity (Advocacy) standard was presented before the Advocacy (Integrity) standard, tax practitioners were significantly less (more) likely to choose a tax-favorable outcome. That is, the order of professional ethical standard intervention significantly affects tax practitioners' judgments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the author documents the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' "special relationship" with the Financial Accounting Foundation and the Financial Accounting Standards Board, tending to suggest that these latter two bodies may not have exhibited independence, at least in appearance, from the Institute and from the practicing profession during the years from 1972 to 1980. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: A perennial challenge in the accounting profession is how to aggregate and share instances of practitioner misconduct among numerous relevant parties. At present, both the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) offer solutions for centralized collection of misconduct, but both likely experience issues with incomplete reporting from key constituents. I propose a novel use of blockchain technology to address this issue, such that all key parties in the accounting profession leverage an accountancy blockchain to aggregate and share instances of practitioner misconduct across the country on a nearly real-time basis. Such a network creates an immutable record of misconduct and allows key constituents in the accounting profession to work together and share information as peers without the risk of one party taking control of the ledger. I close by discussing blockchain-specific roadblocks to realizing this proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates Elmer G Beamer’s (1909–2000) activities at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) during a 30-year period beginning in the 1950s, using a theoretical lens from the sociology of professions literature. Beamer was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1909 and trained as an accountant with Haskins & Sells after graduating from high school. He stayed with the same firm throughout his career and rose to the position of partner. While in public practice, Beamer gave unselfishly of his time to the profession. As a member of the AICPA, Beamer chaired the Committee on the Common Body of Knowledge of CPAs (Certified Public Accountants), Committee on Education and Experience Requirements, and the Ad Hoc Committee on Continuing Education. The goal of the three committees was to establish a common body of knowledge for accountants in public practice. Beamer’s efforts resulted in the 150 credit-hour requirements for CPAs and the mandate for yearly continuing professional education for accountants to maintain an active CPA license in the United States. The article draws on archival material from the Elmer G. Beamer Papers Collection at the University of Florida. The collection contains over 500 items of Beamer’s personal correspondence, committee memorandums, and writings. The article concludes with a discussion of the empirical narrative and Beamer’s role in the larger context of the professionalization of the accounting discipline in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An accountants’ ethical code of conduct represents the moral values, principles and rules that accountants should have. The ethical codes of conduct of AICPA and IFAC are the two main codes most countries adopt to guide their members on how to deal with accounting information from the ethical perspective. While the AICPA ethical code of conduct was developed specifically for the USA, the IFAC ethical code of conduct was developed by taking into account the different practices of ethical code of conduct in various countries. The main purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the similarities and differences of these two codes. The comparison of the two documents is made on the following issues: establishment, structure and approach of the codes, the public interest principle, and the independence principle. The comparative analysis shows that the AICPA and IFAC codes are more similar than different even though some differences are noticeably important. Keywords: Ethical code of conduct, Accountants, AICPA, IFAC.

This study examines trends in the disciplinary sanctions imposed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) over the 35-year period 1980-2014. It reveals that the sizable increase in the number of sanctions that followed the 1988 revision to the Institute's Code of Professional Conduct has mostly stabilized. However, there is still growth in the number of sanctions being imposed for substandard professional service. The sanctions imposed for substandard professional service have also become more stringent. In combination these actions confer assurance that continuing members of the Institute provide superior professional service. A 2003 bylaw change that imposes automatic sanctions for members disciplined by approved bodies has resulted in a substantial decrease in the number of investigations undertaken by the AICPA. However, there is a high incidence of noncooperation with the remaining investigations, the reasons for which are not established by the current study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explains the current state of accounting by the US federal government. Key hurdles for the US reporting model and financial management are discussed. An open data system, able to aggregate cost by programme, would greatly improve the usefulness of cost information and facilitate integration of cost with performance information. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine students who have recently graduated from the standard 120 credit accountancy program and compare and contrast their ethical perceptions with students who have recently graduated from the AICPA-mandated 150 credit accountancy program which includes 30 extra credits with a focus on ethics. Design/methodology/approach – Recent graduated accounting students from selected Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business were asked to fill out a cross-sectional survey based on Victor and Cullen's Ethical Climate Questionnaire (ECQ) to determine whether a difference exists between the two groups' ethical perceptions. The nine hypotheses derived from the ECQ were tested using an independent sample t-test and Levene's test for the homogeneity of the variances between the two groups. Findings – Compared with graduates of the 120 credit program, 150 credit program graduates scored significantly higher in ethical perceptions on five domains: Company Profit, Friendship, Team Interest, Personal Morality, and Rules, when testing at a confidence level of 95 percent. The two groups were not significantly different in the domains of Self-Interest, Efficiency, Social Responsibility, or Laws. Practical implications – The paper includes implications for the need to encourage ethical intervention through education in the accounting curriculum. This study is part of a growing body of research for teaching ethics within the accounting profession. Originality/value – This paper fulfills an identified need to study business ethics. Corporate scandals in the late 1990s and early this century led to a decline in the public's trust of the accounting profession. Since that time, the government, companies, and universities have attempted to rebuild that trust through a number of methods, such as passing laws requiring better regulation and more disclosure as well as requiring improved ethics education for future accountants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We organized a panel discussion on the roles of the multiple auditing standard setters and the implications of these multiple sets of standards for practice and education. The session took place at the American Accounting Association (AAA) Auditing Section Meeting in Savannah, Georgia in January 2012. In this paper, we discuss the roles of the various auditing standards setters (e.g., Auditing Standards Board [ASB], Public Company Accounting Oversight Board [PCAOB], International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board [IAASB]) and how the standards have diverged over time. We then present panelists' responses to questions raised during the session, which reflect differing perspectives concerning why multiple standards may be necessary, barriers to a more unified structure for auditing standards, and differences in enforcement and quality assessment. The panelists also discussed challenges posed by the existence of multiple standards for CPA firms, students, and instructors, and how these challenges may be addressed by both educators and accounting firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study discusses various influences on firms to provide additional environmental disclosure and empirically measures and analyzes the extent of actual environmental disclosures included in the annual reports of firms in the U.S. and Canada. The environmental disclosure content provided in the annual reports of firms is evaluated based on environmental reporting guidelines published by the American Institute of Public Accountants and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants. In general, the results indicate that U.S. firms provided a significantly higher level of environmental disclosure than did Canadian firms. Also, firms in each nation varied significantly in the amount of environmental disclosure provided in each of four annual report sections. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

American accounting histories of the mid-twentieth century have long focused on the development of accounting standards. With the exception of the events surrounding the New Deal, there has been a reliance on memoirs and official histories for analysis of the accounting profession itself. The union corruption scandals and the accounting profession's efforts to involve itself in the reform of unions and pensions offers an opportunity to see how the profession understood and consolidated its franchise in financial statement audits and, perhaps more importantly, how it saw its own place in American society and how its place was viewed by others. This article focuses on the events that led to the passage of the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (Landrum-Griffin Act) of 1959, paying particular attention to congressional testimony and the records of congressmen and the Eisenhower administration and the efforts of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants to influence the legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) first developed the Model Tax Curriculum (MTC) in 1996 and modified it in 1999. Subsequent changes in the accounting profession and education caused a reexamination of the MTC resulting in a complete revision in 2007. The revised MTC is learning outcome-based and views the accounting curriculum in its entirety. The revised MTC includes a detailed matrix relating its proposed learning outcomes to the AICPA core competencies and tax technical topics commonly included in tax curricula. The matrix offers accounting faculty one example of an approach to be used in achieving the MTC learning outcomes. This approach can serve as a useful starting point to faculty in formulating and documenting their own approaches to developing student competencies that achieve the revised MTC learning objectives. This paper details the development of the MTC and provides an overview of the revised MTC. It also offers pedagogical suggestions helpful for implementing the MTC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1970s, efforts to reform accounting education revolved around the movement toward schools of accountancy (or independent departments). These efforts were largely unsuccessful. However, in the 1980s, the movement to expand accounting education beyond a four-year undergraduate degree resulted in American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) members passing a rule mandating 150 hours of education for AICPA membership. The reaction to this rule was varied. Many state boards of accountancy and state legislatures adopted rules requiring 150 hours; however, the requirements for taking the CPA exam and licensure varied across states. After the rule's passage academicians responded by creating the Accounting Education Change Commission, whose purpose was to improve accounting education regardless of the number of credit hours students earned. Also, the AICPA shifted its attention to the possibility of expanding certification to practitioners who were not accountants. Both of these efforts were forestalled, and public attention shifted to the highly publicized accounting scandals of the 1990s. Efforts to reform accounting education since then have been led primarily by the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Where we have been can tell us a great deal about where we are going. If we wish to direct the future, then understanding the past can help us see how much we actually influence that direction. Ignorance of the past, on the other hand, allows unrealistic expectations and creates unnecessary frustration. The history of accounting higher education in the United States is most informative for anyone who wants to influence the future direction of our profession. The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief overview of the history of accounting higher education in the U.S., from its beginnings to its settled position in the university. This historical overview informs us that the profession of public accounting had everything to do with establishing and growing accounting education. Around the time of the Second World War, however, forces were set in motion that would try to pull accounting education from the grasp of public accounting. The belittling of public accounting, first in the name of the new management accounting and then by the Foundation Reports, combined with public accounting leaders' ongoing desire for a five-year education requirement above all other educational reforms, resulted in accounting higher education's inability to singlemindedly identify its goals and work toward them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The public accounting industry's voluntary code of conduct in the United States is the American Institute of CPA's Code of Professional Conduct. Based on our analysis, we conclude that the accounting industry's current code is limited in its ability to serve the public interest in three respects. Specifically, the code is input-based, requires no third-party attestation of compliance with the code, and contains no public reporting process of code compliance/noncompliance at the accounting firm level. We propose that the accounting profession should reorient its largely input-based Code of Professional Conduct to include output-based performance measurements. We also conclude that third-party attestation of compliance with the profession's code would help to promote compliance. Finally, we maintain that the accounting industry should initiate a public reporting process at the individual accounting firm level. Such a requirement would add a degree of public accountability as to whether a firm complies or fails to comply with the industry's voluntary code of conduct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accounting profession's image and reputation is built upon the members of the profession acting with the "highest sense of integrity" in "the public interest" (AICPA, 2003, www.aicpa.org/about). The Enron debacle initiated the latest crisis facing the profession regarding its image and reputation. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) is the largest professional body representing the accounting profession and the one to which regulators have looked in establishing and upholding professional standards relating to the public practice of accounting and auditing. One of the AICPA's responsibilities is to "promote public awareness and confidence in the integrity, objectivity, competence and professionalism of CPAs ...." (AICPA, 2003, www.aicpa.org/about). We analyze the public statements issued by the AICPA (i.e., press releases, speeches of officers, testimony, published articles) during this ethical and identity crisis beginning with the AICPA's first public statement on the Enron debacle (AIPCA 2001) and concluding with the AICPA recognizing the need for a "new accounting culture" (Melancon 2002). In order to better understand the public discourse, we use image restoration theory (Benoit, 1995), because it provides a typology of strategies for dealing with the public face of crises. We identify the three most common strategies the AICPA employs during this period. Proposals for taking corrective action represent the most commonly employed strategy, but the analysis also indicates an attempt to evade responsibility by claiming defeasibility and to reduce the offensiveness of the situation by employing a bolstering strategy. A second analysis using DICTION, a software package useful in revealing latent dimensions in a text, indicates that early statements tend to use language related to accomplishing specific action while the later statements tend more toward general language that relates to peoples' everyday lives. The findings raise questions as to substantive nature of the changes proposed by the AICPA, and thus, the extent to which the public interest is being served by them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until the late 1970s, the AICPA discouraged commercial advertising and some other marketing tactics by practicing accountants. This study contacted 600 CPAs in the U.S. in an attempt to discover what kinds of marketing they employ, how useful they think it is, and how appropriate do they feel the AICPA's rules and regulations are in regard to marketing an individual CPA's services. Most thought the AICPA was fair. Accountants doing the most marketing tend to be younger males. "Conflict of Interest" was the area of most current concern in light of the ongoing problems of public accounting firms doing both auditing and consulting for the same client. "Newspaper" was the preferred advertising medium. Most of those surveyed were pleased the AICPA relaxed its restrictions on marketing and advertising, even though many CPAs still do not market their services to any great extent. This may change as younger accountants fill leadership positions in U.S. accounting firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When a university acquires the library of a national institute and the institute's active and worldwide membership expects continued and uninterrupted access to services from the collection, shockwaves can reverberate throughout the university's main library and among its staff. This was especially true for the Reference Department of the University of Mississippi's J. D. Williams Library, which acquired the library collection of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) in 2001. This article addresses the various challenges, problems, successes, and other situations experienced in offering reference service to unique users who are never present. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article reports the results of a study designed to measure whether an SEC rule requiring audit committees might have an anticompetitive impact on auditor selection. Despite concerns expressed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and others, the results of this study do not substantiate the contention that such a rule would favour Big-Eight auditors. Rather, the results suggest that while movement toward Big-Eight auditors is prevalent among NASD-listed companies, the existence of an audit committee does not explain the displacement. It appears that such an SEC rule would not unfavourably impact the competition for audit services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]