April 2011

How to handle fraud or illegal acts under SSARS 19 – part one

What should you do if something comes to your attention during a compilation or review that suggests that fraud or an illegal act may have taken place?

SSARS 19 starts this discussion with two intriguing phrases.  First is the comment saying if information comes to your attention.  Second is the comment that this information indicates a fraud or illegal act “may have occurred”. 

Creative visualizations-military history illustration

I’ve been interested lately in creative ways to show data.  We accountants are great at absorbing a lot of numbers and finding the patterns.  Other people who don’t have our mind-set can not see what we see.  We need to find new ways to explain things.

How would you summarize the location and intensity of wars over the last several centuries?  One of my favorite historians would do that verbally over the course of a few books or dozens of columns.  (And I’d love every word of it too!)

Jordi Colomer has done so in a 5 minute video: