Out And About

 Both Tom and Andy are experts in the nuances of SEC reporting.  Tom writes the blog, Accounting Onion and teaches for Executive Enterprise Institute.  Andy is a Principal and frequent instructor for the SEC Institute.

The SEC Institute was holding a two day entry level Reporting Skills Workshop here last week, and Andy invited me to join them for the Thursday night cocktail party and then dinner.  There were about thirty people enrolled and they represented a good cross section of major public and private companies in the Chicago and Detroit area.  Most of the attendees had responsibility for some type of external reporting activities, and the class was chock full of good info.  I told Andy that just sitting through a half-day gave me a hundred more ideas on things to write about.

There are some firms in the Chicago area that specialize in consulting to multinationals on these issues, in particular when they need to remediate significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the areas of accounting expertise and GAAP application.  But it’s always better, and more or less expected now, that companies will beef up their internal staff and provide more training to them.

Here in Chicago, we have Huron and FTI. But Andy mentioned another that I was not as familiar with, Financial Reporting Advisors.  They have Scott Taub as a Partner.  It would be nice to get to meet Scott here at the Compliance Week conference.

Andy and I have a bet on the result of the US presidential election.  Although we are diametrically opposed when it comes to politics, (and the role of the plaintiff’s bar in righting the wrongs of corporate profligacy) it’s good we can come together over the principles of integrity in financial reporting.