The Public Accounting Firm Accounting Essay

The Public Accounting Firm Accounting Essay As an external auditor is required to be independent of the company when perform auditing services. If an auditor being to perform internal audit and management consulting services for the same company which they provided auditing services, there will have some issues arise. The issues included whether the auditor can be independent in mind and in appearance when providing such services. In US, there is prohibited the public accounting firm to provide non-audit services to an audit client. The arguments for the auditor should be allowed to perform these services for the same client is the auditor can work more efficiency by conduct both external and internal auditing services. They can reduce the time of work by eliminating overlapping work. Auditors will discover inefficiencies and other weaknesses while performing auditing service. When they discover such weaknesses, they can use the knowledge and expertise to provide the consulting services to management to improve such weaknesses. Besides that, by providing other services to same client, the company can save the time and money that would spend to obtain these services from another firm. The arguments for auditors should not be allowed to perform non-audit services for their audit client is they may not act independently in performing the external auditing services. The incentives of performing consulting and internal audit services will affect the judgment of the external audit. As we know internal audit services are best performed by the people who understand the culture and the operation of the company. Internal auditors are an important part of the corporate governance and should not be replaced by external auditor act as an internal auditor. A company will get more benefits from many different viewpoints. Therefore, company should obtain different entities to act as consultant and internal auditor to get multiple viewpoints. Explain how rules-based accounting standards differ from principles-based standards. How might fundamentally changing accounting standards from bright-line rules to principle-based standards help prevent another Enron-like fiasco in the future? Some argue that the trend toward adoption of international accounting standards represents a move toward more principles-based standards. Are there dangers in removing bright-line rules? What difficulties might be associated with such a change? Rules-based accounting standard are specific and detailed rules that must be followed when preparing companys financial statements. Principles-based standard is the general accepted accounting principles (GAAP) which used as a conceptual basis for accountants. It is general guidelines that describe the way classes of transactions should be reflected in general term. Principles-based may prevent another Enron issues by requiring accountants to make their professional judgments on the spirit of the law instead of just regarding technical compliance with the rules. In this case, for example, Enrons SPE, the manager may have succeeded in pressuring auditors to accept the deceptive financial reporting by pointing to the bright-line standard. However, the principles-based standard would require auditors to evaluate the situation of the company as a whole in order to determine whether the company did not have significant exposure in relation to the unconsolidated SPE. The dangers in removing the bright-line rule is in some situation will involve human judgment and discretion. Auditors may rationalize aggressive financial decisions. They will defend themselves when questioned by asseverate that the accounting standard did not prohibit their action. Enron and Andersen suffered severe consequences because of their perceived lack of integrity and damaged reputations. In fact, some people believe the fall of Enron occurred because of a form of run on the bank. Some argue that Andersen experienced a similar run on the bank as many top clients quickly dropped the firm in the wake of Enrons collapse. Is the run on the bank analogy valid for both firms? Why or why not? The run on the bank analogy is valid for both firms. Both of the firms are loss of confidence and credibility of investors and clients. Enron can avoid the bankruptcy if its customers willing to continue to use its services. The debt and obligations of the company are large but it also had large profit. The customers were not willing to use its services when Enron loss its credibility. Besides that, Andersen also can survive if Enron issue had been isolated. Andersen was a large and multinational firm. If it just loss of one client, Enron, it would not go to the end of the firm. However, once the Enron issue occurred, the clients of Andersen were loss of confidence in the firms credibility. As the result, many clients of Andersen had fired the firm as an external auditor of their company. Coopers Lybrand was sued under both federal statutory and state common law. The judge ruled that under Pennsylvania law the plaintiffs were not primary beneficiaries. Pennsylvania follows the legal precedent inherent in the Ultramares Case. (a) In jurisdictions following the Ultramares doctrine, under what conditions can auditors be held liable under common law to third parties who are not primary beneficiaries? (b) How do jurisdictions that follow the legal precedent inherent in the Rusch Factors case differ from jurisdictions following Ultramares? According to Ultramares cases, only the third parties who are primary beneficiaries can sue for ordinary negligence successfully. However, the third party who did not primary beneficiaries and did not have privity of contract also can successfully sue for gross negligence, recklessness and fraud. In this case, the creditors of Phar-Mor were not considered as primary beneficiaries. Therefore the creditors of Phar-Mor were needed to prove there had recklessness or fraud. Besides that, U.S. federal securities laws had required that recklessness needed be prove by a preponderance of the evidence, the Pennsylvania state common law had required prove by a clear and persuasive standard. According to Rusch Factors case, it had been broadened the Ultramares doctrine by allowed recovery by third party who are considered as foreseen users. A foreseen user is the limited class of users who the auditors were aware the user has the intention to rely on the financial statements. For example, the bank who lend loan to company will be a foreseen user. Coopers was also sued under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The burden of proof is not the same under the Securities Acts of 1933 and 1934. Identify the important differences and discuss the primary objective behind the differences in the laws (1933 and 1934) as they relate to auditor liability? For the case under the Securities Acts of 1933, the plaintiff have to prove that the audited financial statements were consisted material misstatement which caused the plaintiff suffered a loss. If the auditor faces an unusual burden of proof, auditor must demonstrate as a defense. The defenses are about the auditor had been conducted an adequate audit and the loss of plaintiff was caused by another reasons which other than the misleading financial statements. Under Securities Acts of 1934, the plaintiff must prove the reliance on financial statements where the financial statement consist material misstatement which caused in a loss. The Securities Acts 1933 had exposes the auditor to more litigation risk than the Securities Acts 1934. This change is to protect the buyers of new securities. In this case, even though neither Phar-Mors management, the plaintiffs attorneys, nor anyone else who associated with the case ever alleged the auditors knowingly participated in the fraud, a jury had found that Cooper liable under fraud claim. The important key of this fraud charge is the plaintiffs had been alleged that Cooper made representations which recklessly without regard to whether they were true or false. This had enabled plaintiffs to sue the auditors in term of fraud.

Anytime Fitness and the Jetts Essay

As the living quality has been continuously improved in recent years,together with the widely spread sense of keeping fit,fitness clubs are becoming more and more popular in Australia.Among all those fitness companies,the Anytime Fitness and the Jetts are the most rapidly growing ones ,which both offer the 24/7 access to all clubs they own. I’ll compare the model of these two company using SWOT analysis. Company overview According to the Anytime Fitness AU(2014),Anytime Fitness is a fitness club which started in Minneapolis,USA in 2000.The 2115 clubs around the world make it the biggest fitness chain in the world.In year 2008,Justin McDonell and Jacinta McDonell-Jimenez open the first Anytime Fitness club in Australia.The next 6 years witnesses the rapid expansion of the Anytime Fitness with 344 clubs. On the contrary,as can be seen from the website Jetts Fitness Australia(2014),the Jetts is a local fitness company which started in 2007 in the Gold Coast by the couple Brendon and Cristy Levenson.Soon,the expansion to the whole country and the New Zealand makes the Jetts a fitness company with over 200 clubs. SWOT analysis Anytime Fitness Strengths Weaknesses 1. Leadership in the global market gives the company the advantage of its brand name and supply chain(Anytime Fitness AU 2014) . 2. Having the most clubs in Australia allows most Australians to come to the club within 10 minutes(Anytime Fitness AU 2014) . 3. Investment from the US capital market is available.For example,the capital injection from the Roark Capital Group would help expediting the growth(Roark Capital Group 2014).Also, the company had partnerships with THL Credit Opportunities,L.P. and the Partnership Capital Growth so as to achieve a recapitalization in 2010 (PCGA.Transaction Announcement 2010). 4. An online medical center called Anytime Health is offered ,which can bring health information to the customers. 5. The business model which is convenient for franchiser as flexibility and profit can be got at the same time helps the rapid expansion of the company (Anytime Fitness AU 2014) .The 2014 Top Franchise from Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500 List(2014) claims that the company gets NO.1 in this list. 6. The company has comparatively low price with acceptable environment and 24/7 access . 7. Private restroom and bath room can give people more privacy. 1. Low culture consistence do the clubs have, due to the distance from the US.For example,the price of each club in Australia is different(Anytime Fitness AU 2014) . 2. Lock-in contract makes customs uncomfortable. 3. Bad fame of one club such as low quality of customer service and cleanliness may influence other clubs although the franchisers are different. 4. No staff during nights may cause security concern (Anytime Fitness AU 2014) . 5. Facilities are lacked during peak times. Opportunities Threats 1. The 12 million overweight people in Australia according to the Overweigh and Obesity(AIHW)(2013)are the potential customs. 2. More sessions and classes can be offered. 3. Introduce new facilities to the clubs may provide differentiation from the Jetts. 4.The company should promote more about the facilities and services. 1. Competitions from Jetts and other fitness clubs are growing. Jetts Strengths weaknesses 1. The Jetts has enough clubs to serve most Australians.Meanwhile, with the projected 250 clubs,80% of Australian can go to Jetts within 8 minutes(Sunshine Coast Daily 2010). 2. It’s a domestic fitness company,which means that it can provide a suitable environment for local people. Also,the staff can get more education and feedbacks from the headquarter so the company culture will be consistent. 3. No contract rule which gives the customers freedom of choice makes them comfortable(Sunshine Coast Daily 2010). 4.The price is quite low as people only need to pay $11.95 per week and are free to stop at any stage.But people can still get 24/7 access and ‘clean, convenient workout facilities providing the equipment that members use on a regular basis’(Tilbury, Alex 2011). 5.The Jetts has an experienced team to help new clubs get started (Davies,Adam 2012).It helps the growing of the Jetts together with the efficient franchiser system. 6.The Jessts has a good fame of high customer satisfactory.It got No.1 in the Canstar Blue Most Satisfied Customer Award in Australia in 2012 and 2013 (Jetts Fitness Australia 2014). 1.The clubs lack advanced equipments due to the low price strategy. 2. No staff during nights may cause security concern(Jetts Fitness Australia 2014). 3.Facilities are lacked during peak times. Opportunities Threats 1. The percentage of overweight people in Australia is high. 2. The oversea market is still waiting to be exploited. 3.The Jetts should promote more about its low price and simplicity. 1.Competitions from Anytime Fitness and other fitness clubs are growing. Conclusion In summary,although the Anytime Fitness has advantages in many aspects,I still consider the model of the Jetts is better as it makes customers feel satisfied,which is much more important than other elements in this customer-oriented age. Reference List Anytime Australia Pty Ltd 2014,Anytime Fitness AU,viewed 19 March 2014, Jetts 2014,Jetts Fitness Australia,Brisbane,viewed 18 March 2014, Roark Capital Group 2014,Anytime Fitness Receives Investment from Roark Capital Group,media release,3 March ,viewed 22 March 2014, PCGA.Transaction Announcement 2010,Partnership Capital Growth,viewed 22 March 2014, 2014 Top Franchise from Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500 List 2014,Entrepreneur Media, Inc.,viewed 22 March 2014, Overweigh and Obesity(AIHW) 2013,Australia Institution of Health and Welfare,viewed 22 March 2014, Sunshine Coast Daily 2010,‘Jetts Fitness blasting off: movers & shakersBrendon Levenson’,Sunshine Coast Daily ,5 October 2010,viewed 22 March 2014 Davies,Adam 2012,‘Jetts on a winner with new club’,The Chronicle,27 May,viewed 22 March 2014 Tilbury, Alex 2011,‘Jetts wins fight with the giants’ï ¼Å'The Courier – Mailï ¼Å'4 Juneï ¼Å'viewed 22 March 2014,

The Evolution of Developmental Psychology

The Evolution of Developmental Psychology Jennifer Haag Walden’s University Lifespan Development September 9, 2012 Over the course of history, many scholars and researchers have discovered the evolution of developmental psychology. However, there are certain people throughout the course of history who have made more significant process in shedding light on developmental psychology as it is known today. The three best known theorists that helped people understand, or at least consider psychology, were Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson, and Jean Piaget.These three men were able to develop and test theories that formed the modern idea of psychology. Without the vital research and theories, one might never have understood the inner workings of the mind and how nurturance, nature, and other factors affect a personality over time. Using research methods such as observation, correlational design, and several other methods, researchers are able to put together a bigger picture of developmen tal psychology. With research comes responsibility; a responsibility to protect the rights of those who are researched.Therefore, there is an ethics policy designed by the federal government that researchers are not supposed to violate. Psychology is an ever evolving unit and is something that will always change as life goes on. Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson, and Jean Piaget are some of the best known psychological researchers ever known. Freud contributed several theories and had many followers of his teachings. One of his theories is the psychosexual theory. This theory emphasizes how parents manage their child’s sexual and aggressive drives in the first few years are crucial for healthy personality development (Berk, 2010).Even though the theory may be somewhat controversial, it is one that contributes to the evolutional development theory by suggesting that something that happens in childhood helps to form the adult. Erikson believed that there were significant psychologica l changes with each stage. His psychosocial theory emphasized that in addition to mediating between id impulses and superego demands; the ego makes a positive contribution to development, acquiring attitudes and skills at each stage that make the individual an active, contributing member of society (Berk, 0210).With this theory, a person develops based on needs and the ability to control one’s self. Erikson was the believer in stages unlike Freud who believed that a single event in a child’s life would have such a big impact on adulthood. He introduced the time line of development from birth to late adulthood showing how the person changes with maturity. Adding to both of these theories is Jean Piaget’s cognitive-development theory which explains that children actively construct knowledge as they manipulate and explore their world (Berk, 2010).This theory extends into adulthood as well. People learn new things everyday by manipulating things around them. Therefo re, if a child learns to manipulate things at a young age, they are capable of continuous learning or an ever evolving development of the mind. These three men helped shape the concept of psychology and helped researchers understand it better today by testing their theories over and over again. Research is the basis for any theory. Without research, there would be no foundation for anything.Therefore, studies must be conducted, people must be observed, interviews must be done, and information gathered. It has been known for some time that people are all different; the way they think, the way they react to different stimuli, and the way they interact with others. It is known that experiences and influences have quite a significant impact on a person’s psych. However, this would not have been known without the hours of laborious research conducted through studying people under different circumstances. One research method is observation.Observations can be done in many different ways. One is through correlational design. This is where researchers gather information on individuals, generally in natural life circumstances, without altering their experiences. Then they look at relationships between participants; characteristics and their behavior or development (Berk, 2010). This type of observation is the most natural and non-evasive way of conducting research and one of the best ways to get pure information. Using an evasive form of research can be useful as well, however.Interviews can help researchers in a big way by getting information straight from the subject without trying to guess what the person is thinking or what the person might do when faced with a situation. There are different ways to conduct interviews such as clinical interviews where a person takes part in an open conversation or structured interviews where a person takes a questionnaire, test, or simply answers a few questions. There are many ways to conduct research but there is just one thing; people must be respected and treated fairly when doing so which leads to ethics.Thus, the federal government came up with ethics codes to protect those being studied. There are certain rights a person has when being studied or evaluated for any type of mental health research. The rights of research participants include: protection from harm, informed consent, privacy, knowledge of results, and beneficial treatments. Protection from harm is the right to be protected from physical or psychological harm. Informed consent means that all participants or guardians of participants must sign their permission for the research to continue.Privacy means that information regarding them personally, identity, cannot be shared with outside parties. Knowledge of results means that those participating in the research have a right to know the outcome of that research and beneficial treatments is if experimental treatments believed to be beneficial are under investigation; participants in contr ol groups have the right to alternative beneficial treatments if they are available (Beck, 2010). Without these rights in place, people would not have any say in what was done to them or how the research was collected.People would, in essence, be nothing better than cattle told what to do in the name of research. Over all, research is necessary to help discover all the possibilities there are regarding psychological development. Researchers and theorists like Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson, and Jean Piaget helped shed light on the evolution of psychology and how it is ever changing. Researching and gathering information is the only way to continually develop theories and test possibilities regarding mental health.In doing this, it is imperative to remember that those who are researched and observed have rights that need to be respected meaning an ethics code must be followed. Psychology, although centuries old, is still an enigma to be discovered with constantly evolving aspects that r esearchers may never fully understand. Reference: Berk, L. E. ,(2010). Development Through the Lifespan. (5th ed. ). Pearson Education, Inc. , Allyn &Bacon, 75 Arlington Street, Suite 300 Boston MA 02116

The Writings of Sigmund Freud Essay example - 2129 Words

The Writings of Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud remains a figure whose influence it is hard to over-state. While many of his ideas in the field of depth psychology, a field he largely created, have been compromised and challenged over the course of the 20th century his influence remains palpable. We continue to use terms that Freud originated almost unthinkingly - concepts of frustration, aggression, guilt, anxiety, projection, defence mechanisms and the unconscious remain dominant. Few of Freud’s writings touch on matters of direct interest to international relations but those that do have not only provided compelling arguments on the origins of war, society and violence but continue to be of†¦show more content†¦He recognised the conflict between the freedom of the individual and the order imposed by society. The emergence of civilisation is dependent on the repression of our instinctual drives. Like religion, society institutionalises systems of rules which affect us from our youngest days and imbue us with a counter-instinctual sense of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. The denial of our urges leads to the accumulation of aim-inhibited libinal energy which provides the necessary potency to bind individuals together in a social group and counter-acts their violent desires. What is important for Freud is that the drive to aggressiveness is as natural and immutable in human nature as the sex drive. He observed that individuals can, and do, derive satisfaction from violent action when circumstances conspire to remove social restrictions*. The internalisation of aggression produces guilt and discontent which can only be mitigated by directing aggression outwards against another as violence. He writes that for individuals â€Å"their neighbour is†¦not only a potential helper or sexual object, but also someone who tempts them to satisfy their aggressiveness on him, to exploit his capacity to work without compensation, to use him sexually without his co nsent, to seize his possessions, to humiliate him†¦.to torture and kill him†[1]. Man is wolf to man. Civilisation then, if it is toShow MoreRelatedSigmund Freud s Life Of Psychology And Psychoanalysis1330 Words   |  6 Pagesonly if is related to psychoanalysis said Sigmund Freud, a pioneer in the world of psychology and psychoanalysis (Sigmund Freud - Life and Work.). Freud had a passion for the mind. Not just the mind of the average man but also the minds of the sick and tortured souls. He built his life around knowledge and manipulation of others minds to give them peace and reach understanding. 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