Don’t you just love the expression: “Curiosity killed the cat”? It is a phrase that we have heard so many times, especially as a child, trying to learn about things and maybe even trying to understand life a little better. As children we were told that curiosity killed the cat. What on earth does this…
What’s gone wrong? A short time ago, we laid my mentor, and spiritual father to rest. He was 85 years old and one of the founders of the auditing profession in South Africa. Just before his death we had a discussion on, amongst other things, the auditing profession and the changing world in which we…
Phase A of the Framework convergence project: Main changes and stakeholder comment summary Introduction The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) have been working together on specific projects for some years now to update and harmonize some of their existing accounting standards. This is in order to underscore and…
Investment techniques The asset management industry, trading primarily in the public equity space, evaluates listed companies and estimates the future performance of such companies through proven methodologies and techniques. These are well known, such as the price/earnings (PE) ratio, headline earnings growth, EBIT and EBITDA margins and multiples, net asset value, quick and current ratios,…
Introduction The overall governance structure of an organisation, practicing good corporate governance, includes at least an internal audit function, a risk management function and a compliance function. In our opinion, the starting point for setting a corporate governance culture in an organisation is an overall Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework. Such a framework facilitates the…
FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS WITH CHARACTERISTICS OF EQUITY A discussion paper on the distinction between equity financial instruments and other financial instruments (non-equity instruments) has been published for public comment by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). This has been issued in South Africa as ED236 – Financial Instruments with Characteristics of Equity and can be downloaded…
February 12 this year heralded a new era for the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) in the Eastern Region with the opening of an independent office in Durban. The launch was aptly entitled “Opening New Doors”, reflecting the glimpse of a bright future dedicated to serving SAICA members in the Eastern Region. The…
Centennial We celebrate our centennial year in 2008. There will be a number of events throughout the year, and we will be looking to the next 100 years in a major international conference, to be held in Auckland, New Zealand in August. Admissions review We’ve begun a review of policies for admission to the College…
One of my pet hates is the consistent pessimism I see across this beautiful country of ours. Whether it is inflation, interest rates, crime or load shedding, many in this country choose to take every opportunity to sit back and complain rather than rise to the challenge and assist in tackling the many issues we…
Accounting for customer contributions has until recently been an area that has been subject to varying accounting treatments. The term ‘customer contribution’ generally refers to a situation where an entity receives contributions, in the form of cash or other assets, from a customer or prospective customer or another third party entity, for example: “A property…
