Accounting Standards and Auditing Techniques

The AICPA published the generally accepted auditing standards (GAAS). GAAS are those guidelines which auditors must follow while conducting an audit of a company's financial statements. It must also be stated in the audit report that the audit was conducted following GAAS.

GAAP is implemented through measurement principles and disclosure principles. Measurement principles recognize and determine the timing and basis of items that enter the accounting cycle and impact the financial statements, such as the period in which transactions will be recorded. Disclosure principles determine what specific numbers and other information are essential to be presented in financial statements. Basically, GAAP is concerned with:

The documents that comprise GAAP vary in format, completeness, and structure. As a result, financial statement preparers sometimes are not sure whether they have the right GAAP; determining what is authoritative and what is not becomes difficult. In response to these concerns, the FASB developed the Financial Accounting Standards Board Accounting Standards Codification. The FASB’s primary goal in developing the Codification is to provide in one place all the authoritative literature related to a particular topic. Professional accountants pay for access to the FASB. The OU Accounting Department has paid for academic access to the FASB Codification. Our Login information is:

JPMorgan Chase Bank is a publicly traded company and uses an external-independent auditing firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, to provide an annual audit. JPMorgan

The Auditing Standards Board has launched the Clarity Project (Lindberg & Seifert, 2011) which is an effort to make the U.S. Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (U.S. GAAS) easier to comprehend in the eyes of non-public businesses. “The Clarity Project will result in the first complete redrafting and recodification of U.S. GAAS since 1972” (Morris & Thomas, 2011, para. 2). Four of the most significant changes are: changing the format of the standards so they are more consistent and readable, the wording in the auditor’s report, group audit standards, and the authoritative status on the 10 generally accepted auditing standards (Morris & Thomas, 2011). The Clarity Project also includes the process of integrating the U.S. GAAS with International Standards on Auditing (ISA).

Merck is among one of the most successful drug companies, producing several top tier drugs for various health concerns and problems over the past couple of decades. Several aspects of influence and power come into their disposal to continue their success and market their products to the public. The power and influence they utilized had positive and negative effects on the company itself that caused ethical issues as they faced lawsuits and retraction of some of their drugs, such as with Vioxx. First, Merck had a lot of leverage with the amount of power that they obtained. Merck is a reputable drug researcher and producer.

GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) determine the content and format of financial statements. SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) requires publicly traded companies to issue annual audit. Concerns are about adequacy of disclosure; and behavioral implications are secondary.

Merck’s diverse product lines provide the company with a broad target customer base of doctors and any consumer in need of medication. Their

First established in 1668 in Darmstadt, Germany, Merck is currently (in 1978) one of the largest prescription drug producers in the world. After coming off a 10 year drug drought in the late 1970s, Merck put a large amount of money into research to continue its dominance in the prescription drug industry. The research-first approach worked and since then Merck has increased sales significantly. Merck’s mission was well stated by founder George W. Merck. “We try never to forget that medicine is for the people…not for the profits” (Bollier 3).

Merck & Co., founded in 1891 as the United States subsidiary of the German company Merck, is a pharmaceutical manufacturer headquartered out of Kenilworth, NJ.

GAAP is exceptionally useful because it attempts to regulate and normalize accounting definitions, assumptions, and methods. Because of generally accepted accounting principles one is able to presuppose that there is uniformity from year to year in the methods that are used to prepare a

Merck was established in 1891 to improve human and animal health through the development of innovative products. Merck currently has two reportable segments, the Pharmaceutical Segment and the Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Segment. Merck sells products through several channels including wholesalers, retailers, hospitals, clinics, government and managed health services providers. In the 1980’s the Merck was very successful in producing 10 major new drugs and had a very healthy pipeline. In later years, Merck has entered into joint ventures with many other pharmaceutical companies in order to expand its pipeline. In the last several years Merck has

The US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) is a set of international accounting rules which originated from the United States. US GAAP can be defined as a set of accounting principles, standards and procedures that companies use to compile their financial statements (Elliott & Elliott, 2008). The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on the other hand are accounting rules originating from the United Kingdom. International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are a set of accounting rules designed with a common global language for business affairs so that financial accounts of companies are understandable and comparable across international boundaries (Devinney, Pedersen & Tihanyi, 2010).

prospective and consensus of fair value, lending ammunition both to those in favour and to the

Auditing and Assurance Standards Council Philippine Standard on Auditing 330 (Redrafted) THE AUDITOR’S RESPONSES TO ASSESSED RISKS PSA 330 (Redrafted) PHILIPPINE STANDARD ON AUDITING 330 (REDRAFTED) THE AUDITOR’S RESPONSES TO ASSESSED RISKS (Effective for audits of financial statements for periods beginning on or after December 15, 2009)