The Liability Of An Accountant

The Auditor, an instructional novella written by James K. Loebbecke, tells the story of Jack Butler, a man from the San Francisco Bay area, who goes to college, majors in accounting, and goes to work for a large accounting firm referred to as “The Firm.” The story is loosely based upon the real world experiences of the author, and is written to give students a look into the world of public accounting that goes beyond a textbook. The Auditor not only gives students a chance to follow Jack Butler’s journey up the company ladder at The Firm, but also reiterates the relative importance of conventional lessons learned in school.

* Common history shows that prior to PCAOB, the accounting industry was self-regulated through the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Create an argument that the public is either better or worse off since PCAOB assumed the

“ In order to prevent fraudulent financial reports and statements, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants(AICPA) has created ethical standards” (Ethical standards in a financial statement, 2011). These standards aim to make financial professionals accountable for their accounting practices. This includes the integrity of financial reporting and ensuring financial reporting is done fairly and factually. Financial accountants and professionals should maintain professional integrity, objectivity, and independence to reduce the risk of resulting legal action, loss of profits, and a poor reputation if improper financial reporting is done (Ethical standards in a financial statement, 2011).

This post will discuss two ethical accounting dilemmas that could occur in the CPA profession. For each dilemma, it will explain how the dilemma could be resolved based on logic and reason. It will then support that proposed resolution through support from the American Institute of Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA) Code of Professional Conduct.

According to section 140.2: A professional accountant should maintain confidentiality even in a social environment. The professional accountant should be alert to the possibility of inadvertent disclosure, particularly in circumstances involving long association with a business associate or a close or immediate family member [ (Chan, 2004) ].

II. Main Point #2. Contrary to popular belief, Accountants, and the tasks that they perform, are an important part of most people’s everyday life.

Accountants are relied upon to be trustworthy and maintain high ethical standards. It is because of the nature of the profession that puts them in a position of trust with people who rely on their professional judgment and guidance in making decisions. These decisions are extremely important in accounting and more so that companies that have high ethical standard or main good ethical culture spend enormous time to train the staffs about the conduct that is expected of them.

Accountants should always carry out the public responsibility, meaning they have a responsibility to ensure that the accounting functions are performed to the highest possible standards and the information which an organisation provides for its stakeholders is true and accurate. To reach the goal of improving the performance of accountants, there might be several steps to undertake. There should be on-going education to keep abreast with the existing and emerging

The Model of Trust Enhancement was established to enhance and maintain the public’s trust in the accounting profession. Over the last two decades, the ethics of the accounting profession has been questioned and public trust destabilized, in particular for auditors, due to the Enron debacle. The fact that an auditing firm would assist their clients with publishing an inadequate set of financial statements shows their willingness to violate laws and regulations (Sims & Brinkmann, 2003). According to the textbook, “Because trust is essential, even the appearance of an accountant’s honesty and integrity is important. The auditor, therefore, must not only be trustworthy, but he or she must also appear trustworthy” (Duska, Duska & Ragatz, 2011, p. 116). The majority of statements filed inadequately have a substantial impact on the credibility of the accounting profession as a whole. Sullivan (n.d.10) states that a CPA must possess a high level of trust, by applying professional judgment and enhancing the three trustworthy characteristics (ability, benevolence, and integrity) when resolving accounting ethics dilemmas (slide 3).

Based on Client Confidentiality and Fraud the limited nature of review assumptions, together with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' (AICPA) customer confidentiality guideline, puts the reviewer in the position of needing to pick between procuring a job or settling on a fitting moral decision. Expert codes for U.s. bookkeeping morals are more prohibitive than those of most expert affiliations, even those for which the customer specialist benefit is decently perceived. Also, the idea of bookkeeper customer benefit has never been underpinned by the government courts including various U.s. Incomparable Court choices, which neglected to discover such a privilege. Changes in expert norms in regards to confidentiality are important

The goal of the accounting and audit professions is to provide statements and information on behalf of a firm that are reliable and relevant to users. In order to accomplish this goal, the accounting and audit professions have continuously evolved in order to meet the needs of said users. In this new age of accounting, we feel the need for accountants and auditors to further modify their methodology and process. With the focus of accounting and auditing staying the same, we in the profession must be sure to strive to produce valuable information to the end users.

Investigation and discipline of registered public accounting firms for violations of relevant laws or professional standards.

Integrity – Accountants should always ensure that they are honest and straightforward in their activities with every instance that they have clients. They should always maintain the lines of duty and maintain business relationships during all official duties (Nobes, 2015).

110.1 - The principle of integrity imposes an obligation on all Members to be straightforward and honest in

witnesses also are included in the case. The primary issue in this case (drawn from actual