Make sure you know your stuff when it comes to:

Who are the Big 4?

If you’re not familiar with this term yet you soon will be…

These guys are the four largest Accountancy and Professional Services firms. They handle the majority of audits for publicly traded companies as well as many private companies. The names to remember are:

Originally the Big 8, these companies can trace their history back, through a long line of mergers, to firms in Europe. PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte were formed in England. Ernst & Young were founded by a Scottish Accountant and KPMG is a result of a merger between two big Belgian and Dutch firms.

Given their dominance of the market these firms are a pretty attractive prospect – especially for anyone interested in working abroad. Here’s what the Big 4 are currently doing to encourage new employees and keep existing ones:

Deloitte:

• Global development program – allowing employees to spend up to 3 years abroad early on in their careers.
• Priorities for 2010 business plan include: improving scores in annual staff survey; increasing proportion of female Partners; assessing Partners as managers of people not just the amount of money they bring in.

Ernst & Young:

• Partners have spent years identifying specific skills needed for different roles so staff can easily plan a route to develop their career.
• Electronically delivered training services allow people greater control over their development.

KPMG:

• Time codes to account for how long senior staff spends on employee matters. These count towards pay rises and promotion.
• Compass – a programme that identifies 11 milestones on the path to Senior Partner allowing you to plan a development path.
• Career breaks which won’t affect chances for promotion.
• Mentoring of junior staff by Partners from another function to allow greater insight into different areas.

PricewaterhouseCooper

• Run programs, such as Genesis Park, which take promising employees out of work for five months and train them for Partner level roles.

What is GAAP?

Shame on you – not knowing what your favourite jobs board stands for! Take a deep breath – this is where it all gets technical…

GAAP stands for Generally Accepted Accountancy Principles, a common set of accounting principles, standards and procedures specific to one country (UK GAAP, US GAAP etc).

GAAP is a combination of authoritative standards (set by policy boards) and the accepted methods of doing accounting. The standards of UK GAAP are set by the Financial Accounting Standards Board and are the overall body of regulation establishing how company accounts must be prepared in the UK. This includes both accounting standards and UK company law.

The idea behind GAAP is to ensure that financial accounting information is assembled and reported objectively and to a certain standard. This then protects third-parties who rely on such information and guarantees them data that is accurate and comparable to that of other companies.

Here are the key terms to remember when it comes to GAAP:

• Accounting Standards Board (ASB) – The chief standard setter which issues Financial Reporting Standards (FRS). ASB is a private sector organisation, funded by the accounting forms.
• Financial Reporting Exposure Draft (FRED) – Are discussion papers issued by ASB when they want to propose a new standard. These are released to the public and comment invited. When all comments have been incorporated or addressed the standard is issued in its final form.
• The Companies Act – This incorporates the two Companies Acts of 1985 and 1989 and is the principal legislation governing reporting in the UK. The Act sets out minimum reporting requirements for companies and, for example, requires private limited companies to make their accounts available to the general public.

From 2005, this framework changed as a result of European law requiring that all listed European companies report under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs). In the UK, companies which are not listed have the option to report either under IFRSs or under UK GAAP. Recently issued UK FRSs have, in any case replicated the wording of corresponding IFRSs, reducing the differences between the two sets of standards significantly.

What are IFRS?

IFRS stands for International Financial Reporting Standards and are a set of ‘principle based’ accounting standards that establish broad rules rather than dictating specific treatments. Sometimes referred to by the older name of International Accounting standards (IAS) these are issued by the International Accounting Standards Board and are numbered sequentially upon publication.

IFRS is used in many countries across the world including Hong Kong, Russia and China. In 2002 the European Commission insisted that all companies listed on an EU regulated stock exchange must adopt IFRS. All companies had to meet the standards by January 2005. After January 2007 all AIM listed companies had to move to IFRS. Other UK companies within the UK still have a choice of reporting under UK GAAP or IFRS.

There have been substantial changes to financial reporting in recent years (not always successfully complied with) and with more on the way this is a useful area to have a detailed knowledge of. There is never a shortage of IFRS related vacancies in today’s financial job’s market.

For more detailed information regarding IFRS and how to attain certification in these standards, please visit the ICAEW website.

What is Sarbanes-Oxley?

Maybe it doesn’t sound too exciting but Sarbanes-Oxley has a dramatic and scandalous history behind it! Who said accountancy and finance were dull?!

Named after its creators Senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative Michel G Oxley, the Sarbanes-Oxley initiative was introduced in response to a number of scandals – most notably those involving Enron, Arthur Anderson and Worldcom.

These scandals resulted in corporate and investor losses of billions of dollars and negatively impacted the financial markets and investors’ trust in them. The Sarbanes-Oxley act was designed to rebuild investor confidence and stabilise the economy through the tightening of controls within major corporations and the enforcement of increased corporate responsibility.

The Act, passed in 2002, applies to American companies (including those based outside the UK) and all publicly-traded non-US companies doing business in the US. The Act originally stipulated full compliance by November 2004, but this was extended to July 2006 with companies failing even then to fall in line. Even now, there are plenty of Sarbanes-Oxley jobs on the market as companies struggle to ensure they comply with all legislation.

The major provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act include:

• Certification of financial reports by CEOs and CFOs.
• Ban on personal loans to Executive Officers and Directors.
• Accelerated reporting of trades by insiders.
• Prohibition on insider trades during pension fund blackout periods.
• Disgorgement of CEO and CFO compensation and profits.
• Additional disclosure.
• Auditor independence, including outright bans on certain types of work and pre-certification by the company’s Audit Committee of all other non-audit work.
• Criminal and civil penalties for securities violations.

What do you mean you want to know more? This is as far as we go but if you’re hooked on Sarbanes-Oxley click here to find out more.

Refine your search:

Include these keywords: Exclude these keywords: Job type: Permanent Temporary All Types Minimum salary: Maximum salary: Location:

Location exclusions:

Age of job ad: All jobs Last 7 days Premium jobs: All Jobs Premium jobs only Company: