Research Guides: Accounting: ACCT 450 (Grant)

Resources for Project #1

1. First, use the websites provided to begin to answer the assignment questions:

AICPA Professional Standards
AICPA's audit standards were developed by the organization's Auditing Standards Board. The statements were recently redrafted for clarity.
Public Companies Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) Auditing Standards
The PCAOB established auditing and related professional practice standards for registered public accounting firms to follow in the preparation of audit reports for public companies.
Statements on Quality Control Standards (SQCSs)
Statements on Quality Control Standards (SQCSs) are issued by the ASB (an AICPA committee). Firms that are enrolled in an AICPA-approved practice-monitoring program are obligated to adhere to quality control standards established by the AICPA.

2. To look up more information about your assigned standards, try searching the standard (for example, "AU-C 240") in a database, which will provide articles and news about the standard and its implementation:

Accounting, Tax, & Banking Collection (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Offers highly ranked global and scholarly journals along with current news and coverage of trends and events in accounting and tax.
Business Source Premier (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
Contains the full text of journals in the fields of marketing, management, accounting, finance, law, and economics. Access provided by KYVL.

Resources for Project #2

EDGAR
The EDGAR database provides free public access to corporate information, allowing you to research a public company’s financial information and operations by reviewing the filings the company makes with the SEC.

Resources for Group Project

Finding a company
- The best source is looking at the SEC's press releases. You can search the headlines for "misstatement". For press releases prior to 2012, visit SEC's press release archive.
- Additionally, you can search on Google for things like "SEC case misstatement", "public companies with material misstatements in reports" or "material misstatement in financial statement news".
- Another option is to do an advanced search in EDGAR for "misstatement" or "material misstatement". Many of the results will be "Correspondence" forms that could discuss misstatements.
- Use the Mergent Online database to search for public companies. After searching for a specific company, select "annual reports" to view SEC filings or select "company financials" to view financial statements.
Preparing your report
- Search on Google for news and more details about the company you selected
- Search for SEC press releases on relevant cases
- Search the databases listed above for project #1