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In today’s volatile economy, many businesses and nonprofits have been required to write down the value of acquired goodwill on their balance sheets. Others are expected to follow suit — or report additional write-offs — in 2022. To the extent that goodwill is written off, it can’t be recovered in the future, even if the organization recovers. This makes impairment testing is a serious endeavor that usually requires input from your CPA to ensure accuracy, transparency, and timeliness.

Major events or transactions — such as a natural disaster, cyberattack, regulatory change, or the loss of a large business contract — may happen after the reporting period ends but before financial statements are issued. The decision of whether to report these so-called “subsequent events” is one of the gray areas in financial reporting. Here’s some guidance from the AICPA to help you decide.

Business transactions with related parties — such as relatives, parent companies, subsidiaries and affiliated entities — may sometimes happen at above or below market rates. If these transactions are not adequately disclosed, this could be misleading to the users of  your company’s financial statements, because undisclosed related-party transactions may skew the company’s true financial results.

Starting in fiscal year 2022, all entities — except nonprofit organizations in the scope of Topic 958, Not-for-Profit Entities, and employee benefit plans — must provide detailed disclosures about government assistance. Here are the details of the new rules.

In late January, a survey entitled “Audit Committee Practices Report: Common Threads Across Audit Committees” was published by Deloitte and the Center for Audit Quality, an affiliate of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. The survey analyzed 246 responses, including 86% of respondents who served on audit committees of public companies. Here are some key findings from that survey.

With the holidays and flu season just around the corner, many employees will be taking time off from their jobs for both vacations and illnesses. Business owners will need to be aware of the rules surrounding accrual, recognition, and measurement of these absences.

A contingency refers to a condition, situation, or set of circumstances where it is uncertain whether or not a gain or loss will occur in the future. The result of the current condition, situation, or set of circumstances, is unknown until future events occur (or do not occur). Contingencies are different from estimates, even though both involve a level of uncertainty. Calculating depreciation using an estimated useful life or amounts accrued for services received are not contingencies.

One of the most common retirement plan errors is a missed deferral opportunity, or MDO. This occurs when an employer fails to execute an employee’s election to defer amounts to a qualified retirement plan.

On January 12, a final Department of Labor (DOL) rule went into effect that amends the regulations governing the selection of retirement plan investments by fiduciaries under ERISA. Some important changes were made to the Final Rule from the proposed rule that was first issued a year ago.

There are many costs associated with starting and running a business, and determining whether those costs should be capitalized or expensed can provide challenges. Below is a summary of U.S. generally accepted accounting principles related to capitalization of start-up costs and website development costs.