Loyalty to the client was clearly placed above loyalty to the overall public good and the standards of the profession. "Enron paid Andersen $25 million for its audit…and $27 million for 'consulting' and other services" which meant that Anderson had a substantial financial stake in retaining Enron as a client (Kadlec 2002). The Enron case illustrates the difficulty of self-policing within the industry. Today, providing additional services besides the audit itself is considered an ethical 'red flag' for an accounting firm (Verschoor 2012).
In retrospect, it is difficult to see how the Enron case could have had a happy ending, given that its business model was based upon fraud and deceiving investors. The best case scenario would have been for Anderson not to take the case at all. That is why effective pre-screening of clients is so important. "Practitioners must assess the ethical environment found within potential and existing clients…...

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References

Enron scandal at-a-glance. (2002). BBC. Retrieved:

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/1780075.stm 

Kadlec, Daniel. (2002). Enron: Who's accountable? Time. Retrieved:

 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1001636,00.html#ixzz2RTOXm6cx

Accounting Ethics
Ethics of Accounting

There have been breaches in the ethics of accounting in recent times. With that in mind, evaluate whether or not the current trend in the regulation of business establishments is favorable to ethical behavior. Supply supportive evidence to your answers (Jeter, 2003).

The generally accepted principles of accounting and the standards of auditing in contemporary practice stipulate that the financial statements of any establishment should contain the following for the period being covered by the report: the company's financial standing (balance sheet), earnings (income), cash flows, investments by the shareholders and the distributions that have been made to them. The United States system of accounting has been criticized as rules-driven especially as the standards are determined by FASB and those who were there before them. On the other hand, the international practice in accounting is in favor of a principle-based standard of accounting, and this approach provides general…...

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References

Albrecht, W. Chad Albrecht, Conan Albrecht, Mark Zimbelman. (2011). Fraud Examination. Cengage Learning Publicatons.

Jennings, M. (2011). Business Ethics: Case Studies and Selected Readings. Cengage Learning Publications.

Jeter, L.W (2003). Disconnected: Deceit and Betrayal at WorldCom. Wiley.

Malik, O. (2003). Broadbandits. Wiley.

This could further lead to resentment and eventually to resignations. To eliminate this problem, John mith could firstly discuss the issue with the professionals involved and request ideas for the firm's new title. He could also use the previous title as a guideline, as this would provide both a starting point for the new era, as well as the idea that the previous owner and the staff that remains are honored for their contributions to date. According to Rule 505-3 of the AICPA Code of Ethics, it appears that the exact title of the firm is not as important as maintaining practices that are within the public interest. It is both in the firm's and the public interest to remain as close as possible to the previous name, while at the same time indicating that it is now under new management.
NO. 7 the CPA can avoid possible disciplinary action…...

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Sources

The American Institute of Public Accountants. (2008, 23 Feb).  http://www.aicpa.org

This article does shed light on how the Duncan Donuts organization should look at to improve the ethical responsibility of accounting practices. Making accounting practices available to the public and shareholders can then ensure a more ethical reputation for the organization itself. Additionally, implementing peer established reviews will also help strengthen the ethical image of the Duncan Donuts brand and its affiliates.

Accounting ethics is essential in financial decision making. It is clear that "Accountants have a number of ethical responsibilities, to themselves, their families, and their profession as well as to the clients and company for which they work," (Duska & Duska 2003:30). Thus, they must act in an ethical manner when making financial decisions to protect the greater good of the public, rather than empowering the greed of the elite. For ethics to truly work in an accounting context, it must bank on ethical theory stemming back to philosophical…...

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Publishing.

Sarbanes-Oxley.com. (2002). Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Retrieved January 16,

2009 from  http://www.sarbanes-oxley.com/section.php?level=1&pub_id=Sarbanes-Oxley .

Accounting Ethics
The harmless or not-so-harmless lies of Bobby Glick

From a strictly utilitarian perspective, it might be that the scenario outlined in the Glick case does not seem so morally questionable. Glick, as a new and untested employee right out of college, was naturally apprehensive about how his competency would be viewed. He studied, successfully passed his CPA exam, and acquitted himself admirably 'on the job.' No one was harmed by his concealment: indeed, his firm benefited from having a highly competent employee concerned about his reputation working for them.

However, viewing professional ethics from a purely utilitarian perspective is extremely problematic. Professional ethics by its nature assumes certain 'standards' which professionals must uphold, even if the consequences are not bad -- in fact, even if the consequences of the unethical action are 'good' (Driver 2009). For example, someone with no CPA license could lie, get employment with a CPA firm, and…...

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References

Alexander, Larry & Moore, Michael. (2012). Deontological ethics. The Stanford

Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved: .

Driver, Julia. (2009). The history of utilitarianism. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved:

.

Accounting Ethics
A Sad Tale: The Demise of Arthur Andersen

Arthur Anderson was once a major accounting firm. The failure of the firm in 2002 may be attributed to bad ethical decisions which ultimately came to a head with the Enron scandal,. This scandal resulted not only in the loss of many clients prior to the SEC talking action against the firm, but the firm facing and being convicted of a felony. This was the end of the firm; even if the firm was able to survive, it is unlikely any companies would want to be associated with an accounting firm that demonstrated such significant failures.

When examining the failures at Arthur Andersen it may be argued the problems were well established and embedded in the culture, a failure which can ultimately be attributed to the organization's leadership. A major ethical issue for any auditing company is the requirement for independence. It is…...

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References

Chyssides GD, Kaler JH, (1998), An Introduction to Business Ethics, London, Thompson Business Press

Elliott B, Elliott J, (2011), Financial Accounting and Reporting, London, Prentice Hall

Jickling, M, (2002, March 19), The Enron Collapse: An Overview of Financial Issues, CRS Report for Congress, Congressional Research Service, The Library of Congress

The source supplied by the student was also used

Accounting Ethics
The Dilemma

The dilemma that Dan faces juxtaposes his loyalty to what are portrayed as his company's interests and to what are his own interests. Dan knows that the company is overstating the value of the property and that Oliver has acted against the long-run best interests of the company, but in favor of the short-run best interests of the company. That Oliver has already issued the negative opinion about Dan's performance has made the issue a personal one. Resolving the dilemma is complicated in that Dan has no direct evidence of his conversations with Oliver; he does have, however, his report and the version that Oliver submitted. Dan is unsure about the degree to which his interests and the interests of the company are aligned -- if Oliver is right then Dan has a dilemma but if Oliver is wrong then Dan does not have a dilemma. Dan is…...

The purpose of requiring the application of professional standards rather than personal ethical values in professional accounting and auditing is precisely, to ensure that all entities are regulated and evaluated impartially and without regard to any subjective beliefs or philosophical perspectives of the individual rendering professional accounting services or conducting audits. Whereas the AICPA Code of esponsibility actually incorporates the word objectivity (in addition to the word independence), the GAS GAGAS uses only the latter, but, in fact, either denotes the same concept, that objectivity is an essential professional obligation of accounting and auditing

The mechanical or computational aspects of accounting are, by nature, purely objective and not inherently susceptible to subjective interpretation or application, in general principle. However, the actual practice of accounting and auditing leaves considerable room for subjective belief, such as where the professional must make an independent determination of what degree of truth may be presumed in…...

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References

AICPA Code of Professional Conduct Section 55 - Article IV -- Objectivity and Independence. Retrieved March 2, 2008, from the AICPA website, at  

The concepts in this article relate and apply to my former organization because the organization did strive to maintain the highest ethical standards, and did treat their clients professionally and ethically. It was a good model for a young accountant to follow, and I do not believe they could improve on the organization's ethics, unless they held their accountants to even higher standards of excellence. Ethics is primary in accounting and financial decision-making, because it is not only the reputation of the firm that comes into question. When firms forget who they are representing and use questionable ethical practices, they are not only harming their reputations. They are harming the reputation and integrity of their clients, and this is inexcusable. It will only harm the firm in the end, because their clients will lose faith in them, and they will turn to other, more ethically sound organizations.

Passed in 2002, the…...

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References

Longnecker, B.M. (2004, May). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act: Altering the fabric of American business. USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), 132, 28+.

Smith, D.L. (2003). A fresh look at accounting ethics. Accounting Horizons, 17(1), 47+.

They will also examine the importane of ethis lasses in ollege. They will pave the way for future researh into ations that an be taken to address the problems that urrently exist within the aounting profession. They will play an important role the improvement of ollege urriulums so that they an be better prepared to meet ethial and moral hallenges of their hosen profession. This study represents the first step to understanding the onnetion between ollege urriulum and the ability to maintain ethial standards in the aounting profession.
CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW

In order to further establish a solid theoretial basis for the researh at hand, we will examine the body of literature that exists on the topi at hand. The literature review will examine literature from many different, but losely related areas in order to examine many sides of the issues. For the most part, researh will be reent,…...

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cited in many works. French argues that a corporation possesses functioning internal processes that make corporate decisions and actions possible by coordinating, subordinating, and synthesizing the actions of individual human members. He agrees with the argument that this transforms individual decisions into a corporate action that is solely for the benefit of the corporation rather than the individuals. French's argument would allow for the existence of corporate moral responsibility.

Arguments on the individualist extreme include Donaldson (1982) and Risser (1996). Donaldson believes that corporations are moral agents which are capable of bearing responsibility. However, he specifies two conditions that the corporation must meet in order to qualify as a moral agent. The first is the capacity to include moral considerations in its decision-making and the second is the capacity to maintain and modify its system in order to increase the probability that it will achieve its goals. In other words, the corporation must be able to respond to changes that may necessitate structural changes in order to achieve group goals. Risser went as far as to call this ability "moral responsibility."

Moral responsibility implies the ability to engage in responsive behavior. Therefore it implies liability for the results of one's actions. The court system in the United States can impose punishments to the corporation such as fines and restrictions on business. Stone (1975) feels that these sanctions do not address the inner processes of the corporation that will result in the necessary change. Because the responsibility is distributed over the group, each individual portion of the responsibility is less than if an individual committed the act. A corporation has no conscience and unlike the individual, cannot feel guilt or remorse for their actions.

Wolgast (1992) argued that accountability is an important element of the moral responsibility of the corporation. Enforcement is the most challenging aspect of accountability. Each corporation has a right to their own secrets and advantages. It is not required to make all of its secrets public, but there is a line where accountability is required.

Stakeholders have a right to review the quarterly and yearly financial statements to make certain that they continue to receive value for their investments. If the stakeholder does not feel that the investment is still a good decision they have the right to knowledge that allows them to make an informed decision. The corporation has a moral responsibility to provide accurate information to stakeholders for this purpose. Corporations have a responsibility to provide information that is accurate and true. Corporations that failed in this responsibility are often punished collectively by stakeholders that refuse to support their organization in the future.

Business Finance
"The Commission" refers to the Securities Exchange Commission, which is the primary governing body for financial markets.

"The Board" is the Public Companies Accounting Oversight Board. The SEC oversees the Board. The SEC therefore approves the rules that the Board writes and implements, the SEC appoints the people who run the PCAOB and the PCAOB is accountable to the SEC.

The PCAOB is a board, of people, appointed by the SEC.

The PCAOB is charged with four main duties in relation to the capital markets. These are to "register the public accounting firms that prepare audit forms for issuers," to "establish or adopt…standards relating to the preparation of audit reports," to conduct inspections of registered public accounting firms" and to "conduct investigations and disciplinary proceedings" against public accounting firms. In essence, the PCAOB provides oversight over the accounting and in particular the auditing profession.

e. As noted above, public accounting firms must register…...

Education on ethics must be wider compared to "moral development" in that it must tackle the broader consideration of a wide-ranging vocation, and constricted in that it must tackle problems particularly to the accounting vocation. (esearch on Accounting Ethics)
Definite duties of the accounting profession are put forth in the different code of ethics circulated by important establishments like the AICPA. The AICPA's foremost rule of professional conduct declares: In discharging their duties as professionals, associates must implement responsive professional and moral views in all their works. (Business and Accounting Ethics) the failure of auditor sovereignty infringing ule 101 of the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct was the topic of a research project using 2,000 arbitrarily chosen AICPA members in public accounting profession as a staff auditor, senior, or manager. These executives were offered with 15 roles that are an infringement of ule 101 and were directed to give their…...

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References

Accounting and Accountability: A Challenge for corporate culture. The 13th International Symposium on Ethics, Business and Society. IESE Business School, University of Navarra. Barcelona, Spain. May 7-8, 2004. Retrieved at   Accessed on 25 April, 2005.http://www.iese.edu/en/files/6_6343.pdf .

Schachter, Joseph. Research on Accounting Ethics. CPA Journal. April 1999. Retrieved at   Accessed on 25 April, 2005.http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/1999/0499/News_Views/NV12.HTM .

Smith, Katherine T; Smith, Murphy. L. Business and Accounting Ethics. 21 June, 2003.

Retrieved at Accessed on 25 April, 2005.http://acct.tamu.edu/smith/ethics/ethics.htm.

.....ethical for an employer to use social media information as a factor when considering whether to hire an employee? What about monitoring social networking activities of employees while on the job? Use ethical reasoning in answering these questions.
The wide-ranging use of social media in the workplace gives rise to serious moral and ethical concerns. Kantian ethics lays emphasis on the form of an action in ascertaining its morality. Kant insists on the Categorical Imperative. Kant implies that this ethical principle is the superlative and outright and proper test to morality, whereas imperative implies that from time to time one must command oneself to be moral and undertake the right thing, even and particularly when one's self-centeredness may be infringed by acting ethically (Mintz, 2015). As an overall moral rule, for an employer to impose into an employee's private life on social media devoid of consent or in a clandestine or…...

Ethics and Independence in the Accounting Profession
There are according to the text, two primary reasons that people act unethically. A person will act unethically if there standards differ substantially from those of society "as a whole" or if the person chooses consciously to act in a selfish manner.

There is no profession more profoundly impacted by the effects of ethical standards that the accounting profession. The effects of ethical and unethical behavior on independence and daily functioning are implicit in everything an individual in the accounting profession does.

ecently there have been many public 'scandals' within the accounting profession, re-establishing the need for attention to ethical standards and training within the field of accounting. Public cases such as Enron have resulted in a diminished sense of trust among the public with regard to the accounting profession.

In times of old individuals pursuing the accounting profession as a career might assume that they would…...

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References:

Dettmer, J. (2002). "Enron casts dark shadow on academe." Insight on the News, 18(9):

47

Rothenburg, E. (2003). "Incorporating business ethics into introductory accounting courses." The CPA Journal, 73(10): 6

Sack, R. (1991). "Integrating ethics into the accounting curriculum." Journal of Accountancy, 172(4): 43

Accounting has been nothing if not a dynamic, global discipline over the last two decades. The role of the accountant has changed dramatically during that time and will continue to do so -- as will the nature of the challenges that the accounting profession faces"
Over the past twenty years, the modern business community has been faced with the challenges of globalization, the new predominance of technology in business affairs, and the creation of a service-based 'knowledge economy' versus a manufacturing-based one. The profession of accounting has had to adapt to this new environment. "Business internationalization and globalization has facilitated the transfer of capital and information across national borders, with economic power residing in holders of particular knowledge sets. Business and management location is becoming increasingly irrelevant and management and accounting work is becoming multidisciplinary" (Parker 2002).

Globalization has lead to more uniform regulations in accounting. Until recently, U.S. accountants for…...

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References

GAAP'S Last Stand IFRS is no rumor -- welcome to the next phase of financial reporting.

2011. Periso. Accessed:

/ [June 23, 2011]http://perisho.com/keeping-current/gaaps-last-stand-ifrs-is-no-rumor-welcome-to-the-next-phase-of-financial-reporting

Parker, Lee D. 2002. Reinventing the managerial accountant. Glasgow University.

When people think of accounting, they rarely think of ethics.  While ethical guidelines are of obvious importance in other professions, they seem removed from the black and white nature of number crunching.  However, accounting ethics are of incredible importance, not only to accountants but also to their clients.  That is because when handling money there is tremendous pressure to fudge numbers, look the other way when other people are doing wrong, or even to dip your hand in the cookie jar.  This can result in a range of disastrous results, from tax problems for....

Accounting ethics are incredibly important because accountants are entrusted with handling money for individuals, businesses, and other organizations.  Unethical accountants can expose a business to financial risks and liabilities, even if their breaches of ethics do not amount to criminal behavior or involve intentional wrongdoing on the part of the accountant.  Huge financial scandals, such as Enron, could not occur without ethical breaches on the part of the accountants because the financial structure of large organizations requires at least passive participation in wrongdoing by people at the accountant level.  Accountant ethics are....

1. Integrity: Accounting professionals should uphold high standards of honesty, integrity, and trustworthiness in all their professional and personal dealings.

2. Objectivity: Accountants should remain impartial and unbiased in their work, providing accurate and reliable information without allowing personal interests or biases to influence their judgment.

3. Confidentiality: Accountants have a responsibility to maintain the confidentiality of client information and to ensure that sensitive financial data is protected from unauthorized disclosure.

4. Professional competence: Accountants should strive to maintain high levels of expertise and professionalism in their field, staying up-to-date on relevant laws, regulations, and best practices.

5. Professional behavior: Accountants should conduct themselves....

Key Principles and Values for a Code of Ethics in Accounting

A robust code of ethics for accounting professionals serves as a cornerstone for maintaining the integrity, credibility, and public trust in the profession. It provides a framework of principles and values that guide accountants in their professional conduct and decision-making. Here are some key principles and values that should be outlined in such a code:

1. Integrity

Adhere to the highest ethical standards and maintain impartiality in all professional activities.
Act with honesty, fairness, and transparency in all dealings.
Be truthful and accurate in reporting financial information and avoid any intentional....