Accounting and Auditing Research and Databases: Practitioner's Desk Reference

Summary

The research work of a practicing professional accountant is very important. Few practitioners ever experience a workweek that does not include the investigation and analysis of an accounting, auditing, or tax issue. Thus every professional accountant should possess the ability to conduct practical research in a systematic way. The goal of this text is to aid current and future practitioners in developing a basic framework or methodology to assist in the research process.

The emphasis of the following chapters is on practical applied research that deals with solutions to immediate issues rather than theoretical research that has little or no present-day application. Chapter 2 presents the environment of U.S. GAAP research and important databases with a focus on the FASB's Codification Research System. The sources of authoritative literature when dealing with international accounting issues is discussed in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 presents other available research tools that may aid in the effective and efficient conduct of practical research, with an emphasis on computerized research via various databases that exist. Chapter 5 provides the basic steps of tax research and valuable databases and websites. Chapter 6 concludes with a discussion of assurance services and related research databases.

The following Appendix presents an alphabetized list of organizations that promulgate professional or legal authorities and indicates the major accounting, auditing, and tax abbreviations ...