AICPA Code of Professional Conduct ETH/376 November 26, 2012 AICPA Code of Professional Conduct The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants is a professional, but voluntary, association that provides memberships to Certified Public Accountants. It outlines a CPA’s ethical and professional responsibilities through its Code of Conduct (Vitez, 2012). It is considered the foundation of ethical reasoning in accounting because of the principles that it outlines and it links professional conduct to moral judgment. The AICPA outlines six principles of conduct that accountants and CPAs can follow to remain professional in their dealings with their own clients or companies that they work for. These principles include Responsibilities, Public Interest, Integrity, Objectivity and Independence, Due Care, and Scope and Nature of Services.
AICPA Code of Professional Conduct Certified public accountants (CPAs) perform a role that is essential to society. Because of the importance of that role, CPAs have responsibilities to anyone who employs their professional services. CPAs also have a responsibility to assist one another in enhancing the accounting profession, maintaining the public's confidence, and consistently fulfilling the profession's exclusive responsibilities. The voluntary association of CPAs, better known as the AICPA, has proposed a code of conduct that CPAs have chosen to adhere to. Now it is time to discuss the purpose for AICPA’s code, why it is considered the foundation of ethical reasoning, and its most important purposes.
Robbin Industries is jeopardizing itself by not properly reporting the advertising costs. As an operating company, they must understand the generally accepted accounting principles and adhere to them (Weygandt, Kieso, & Kimmel, 2010). (c) What would you do if you were Wayne Terrago? Wayne Terrago should try to report the financial condition and results of operations fairly and in accordance with the generally accepted accounting principles. As controller, Wayne should inform management and understand what is acceptable according to the GAAP.
As an auditor one is required to remain objective, an auditor should at all times remain independent in fact and appearance. They should take special precautions to assure there is no conflict of interest. An auditor is required to make an unbiased opinion on the financial stability of an organization (Schumerhorn, 2012). It is customary to charge a fee for auditing services, this is how auditing firms produce revenue to support their business and employees. However if this fee comes from the agency in which is being audited this firm is subject to scrutiny in regards to the audit.
Ethics can be separated into two categories, namely compliance and value. Compliance ethics emphasizes on following the law where individuals’ behaviour requirements are influenced by rewards and sanctions, while value ethics emphasizes on inspiring principles that people are expected to have such as integrity and fairness (Paine 1994). However, there can be cases where it is legal, but unethical. An example of this is from the case where Dr Susan Lim overcharged a Brunei royalty for her fees (Ho 2013). This is a legal but unethical issue.
Objectivity and independence remain free from conflicts of interest and other questionable business relationships when conducting accounting services. Not doing so may hamper an accountant ability to provide honest opinion about a company’s financial information. Due care requires accountants to observe all technical or ethical accounting standards. Ethics Case 1-8 (concluded) Ethical issues or challenges: 1. Fairness is one because auditors should treat every company the same way no matter what.
Business Ethics - Second Short Paper Paul F. Camenisch’s argument is that the heart of business ethics is its ability to contribute to human flourishing. He relates business ethics to ethics in general. Business ethics relies on the same moral code that every person should follow. Ethics cannot be departmentalized as separate moral codes for business, parents, students, etc. Business is even viewed by some as being the vehicle for contributions to worthy causes.
INTRODUCTION At times we may wonder what is meant by ethics, why accountants need ethics in their business life or even how they are related. As we may know, definitions of ethics vary with time but in most cases it is defined” With these definitions we can understand that basically ethics is knowing what is right (Mitchell 2009). Ethics in accounting and finance a global concern today (Onyebuchi, 2011). However, the accounting and finance sector has over the past years developed a culture of ethical misconduct (Gianneti & Yue Wang, 2014). According to Anup & Chadha (2005), Ethical misconducts often lead to corporate scandals that come with serious consequences e.g.
“Determined by the FASB, U.S. generally accepted accounting principles are standards that determine how accountants in the U.S. conduct and format their reports. Accounting records must be seen by a number of people outside of the organization for transparency purposes. If each company created its own accounting reporting methods, comparing financial statements would be inefficient and hiding information would be easier. According to the FASB, entities such as the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants recognize FASB's authority to set standards.” There are some simple objectives in which a company
One of the main concerns in any motivational program is ethical issues. Motivational practices can have negative impact on work ethics and increase unethical behaviors in the workplace. Ethics in workplace Employees have to do their jobs in an ethical manner. There is no universal definition for ethics, however, De George has stated that :Ethics is a systematic attempt to make sense of our individual and social moral experience, in such a way as to determine rules that ought to govern human conduct, the values worth pursuing, and the character traits deserving development in life (De George, 2006, p.19-20). Business ethics is the guiding principles on what is the “right” or appropriate way to behave in a situation (Jones & George, 2008).