Stephen Sheen: ‘The most complicated accounting standard ever issued’
IFRS 9: “If you meet someone who claims grandly to have read it all and understood it, this is not the sort of person to trust with either your fidget[…]
Stephen Sheen
Stephen Sheen: Troubles with the auditor? Maybe it’s not you.
Auditors issue threats of qualification based on dogmatic demands but often their objections can be managed with a little push-back. Since I stopped being an external auditor five years ago,[…]
Stephen Sheen: The auditor’s dreaded knock on the door
Auditors might appear to be upping their action against struggling local authorities, but Stephen Sheen argues there’s little incentive to do anything beyond writing to suggest a council puts its financial[…]
Stephen Sheen: Plotting the big audit and accounting events ahead
It’s a busy year in prospect for audit and accounting. Stephen Sheen works through a schedule that includes auditor appointments, the new accelerated closedown, expenditure and funding analysis, highways and[…]
Stephen Sheen: making sure your MRP is ‘just right’
In a January article I wrote about the desirability generally for reviewing an authority’s policy for Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP). The mushrooming of interest in borrowing to invest, or lend,[…]
Stephen Sheen: Brexit and the accounting implications
Amidst all the clamour of the recent referendum, one thing was strangely missing from the debate, particularly for those of us who keep banging on about it outside of such[…]
Stephen Sheen: Living in a material world
Let’s talk materialism and the financial statements. Is your financial position a construct of “matter” that can only truly be known through the senses? Are you a child of Democritus[…]
Stephen Sheen: The thumb twiddling risks in auditor appointments
Local authorities have big decisions to make about their auditors and auditor panels need to start the work of finding audit candidates in their areas. Local audit has taken a step[…]
Stephen Sheen: MRP policy ripe for review
In the list of possible areas for revenue savings, an MRP (minimum revenue provision) review should be close to the top of the list, with its potential to make a[…]
Stephen Sheen: Taking pride in accounting
On 28 September, Fitch issued a statement making observances about local authority accounts, already responded to by a number of Room 151 experts. It wasn’t quite clear what Fitch were[…]
