Matthew Ord

1 week ago | accountingweb.co.uk | Matthew Ord

EY has been hit with its second fine in a week over auditing failures, with the Big Four firm carrying out work despite being ineligible. The investigation concerned the statutory audit of the financial statements of Stirling Water Seafield Finance plc (SWSF) for the year ended 31 December 2019. SWSF is a financing company, which is part of a group of businesses and is a wholly owned subsidiary of a UK parent.

2 weeks ago | accountingweb.co.uk | Matthew Ord

Once the world’s oldest travel company, Thomas Cook collapsed in 2019 with £1.7bn of debt, despite being given a clean bill of health. As it ceased to trade with immediate effect, the 178-year-old outfit left about 600,000 people stranded, with the audit failure being one of the first that started the call for more regulations. The incident went before a committee of MPs later that year.

2 weeks ago | accountingweb.co.uk | Matthew Ord

An acquisition has to start somewhere. There might be an acquisition strategy and accompanying criteria. There could be a broker bridging a meeting between the two parties. An opportunity may present itself that’s too good to say no to. With the profession experiencing a rise in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity, the origins of such a transaction have found themselves in the spotlight of late.

2 weeks ago | accountingweb.co.uk | Matthew Ord

A financial controller has been hit with a bill for almost £14,000 by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) after being found to have wrongly utilised company funds to pay for repairs on his own car, before falsifying an accounting entry to cover it up. Daniel West – who has been a member of the ICAEW since 2003 – was employed in the role at A Ltd between 7 March 2022 and 24 May 2022.

3 weeks ago | accountingweb.co.uk | Matthew Ord

Over the past few years, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity across accounting has hotted up with buyers, sellers, consolidators and private equity firms all having been busy. Flinder and Next Level Business are two of those to have been caught up in the rush, with the duo having joined forces to form Ascendant, targeting the outsourced business finances sector. Together under the banner, the group has combined revenues of £4m and 200 clients.