This web-based tool targets professional accountants working in commerce, industry, the public sector, education, and the not-for-profit sector who can influence the way organizations integrate sustainability into their objectives, strategies, management, and definitions of success. It highlights the issues organizations must address to make sustainability an integral part of their business model.

The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) decided to commission this guidance document to bring together some of the best existing information on EMA and, at the same time, to update it and add to it as necessary. This document is neither a standard with defined requirements, nor a descriptive practitioner or research report. It is not intended to be a standard that IFAC member Bodies are expected to follow or adopt as a part of their responsibilities under IFAC's Statement of Membership Obligations (SMOs). It is intended to be a guidance document that falls into the middle ground between regulatory requirements, standards and pure information. As such, its goal is to reduce some of the international confusion on this important topic by providing a general framework and set of definitions for EMA that is fairly comprehensive and as consistent as possible with other existing, widely used environmental accounting frameworks with which EMA must coexist.

PAIB Committee members are often asked "What exactly does an accountant in business do?" Most members of the public have some perception of the traditional work carried out by accountants but with regard to those working outside that sphere, they seem unsure. The PAIB Committee produced the diagram in Figure 1 in an effort to demonstrate the many areas in which accountants work in and for business. Professional accountants in business include those who work in commerce, industry, the public sector, education and the not-for profit sector.

The Professional Accountants in Business Committee (PAIB) of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) was asked by the IFAC Board in October 2002 to explore the emerging concept of enterprise governance. A particular focus of the project was to consider why corporate governance often fails in companies and, more importantly, what must be done to ensure that things go right.

The Professional Accountants in Business Committee (PAIB) of IFAC was asked by the IFAC Board in October 2002 to explore the emerging concept of enterprise governance. A particular focus of the project was to consider why corporate governance often fails in companies and, more importantly, what must be done to ensure that things go right.

The 2002 theme booklet focuses on the theme of Risk Management from both the traditional review of the financial risks of a company and the emerging application of risk management techniques in the areas of strategy, reputation and people.

This publication features interviews conducted by Robert Bruce, accountancy editor of The Times, London, with 10 CFOs from North and South America, Europe, and Asia. The CFOs represent diverse fields, including telecommunications, electronics, retail, financial services, industrial gases, and consumer products and provide candid comments on what lies ahead for their profession and the businesses they serve. 

"Earnings Quality" has been a subject of investigations by regulators in many countries, articles in most, if not all, business publications, and significant debate in recent years. It is a matter of importance in the financial reporting and regulatory communities, and it impacts the confidence of investors in global financial markets. For this reason, the American Institute of CPAs in the U.S. engaged authors and experts to assemble this collection of case studies, to put the reader in the seat of executives making decisions that could impact the future of their company, and their own and their employees' livelihoods.