Dr. Rick Warren founded Warren Global Corp in 1992 after leaving PricewaterhouseCoopers. Warren Global became renowned for its expertise in Sarbanes-Oxley compliance after completing over 2,000 internal control audits. Recently, the G-20 nations mandated the adoption of global accounting standards (IFRS) to replace domestic standards like GAAP. In response, Warren Global developed the Millennium package to help companies comply with IFRS in a cost-effective manner. The article also discusses how accounting regulators and standards-setting groups are driving the adoption of IFRS, including the potential addition of IFRS competencies to the CPA exam.

1. MAKING A CASE FOR GLOBAL ACCOUNTING STANDARDS AKA IFRS
AUTHOR: Dr. Rick Warren, Chairman and CEO of Warren Global Corp
Dated: March, 2014
Warren Global Corp (Warren Global), a Delaware corporation, was founded by Dr. Rick
Warren, an alum of PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) upon his departure from PWC in the
summer of 1992. Warren Global soon thereafter began accepting consulting engagements
from Warren's alma mater and the popularity of his firm skyrocketed once the Enron
debacle hit Wall Street. The new “buzz” on Wall Street then was Sarbanes Oxley (SOX)
which became law in July of 2002 and the new law suddenly captured the attention of all
CEOs/CFOs within corporate America, because for the first time in history, “cooking of
the books” would trigger criminal sanctions. The problem, quickly discovered, was that
there were few companies or individuals who understood the new legislation nor the audit
requirements to SOX certify such corporate filings. PWC came to Dr. Warren and his firm to
fill this knowledge void, and within a matter of three (3) years, Warren Global became pre-
eminent as a SOX corporate compliance provider, after completing over 2,000 SOX Section
404 internal control audits. This led ostensibly to a more recent G-20 mandate where the
top 20 nations unanimously ruled that Global Accounting Standards aka IFRS would soon
replace GAAP, not only here in the United States but abroad as well where corporate filers
had already begun transitioning GAAP to IFRS. This led to Warren’s development of the
firm's Millennium Cost Containment and Revenue Production Package
(“Millennium”) which does all the “heavy lifting” for Global Accounting Standards
complicity, while increasing internal accounting supply chain efficiencies and turning such
efficiency gains into surplus cash. The average complicity gain by Millennium conservatively
removes ten (10%) percent of any user’s Costs of Revenue replacing removed inefficiencies
with such surplus cash.
Many c-level executives are aware that the National Association of State Boards of
Accountancy (NASBA) has become a driving force within the accounting profession where
NASBA has created a forum for accounting regulators and practitioners to address issues
relevant to the viability of the accounting profession. NASBA has authored a robust
portfolio of products and services, all designed to effectively aid boards in their goal to
protect the public. As far back as January, 2008, NASBA published an article requiring
prospective CPAs to be IFRS savvy, and at the time of this writing, many state Boards of
Accountancy are preparing to add IFRS competencies to the CPA exam.
NASBA’s article entitled “Time to Get Global Accounting Standards aka IFRS on
the Exam” (available upon request) is snapshotted below as follows:

2. The “train has left the station on IFRS” [International Financial Reporting Standards
as published by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board], Walton Conn,
KPMG national office partner, told the conference jointly sponsored by Baruch College and
the NASBA Center for the Public Trust on December 6 in New York City. He reported that
the largest accounting firms have already invested in training their staffs in IFRS. Waiting
for the SEC to make a determination on whether US companies can use IFRS in place of
GAAP (see story about SEC’s concept release sir 8/07) may be too late for beginning
consideration of incorporating IFRS into the Uniform CPA Examination, Dr. Conn
observed. Fellow panelist Larry Shapiro, associate director of assurance for BDO Seidman,
commented that clients as well as their auditors will need to come up to speed on IFRS.
PricewaterhouseCoopers believes the conversion to IFRS is an eventuality, remarked Jorge
Milo, national auditing services leader for PWC; however, he added that for those
businesses without operations outside the United States there will not be the same
incentives. “We’re going to globalization,” said John Fogarty, past chairman of the AICPA’s
Auditing Standards Board and present member of the IASB. A huge number of auditing
standards are under revision, he explained, and the strides to convergence of international
and US standards over the last five years have been tremendous. There is “intense interest”
globally on the application of these standards to small and medium-size companies, he told
the conference. Dr. Fogarty commented, “Some say because I am small this should not
apply to me: That degrades the system.” He reported the standard-setters are trying to
address this problem by having guidance on how standards should be applied to small
entities. Thomas Ray, PCAOB’s chief auditor and director of professional standards,
outlined the guidance for smaller companies that the PCAOB1 had out for comment until
December 17, 2007. It addresses scaling the audit for smaller, less complex environments,
as well as sufficient evidence when there is less formal documentation and auditing smaller
companies with pervasive deficiencies. Two of the PCAOB’s current projects outlined by Dr.
Ray, one on risk assessment and the other on reviewing interim standards, will be related to
international standards. SEC Deputy Chief Accountant-Professional Practice Zoe-Vonna
Palmrose reported 110 private issuers currently registered with the SEC use IFRS. In
response to the SEC’s concept release about giving US domestic issuers the same option that
foreign private issuers now have, to use either IFRS or US GAAP in their SEC Filings, 78
comments were received, she reported. More public feedback was to be collected during the
December 13 and 15 roundtables the SEC sponsored. The Commission is particularly
interested in feedback on training in IFRS, Ms. Palmrose told the conference. There is a
large volume of technical material that auditors need to know to do their jobs effectively,
but not necessarily for entry into the profession, KPMG Partner Craig Crawford told the
conference. The firms want people who can apply the technical aspects of the profession,
but it is part of the firms’ responsibility to teach them how to approach problems, he
observed. Trust in the US financial system relies on auditors, Larry Bridgesmith, Center for
the Public Trust Board member, said in summarizing the conference. “Culture is what we
tolerate as professionals,” he observed. “We can make a difference by being a difference.”
With over 2,000 SOX audits completed, Warren Global Corp has already made a difference.
1
PCAOB is the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board established by Sarbanes Oxley