'Hey there, Bob Pozen' YouTube video addresses complexity in financial reporting

Steven Zelin, aka "The Singing CPA," and Edith Orenstein, AccountingWEB blogger for Financial Executives International (FEI), have teamed up to create a music video celebrating the third anniversary of the Security and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Advisory Committee on Improvements to Financial Reporting chaired by Robert C. (Bob) Pozen, senior financial lecturer at Harvard University.

Complexity in financial reporting continues to vex members of the accounting profession as we address issues including convergence from Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), implementation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and lingering matters derived from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

The Pozen Committee was created to examine the U.S. financial reporting system with the goals of reducing unnecessary complexity and making information more useful and understandable for investors.  

As Edith Orenstein has pointed out in her FEI blog, the committee has provided useful guidance in the area of professional judgment and has been responsible for recommending several changes, including:

• Increasing investor participation in FASB and the FAF
• Launching of Post-Implementation Review by FASB
• SEC’s “Financial Reporting Series,” a public roundtable series scheduled to begin this year
• SEC interpretive guidance on the ability of companies to provide information required by the SEC via various forms of electronic media
• Phase-in of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) requirements in SEC reports

This is the second musical pairing of Zelin and Orenstein. Last year the two created and performed a musical number, "If I Were an Auditor,"  that was filmed in the virtual world of Second Life and included several accounting and financial bloggers in its cast. Enjoy the music video , Hey There, Bob Pozen, as you ponder the direction financial reporting will take in the future.