Insights from preferability letters

Scholarly literature has discussed why entities make voluntary accounting changes, and practice grapples with which change might be appropriate and when. Regulators have set forth a requirement that public companies file preferability letters with the Securities and Exchange Commission indicating the auditor's support for the particular change. Descriptive profiling of these letters from 1992 through 2004 leads to prescriptions that address practice challenges and regulators' expectations. Broad policy questions involve whether such changes ought to be permitted and what independence considerations arise as managers, directors, auditors, and regulators discuss and sometimes disagree on the preferred accounting principles.