SEC Reporting Essentials: Climate Disclosures, Non-GAAP Measures, and MD&A

Course Overview:

This course offers a comprehensive overview of key SEC regulations, combining insights from three critical areas.  Chapter 1 covers the SEC’s recent final rules on climate-related disclosures for public companies, released on March 6, 2024, addressing the balance between investor demands for transparency and implementation costs.  Chapter 2 explores the hot topic of non-GAAP financial measures, emphasizing compliance with SEC and FASB guidelines, supported by comment letter analysis from the Big 4 accounting firms. Chapter 3 explores the management’s discussion and analysis (MD&A) section of financial statements, detailing SEC regulatory requirements and common issues highlighted in their frequent comment letters. Together, these chapters provide essential knowledge for navigating the evolving landscape of SEC regulations. 


Learning Objectives:

 Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Recognize how the SEC climate-related disclosures have evolved
• Identify types of climate related risks
• Differentiate between Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions
• Recognize qualitative and quantitative climate-related disclosures
• Identify assurance requirements and compliance dates for different types of entities
• Differentiate between a GAAP financial measure and a non-GAAP financial measure
• Recognize examples of different types of non-GAAP financial measures
• Identify which SEC guidance is applicable to different types of non-GAAP financial measures
• Recognize disclosures within the scope of Regulation G
• Identify key requirements included within both Regulation G and Regulation S-K related to these measures
• Identify the SEC Regulation applicable to MD&A
• Recognize the primary objective and focus areas related to MD&A
• Identify key information that should be included within a company’s MD&A
• Recognize the types of transactions that should be discussed in MD&A
• Identify methods to enhance the presentation of MD&A