Strategic Finance articles from February 2006

Strategic Finance archives from February 2006

Guarding the auditing guards: new technology and a total quality approach can reengineer the PCAOB inspection function.(Public Company Accounting Oversight Board)
February 1, 2006... Investors rely on independent auditors to provide assurance that the financial statements of corporations are reasonably accurate. For the most part, their reliance has been based on the notion that auditors are independent of management and,...

Building support for difficult projects.(Careers)
February 1, 2006... Few people look forward to working on projects that are long in duration, mundane in nature, or, at the opposite end of the spectrum, overwhelmingly complex. The reality, of course, is that your projects vary, and you won't always relish each...

Drive better customer service with interactive invoicing: companies that improve their efficiency and effectiveness through e-business techniques can significantly increase cost savings, productivity, and customer satisfaction.(e-Business)
February 1, 2006... The challenge for today's leading companies beyond growth and profitability is to improve productivity and customer service. Now, more than ever, successful companies are finding ways to achieve that objective and extend their foothold in the...

Best bot, you bet.(End Note)
February 1, 2006... Some publications make an annual event of presenting the richest, the most available, even the dumbest (Darwin Awards) people in America. Offering a different take on hero worship, the editors at Wired magazine recently announced in print their...

Pharma industry has many ethics issues.(Ethics)
February 1, 2006... For many years, the U.S. pharmaceutical drug industry has enjoyed the confidence of all aspects of society, including those most affected by it--the physicians who prescribe the use of specific drugs and patients who are the objects of their...

When your friend becomes your boss.(Best Practices)
February 1, 2006... Sandy could hear angry voices all the way down the hall. Allen, the business unit leader, was going at it with Charlotte, one of his direct reports. Just before Sandy got to the door of Allen's office, there was a final torrent of words, and...

Making clean deposits: XBRL is helping the FDIC, member banks, and other agencies share data faster and more accurately.(eXtensible Business Reporting Language)(Cover Story)
February 1, 2006... WE ALL EXPERIENCE IT THESE DAYS--massive amounts of data that flow through our electronic media and clog our computer systems. It doesn't matter whether we work for a corporation, a small company, a government agency, or a nonprofit--managing...

Positive confrontation? Yes, it's possible, and it can be a good learning experience.(Career Skills)
February 1, 2006... CONFRONTATION. How do you feel about this word? If you're like most people, your first reaction is to do everything you can to avoid it. None of us needs any more aggravation in our lives, and a confrontation is almost assuredly going to add to...

The connection between performance measurement and risk management: a new survey shows that strategic performance measurement systems improve risk management.(ANNUAL CONFERENCE TOPIC: Performance Measurement)
February 1, 2006... Conventional wisdom says that a strategic performance measurement system (SPMS) improves organizational performance and employee efficacy. But did you know it can also enhance your enterprise risk management (ERM) system? An SPMS and ERM have...

The CIMA/AICPA connection.(Perspectives: Message from the Chair)(Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and American Institute of Certified Public Accountants)
February 1, 2006... Over the past several months I have received letters and e-mails about the AICPA and CIMA, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in the United Kingdom, agreeing to jointly develop products for their members who are in business and...

Corporate scandals bring more rules changes.(NEWS)(International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board and Securities and Exchange Commission's regulations)
February 1, 2006... The continuing corporate accounting and auditing scandals have encouraged standards setters and other rules-making bodies to reevaluate some of their current requirements and propose some new ones. The International Auditing and Assurance...

Accounting is still hot.(streetwise)(career choices)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... The evidence continues to mount that accounting is still a hot career path and that both management accountants and public accountants are in demand. The latest statistics regarding accounting as a growing college and university major come...

House passes pension reform bill.(GOVERNMENT)
February 1, 2006... Now that the House passed its pension reform bill, H.R. 2830, and the Senate passed its version, S. 1783, the two bills will go to conference. They are similar in some respects but different in others. Both bills raise the premiums that...

Process excellence.(Process Based Management: A Foundation for Business Excellence)(Book Review)
February 1, 2006... Process based management (PBM) is an approach to management rooted in the thinking that companies operate through cross-functional business processes that need to be managed in a way that optimizes performance and provides the best value to...

Tools of the trade.
February 1, 2006... Tax Season Arrives ATX offers five tax preparation programs, each a complete solution with free unlimited e-filing, including 1040, 1040 Office, MAX[R], MAX[R] Office, and Total Tax Office[TM]. Reasonable pricing and the merger with tax...

Nine million blogs.(Tech Forum)
February 1, 2006... IT WAS INEVITABLE. Hoist up a planet-size screen and hand out keyboards to everyone, and what do you expect? Blogs, of course. Humans have been creating graffiti ever since we moved indoors to live in caves, and as soon as someone split the...

Funds flow.(Financial Trends)
February 1, 2006... 2005. It was a year of solid GDP growth. Consumer spending was strong, but residential housing cooled. Oil prices soared then eased. Short-term interest rates climbed; long-term rates did not. Most U.S. stocks gained modestly; foreign equities...

Certification drives membership in the Middle East.(Institute of Management Accountants's growth)
February 1, 2006... One area of the world where the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA[R]) is experiencing rapid growth is the Middle East. Currently, IMA has close to 4,500 members in the region. Over the past five years, IMA membership in the Gulf...

Will the IRS be next to adopt XBRL?(XBRL)
February 1, 2006... There's a new movement beginning to take hold in Washington that has nothing to do with Democrats and Republicans, lobbyists, or special interest groups. This movement is all about modernizing the way the government collects and processes...