Accounting Today articles from June 2005

Accounting Today archives from June 2005

Lease accounting tempest rages on.
June 6, 2005... Almost overnight, lease accounting has morphed into one of the profession's biggest headaches, as more than 300 companies have had to restate their financials, citing, among other issues, corrections to lease accounting errors. In April,...

Bring 'em back intact!: Computer forensics can retrieve info you may not even know exists.
June 6, 2005... By Stuart Kahan -- The problem is a familiar one, but the solution is new. Laurie Holtz, of the Miami-based firm Rachlin Cohen & Holtz, related a recent case of the Florida Insurance Department taking on a viatical scam. "The state...

Who's law is it, anyway?: Court allows prosecution for foreign tax evasion.(Pasquantino v. U.S.)
June 6, 2005... In a move that promises to have far-reaching consequences for global operations and international tax compliance, the Supreme Court has ruled that defendants who evaded Canadian taxes could be prosecuted in the U.S. under federal wire fraud...

Open secrets.(wireless telephone etiquettes)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... It's annoying when that clown with the cellphone holds private conversations at full voice in public - but when he starts talking business, it can get downright dangerous. The walls have ears, after all. Consider giving your employees a...

PCAOB issues more AS2 guidance.(Public Company Accounting Oversight Board)(Auditing Standard No. 2)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Washington -- In response to concerns raised at a Securities and Exchange Commission roundtable in April on implementing internal control reporting provisions, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has published additional guidance for...

DoD accountants targeted for layoffs.(United States. Department of Defense)(United States. Defense Finance and Accounting Service)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Washington -- The Defense Finance and Accounting Service - a 16,000-member accounting cadre that processes payrolls and invoices and administers military trust funds for the armed forces - will face a massive restructuring that includes site...

SEC taps Thomsen for enforcement.(Securities and Exchange Commission appoints Linda C. Thomsen as Deputy Director)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Washington -- The Securities and Exchange Commission named Linda C. Thomsen to head the agency's enforcement division, succeeding Stephen Cutler, who is leaving the regulator this month for a post in the private sector. The appointment...

Resnick, Druckman Hill join forces.(The Resnick Group LLC)(Druckman Hill LLP)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Valley Stream, N.Y. -- The Resnick Group LLC, based here, has merged its practice with New York-based accounting and financial consulting firm Druckman Hill LLP. Terms were not disclosed. The combined firm operates under the name The Resnick...

Web Services is making a splash - not a tidal wave.
June 6, 2005... When Bill Gates first put the words "Web" and "services" together in 2000 at a Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in Orlando, Fla., Web Services was barely more than a novel idea. Five years later, it has matured into a...

Europe braces for possible delay in Basel II regulations.(Accord on the International Convergence of Capital Measurement and Capital Standards, 2001 (Draft))
June 6, 2005... Brussels -- Doubts are hovering over the timely implementation of the Basel II capital adequacy mandate in Europe, as the possibility lingers that the European Parliament will fail to clear the ruling smoothly. Normally, a modified version...

MCI to pay over $125M to settle Miss. tax claims.(MCI Inc.)(Mississippi)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Jackson, Miss. -- MCI agreed to pay $100 million in cash to the state of Mississippi for back taxes that the state claimed were owed by the company's predecessor, WorldCom. Under the settlement, MCI also agreed to give $4.2 million to fund...

Auditing Standards Board is stepping up its schedule.
June 6, 2005... With its role in standard-setting now clearly defined, the Auditing Standards Board has been making up for lost time as it moves toward a series of new proposed standards. One should be available this month, and another in July. "We're...

Institute warns lawmakers on new tax shelter doctrine.
June 6, 2005... Washington -- A crackdown on abusive tax shelters that includes codifying the economic substance doctrine would create legal booby traps for small businesses and open the door for new abuses by unscrupulous tax shelter promoters, the American...

CPE - Part 2.
June 6, 2005... CPENet - www.cpenet.net This deliberately simple home page for a low-cost online CPE provider contains course listings, prices, descriptions, and a way to request transcripts online. EMind - www.emind.com EMind offers online...

Footnotes.(A. Aronson and Company Inc. donates to Hearts & Homes for Youth )
June 6, 2005... ARONSON AWARDS $10K TO YOUTH CHARITY: Aronson & Co., a Washington, D.C.-area CPA and business consulting firm, recently awarded a $10,000 grant to Hearts & Homes for Youth - an organization that assists abused, neglected or runaway children and...

Honest communication.(McDonald's Corp.)
June 6, 2005... I don't consider myself a complex person. Never have. My preferences for food, wine, clothing and even automobiles run fairly basic. Don't show me a Bentley; a sleek Chrysler 300 will do. I'm a huge fan of California wines, so don't try to...

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
June 6, 2005... The dark side of the IRS I must take exception to and disagree with the main premise of "Don't bring your gun" (Accounting Today, April 18-May 1, 2005, page 1), that the Internal Revenue Service will freely negotiate with taxpayers about...

Eisner unit launches IRA rollover plan.
June 6, 2005... New York -- Eisner Retirement Solutions, a unit of regional CPA and business advisory firm Eisner, unveiled a free turnkey product to assist plan sponsors in complying with the Department of Labor's mandatory individual retirement account...

Taxing Issues.
June 6, 2005... BLOCK, HSBC TO SETTLE RAL LAWSUIT: H&R Block and HSBC Taxpayer Financial Services Inc. reached a tentative agreement to settle a 1998 Chicago class-action lawsuit related to refund anticipation loans. Block said that the settlement, if...

GAO sees risk in IRS shifts on enforcement, BSM plan.(Business Systems Modernization)(Government Accountability Office)(Internal Revenue Service)
June 6, 2005... The Internal Revenue Service has been shifting its priorities from taxpayer service to enforcement and its management of the Business Systems Modernization program - an ongoing umbrella program of upgrades - from contractors to IRS staff. ...

Budget agreement bodes well for additional 2005 cuts.
June 6, 2005... With the rising deficits and a series of tax reductions enacted in the first term of the Bush administration, many tax practitioners are starting to feel that the tax situation for their clients is never going to get much better than it is...

Change Of Auditors.(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... CHATTEM RETAINS GT: Chattem Inc., a Tennessee-based consumer products company, engaged Grant Thornton as its auditor, replacing Big Four firm Ernst & Young. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the maker of such...

FASB tackling full agenda, may propose big changes.
June 6, 2005... Norwalk, Conn. -- The next few months should pump a little excitement into the profession as the Financial Accounting Standards Board moves to issue as many as 20 new documents - most of them exposure drafts - with some proposing significant...

Pass/fail audits: Time to join the quality parade.
June 6, 2005... Suppose you've started planning your upcoming summer vacation by getting a guide that rates hotels and restaurants at your destination. Imagine your surprise upon discovering that every establishment is rated as "meeting minimum standards."...

PFP Briefs.
June 6, 2005... FPA FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST SEC: The Financial Planning Association filed a petition in a District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals challenging a Securities and Exchange Commission rule exempting certain broker/dealers from the requirements...

New and updated tools for estate and retirement plans.
June 6, 2005... The laws that govern estate and retirement planning do not change much from year to year beyond adjustments to the relevant tax tables. In fact, the most recent major changes stem from the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of...

Vendor information.(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... BNA Estate & Gift Tax Planner BNA Software Washington, D.C. (800) 424-2938 www.bnasoftware.com Pricing: Single license - $1,495; each additional license - $205. PFP Notebook 2005 Brentmark Software Inc. Orlando,...

Determining basis in your client's principal residence.
June 6, 2005... While individuals are allowed to exclude gain of $250,000 ($500,000 by a married couple filing a joint return) on the sale of property owned and used as a principal residence for at least two years in the five-year period ending on the date of...

Tech Briefs.(Blackbaud Inc. reports Q1 earnings)(Microsoft Corp. has named Chris Liddell as its chief financial officer)(Creative Solutions Inc. has acquired Accountware)
June 6, 2005... CSI ACQUIRES ACCOUNTWARE LINE: Tax and accounting software provider Creative Solutions Inc. has acquired the tax software line of Cincinnati-based Accountware for undisclosed terms. CSI said that it would extend an array of incentives,...

At Accpac, constant change moves execs and products.
June 6, 2005... Atlanta -- Best Software, part of the billion-dollar London-based software company Sage Group Plc, has been changing the face of its Accpac line for some time now - literally. First, Susan Sheridan stepped down for medical reasons last...

ERG acquires Burch Consultants.
June 6, 2005... Dallas -- In a move to deepen its penetration into southwestern markets, middle-market software and consulting concern Enterprise Resource Group, headquartered here, has acquired Houston-based Burch Consultants. Financial terms were not...

Software Review: Entry-level accounting provides lots of bang.
June 6, 2005... First introduced in the late 1970s and early 1980s, microcomputer-based accounting has long been the Rodney Dangerfield of applications - often getting little respect. Some accountants and their clients have been somewhat dismissive of these...

Vendor information.(Brief Article)(Directory)
June 6, 2005... Accpac Simply Accounting Basic 2005 Accpac International Inc. Richmond, B.C. (800) 773-5445 www.simplyaccounting.com Pricing: $49. DacEasy V. 13 Best Software, DacEasy Division Dallas (800) DAC-EASY...

The ongoing evolution of the value of partners.
June 6, 2005... Partner value and compensation continues to be a management topic that attracts considerable attention at firm summits and MAP conferences. The balanced scorecard approach, connecting compensation to firm objectives, has made progress over...

Software.(TenDigits Software, Siber Systems )
June 6, 2005... MSCRM on the go Since leashes are frowned upon, and electronic ankle brace- lets are reserved strictly for criminals, companies looking for ways to keep in constant contact with their employees often resort to wireless handhelds like the...

Books.
June 6, 2005... Bring back the vest! At a whopping 1 and an 1/8 inches thick (yes, we measured), we're not sure whose vest pocket the third edition of The Vest Pocket CPA will actually fit in. Anyway, does anyone wear vests anymore? Not that it matters -...

People.(Appointments)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... CALIFORNIA Harlan E. Freeman has joined ProHorizons, Los Altos, to lead the firm's expansion into the Midwest by providing consulting and brokerage services to accounting firms in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, as well as...

Coming Events.(Calendar)
June 6, 2005... - JUNE - 6-7: AICPA Retirement Planning Conference, American Institute of CPAs. Las Vegas. Contact: www.cpa2biz/conferences. 6-7: California Accounting & Business Show. LAX Hilton Hotel, Los Angeles. Contact: Flagg Management (212)...

Firms.(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... ILLINOIS Lee A. Gould and Michael Pakter have formed Gould & Pakter Associates LLC, Chicago, a forensic accounting firm with offices at 205 West Wacker Drive. MASSACHUSETTS Needel, Welch & Stone PC, Rockland, has established a...

Global Center names inaugural award winners.
June 6, 2005... New York -- The Global Center for Leadership & Business Ethics has named two business executives and a scientist as the 2005 inaugural winners of its Laureate Award & Medal Series for their achievements in leadership, corporate governance and...

Advertiser Index.(Illustration)
June 6, 2005... Advertiser Page 1st Global 19 AccountantsWorld 39 Best Software 7 CCH Tax and Accounting 9, 40 CaseWare ...

Editor's Note: The Future is Now.(Accounting services)(Brief Article)(Editorial)
June 6, 2005... In another lifetime, I once met Lawrence Berra, affectionately known as Yogi. Of course, he was much younger then, as was I, but he still had that twinkle in his eyes when he would espouse something prolific such as, "It's tough to make...

Start the Journey.(Financial services)
June 6, 2005... Using the power and speed of the Internet to your competitive advantage is no longer an intangible dream waiting to be realized. In fact, those firms who have embraced the Internet along with the latest technologies it affords, are serving more...

Successful Firms Will Be Online On Time!
June 6, 2005... It's surprising. Although most accountants earn their livelihood by analyzing historical data, very few have learned an important fact of professional life that's evident from the history of the past five decades of the profession: Accountants...

Accurate Financial Data Needed.
June 6, 2005... The end-point of gathering financial data and organizing it is to make sense of the numbers and to be able to make better decisions. Accounting is not just about aggregating data and reporting it; rather, accounting is supposed to help us...

Value-Added Services a Must.
June 6, 2005... One of the big buzz words in accounting circles today is outsourcing. Anything that can be commoditized can be outsourced. Tax preparation is a commodity and it is getting easier for consumers to find alternative ways to get tax prep done for...

Providing a Range of Services.(Accounting services)
June 6, 2005... The accounting firm of the future will be a blend of two or three professional specialties. The most common will be the combination of wealth management and traditional accounting services. Progressive firms have already begun to co-locate with...

Leveraging Technology.
June 6, 2005... A key question for the firm of the future will be how best to leverage technology to improve business performance, as well as client service and retention. With the competitive nature of the market nowadays, cutting-edge firms are...

What's on the Horizon?
June 6, 2005... Despite the current surge in accounting majors at universities, the supply of accountants to the CPA profession will decrease again because the major detriments to choosing a career in public accounting still have not been resolved: The work...

The Future Is Not What It Used To Be.(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... I don't claim to be a futurist, but feel my following predictions have a better than 50-50 chance of occurring in the next three to five years: * Firms will create separate entities for their audit/review practices in an effort to...

Advisors Building Bridges.
June 6, 2005... Faster, sooner, better, more. The Internet gives consumers a rising benchmark by which to measure the excellence of any service or product. On the Internet, people are searching for kernels of truth and wisdom that will help them build a sound...

An Important, Premium Service.(Wealth management)
June 6, 2005... Wealth management is a term that has become as common a branding statement for financial services firms as "new and improved" is for consumer goods like laundry detergent. The spotlight on wealth management is a result of increasing demand from...

Knowledge for Future Competitive Advantage.
June 6, 2005... The dominant forces that will shape the accounting firm of the future are already upon us: rapid regulatory change, strategic growth opportunities, security and privacy concerns, challenging workforce demographics, continuing technological...

Components in Building to Knowledge Management.(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... The electronic components available today to help organizations migrate to knowledge management include: Document Management - Systems providing an electronic repository for documents, streamlining workflows, automating document retention...

Trends, Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities.
June 6, 2005... To visualize the firm of the future, we first must identify the trends shaping the way firms practice, the services they provide, the people who work for them, and the technology that drives them. Accordingly, I've looked into my clouded...

A New Dimension in Tax Preparation.
June 6, 2005... What if all you had to do was think and work got done? No more typing, no more 10-keys, and no more spreadsheets. Sound too futuristic? Well, the tools to accomplish this are here today. The Internet is enabling completely new workflow...

Traditional Firm Today-Industry Leader Tomorrow.(Accounting services)
June 6, 2005... The average firm of the future will look like the average firm of the present. It will continue to be in a highly fragmented industry, will employ fewer than 10 people, and will primarily offer compliance services to individuals and small...

Affordable Document Management Solutions.
June 6, 2005... Paperless is here, except it isn't. What's causing the hold-up? Costs, for one thing. For small and mid-size accounting firms, the cost of installing an in-house document management system can easily run into six or seven figures-and that's...

A Ready-Made Accounting Services Department.(TAD Accounting)(Company Profile)
June 6, 2005... TAD Accounting in 2005 is not the same business that we were in 2000. In 2000, we saw ourselves as having developed a technology that supported our outsourced online accounting practice. Now, we are an accounting services company that simply...

IT Expertise Highly Prized Asset.
June 6, 2005... The elegantly ambiguous phrase, "May you live in interesting times," certainly applies to the U.S. accounting profession today. Especially among firms that serve small business clients, the current landscape is interesting both in the sense of...

Computing Trends Firms Can Expect.(Accounting services)
June 6, 2005... What computing innovations will the accounting firm of the future use? How will they affect financial services, practice management, and revenues? The Internet, access to high-speed connectivity, and improved security have allowed firms...

Becoming The Accounting Firm of Tomorrow.
June 6, 2005... With tax season over, the planning season has begun. Gaze into the crystal ball and strain to see the future of your firm. Every partner seeks to uncover the mysteries of building a successful practice. If only it were as easy as the magic of a...

The Best Is Yet To Come.(Accounting services)
June 6, 2005... Each year, we are introduced to many tools that make our job easier. And who can complain about that? The great thing is: The best is yet to come. Technology in the accounting world allows us to better serve our clients in many ways....

Life As A CPA Is Fun Again!(Certified public accountants)
June 6, 2005... No, I am not on drugs or anything else for that matter. In this era of post-Enron, Worldcom, and Sarbanes-Oxley, my clients are more energized, more enthusiastic, making more money, and having a ball doing it. The respect factor is up, the...

Note from the Editors: Killer VARs: The Secret to Success.
June 6, 2005... Compiling the annual list of Killer VARs is an intriguing experience. It always seems that there are just about as many different ways of being successful in this field as there are companies that are involved in the accounting software...

Building Loyalty - Jack Ades & Alan Kahn.(Interdyn AKA)
June 6, 2005... Even though Interdyn AKA has been growing, the company has not hired a consultant since before 2000. Its employees are loyal. "The culture that has been created through the years creates a team of individuals that are very happy," says...

Engineering a Business - P.J. Bain.
June 6, 2005... New employees at Inspired Solutions don't have to be engineers. But they would probably understand more about how the Atlanta-based reselling company operates if they do. "The engineering culture is pervasive to our organization. We are...

Creating Culture - Jan Goodman.(Forepoint, accounting service )
June 6, 2005... Perhaps the most important thing to Jan Goodman in growing her business at Forepoint's Chicago office is the way members of the staff relate to each other. "In my office, it's a lot of about culture," says Goodman. "Because I am more of a...

Taking Risks - Stan Kania.
June 6, 2005... Even though Stan Kania prizes a relaxed work environment in which all employees have incentives, he also believes in taking chances in order to succeed. "I am willing to take a risk. Our history has been one of full, wide-open growth. A...

Using the CPA Model - Forrest Koch.(Omega Business Solutions)(Certified Public Accountants)
June 6, 2005... Forrest Koch left public accounting behind in 1995,when he left a firm in San Jose, Calif., to help with a new product, called Avista, that had just entered the United States. Two years later, Koch got deeper into the accounting software...

Achieving Balance - Gene Marks.(The Marks Group)
June 6, 2005... Gene Marks has no doubts that he could be a lot more successful and make a lot more money with The Marks Group if he really wanted to. He doesn't want to. It's not that he doesn't want to work. He does. "I work really hard, but I feel...

Speaking the Language - Robbie Pollock, Peter Saul & Bob Schilling.(Capital Business Solutions)
June 6, 2005... Capital Business Solutions has a simple rule for serving not-for-profits and government agencies: It doesn't do anything else. The Raleigh, N.C.-based reseller has concentrated on those markets since its founding. The business was...

Going It Alone - Rick Sexauer.(Avayle Solutions)
June 6, 2005... The accounting software market is full of big companies trying to get larger. Avayle Solutions isn't one of them. Owner Rick Sexauer, who has more than 20 years in the financial software business, served for six years as consulting manager...

Constructing Relationships - Kevin Stroud.(NexLan)
June 6, 2005... Kevin Stroud decided it was a good idea to be near the Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Conference. So he relocated his reselling operation, NexLan, to the same building. NexLan is on the third floor, while the chamber is on the...

Staying Focused - Mike Silver.(Omnios)
June 6, 2005... Mike Silver has the opportunity to serve a diverse customer base in the Chicago region. He doesn't do it. "We have focused our business around project accounting," notes Silver, a CPA who also has a degree in computer science. "We turn...

Moving Quickly - Ray Tetlow.(Skyytek)
June 6, 2005... Ray Tetlow liked the way NetSuite's online applications ran his business so much, he decided to start selling the product-and he's selling it in a big way. "Obviously, we have a very solid product and being able to rapidly implement it is...

The 2005 VAR 100: The focus shifts as companies consolidate and look overseas.
June 6, 2005... Things have changed in the last year since Accounting Technology published its first VAR 100, ranking accounting software resellers based on their revenue. The top players are far more involved in international markets than a year ago, and they...

Picking the top 100.(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Defining an accounting software VAR is as much a part of the process of compiling a list of the 100 largest organizations as determining revenue is. All resellers that handle accounting software also handle other products, such as hardware...

AICPA financials come under fire.(American Institute of Certified Public Accountants)
June 20, 2005... Washington -- While lawmakers on Capitol Hill were embroiled in a heated filibuster debate, not far away, members of the ruling Council of the American Institute of CPAs passed a much less contentious vote, agreeing to support the development...

How ya gonna keep 'em down in the firm?(employee management)
June 20, 2005... Staff recruiting and retention have been two monumental cornerstones in sustaining a successful accounting practice - and the people who currently run successful firms know what it takes to keep good people on board. According to The...

Tax vendors start up their 2006 sales push.
June 20, 2005... With tax season over, now is the time for tax practitioners to tinker with different software to find a better fit for their practices. At the same time, vendors hope to get a head start on next season's sales by offering special summer season...

SEC chair Donaldson to step down.(Securities and Exchange Commission)(William H. Donaldson)(Brief Article)
June 20, 2005... Washington -- As this issue of Accounting Today was going to press, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William H. Donaldson announced that he would step down at the end of June. Donaldson, a former investment banker who was...

Judge denies Block RAL settlement.(Refund Anticipation Loan )(Brief Article)
June 20, 2005... Kansas City, Mo. -- An Illinois district judge denied approval of a settlement that would have ended litigation against tax prep giant H&R Block related to refund anticipation loans, the company disclosed. In a May 27 filing with the...

IRS to close 68 taxpayer centers.(Internal Revenue Service)(Brief Article)
June 20, 2005... Washington -- As part of cost-cutting measures, the Internal Revenue Service is forging ahead with plans to close some of its Taxpayer Assistance Centers, which provide walk-in service for taxpayers on tax law, tax return preparation and...