Accounting Today articles from March 2006

Accounting Today archives from March 2006

Big Four firms ask SEC for more details on AS No. 4.(Securities and Exchange Commission, Auditing Standard No. 4)
March 20, 2006... Washington -- Although they are supporting new audit rules that give public companies the option to report the elimination of a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting, the Big Four accounting firms have called on the...

New lawsuit asks: Is PCAOB constitutional?(Public Company Accounting Oversight Board)
March 20, 2006... Washington -- In a case that may wind up before the Supreme Court, a small Nevada CPA firm and an anti-tax group have lodged a legal challenge questioning the constitutionality of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. The Free...

Action Idea: A creditable credit policy.(how to manage your credits?)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... Any time you perform a service before being paid, you extend credit. So why not create an official policy, so clients know what you expect in terms of payment? * No credit policy in place? If the policy is in effect from the start, there...

Heavyweights say: Stay firm on SOX.(Sarbanes-Oxley Act)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... Washington -- A handful of boldface names from the financial world lent their signatures to a letter to federal regulators, asking that no public company be exempted from the internal controls provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Former...

Group suggests peer review changes.(American Institute of Certified Public Accountants)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... New York -- A task force of the American Institute of CPAs released a set of recommendations to enhance the transparency of the institute's peer review system for the public accounting sector. Among other changes, it recommended that: *...

Calif. sues H&R Block over RALs.(California's attorney general files a lawsuit against H and R Block Inc.)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... San Francisco -- California's attorney general has filed a lawsuit against H&R Block in an attempt to halt the tax prep giant's loan program, which allows the company to take a percentage of clients' tax refunds in exchange for an advance. ...

Correction.(Correction notice)
March 20, 2006... Our mid-range accounting software review (Accounting Today, January 9-29, 2006, page 24) gave the incorrect contact and affiliation information for Sage BusinessWorks 6. Sage Software is the parent company, in Irvine, Calif., and the phone...

IPSASB proposes standard on non-exchange revenue.(International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board)
March 20, 2006... Taxation: Everybody does it, but the world has yet to agree on how to account for it. But that may soon change. The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board of the International Federation of Accountants recently issued...

EU MEP: Convergence will be a 'nightmare' for SMBs.(European Union, Members of European Parliament, small businesses)(Pervenche Beres)
March 20, 2006... Brussels -- The effort to achieve convergence by ushering in a single accountancy system for the global economy is getting hammered in nearly every aspect by one of Europe's key figures in that sector. Pervenche Beres, the chairwoman of the...

NABA survey: Race still a concern in accounting.(National Association of Black Accountants)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... Washington -- Preliminary results of a member survey of the National Association of Black Accountants show that race and perception still impact the careers of people of color working in the accounting industry. Although the full...

Web Cites: IRS and Government Tax Resources.
March 20, 2006... * Electronic IRS - www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=151880,00.html?portlet=2 Launched on the 20th anniversary of E-file, the new section of the Internal Revenue Service's Web site gathers all of its electronic filing options in one place....

Footnotes.(U.S. accounting firms unite to serve displaced students after Hurricane Katrina)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... TOP CPA FIRMS SUPPORT POSTLETHWAITE & NETTERVILLE'S VOLUNTEER EFFORTS: Baton Rouge, La.-based CPA and business advisory firm Postlethwaite & Netterville received $5,000 in donations from several major U.S. accounting firms to assist Mayfair...

New GASB proposal may relieve pollution anxiety.(Governmental Accounting Standards Board)
March 20, 2006... Norwalk, Conn. -- A new proposed Governmental Accounting Standards Board standard on accounting for pollution remediation may not decontaminate America's brownfields, but if adopted, it should make governmental financial statements a little...

Work on Microsoft patches extends beyond downloads.(The Microsoft Windows Metafile vulnerability is still being exploited)
March 20, 2006... In the period between late December 2005 and January 2006, more than 10,000 computers across the country were hacked using a flaw in the Windows graphics-rendering engine - the software that processes images. "The Windows Metafile...

Protesting too much.(Beckstead and Watts, Free Enterprise Fund and Competitiveness Enterprise Institute vs. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board)
March 20, 2006... In the classic satirical publication Mad, the editors regularly skewered various businesses with parodies of what really went on behind closed doors. In one, a bellman informed the front desk of a resort that the air conditioning in a guest...

Commentary: The strategy of building support for AMT repeal.
March 20, 2006... Congress is currently at work on legislation that includes, among other things, a two-year extension of dividend and capital gains tax cuts that were scheduled to expire at the end of 2008, and a one-year extension of alternative minimum tax...

Practice Management: Get ready to manage your client management process.(client management)
March 20, 2006... How well do you manage the client management process? It's a question I often ask clients I work with. While most firms pay attention to various aspects of the process, many firms fail to understand that it is an interrelated process, and...

Taxing Issues.(The Internal Revenue Service REQUESTS $10.6B BUDGET FOR 2007)
March 20, 2006... IRS REQUESTS $10.6B BUDGET FOR 2007: The Internal Revenue Service requested a budget of $10.6 billion for the 2007 fiscal year, an increase of 1.4 percent from the current year's budget. Nearly $10.6 billion would come from direct...

Questionable Refund Pgm. causes brouhaha at IRS.(Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation Questionable Refund Program)
March 20, 2006... There's a new area of controversy at the Internal Revenue Service, and it surrounds the recently released 2005 annual report from the Taxpayer Advocate Service - the independent organization within the IRS designated as the liaison between the...

Is the new Roth 401(k) a go or a no-go for clients?
March 20, 2006... While the Roth 401(k) plan option was enacted back in 2001 and has been available since January 1 of this year, advice over whether to jump on the Roth 401(k) bandwagon remains hard to give. Detailed rules on contributions, operations and...

Taxware reveals new integration with Oracle.(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... Redwood Shores, Calif. -- Oracle, a high-volume provider of business software, based here, has validated the integration between compliance software Taxware Enterprise Version 4.3 and Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise Version 8.9. Taxware's...

Change of Auditors.(A.P. Pharma Inc., Crowe Chizek, Deloitte & Touche L.L.P., Ernst & Young L.L.P., Grant Thornton L.L.P., Hurco Companies Inc. , L.S. Starrett Co.)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... E&Y RESIGNS AS A.P. PHARMA AUDITOR: Big Four firm Ernst & Young has resigned as auditor to Redwood City, Calif.-based pharmaceutical concern A.P. Pharma. A federal filing did not state a reason for E&Y's resignation, and a replacement has...

FASB proposes moving to more fair value reporting.(Financial Accounting Standards Board)
March 20, 2006... Norwalk, Conn. -- With a proposal that would let companies opt to report selected financial instruments at fair value, the Financial Accounting Standards Board has opened the possibility of a significant move toward more fair value measurement....

More on users' demands: reliability and materiality.(accounting reports)
March 20, 2006... Several columns back, we wrote about a recent report from the CFA Institute called A Comprehensive Business Reporting Model: Financial Reporting for Investors. This monograph is the long-awaited update of the influential Financial Reporting in...

PFP Briefs.(Continental Life Insurance Co., Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., Federal National Mortgage Association, Towers Perrin)
March 20, 2006... SEC REQUIRES HEDGE FUND REGISTRATION: The Securities and Exchange Commission now requires hedge funds to register as investment advisors. Under the ruling, hedge funds will not have to register their individual funds. Rather, they have to...

Advisor compensation tops conflict-of-interests fears.(investment advisers)
March 20, 2006... In the current age of more stringent ethics codes and increased burdens on compliance officers, the level of compliance awareness in financial advisory firms has ratcheted up to new heights. During 2005, audits revealed that almost 80...

Software Review: This is not your father's basic analysis software.(Product/service evaluation)
March 20, 2006... It's not just the Baby Boom generation that is heating up the markets for financial planning and wealth management. Across the industry, the software is getting tighter, more polished and more capable. Driving these changes are four basic...

Vendor information.
March 20, 2006... * J&L Retirement & Financial Software Professional J&L Software 240 East Church St. Frederick, Md. 21701 www.jlplanner.com Pricing: $129.95. * NaviPlan Emerging Information Systems Inc. 500 - 330 St. Mary Avenue...

Aon launches new SOX compliance services unit.(AON Consulting )(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... Chicago -- Aon Consulting announced that its financial advisory and litigation consulting services practice has established a Sarbanes-Oxley compliance consulting group. The company also announced that Michel Hagenaar has joined Aon Consulting...

Tech Briefs.(Bruner-Cox L.L.P., Netsuite Development Corp., Orrtax Software Inc.)
March 20, 2006... SOCIUS BUYS CONSULTING FIRM: Midwest business and technology consulting firm Socius has acquired BC Technology Ltd., the consulting division of Bruner-Cox LLP. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Socius will take on BC...

The security future is here, but will CPAs embrace it?(Certified Public Accountants)
March 20, 2006... While flying cars, human transporters and robots that clean your house remain a long way off, palm-scans to get into buildings, fingertip readings to log on to a computer, and voice-recognition applications as a form of identification are...

TimePlus expands in L.A.(TimePlus Payroll Inc )(Payroll Perfect Inc)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... Atlanta -- TimePlus Payroll Inc., a provider of payroll, tax filing and benefit services, announced the acquisition of Los Angeles-based Payroll Perfect Inc. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Payroll Perfect serves close...

Software Review: Practice management - more than just invoices.
March 20, 2006... Many practitioners use the terms "practice management" and "time and billing" interchangeably. While these applications have some features in common, time and billing is actually a subset of the practice management application. Exactly...

Vendor information.(accounting software)(Buyers guide)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... * CaseWare Time 2005 CaseWare International Inc. 145 King Street East, 2nd Floor Toronto, Ont. M5C 2Y8 (416) 867-9504 www.caseware.com Pricing: Single user - $499; office license, five users - $999; additional timekeepers...

Are you more valuable as a manager or as a partner?
March 20, 2006... Managers trump firms when it comes to the attraction and retention of people. Are your partners acting as managers? According to Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman in their book, First, Break All the Rules, employees leave managers, not...

Software.(Automatic Data Processing Inc. in partnership with Harbor Payments launches automated accounts payable solution)(Blue Sage Group introduces Torch Control)(AccuFund releases accounting suite)
March 20, 2006... ACCOUNTING SUITE 3.03 AccuFund has released the latest version of its Accounting Suite for nonprofits and government agencies, with enhancements in several areas. New drill-down capabilities have been added to the Accounts Payable module,...

Books.(Government Audits)(Mastering the Trade)(O'Kelly's Final Gift)(On Cloud Nine)(SOX Guide)(Book review)
March 20, 2006... O'KELLY'S FINAL GIFT It is not given to most of us to know the time and manner of our death; if it were, we might waste less time, and make more of what we have. Few of us, though, would be likely to make as much of our remaining time as...

They got questions; you got answers.(terms in accounting)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... Key word Strategy and tools Expectations * Job descriptions * Quarterly game plans Tools * Technology * Research library ...

Coming Events.
March 20, 2006... - MARCH - 20-24: Advanced Interviewing Techniques Workshop, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas. Contact: (800) 245-3321 or www.cfenet.com/events. 20-April 3: 10th Annual Alumni Learning Cruise, The...

Firms.(Tauber and Balser P.C. appoints Scott Rittenberg)(RSM McGladrey Inc. acquires Stauffer & Co. LLC.)(Ernst & Young L.L.P. launches tax related training for its employees)
March 20, 2006... GEORGIA Tauber & Balser PC, Atlanta, has created a Family Business Team to work with family-owned businesses. Tax principal Scott Rittenberg will lead the team. ILLINOIS Twenty-five former Arthur Andersen partners and staff have...

People.(Burr Pilger and Mayer promotes Brian Frazier, Matthew Andrade and Roy Maynard)(Robert Sheesley, Debra S. Green, Christopher Foley, Eric Ullman, James Pfeiffer and Robert K. Brogan join Alvarez & Marsal L.L.C.)(Gordon, Hughes & Banks LLP appoints Evan Wasoff )
March 20, 2006... CALIFORNIA Brian Frazier and Roy Maynard have been promoted to partner at Burr, Pilger & Mayer, Palo Alto, while Matthew Andrade has been promoted to assurance manager, and John Campbell to tax manager.... Gregory M. Duncan has joined...

Report says women are going places.(in accounting services)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... New York -- A new study says that women are increasingly attaining leadership positions in public accounting firms, and more accountants are taking advantage of the alternative career paths offered by an increasing number of firms. The...

The conquered worm.(zotob conquered by Microsoft Corp.)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... One of the most notable "emergency" Microsoft bugs fixed last year was the Zotob worm. The pesky Zotob wiggled its way into Windows 2000 users' computers through a vulnerability in the Plug and Play component, a feature that allows users to add...

Advertiser Index.
March 20, 2006... Advertiser Page BNA Software 25 Capital One 15 CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business 40 Creative Solutions 2 LexisNexis...

Inside the Top 100.(accounting firms )
March 20, 2006... It's difficult to present the 19th edition of our Top 100 Firms project without reflecting just how much has changed since the inauguration of this massive undertaking back in 1987. Ronald Reagan was winding up his second term as the...

Towering over the profession: SOX is at the root of Top 100 Firms' strong growth - but for how long?(Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002)
March 20, 2006... Every year, trees lay down a new growth ring beneath their bark. Saw a tree in half, and the concentric pattern of rings thus exposed will tell you what each year was like: The wider the ring, the better the year - more rainfall, more sunshine,...

2006 Top 100 Firms Databank.(ranked as per no. of employees, revenue, partners and professionals)(Table)
March 20, 2006... OVERVIEW Firms over % Firms over % Firms under % Total Top % $1 bn chg. $100 mn chg. $100 mn chg. 100 Firms chg. Revenue (in $ mn) $30,550.33 14.62 $4,247.79 16.82...

Beyond the Top 100: Firms to Watch.(Table)
March 20, 2006... At its trailing edge, the Top 100 roster is porous, and from year to year some firms slip out, while others vault ahead. With so many firms showing white-hot growth, this year's cut-off of $24 million left out some firms that nonetheless had...

Still dealing with SOX and staffing.(accounting firms, Sarbanes-Oxley Act)
March 20, 2006... For the second year in a row, most of the Top 100 firms again pointed to the industry-wide trickle-down effects of Sarbanes-Oxley, and the corresponding staffing issues, as having the biggest impact on their businesses. In yet another year...

For top firms, it's back to basics.(international tax work done mostly by accounting services)
March 20, 2006... In addition to a second year of growth in Sarbanes-Oxley compliance work - which has fast become a hot service area for CPA firms - it's the staple services that most of the country's top firms list as their primary and ongoing areas of growth....

T100 Execs Divided: Is SOX Doing Its Job?(Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002)
March 20, 2006... As the Sarbanes-Oxley Act approaches its fourth anniversary, members of the T100 roster remain somewhat divided in their views on whether the landmark legislation has fulfilled its mission of investor protection and increased transparency of...

Strong economy helps regional firms.
March 20, 2006... The economy's continued growth at the national and regional levels drove continued expansion of the nation's Top 100 regional firms to near-record levels. Nationwide, the Top 100 recorded an average revenue growth of 15.02 percent,...

The Top 100 Local Firms by Region.(accounting firms ranked)(Table)
March 20, 2006... (excluding the Big Four and national firms) Revenue Headquarters ($mn) % chg. CENTRAL MIDWEST (17 firms) Crowe Group South Bend,...

The 2006 Accounting Today Top 100 Firms.(Table)
March 20, 2006... Rank Revenue Personnel Fee Split Year $ % % Professionals % Total % (in percent) 06 05 Firm Headquarters Chief executive end mn. chg. Offices Partners chg. chg. emps. chg. A&A...

2006 Firm Highlights.(happenings in accounting firms)
March 20, 2006... * Amper, Politziner & Mattia: Relocated Flemington, N.J., office to larger space in Bridgewater, N.J. Expanded Manhattan office. Expanded life sciences practice. * Anchin, Block & Anchin: Merged in Yohalem Gilman in January 2005. Added two...