Accountants Round Up

"It's More Than Just Managing!"

By WebCPA: Many accounting firms are well-managed. In fact, some are over-managed and under-led.

There are numerous conferences and courses devoted to managing an accounting practice. The American Institute of CPAs, several state societies, most regional associations and several consultants sponsor such programs. Much attention is paid to management and very little to leadership.

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Source: WebCPA, 24 September 2007. © 2007 WebCPA and SourceMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

"Sweeping Away GAAP"

By Marie Leone: Financial Accounting Standards Board chairman Robert Herz said on Friday morning at an industry conference that he expects that U.S. companies will eventually be made to follow a single accounting standard. That standard, he said, would be International Financial Reporting Standards, not U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

Herz is calling for a national plan that would consist of timetables, tasks, and education efforts to move American companies off U.S. GAAP and on to a single global standard. "I don't believe in a two-GAAP system," he said. 

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Source: CFO.com, 28 September 2007. © CFO Publishing Corporation 2007. All rights reserved.

"A Perfect Match: Merging Your Practice"

By Rob Lewis: “If bigness is what it takes to have any say in the accounting profession, why then we’ll concentrate on the first things first,” said Leonard Spacek, a senior partner at the late and not particularly lamented Arthur Andersen. “We’ll get big.”

That was in 1989. To judge from the attention big name mergers have been getting in the press since then, you’d think the merger was a matter for the major players only.

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Source: AccountingWEB-UK, 25 September 2007. Copyright © 2007 Sift Media. All rights reserved.

"Accounting Firms Lauded by Working Mother Magazine"

By SmartPros: The annual Working Mother 100 Best Companies once again lauds accounting firms for their mom-friendly workplace.

Released by Working Mother magazine, the top 100 list includes accounting firms Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, Grant Thornton KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and RSM McGladrey.

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Source: SmartPros, 26 September 2007. © 2007 SmartPros Ltd. All rights reserved.

"A Plan to Let S.E.C. Accept Foreign Rules Is Opposed"

By Floyd Norris: A proposal to allow foreign companies to use international accounting standards in filings with United States regulators has run into opposition from two disparate groups — European companies that believe the plan does not go far enough, and American investors who believe it is premature.

In a letter released yesterday, the European Association of Listed Companies said the Securities and Exchange Commission should allow the use of international accounting standards but should not insist that companies follow all the standards.

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Source: New York Times, 25 September 2007. © Copyright 2007. The New York Times Company.

"SEC Pushes XBRL Tags for GAAP"

By WebCPA: Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox said that data tags had been developed for the entire system of U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, advancing the use of the Extensible Business Reporting Language for automating financial reporting information.

"Today we're announcing a major step that will help every U.S. public company and investor," said Cox at a news conference, commending the efforts of the XBRL US project team, which translated GAAP into the XBRL data tags.

Read complete article SEC Pushes XBRL Tags for GAAP
Source: WebCPA, 26 September 2007. © 2007 WebCPA and SourceMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

"Monkeys Do Timesheets Too"

By Ron Baker: I'd like to thank Mark Bailey for sending me this. I don't know who wrote it, so the attribution will have to be "anonymous."

Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water.

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Source: VeraSage, 24 September 2007. 2006 © Verasage Institute.

"Update on the War for Talent"

By David Maister: Yesterday's WSJ had a great column by Carol Hymowitz entitled" "Best Way to Save: Analyze Why Talent Is Going Out The Door".

The lessons weren't new: turnover costs a lot; people quit because they don't feel well treated by those immediately above them; people seek opportunities to learn and grow; you should analyze who's leaving and why.

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Source: Passion, People and Principles, 25 September 2007. © 2001-2007 All Rights Reserved David Maister.

"I'm an Auditor, Darn It, Not an Investigator, Right?"

By AccountingWEB: Recent professional guidance, such as SAS 99, Consideration of Fraud in a Financial Statement Audit, and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) Auditing Standard 2, has brought more attention to the auditor's responsibility to uncover the warning signs of fraud, but there is still some ambiguity about where the auditor's responsibility ends and the fraud examiner's begins.

Consider this scenario: A staff auditor reviewed various accrual accounts during a routine audit. 

Read complete article I'm an Auditor, Darn It, Not an Investigator, Right?
Source: AccountingWEB, 24 September 2007. 2006 Copyright © 2007 AccountingWEB, Inc. All rights reserved.

"They Just Don't Get It"

By Ron Baker: The number one issue facing the accounting profession, according the all the Management of Accounting Practice (MAP) Surveys conducted for years, is retaining and attracting talent. All sorts of faddish ideas are tossed around by consultants to the profession to help ameliorate this issue, such as: understanding Gen X, Y, Z and how they are different from the Baby Boomers and prior generations; offering more attractive benefits; higher salaries; more educational opportunities; and of course the biggest fad of them all, work/life balance.

But I've come to believe that these are just all effects, not the root cause of the problem.

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Source: VeraSage, 21 September 2007. 2006 © Verasage Institute. All rights reserved.