Accountants Round Up

"Venture Capitalists' 1Q Investments Dip 5 Percent to $7.1 Billion, The First Decline Since 2005"

By Michael Liedtke: Venture capital investments in the United States dipped 5 percent to $7.1 billion during the first quarter compared to 2007, signaling the financing climate may be turning frostier for entrepreneurs as the slumping economy makes it more difficult for startups to go public or sell to a larger company.

This was the first year-over-year decline in the venture capital industry's quarterly investments since the end of 2005, based on data to be released Monday by the National Venture Capital Association, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Thomson Reuters.

Read complete article Venture Capitalists' 1Q Investments Dip 5 Percent to $7.1 Billion, The First Decline Since 2005
Source: Source: StarTribune.com, 19 April 2008. © 2008 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.

"Assisting Troubled Business Clients"

By William Y. Culbertson: Certain identifiable traits of financial distress are common to every troubled business, regardless of its industry or size. A thorough understanding of those traits is helpful in choosing a course of action. This article examines the anatomy of a turnaround from the perspective of practicing CPAs and explains why a privately held midsize company has the best chance of surviving when its outside CPAs actively participate in the solutions to its problems, even if the CPAs need to abandon their independence.

Often, when a Fortune 500 company gets into trouble and its stock price tanks, an investment banker is hired to “explore strategic alternatives,” the CEO is replaced, and the rest of the story is on public display.

Read complete article Assisting Troubled Business Clients
Source: Journal of Accountancy, March 2008. © 2008 AICPA. All rights reserved.

"The Origins of $.99 Pricing"

By Ron Baker:  Matt Homann over at the [non]billable hour has a post citing a study on the psychology of odd-numbered pricing.  Matt then suggests you might want to set your hourly rate at $297 per hour rather than $300.

As you can imagine, there are several flaws with this.  Here’s the comment I left on Matt’s post:

Read complete article The Origins of $.99 Pricing
Source: VeraSage Institute, 24 April 2008. 2006 © Verasage Institute. All rights reserved.

"Found Money"

By Evelyn Beck: Boosting the bottom line isn’t only about organization-changing strategies and long-term business planning. Everyday measures can add up fast. Here are five key areas to look at.

1. Telecommunications

Read complete article Found Money
Source: Source: Insight Magazine, March/April 2008. Copyright © 2007, Illinois CPA Society. All rights reserved.

"8 Easily Avoidable Causes of Business Debt"

By Johns Wu: Entrepreneurs are the brave souls who make our economy go, or at least they were when our economy was actually going anywhere. Especially in this currently questionable financial climate, starting your own business is undeniably a dicey proposition. Start-ups go out of business all the time, often before they even have a chance to even really star up at all. The main culprit in the savage slaughter of these young establishments is the same perpetrator behind the bulk of our fiscal difficulties: Debt.

As an emerging entrepreneur, it is very easy to quickly accumulate debts that are substantial enough to kill your burgeoning business before it even gets off the ground. But it does not have to be that way. Take the time to examine your business workflow and you will likely discover a number of extraneous costs that can be eliminated to improve the health of your bottom line.

Here are eight common practices that lead to common results; learn to avoid them and you will be uncommonly successful.

Read Complete Article 8 Easily Avoidable Causes of Business Debt
Source: Bankaholic, 1 April 2008. © 2008 Bankaholic®. All rights reserved.

"KPMG Creates IFRS Institute"

By SmartPros: Accounting firm KPMG LLP has launched the KPMG IFRS Institute to raise awareness and address the information needs of companies, investors, academics and others who may be affected by a transition by U.S. companies to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

"As companies expand their reach and economies globalize, the ability to compare financial statements across borders has become imperative.

Read complete article KPMG Creates IFRS Institute
Source: SmartPros, 24 April 2008. © 2008 SmartPros Ltd. All rights reserved.

"What Do YOU Differentiate Through?"

By Scott Ginsberg: Maybe you differentiate through … your service.

By making it quick.
By making it unexpectedly responsive.
By making the mundane into memorable.

Like Nashville’s Hotel Preston, which, instead of just a bible, offers a choice of 10+ religious books to ANY guest who asks.

Wow!

Read complete post What Do YOU Differentiate Through?
Source: Hello My Name Is Blog, 24 April 2008. © 2007, Hello My Name is LLC. All rights reserved.

"We’ll Buy You Lunch If …"

By Service Untitled: I was reading about an interesting policy at a fairly progressive technology company based in a major city. They have about 400 employees or so and an interesting policy when it comes to buying their employees lunch. Quite simply, their policy is “we’ll buy you lunch if you eat with someone you’ve never gone to lunch with before.”

Since they are in a major city and are close to a whole bunch of places to eat, they encourage employees to go out and eat lunch.

Read complete post We'll Buy You Lunch If...
Source: Service Untitled, 21 April 2008. Content © 2006 - 2008 Service Untitled. All rights reserved.

"OFHEO Issues Guidance on Fair Value"

By WebCPA: The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight has issued examination guidance regarding Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 159, “The Fair Value Option for Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities.”

The guidance outlines standards for OFHEO examiners to apply when overseeing and evaluating the use of the fair value option already adopted by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Read complete article OFHEO Issues Guidance on Fair Value
Source: WebCPA, 23 April 2008. © 2007 WebCPA and SourceMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

"PCAOB Adopts Ethics Rule, Amends Tax Services Rule"

By SmartPros: The PCAOB on Tuesday voted to adopt Rule 3526, Communication with Audit Committees Concerning Independence, and an amendment to Rule 3523, Tax Services for Persons in Financial Reporting Oversight Roles. 

The board adopted Rule 3526 to enhance communication between audit committees and registered firms regarding the firm's independence.

Read complete article PCAOB Adopts Ethics Rule, Amends Tax Services Rule
Source: CFO.com, 23 April 2008. © 2008 SmartPros Ltd. All rights reserved.