Accountants Round Up

Accountants Round Up is Retiring

Dear loyal readers, it is time for ARU to bid you farewell after this week.

We greatly appreciate your readership and trust over the past few years and it has been enjoyable to serve you with a collection of emerging accounting-related news items.

We've been honored to be considered a worthy feed source.

Best wishes,

Golden Marketing Inc

"Managing Your Time During the CPA Exam"

By Roger CPA Review: You’ve gotten past the first four screens. Now, it all comes down to earning 75 points before the time runs out. No, it’s not a video game. It’s the CPA Exam, and it’s a balancing act between knowledge and time management. Are you ready?

Each section of the CPA Exam is broken up into mini-tests, or “testlets.” There are three multiple choice testlets per exam, with each testlet containing 30 questions.

Read complete post Managing Your Time During the CPA Exam
Source: CPA Exam Preparation Blog, 14 July 2009. Copyright © 2009 Roger CPA Review

"How To Be a Partner"

By Stacie Clifford Kitts: Many students leave college with aspirations of becoming a partner. If this is your goal, here are three attributes that signal a person's ability to progress to partner level:

1) Partner candidates take reasonability for their professional growth. Partner candidates never sit around the office waiting for someone to teach them how to do their job. When situations arise that require new knowledge, a partner candidate takes the initiative to learn what is needed to get the job done. Partner candidates do not push off incomplete work for someone else to figure out.

Read complete post How To Be a Partner
Source: The Business Perspective, 15 June 2009.

"Failing the Exam No More! Support for CPA Candidates Breaks Down Barriers to Success"

Posted by J. Andrew Weidman: Three years ago, I penned an article for the Pennsylvania CPA Journal titled, "Are We Failing the Exam?" At the time, many CPAs across Pennsylvania were concerned that recent accounting graduates were not taking the CPA Exam (the exam). The article included some suggestions that directed firms toward taking a more focused approach to motivate and reward their staff to sit for and pass the exam. In this follow-up article, I will examine what our firm did to motivate staff to pass the exam, and check in with our most recent successful candidates for their opinions.

Read complete article Failing the Exam No More! Support for CPA Candidates Breaks Down Barriers to Success
Source: AccountingWEB, 30 July 2009. a Sift Media publication © 2009 Sift Media Limited.

"The Spirit of Accounting: To FASB: Mark-to-market is only a means to an end"

By Paul B.W. Miller and Paul R. Bahnson: The following is an open letter of encouragement to the Financial Accounting Standards Board.

Dear board members and staff:

First of all, please accept our thanks for standing firm on the role for market values in financial statements. You didn't wilt under pressure despite one hyperbolic misrepresentation about mark-to-market after another, such as that it created the whole financial crisis, it was mandated by Sarbanes-Oxley, it was implemented in 2008 in the midst of this crisis, and it was abandoned 70 years ago to avoid prolonging the Great Depression.

Read complete letter The Spirit of Accounting: To FASB: Mark-to-market is only a means to an end
Source: WebCPA, 15 June 2009. © 2009 Accountants Media Group and SourceMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

" Praise for the Accounting Profession"

By Ed Kless: One thing I have always been impressed with from accounting firms, again, specifically the larger ones I have had contact with, has been their ability to create alumni networks that drive real value for them. Now, it certainly is true that this practice has caused some challenges by creating some possible personal conflicts of interest. However, I think for the most part, this is a great idea.

Read complete post Praise for the Accounting Profession
Source: VeraSage Community Blog, 10 July 2009.

"Tips For Getting the Most From Mobile Devices"

By AccountingWEB: Accounting firms with a growing mobile work force may be struggling to understand how best to manage the complexity of employees working from disparate locations – how to give workers the IT support they need, while getting the most from the technology for the good for the firm.

It's a big question, and one that is growing in importance. "By 2011, upwards of 75 percent of employees nationally, and one billion workers worldwide, will be classified as mobile," said Stephen Drake, program vice president for Mobility & Telecom research at IDC.

Read complete article Tips For Getting the Most From Mobile Devices
Source: AccountingWEB, 10 June 2009. Copyright © 2009 AccountingWEB, Inc. All rights reserved.

"AICPA Responds To CPA Exam Myths"

By AccountingWEB: Another season, another batch of new CPAs are being sworn in. Jeff, a CPA and the author of "Another 71 - A CPA Exam Blog," recently posed these questions to the AICPA in hopes of clearing up some confusion about the infamous exam.

1. A Curve on the CPA Exam?

another71.com: A common myth that circulates among CPA exam candidates is that CPA exam scores are curved according to the performance of other candidates taking the same section. Is a candidate's score entirely independent of the performance of other candidates? Does the AICPA employ any curving mechanism to keep pass rates at their historical levels of 45 to 50 percent on average per section?

Read complete article AICPA Responds To CPA Exam Myths
Source: AccountingWEB, 18 June 2009. Copyright © 2009 AccountingWEB, Inc. All rights reserved.

"You Have Your Accounting Degree. What’s Next?"

By Liz Gold: It’s a relevant question given today’s crapshoot of an economy. Students spend years studying finance, auditing and budgeting, join their local chapters of professional associations and network with key practitioners in their community. As thousands of graduates enter the workforce this month the question remains: now what?

Despite the fragile economy, employment of accountants is expected to grow by 18 percent between now and 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is faster than the average for all other occupations.

Read complete post You Have Your Accounting Degree. What’s Next?
Source: Accounting Tomorrow, 13 May 2009. © 2009 Accountants Media Group and SourceMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

"Accounting: a Narrative Art?"

By David M. Katz: The move to a principles-based accounting system is likely to demand that corporate finance executives be good yarn-spinners, speakers at the annual CFO Rising conference said.

A system less like the rules-based U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and more like the judgment-focused international financial reporting standards (IFRS) would draw more heavily on the narrative skills of finance executives, according to David Sherman, a professor of accounting at Northeastern University.

Read complete article Accounting: a Narrative Art?
Source: CFO, 13 March 2009. © CFO Publishing Corporation 2009. All rights reserved.