October 2004

Speak English Please! How to Communicate Financial Information to Non-Accountants
CPAs often forget some basic elements of human communication in speaking about financial information. We must understand that communication can produce three primary results in the audience: A decision to proceed with true information; A decision to proceed with false information; A decision not to proceed.

Small Business Owners: Protect Your Operation from Identity Theft
Identity theft is the fastest growing financial crime in America, affecting 10 million people a year and taking $50 billion out of the U.S. economy. Is your business secure?

Managing Up: Influencing Those to Whom You Report
How you deal with peers, subordinates and people outside your organization -- as well as people you report to -- affects how influencial and persuasive you are at "managing up."

Aim Accurately Before You Fire: Effective Goal-Setting
Action steps are extremely important to achieve goals. However, you can waste a lot of time and effort pursuing action steps toward the wrong goal. It is best to stop, think and make sure you define the exact goal you want to achieve before you start thinking about the action steps to achieve it.

Beyond Public Accounting, Part 3: Making a Successful Career Transition to Business and Industry
In the last part of this series, learn about continuing professional education and advanced degrees that can improve your career prospects.

Document Management: Options and Benefits
The accounting and business worlds are moving toward electronic, paperless processes. Learn the benefits and drawbacks of in-house and Web-hosted document management systems.

Fitch Hits a Glitch With Its Pitch
Fitch Ratings published a report earlier this year that recommends improvements to financial statements -- but fails to acknowledge its own ratings errors.

Business Owners Should Be Wary of Disaster Fraud
Owners intent on repairing their businesses after a disaster should be wary of scams perpetrated by so-called building repair contractors. While most are reputable, others may take advantage of owners who are anxious to get back to work.

Beyond Public Accounting, Part 2: Making a Successful Career Transition to Business and Industry
In part two of this series, explore the options available through professional associations, including what credentials are available to you.

September 2004

Beyond Public Accounting, Part 1: Making a Successful Career Transition to Business and Industry
This article is the first of a three-part series that will explore the many aspects of making a successful transition from public accounting to other accounting and finance careers, particularly careers in business and industry. Here, explore the accounting trends and the new "rules" for career success.

Reverse Mortgages: From Roosevelt's New Deal to the Deal of a Lifetime
Once again seniors are blazing new financial trails -- this time with reverse mortgages. But what makes the reverse mortgage so special?

A Retirement Plan for Every Small Business
Small business owners often overlook retirement plans for their employees or fail to offer plans in tune with their business. With a life-cycle approach, they can avoid these retirement pitfalls.

The Right Fit: Turning to Grads to Fill the Gaps
Enrollment has increased in accounting major programs across the nation, and universities are responding to the need for more training in areas such as forensic accounting. Do these changes mean firms can confidently turn to graduates for the best and brightest?

Technology and the CPA
When was the last time you really thought about the technology changes that have taken place within your firm? It pays to stay on top of the technology changes affecting our profession.

PCAOB Inspects Big Four's Auditing
The PCAOB review of the Big Four demonstrates that the board might just be successful in restoring the confidence of the investment community and boosting trust in the accounting profession.

Marketing to Meet the Needs of Small Business Owners
A survey of firms and small business owners illuminates several key areas CPAs should concentrate on to develop stronger relationships with the small business community.

No Time Like the Present: Balancing Work and Life
Not all CPAs are busy in tax season, but most CPAs have a fairly common similarity -- the difficulty in finding a healthy balance between work and life. Here are a few suggestions to take a step in the right direction.

Protecting the Fruits of Your R&D
From completing an invention disclosure form to motivating investors, learn how to ensure inventions by your employees actually belong to your company.

FASB Takes Up Contingent Convertibles
FASB is examining the effects of contingently convertible bonds on earnings per share, and it appears that the board might require business enterprises to include their dilutive consequences in the computation of earnings per share.

Too Busy to Grow?
Is this going to be your year for turning on the power of marketing and sales in your buess? If your answer is yes, here are eight keys to success.

Taking Care of Business: Making Sure Those Expenses Are Deductible
Business owners often lack a clear understanding of IRS business expense requirements. Fiducial outlines misconceptions and three guidelines.

Client-Centric Marketing: What Clients Want
A new book by accounting marketing gurus August J. Aquila and Bruce W. Marcus explores professional services marketing and management in the twenty-first century and what it means to be "client-centered." 

Outsourcing: What You Should Know First
Outsourcing can be a valuable tool for accomplishing business goals. It pays to be clear about your needs. Use these tips and 10-point checklist as guidelines.

Informed Giving: How to Help Clients Help Charities
It's the rare accountant that is not called upon by a client to provide guidance concerning contributions. Unique expertise is required.

August 2004

FASB, Say It Isn't So
Recently the FASB hinted that it might delay the proposal to expense stock options and might even study several additional models to value them. Unfortunately, the board has revealed that it doesn't understand politics.

The CFO's Great Balancing Act
Under performance pressures from shareholders and boards, CEOs are raising the bar for CFOs, tasking them with helping to meet today's challenging expectations for aggressive growth, while at the same time managing risks and costs.

Building an Online Community: The BBS and More
Developing the right platform for an online community -- intranet, extranet, and Internet strategy -- is comprised of many elements.

How to Attract Clients: Sell Nothing
The smart way to build and enhance client relationships is by sharing your expertise, not blatantly selling to them. Here's how simple and common sense it is, in five steps.

Building a Strong Consulting Practice
Some basic guidelines can put you on the road to a successful consulting practice. Here, a few basic "must-have" skills for consultants, regardless of the type of services provided.

Non-Compete Agreements: The Case of Ray Edwards
Non-compete agreements commonly exist within the accounting profession to protect the interests of the employer. But in some, the protection of a firm's interests coincides with the public interest.

Expanding Service Areas in a New Regulatory Environment
Many CPAs in industry have the chance to play an even larger role within their organizations under new requirements and expectations. But what is the best way to expand on emerging opportunities, and what should one watch for along the way?

Extreme Makeover
Tired of hitting mulligans, doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results? Try an extreme makeover. Here is a practical list of sources for an internal makeover.

Strategy to the Telecom Billing Madness
What do we want from our telecom vendors? We want to control, manage, reduce the expense of, and be able to audit our telecom investments and cost.

July 2004

Small Ideas, Big Payoffs
Who doesn't love the big idea that results in a home run for the company? But are you overlooking the small ideas? Here are three questions to ask when an employee makes a suggestion.

Finding the Best CRM System for Your Firm
How does a firm go about implementing a new Customer Relationship Management system that will maximize customer-specific information?

Planning for the Future: Financial Opportunities in Long-Term Care
Many financial advisors and CPAs frequently avoid discussing the need for a contingency plan to meet the costs of a long-term illness. Nevertheless, making good decisions to meet this contingency is prudent financial management.

Auditing Nonprofits: Three Issues Encountered By Auditors
Auditors commonly encounter three issues while auditing nonprofit organizations: insufficient staffing of the accounting/finance department, weak internal communications and deficient application of internal control.

Too Many Demands on the Auditing Profession
Does the American Assembly's report on the future of accounting admit that some of today's auditors are not qualified for their positions? Are auditors not delivering the goods?

Are We Overloaded Yet? Finding a Balance
New rules and regulations just keep on coming, while reporting deadlines get shorter. Financial Executives Research Foundation asks users and preparers about their experiences.

Make Your Email Resume Stand Out
With a good strategy, job seekers can use email to conduct an ambitious, highly targeted search that vastly increases their odds of finding a position.

Keeping Data Under Lock & Key
Corporations are wrestling with the manifold issues raised by new privacy laws, including the costs, confusing rules and consumer wariness. Even those with dedicated privacy officers have their hands full.

The Brittle Illusion of Accounting Exactitude
We shall never rid accounting of estimates, so let's quit trying. Instead of searching for alternative explanations, let's face the facts.

The Future of the Accounting Profession
A report by the American Assembly on the future of accounting "reads as a defense brief for those involved in recent accounting scandals," writes J. Edward Ketz. "While there are some interesting and valuable suggestions in the account, many ideas are short-sighted and self-serving."

How to Use Continuing Education for Marketing
Do you dread your CPE requirements? Troy Waugh, author of 101 Marketing Strategies, tells how to make the best use of required training.

Social Security: Five Changes on the Horizon
Not sure what's going on with Social Security? Al Jacobs briefly explains how the system has changed over the decades and suggests five more changes to come. 

Where Your Referrals Come From and How to Evaluate Their Success
Getting referrals is only one aspect of networking. How do you gauge the quality of those referrals? Is it fair to assume more should be coming your way? Get clear on the results you expect.

Practice Continuation Agreements
Lack of a written practice continuation agreement is a serious problem many small practices ignore. Situations can leave an independent accountant with major exposure -- a temporary illness during tax season can wipe out 20 years of hard work. When researching practice continuation, consider the following issues.

Technology and the Transformation of Learning
Recognizing the importance of lifelong learning, many professions have enhanced their continuing education requirements, and more people have pursued advanced degrees even after entering full-time employment. Bryan Polivka, chief learning officer at Walden University, shares the school's criteria for successful learning.

June 2004

Presumed Guilty: Arthur Andersen & Co.
On the heels of Arthur Andersen losing its Enron conviction appeal, the debate over the firm's guilt continues. In this in-depth analysis of Andersen's work with Enron, Mary Ashby Morrison, retired CPA and former Andersen employee, explains how the firm was used as a scapegoat and immediately presumed guilty in its 2002 trial. (A rebuttal to J. Edward Ketz's piece published earlier this month.)

Be a Media Mogul to Build Your Practice
As the head of your own media empire, create powerful new tools and strategies to help you build your practice.

Accounting Beyond QuickBooks
Many business owners are not aware of the different products available today and the capabilities of these software packages.

Poor Old Lu(cent)!
Lucent Technologies, and several of its officers, was charged with securities fraud by the SEC for squashing GAAP. These yarns by corporate America are becoming so repetitive and so overplayed that they are downright boring!

Payroll Cards: The Next Generation E-Pay Solution
Payroll cards are gaining acceptance by businesses that want to cut payroll costs while at the same time offering employees an alternative to hefty check cashing or bank fees. Learn who can most benefit from the solution.

Are You Burning Out Your Best Employees?
To prevent burnout, you must be proactive in learning how your employees are managing their workloads. Here are some specific strategies that can help.

FASB and IASB: Bumps Along the Road to Harmonization
With different social and economic institutions, laws, business practices and ethics, one wonders whether a single set of accounting rules truly harmonizes anything.

The New Terrain
If approved, Auditing Standard No. 2 will dramatically change the landscape for outside auditors and the internal monitoring of financial controls within companies. Charles Hecht, principal of Hecht & Associates P.C., says those financial professionals who understand this new standard will "survive and thrive."

Rush to Judgment: Whither Arthur Andersen? Part Two
As broached in the previous column, Mary Morrison recently wrote "Rush to Judgment: The Lynching of Arthur Andersen & Co." In this column, I explain why I believe Morrison correctly characterizes the government's indictment of Arthur Andersen as searching for a scapegoat for the economic meltdown of 2001-2002.

Eliminating Cash to Improve the Bottom Line
Embrace the cashless concept: how corporate purchasing cards will help improve cash flow, control and productivity.

Solutions for a Route Business
Can the mobile handheld device help your business? Chaim Yudkowsky says yes: they can help make your business more competitive.

Rush to Judgment: Whither Arthur Andersen? Part One
Having started her career at Arthur Andersen, Mary Morrison recently wrote a paper with the engaging title, "Rush to Judgment: The Lynching of Arthur Andersen & Co." I am not swayed by Morrison's manuscript with respect to her claims about the limited extent of Andersen's guilt...

College Savings Should Be Tied to Overall Financial Plan -- Here's Why
Families should not get caught up in stand-alone college savings products. A better approach is to prepare a comprehensive financial plan and select a college savings plan based on the family’s tax situation and financial goals over time.

May 2004

How to Work With Your Client to Create an Effective Presentation and Secure Funding
An accountant, acting on behalf of a small business that is searching for a fund, plays a critical role in a potential investor's buy-in. Accountants can make a significant difference as an advocate and advisor for their client. Learn how to create an effective presentation.

ABCs on Mergers and Acquisitions
One of the most exciting consulting areas for CPAs is M&As. Here, an overview of EBITDA, valuation, due diligence and more.

Participating in a Mentor Program
Mentor partnerships can have a lasting impact for all involved while also benefiting the department and company as a whole.

New Form 8-K Requirements
The SEC recently adopted a number of new requirements that directly affect financial professionals who are employed by or do outside audit work for public companies.

Bye-Bye, Broadcom
Continuing our coverage of high tech firms who deploy large amounts of stock options, I focus this essay on Broadcom, a company that is having a devil of a time producing profits.

Managing the Cost -- and Value -- of Failure
Risk and uncertainty are not the threat they seem to be; we can learn a great deal from financial management techniques practiced in industries that have always been immersed in risk and uncertainty.

Experts Agree That Outlook for Entrepreneurs Is as Resilient as Ever
If opinions expressed by a cross-section of academics, business experts, economists with national think tanks and large member associations representing micro-businesses are any indication, then the state of entrepreneurship in the United States appears as resilient as ever.

Using IT to Comply With Sarbanes-Oxley
Learn how to integrate information technology with the company's Sarbanes-Oxley initiatives, including critical success factors.

Introducing Change to Customers
When changes are made that impact our customers, only a vocal minority will complain. Never mistake not hearing from the upset customers -- who will quickly abandon you -- with customers who are pleased by the change's value proposition.

Researching Accounting Ethics: What's the Point?
Because of recent accounting frauds, several academics have called for more research in the area of accounting ethics. But there is simply too much resistance for there to be any point in asking professors to pursue the topic, argues J. Edward Ketz.

Corporate Culture Issues in Creating the Performance-Accountable Organization
BPM champions are finding that there are three key culture-related factors that are necessary pre-conditions to create a performance-accountable organizational mindset: open-book management, BPM-focused learning and development, and management's orientation to risk-taking and failure.

Current IRS Themes for the Construction Industry
The Internal Revenue Service continues to focus on the construction industry in certain areas. There are many current audit themes and general tax reporting issues, but here are the top ten most current and popular ones

The Value of Audits: Costs, Benefits and Changes
The boring old world of audits isn't quite so boring any more. The regulatory changes spawned by the accounting-related scandals at Enron and WorldCom have shaken up auditing. And with the new regulations, the audit is gaining new significance.

April 2004

Determining True Value of Payroll and HR Systems
Although not a direct contributor to profitability, payroll processing and all the costs related to Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) represent significant expenses for most organizations -- ones that have considerable impact on their bottom line.

Self-Insurance: Creative Accounting?
The term self-insurance connotes the idea that the business enterprise recognizes the risks it faces and has prepared for their possibilities. Unfortunately, this spin might hide some creative accounting.

Business Process Outsourcing Under Sarbanes-Oxley: Challenges and Complexities
There are a multitude of complex issues associated with outsourcing functions that require analysis from a legal, regulatory, liability, and contractual perspective. This article highlights some of the more critical of the issues under SOX.

How Are You Managing Your Web Content?
How can our organizations stay on top of all this content, keep it organized, identify gaps in content, and keep the knowledge accurate?

Negotiating Your Best Deals
We are always negotiating -- and sometimes don't even know it. Professional service providers face unique challenges in negotiating with clients and prospective clients. Know how to recognize a negotiation and strike mutually beneficial deals.

The Hypocrisy of RSA Security
Those who whine about FASB's stock-based compensation standard probably have something to hide, contends J. Edward Ketz.

Search Engine Optimization
Tech guru Chaim Yudkowsky lists five tips on how to use search engines to attract more visitors to your Web site. 

Internal Audit Opportunities Expanding
Due to new regulations, one of the hottest specialties for accountants right now is internal audit. Here is a brief look at a few of the impacts of recent developments on internal auditors.

The Impact of Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance on IT Audit
Now, PCAOB audit standards focus attention on auditing key IT controls, making review of some IT components mandatory, without specifics. Xenia Ley Parker, author of Miller IT Audits: 2004 explains the impact of general IT controls, the relationship to COSO, which IT controls to include, and application controls.

Eight Ways to Build Your Firm Over the Next 12 Months
Is this going to be your year for turning on the power of marketing and sales in your business? If your answer is yes, here are eight keys to success.

FASB Exposes Stock Option Truth
In response to FASB's stock option proposal issued March 31, columnist J. Edward Ketz reviews the problem of options in corporate governance and why they necessitate expensing. In addition, he proposes an amendment to the FASB's exposure draft for improving the cash flow statement.

F&A Outsourcing: What Buyers Are Saying
Original research from an FEI member questionnaire details current views about outsourcing finance functions -- including what most would and would not outsource.

The Corporate MVP: The Key to a Successful Business
Accountants and financial planners, listen up. Profitable growth in any business -- even your business -- is largely dependent on the ability to attract and retain high-performing, results-driven people. Margaret Butteriss and Bill Roiter, authors of Corporate MVPs, explain why and and how an MVP creates value, and tells how to attract MVPs to your firm.

The "Medication" for Managerial Malfeasance
Business performance management  represents a critical methodology and discipline that helps lessen the likelihood of managerial malfeasance and heightens business results. 
 
CoCo for the Morning: Contingent Convertibles
Investment bankers seem always to be dreaming of the next gimmick. The latest snake oil is something called contingent convertibles, affectionately referred to as CoCos.

March 2004

Three Reasons Firing Clients in a Tough Market Makes Good Business Sense
Financial professionals have a choice: push products or graduate to the level of Trusted Advisor, someone who builds his or her financial practice on something far more solid than convincing and closing skills.

The Amazing World of Derivatives
In the world of finance and derivatives, accountants are faced with a bewildering set of securities and amazing set of accounting rules -- and infectious greed.

IT Becoming the "It" Skill for Accountants
Accounting professionals with a demonstrated aptitude for technology-related projects are at an advantage in a competitive employment market.

The Art of Conducting An Internal Investigation
An attorney discusses do's and don'ts for running an internal investigation into potential fraud or other illegal activity.

So You Want to Be a Director?
As a direct result of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, it is now a requirement that at least one member of the audit committee of the board of directors be a qualified financial professional. Although this opens up an entirely new area of employment for financial professionals, an important concern for any potential outside director is, "what are my potential liabilities?"

It's General Mills' Turn to Cry
Another venerable business enterprise has been found with its hand in the proverbial cookie jar (or in this case, feeling for the toy in the cereal box).

Differential Accounting: Problems & Possibilities
Nonpublic companies have been groaning under the weight of onerous accounting requirements that often just don't seem to apply for them. The concept of "big GAAP" and "little GAAP" has been discussed for more than 20 years. Now, on the brink of international convergence, many argue its time has finally come.

Ongoing Learning
Chaim Yudkowsky wonders how to combat the potential threat that outsourcing has on IT jobs. To remain valuable to employers, he recommends a simple strategy: education.

Be Client Centered
Accounting firms need to do a better job telling the market that they care, argues PR expert Ned Steele. He suggests firms talk less about themselves and more about the customer. 

Outsourcing Your Web Marketing
You may be thinking about outsourcing your Web promotion to an expert who is immersed in this world as their full-time occupation, rather than trying to acquire this knowledge yourself, and cope with the pace of change in-house. Know how to choose a consultant and what guarantees to expect.

Cost of Governance
Clearly, the costs of audits have shot up, but perhaps they should grow even more. If anything, the cost of governance needs to rise even further.

Making Reference Checks Work for You
Increase your chances of securing the job by naming references who will provide an accurate account of your skills and experience.

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