billing rates at cpa firms remain high, evidence that the marketplace continues to be strong for cpa firm services.
despite the economic change and uncertainty that has affected u.s. businesses this year, the value of cpa cpa firms’ services is holding steady, according to the latest issue of accounting office management & adminstration report (subscribe here, 12 issues $469/year). read more →
now the fair value issue gets serious. it’s not just about accounting anymore… it’s about something important. it’s about baseball!
representative dennis kucinich said that new york city officials could be prosecuted if they lied about the property value of yankee stadium.
— appraisals of yankees’ new stadium are under question – nytimes.com
![reblog this post [with zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=d60e9501-9217-4f8b-b5df-fc5c45f37198)
… you probably will.
the question is: how much time and money will you spend to recover the files?
an alarming 1 in 3 home-based businesses lost company data in a hard-drive failure in the past year. home-based accountants, bookkeepers and tax practitioners not immune. and they have more to lose than most home-based businesses.
no wonder, then, that hardware vendors are rushing backup and recovery products to market.
ami-partners estimates that home-based businesses in the united states are on track to invest a sizeable $1.3 billion on it security and storage-related solutions this year. home-based business owners are focusing on areas such as: read more →
what’s your advice for the next president? sound off here.
by rick telberg/on careers
the crisis in financial markets and heightened uncertainty in the economy may be prompting some tax and accounting professionals to accelerate their plans to jump to new and better jobs.
the number of cpas who say they’d consider looking for a new job has jumped seven points, to 44 percent in september from 37 percent in august.
“i know there are many jobs out there for accountants, especially at the level that i am at,” says a cpa at a mid-sized business. she feels lucky to be young, skilled and in demand as a senior accountant. “i am part of the shortage era and the number of people at my skill level is limited.”
updates:
news from the center for audit quality (caq)…
october 15, 2008
mr. christopher cox
chairman
u.s. securities and exchange commission
100 f street, n.e.
washington, d.c. 20549
dear chairman cox:
we are writing to express grave concern regarding recent calls for the sec to override guidance issued by the financial accounting standards board (fasb) and the commission’s staff that would effectively suspend fair value or mark-to-market accounting. we believe such urgings are decidedly not in the public interest.
a move by the sec to suspend fair value accounting would be a disservice to the capital markets, would be inconsistent with the views of investors, would harm the credibility and independence of the standards setting process, and would run counter to fundamental notice and comment principles. with third quarter financial statements now in process and year-end 2008 imminent, such a change could jeopardize already-fragile investor confidence.
no one disputes that these are trying economic times. however, the current crisis of liquidity, credit, and confidence was not caused by fair value accounting; rather, sound accounting principles helped expose the problem. fair value accounting with robust disclosures provides more accurate, timely, and comparable information to investors than amounts that would be reported under other alternative accounting approaches.
investors have a right to know the current value of an investment, even if the investment is falling short of past or future expectations. it, therefore, is imperative at this critical juncture that we not engage in activities that would further obscure reality from investors and do more to damage confidence in the marketplace. we urge the sec to be clear in rejecting urgings that are contrary to this imperative.
sincerely,
cindy fornelli
executive director
center for audit quality
jeffrey j. diermeier, cfa
president & chief executive officer
cfa institute
barbara roper
director of investor protection
consumer federation of america
jeff mahoney
general counsel
council of institutional investors
cc:
kathleen l. casey, commissioner, sec
elisse b. walter, commissioner, sec
luis a. aguilar, commissioner, sec
troy a. paredes, commissioner, sec
henry m. paulson, jr., secretary, department of treasury
ben s. bernanke, chairman, federal reserve
mark w. olson, chairman, pcaob
robert h. herz, chairman, fasb
sheila bair, chairman, fdic
john c. dugan, comptroller of the currency
john m. reich, director, office of thrift supervision
sign found in north texas by ed kless, advertising “a consulting group of corporate escapees.”
click all the way through and scroll down a little to see the comments.
cfos also think ceos are overpaid – except the one they report to.
in a national survey of cfos and senior comptrollers conducted by grant thornton llp, the u.s. member firm of grant thornton international ltd., 83% believe that the positions of ceo and chairman of the board should be separate.
two-thirds of respondents think that the average ceo is overpaid, but only one-fourth think their own ceo is overpaid. some 55% say they would like to be ceo of a company one day.
grant thornton llp conducted the national survey from september 8th through september 19th, with 688 chief financial officers and senior comptrollers.
details:
while ames research compiles its list of auditors and fees, a few nuggets have slipped out.
pwc is flat and bdo and mcgladrey are down. is the sarbox boom over?
average fees change,
fy06 to fy07 (companies over $500 million)
auditor….. avg. change
big four
pwc….. 0.1%
d&t….. 10.3%
e&y….. 8.9%
kpmg….. 3.0%
next tier
grant thornton….. 12.4%
moss adams….. 10.5%
dixon hughes….. 7.0%
crowe chizek & co. ….. 4.9%
porter keadle moore….. 2.7%
declines
bdo seidman….. -10.3%
mcgladrey & pullen….. -6.4%
battelle & battelle….. -3.7%
total….. 5.2%
top tips from finance and accounting professionals.
is your firm a “leader” or “laggard?” join the discussion.
by rick telberg
with consumers cutting back and cpas getting gloomier, accountants and finance managers are rolling up their sleeves to find recession-busting business strategies.
the aicpa reports that more and more americans are cutting back on spending in order to save money. another aicpa survey just a few weeks ago reported that pessimistic corporate cpas outnumber optimistic ones by a five-to-one margin.
revamped saas developer raises $29 million in past nine months.
intacct, a revived up-and-comer in on-demand financial management and accounting applications, said it has raised an additional $15 million of financing in a round led by bessemer venture partners. existing investors emergence capital, sigma partners, and sutter hill ventures all participated in the round. when combined with $14 million raised in june 2007, intacct has raised $29 million in the past nine months, ranking it among the top funded software companies over the past year. read more →
500 names at risk.
hough, macadam & wartnik, a local accounting firm in north bend, ore., has reported a laptop stolen from a staffer’s car, igniting concern among clients and client employees.
coos bay county officials say the missing computer may have contained employees’ names, social security numbers and other personal information, which had been used in recent audits.
read the full article, here…
the accounting firm gets scathing criticism, here…
accounting professionals share their best ideas.
rate your firm: leader or laggard? join the discussion.
by rick telberg
if the united states economy isn’t already in a recession, it might as well be. the subprime meltdown has frozen credit markets. home prices are in crisis. consumers are buttoning up their wallets and most cpas have turned pessimistic on the business outlook.
in times like these, business turns first and foremost to accountants for advice and support. and it appears that accountants and business advisors are well positioned to help.
with a broadway show opening this fall, sir elton talks about the musical’s inspiration.
“billy elliot” is based on the successful 2000 movie about a young boy who longs to dance but lives in the bleak coal-mining area of northern england. his story is set against the backdrop of a bitter miners’ strike.
john tells the new york daily news: “at the end of the film, billy’s father sees (his son) dance at covent garden. my father really never got to do that when i became successful later on in my career. so i kind of missed that.
“i was always trying to please my father, but he really never got what i wanted to be and disapproved of it completely. he was a product of the war and wanted me to have a safe job in a bank or an accountancy firm. and that wasn’t for me.”
oh well, that’s accountancy’s loss.