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4 reasons to start your own practice NOW!
2009-09-22 15:44:00
"The best way to predict the future is to create it." -- Peter Drucker I just got back from a CPA-SEA (State Executives Association) meeting with the AICPA, where we were discussing the future of sole practitioners. The conversation centered...
More About: Economy , Practice , Start , Reasons

Md. tops in household income. What's the bad news?
2009-09-22 06:15:00
Statistics are funny things. They reveal a lot about ourselves and our world, but sometimes they hide even more. ?Say you were standing with one foot in the oven and one foot in an ice bucket," former Major League player,...
More About: News , Household , Tops , Bad News , Income

Maryland's economic hits just keep on coming
2009-09-18 16:50:00
I hate to sound like a broken record, but Maryland's finances are bad ... and getting worse by the minute. This summer saw Gov. Martin O'Malley announce budget cuts of $280 million and $454 million. Autumn is off to a...
More About: Economy , Economic , Hits , General Assembly

How are CPAs using social media?
2009-09-17 14:22:00
Want to get on the front page of the Wall Street Journal with your story? Just use free social media tools like Facebook and Twitter. That is exactly what Verasage value pricing evangelist Dan Morris says happened when he got...
More About: Social , Media , Weblogs , Accounting

Are we lost on the road to IFRS?
2009-09-16 14:00:00
What's going to happen with IFRS? It depends on who you ask ... and when. Less than a year ago, U.S. adoption of international financial reporting standards was all but certain. Former SEC Chair Christopher Cox, a huge IFRS proponent,...
More About: Lost , Road , On The Road

3 great reasons why your company should be blogging
2009-09-15 16:44:00
You've heard the buzz about corporate blogs and their benefits, and you're finally asking yourself the big question: Should my company have its own blog? If you've heard any of my talks on the subject or read Debbie Weil's terrific...
More About: Company , Web 2 , Blogging , Great , Reasons

3 keys to succeeding in the new economic environment
2009-09-13 00:55:00
When will we see the economy return to normal? Everything I have been reading says this is the wrong question. The right questions are, what will the "new" normal look like and what do we do to succeed in this...
More About: Economy , Environment , Leadership , Economic , Keys

AICPA adds a few directions to profession's roadmap
2009-09-10 14:00:00
There have been a few interesting announcements from the AICPA lately. Let's run through them. Topping the list is a Q&A document that examines revenue recognition proposals from the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board --...
More About: Ethics , Directions

Top 10 technology issues for CPAs
2009-09-09 15:21:00
Every year, the AICPA IT section produces the top 10 technology issues facing CPAs. What I like about this list is that it covers all of the issues facing all CPAs -- practice, business and industry, not-for-profits, education and government....
More About: Technology , Issues

Our economic recovery starts at home
2009-09-09 07:03:00
Good news: Americans are spending less and saving more than at any other time in recent memory. For CPAs on the financial literacy front lines, that's a dream come true. According to this Associated Press article, they're doing so out...
More About: Economy , Recovery , Home , Economic

Happy Labor Day: CPAs buck employment trends
2009-09-07 15:00:00
It's Labor Day, but I'm not going to give you a hard time if you don't feel like celebrating. The Department of Labor released its latest employment figures recently, and they aren't good. As of Sept. 4, 2009, the unemployment...
More About: Trends , Employment , Happy , Buck

Ethical lapses abound in post-SOX era
2007-12-03 19:29:00
Photo by KungPaoCajun There has been a huge emphasis on corporate ethics ever since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was enacted in 2002. There is some question, though, whether all of that attention is having the desired effect. A new study from the Ethics Resource Center indicates that unethical behavior continues to plague corporate America. Among the study's findings: Fifty-six percent of employees surveyed say they have personally observed violations of company ethics standards, policy or the law, but 42 percent did not report the misconduct. Fifty-four percent of  those who witnessed unethical behavior but did not report it believed that reporting the misconduct would not lead to corrective action, and 36 percent feared retaliation. "The good news," said ERC President Patricia Harned, "is that the rate of misconduct is cut by three-forths at companies with strong ethical cultures and reporting is doubled at companies with comprehensive ethics programs." C...
More About: Post

XBRL: Quietly making noise
2007-11-29 23:27:00
XBRL is coming. The technology that (if you believe the experts) will revolutionize the financial reporting process has been tagged to work with the entire system of U.S. generally accepted accounting principles and is being released in draft form so that financial experts can test it and offer comments. After that, it's only a matter of time before companies are required to use XBRL to communicate their financials. So why haven't more financial executives heard about it? That's what Alix Stuart wants to know. In a CFO.com article titled "XBRL: What You Don't Know Can Hurt You," Stuart says 66 percent of public-company CFOs are aware of XBRL, but "it’s hardly the stuff of water-cooler conversation. Even the intended beneficiaries of the new labeling method, Wall Street analysts, are fairly in the dark," writes Stuart. "A July poll of analysts and fund managers showed that only about 40 percent had any level of knowledge of XBRL, according to the CFA Institute." They'...
More About: Noise

Staffing woes magnified with tax season on deck
2007-11-27 20:01:00
It's hard to find good help these days. Once tax season rolls around, it might be downright impossible. That's the tone of a recent Accounting Today article called "Staffing : Ready for Tax Season ?" Author Roger Russell says today's huge demand for CPAs and other accounting professionals has depleted the supply of tax professionals who typically step to the plate each tax season. As a result, writes Russell, firms are turning to "remote technology, outsourcing, part-time former employees and retirees and college students to fill the personnel void." Here are a couple of key paragraphs from Russell's article: "The Big Four and public accounting firms will continue to struggle to find people and salaries will continue to increase," said Doug Lowery, area managing director for Chicago-based financial staffing recruiter Garelli Wong & Associates. "People who have been in the industry for six to nine years are at a premium." As a consequence, it may already be too late...
More About: Deck

Leadership = influence - six 'weapons of influence'
2007-11-26 13:06:00
That is a powerful lesson from one of our top BLI instructors on leadership, Greg Conderacci. I just found research that supports this and gives some useful tips. Here are the six "weapons of influence" from Robert Cialdini, a Regents' professor of psychology and marketing at Arizona State University. These are also listed in his book, Influence : The Psychology of Persuasion. Here are his six "weapons of influence": Reciprocation: People tend to return favors. What can you do as a favor for your customers? Cialdini uses the example of free samples that are abundant in marketing. See Tim Sander's post on the "law of reciprocity" for more. Commitment and consistency: Once people commit, they are likely to stick with their commitment (to buy), even if the situation changes slightly. Social proof: People tend to do things others are doing. I think this relates to the adoption curve as well. It is also why the majority of buyers like testimonials from others before the...
More About: Leadership , Weapons

Telecommuting: Serenity now ...
2007-11-23 15:52:00
We spent some time in an earlier post examining the benefits of working from home. Now comes yet another reason why employers might want to consider telecommuting options. A recent Reuters report (found here on PC Magazine's Web site) claims that telecommuting "boosts morale and job satisfaction and cuts stress" among employees and has few, if any, drawbacks for either workers or employers. "Our results show that telecommuting has an overall beneficial effect because the arrangement provides employees with more control over how they do their work," Dr. Ravi Gajendran of Pennsylvania State University told Reuters. "Telecommuting seems to have some mildly positive effects on employee morale, on work-family balance and on stress." Approximately 45 million Americans telecommuted last year. Were you one of them? What's the most positive aspect of telecommuting for you? The most negative aspect?
More About: Serenity

Happy Thanksgiving!
2007-11-22 11:00:00
Happy Thanksgiving , America! Count your blessings, hug your loved ones ... and pass the mashed potatoes, please. And don't forget the gravy. If you need a little extra help with that bird in the oven, you'll find it here. And here. Also here. If you're really desperate,  you can listen to Butterball's turkey podcast. Really. And one more thing. Go, Lions! Have a wonderful holiday, everyone.
More About: Happy , Hank

3 Maryland CPAs recognized on BBJ's '40 under 40' list
2007-11-20 15:07:00
CPAs made a big showing at this year's "40 under 40" awards from the Baltimore Business Journal. The MACPA was on hand at the luncheon to recognize and honor these young superstars. Tom Hesseltine of Clifton Gunderson, Jennifer Leary of SB and Company and Richard Wolf of Hertzbach and Company were finalists and were recognized at the luncheon at the new Martin's Valley mansion in Cockeysville. In the top photo are MACPA members from Clifton Gunderson's Mid-Atlantic practice: Pat Byers, Tom Hesseltine and past MACPA chair and Managing Partner Terry Hancock. Tom is one of the youngest partners at CG. In the middle photo is Richard Wolf and his wife, Laura (far right). Joining them are client Jane Radford (far left), a CPA and CFO of Hamel Builders; MACPA Candidate member and NYPN Secretary/Treasurer Leigh Dowdle in the middle; and Sarah Dempsey, also of Hertzbach. In addition to being the youngest partner at Hertzbach, Richard is chair of the MACPA's New / Young...
More About: Maryland , List

State, federal lawmakers have taxes on their minds
2007-11-20 05:01:00
Tax legislation is dominating the headlines in the accounting world this week. Leading things off, of course, is the compromise tax bill that was hammered out by Maryland's General Assembly near the end of its special session. Maryland CPAs worked hard on behalf of their profession and earned a number of key victories during the special session. The biggest victory of all was the effort that kept CPA services from being subject to sales and use taxes. Our sister blog, Legislative Insider, has all the details. Next up is President Bush's demand that Congress pass legislation that keeps middle-class Americans from being impacted by the alternative minimum tax. "If Congress and the White House do not reach a compromise by the end of the year," writes the Associated Press, "anywhere from 21 million to 25 million middle-income taxpayers will be subject to (the AMT), costing them as much as $2,000 in extra taxes." Nothing will happen in the near future, of course -- not with Congr...
More About: Taxes , Minds , State

Support grows for international standards
2007-11-16 19:49:00
The move toward globalization of accounting standards may have just taken a giant step forward. The SEC, in a move it says will "help American investors better analyze and get more readily comparable financial information from the U.S.-registered foreign companies in which they invest," has ruled that foreign private issuers in the United States will not have to reconcile their financial statements with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, provided that the statements are prepared using international financial reporting standards (IFRS) from the International Accounting Standards Board. "The purpose of the requirement," says the SEC, "is to encourage the development of IFRS as a uniform global standard, not a divergent set of standards applied differently in every nation." The move drew praise from many in the business world and came one day after the AICPA urged the SEC to "harmonize" American and international financial reportin...
More About: Support

Enron ... the sequel?
2007-11-15 12:42:00
Enron is dead and buried, right? We've been dancing on that grave since the energy giant went belly-up in late 2001. Sarbanes-Oxley took hold, corporate America was put on notice, and the story of Enron became a cautionary tale for financial ne're-do-wells. So what's that smell? According to Bethany McLean, it's awfully familiar ... and more than a little frightening. McLean, Fortune magazine's editor-at-large and co-author of the riveting book The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron, has written a commentary titled "Uh-oh. It's Enron all over again," in which she compares the current credit crunch with Enron's smoke-and-mirror finances. She fears there are far too many similarities for comfort. The problem, says McLean, lies in structured investment vehicles, or SIVs. These are off-balance-sheet entities that, some say, helped lead to the recent credit and housing boom ... and may be to blame for the credit crisis that has fol...
More About: Sequel , Enron

The rising rift between Generations X and Y spells trouble
2007-11-14 12:13:00
Finally, another post about the widening generational divide between Generation Y (the millennials) and Gen Xers. Check out Penelope Trunk's column in her blog, Brazen Careerist. She posts the words of millennial Rebecca Thorman from Thorman's blog, Modite. I happen to think this is a major emerging challenge in the workplace. I wrote about this in my post, Something's Gotta Give. Read the view from the millennial's perspective (Rebecca) and then think about how her (probably) Gen X managers are sandwiched between these high-energy millennials and the workaholic Boomer partners. Rebecca and Penelope do a great job articulating the subtle but significant differences between the Gen X and Gen Y generations. Here are some of those differences (read her post for the full articles): Different job markets: Gen Y has much more bargaining power due to the talent shortage than the Gen Xers, who entered in a poor market. Gen X's cynicism vs. Gen Y's idealism. You v...
More About: Generations , Spell , Spells

The media are making news in Second Life, too
2007-11-13 21:47:00
CPAs have been making headlines (and more headlines) lately by setting up shop in Second Life . Now, the people who write those headlines are diving into the virtual world, too. CNN is experimenting with virtual news-gathering by creating an "I-Report hub" in Second Life . I-Reports are "user-generated content submitted from cell phones, computers, cameras and other equipment for broadcast and online reports." "The thing we most hope to gain by having a CNN presence in Second Life," said Susan Grant, executive vice president of CNN News Services, "is to learn about virtual worlds and understand what news is most interesting and valuable to their residents." As we expand the CPA profession's presence in Second Life, that's our goal, too -- learning how we can best use the resources available in Second Life. With groups like CNN moving in, virtual business continues to gain credibility. Stay tuned ...
More About: Media , The Media

In tribute ...
2007-11-12 19:01:00
... to our veterans, and to those who are serving in harm's way today. Veterans Day was Sunday, Nov. 11, and today is the official federal observance. Join us as we pay tribute to the men and women who have fought and died in service to our country. You can read more about Veterans Day and find resources for veterans here. And be sure to read our recent Money Management column, "Tax tips for veterans and members of the military."
More About: Tribute

Hunt for CPA talent goes mainstream
2007-11-09 15:37:00
The staffing crisis has been making waves in the CPA profession for the past few years. Now, the rest of the business world is taking notice, too. In a Wall Street Journal article titled "Recruiters chase a shrinking talent pool," author Julie Bennett writes that "competition for entry-level and experienced talent is just as heated as it was in 2003, when the first (Sarbanes-Oxley) gun was fired." "The average master's degree candidate will receive five offers ... at salaries of around $50,000," Bennett writes, quoting numbers from Bill Brady, director of the business career center at Brigham Young's Marriott School of Management. And the hunt for top talent doesn't stop there: "A good accountant looking to leave the firm he's working for will receive three or four offers, plus a counter-offer from his current employer," Georgina Fox of the executive search firm Michael Page told the Journal. A recent series of MACPA podcasts took a closer look at recruitment, retention...
More About: Talent , Hunt , Mains

FASB delays FIN 48 implementation
2007-11-09 04:34:00
Good news for private companies: The Financial Accounting Standards Board has changed its mind about FIN 48. The FASB has deferred implementation of FIN 48, titled "Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes," for all non-public companies to periods beginning after Dec. 15, 2007. According to the AICPA, the FASB has instructed its staff to develop a FASB Staff Position, which will have a 30-day comment period once it is released. The move reverses an earlier FASB decision to reject a delay in FIN 48 implementation. Despite receiving hundreds of corporate comment letters, most of them seeking a delay, the FASB in January 2007 rejected calls for a one-year delay in implementing FIN 48. This time, the board accepted the advice of its own Private Company Financial Reporting Committee (or PCFRC), which is chaired by MACPA member Judy O'Dell. She submitted the following request prior to the FASB's decision: "The PCFRC believes many private company financial statement users, pr...
More About: Delays , Implementation

Defining the generations: Who are the boomers?
2007-08-16 15:45:00
We're continuing our examination of generational conflict in the workforce, and now that we know who the "matures" are, it's time to put the spotlight on the baby boomers. They're defined as those born between 1946 and 1964, and generational expert Cam Marston calls them "the most influential generation in our society today." They're everywhere, 80 million strong, and they're in charge. "They are the leaders of most workplaces," Marston says. "They are the partners, the managers, the bosses, the politicians elected to office. They're running the show, and the prediction is that they will be running the show for the next 20 years." According to Marston, if you're a boomer, chances are: you define your worth by your work ethic; you're competitive yet optimistic; your success is largely visible, in the form of tropies, plaques, diplomas on the wall, etc.; you define yourself by your work; you place great importance on personal development; and you'r...
More About: Boomers , Generation , Generations , The G

Top 5 reasons you need lean accounting
2007-08-16 04:01:00
Lean accounting is not just for manufacturers. It is for every accounting department in every business, industry, non-profit or government. It is a tool that every CPA should have in his or her toolbox, and it incorporates all of the four roles of the CFO of the future. (See my earlier post on the four roles of the CFO.) It also involves all of the major concepts that represent the state of the art in financial reporting -- transparency, visual financial presentation, performance management, continuous improvement (Kaizen), and integration of accounting and operations. The principles of lean accounting offer the compelling reasons every CFO should be thinking about this emerging discipline of accounting. According to lean accounting guru Brian Maskell and Bruce Baggaley in their article, "Lean  Accounting : What's It All About," the principles of lean accounting are: lean and simple business accounting accounting processes that support business transformation, ...
More About: Lean , Reasons , Counting

Defining the generations: Who are the 'matures?'
2007-08-14 22:38:00
Marston We've spent a bit of time recently discussing the workforce's youngest generation and what makes it tick. Strange, though, that most of these generational discussions focus on what's different about the youngsters. What about the rest of us? Is it possible that we're as much to blame for these generational battles as our youngest colleagues? The answer, in a word, is, "Absolutely." Let's spend the next few days examining the characteristics of each of the workforce's generations and how they relate to each other. Helping us out will be Cam Marston, a consultant who specializes in multigenerational communications and marketing. Marston spoke to a group of state CPA society representatives recently in Scottsdale, Ariz., offering detailed insight into each generation and what motivates them. First up: the "matures." Born before 1945, the matures make up about 5 percent of the American workforce. According to Marston, these are the matures' defining charact...
More About: Generation , Generations , Mature , The G

Task force report puts accounting education in spotlight
2007-08-13 22:43:00
Task force members in Chicago Accounting education is full of hot topics these days: Bridging the gaps between educators and employers; increasing student interest and retention; addressing such issues as staff shortages, the 150-hour rule, updating the curriculum, and the challenge of teaching and managing Generation Y students. And that's just the beginning. Educators and employers alike have questions, and a group of MACPA volunteers is working to provide the answers. Members of the Accounting Education and Career Task Force attended the American Accounting Association’s annual conference in August to present its report, “State Societies and Academia: Working Together to Attract the Best and Brightest." The report hit home to an audience eager for fresh perspectives. Read more about the report here, then read the following articles for more about the task force's important work. Accounting Education and Career Task Force tackles profession’s resource chall...
More About: Report , Spotlight