LETTERS: ‘Keep up the good work!’

Rick,
I have been reading your ?At Large? articles on the AICPA CPA Insider and I have found them to be very informative and interesting. They are also just the right length to not get one bogged down too long from the tasks at hand. I work for a small local firm, and at a time when it seems most literature leaves ?us? out, yours seems to be applicable to what we do in many areas. Keep up the good work!
Thanks,
Jeb L. Rainey, CPA
Lamb & Braswell, LLC
Macon, Georgia Read more

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Posted on June 28, 2006
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SMBs Worldwide to Spend $11 Billion on IT Security in ’06

More than 75% of midsize businesses and 60% of small businesses cite IT security key to their growth

NEW YORK (AMI Partners) – Small and medium businesses (SMBs) worldwide are set to cross US$11.4 billion on beefing up their IT security and infrastructure this year in a bid to thwart increasing electronic threats. This spending trend will increase at double digit rates annually over the next several years, according to the latest study by New York-based Access Markets International (AMI) Partners Inc. Read more

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Posted on June 26, 2006
Filed Under BSG MARKETPLACE - Products, Services and Vendors | Leave a Comment

$1,500 for a 1040?

Rita Keller reports: Alkon & Levine, P.C. in Newton, MA is test-pricing 1040 preparation at $1,500. “That wasn’t a typo with one too many zeros!” Keller writes. “They bundle 1040 prep with a mandatory financial planning session, unlimited telephone calls during the year and response to IRS notices, etc… Just in case you are wondering, Renee’s firm is a small firm – so if a small firm can do it, maybe we all can!”

More at Keller’s CPAmanagement.

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Posted on June 26, 2006
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Staff Shortage? Or Just Bad Management?

The best way to compete for talent begins with re-thinking your business.

by Rick Telberg
At Large

The battle for scarce accounting and finance talent is reaching unheard of proportions. Firms are turning away work. Finance departments are paralyzed. The profession’s leaders routinely inveigh solemnly about the future.

But if you’re looking at the scarcity as simply a labor-side supply-and-demand problem, you’re probably looking at it the wrong way.

It’s beginning to emerge among a widening group of forward-thinkers that the solution to the profession’s staffing issue lies in smart marketing and visionary management ? not simply waiting out global demographic trends.

If your organization ? an accounting firm, finance department or anyplace else where tax, accounting and finance work is done ? is facing a staffing shortage or high turnover, don’t blame the market. And don’t blame the recruiters. Read more

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Posted on June 25, 2006
Filed Under BSG FINANCE PROFESSIONAL | 4 Comments

Admininstrators: New Force in the Profession

So says Rita Keller reporting from Indianapolis…

“This week I am at the Association for Accounting Administration National Management Conference in Indianapolis. AAA now has nearly 700 members! There are about 225 paid attendees at this year’s Annual Conference. The sharing and learning that goes on at this conference blows me away. It is definitely very unique. With 700 members, I think AAA is becoming quite a force in the profession.”

You can get more of her AAA coverage at CPA Management.

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Posted on June 23, 2006
Filed Under BSG MARKETPLACE - Products, Services and Vendors | Leave a Comment

Do’s and Don’t's of a Happy Office

Secret to Success: The art of giving and taking feedback.

by Rick Telberg
On Careers

We’ve been asking accountants and finance managers lately how well their offices use feedback to keep folks happy. It’s clear that a little do-and-don’t advice seems in order for some of the nation’s accounting firms and finance departments.

Our sources reported some pretty big problems on the Do side. Out of seven questions in a study launched in this space (join the study and get the report free), five showed that fewer than half the accounting and finance offices nationwide were doing what they should be doing all (or most) of the time.

Feedback offered on behavior rather than on personality, for example: Only eight percent of managers do it all the time, and only 37 percent do it frequently. A full fifth do it rarely or never.

Ouch! Whoever’s doing the feedback could use a little feedback themselves. Read more

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Posted on June 22, 2006
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Financial Planners: Don’t Overlook Employee Benefits

CPAs looking to add a niche to their business consulting services would be wise to consider employee benefits retirement benefits planning.

Reports from the American workplace find that workers are frightened about not having enough saved for retirement and that businesses should be equally scared about whether they are offering the right retirement plans to keep their employees on board.

One survey, sponsored by the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, finds that half of all workers employed by companies that do not offer retirement plans would leave for an employer that offers such benefits. Meanwhile, businesses may be underestimating how important retirement benefits are to keeping their workers on board. While 58 percent of workers surveyed said they would prefer better benefits over a higher salary, only 22 percent of employers said they feel their employees value benefits above pay.

The issue may be especially acute at smaller companies of less than 500 employees. While 60 percent of workers at large companies offering retirement bennies said they felt their employers were providing adequate information about the plans available to them, less than half their counterparts at smaller companies felt the same way. Read more

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Posted on June 21, 2006
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SEC Names Fed Governor Olson as PCAOB Chief

Ex-Ernst (non-CPA) Partner Succeeds McDonough

Washington, D.C., (SEC)- SEC Chairman Christopher Cox announced today that Federal Reserve Board Governor Mark W. Olson has been appointed Chairman of the five-member Public Company Accounting Oversight Board until 2010. Read more

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Posted on June 20, 2006
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Delivering Tax Returns on a Platter

… On a CD platter, that is. One St. Louis CPA takes his clients a step closer to paperless.

by Rick Telberg
At Large

Every year after tax season, Joe Eckelkamp convenes a full-day off-site “debriefing day” with the staff of his St. Louis CPA firm. “We discuss what we did right, did wrong, want to change or want to keep the same,” he says.

At last year’s meeting, they decided to reduce the paper processed in the office and to enhance the client’s tax-return package with paperless alternatives. Indeed, all but five of the firms were e-filing.

Eckelkamp’s tax prep package, one of the market leaders, already provided more than enough paperless capability. But he wanted to move slowly, adopting a three-year plan to go paperless with clients, whether that meant online, e-mail, PDF, CD or some new media yet to be discovered.

This year, for the 2006 filing season, Phase 1 was launched. Read more

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Posted on June 19, 2006
Filed Under BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | 2 Comments

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