The best assurance is storing your data offsite.
By Rick Telberg
for Hewlett Packard
Everyone knows how important it is to back up important files and applications, but many accountants still don’t have a comprehensive and coherent approach to this vital task. The plain truth of the matter is that backup is usually inconvenient, not very effective, or both.
Among accountants, the most common methods include backing up to a network hard drive, optical discs, or possibly a portable hard drive. Any finance manager using one of these methods on a regular basis is already ahead of the game.
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It depends on who you ask — auditors harbor more doubts than preparers.
by Rick Telberg
At Large
While CPAs in general believe that Corporate America has room for improvement when it comes to meeting the public’s expectations, those in business and industry tend to take a slightly more optimistic view than their counterparts in public accounting, according to our latest soundings.
When asked whether Corporate America fully understands and is properly responding to the public’s expectations for honesty and fairness, more of those respondents who work in business or industry believe that Corporate America “gets it.”
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George White of the AICPA reports today in the Tax Insider that LIFO may be on “life support.” He says the double whammy of a revenue-minded Senate and global-minded FASB could be trouble.
But we’ve heard that there’s more to the story. There’s an anecdote floating around Washington about a meeting a few weeks ago between Sen. Grassley (R-Iowa) and several of his Iowa constituents who oppose LIFO repeal. Grassley reportedly indicated that he is not personally behind the LIFO proposal; that it got started as a result of a misunderstanding between him and Sen. Frist (R-Tenn.). Grassley said that the LIFO proposal came up during consideration of the energy bill this spring when the oil & gas industry was the target. The LIFO proposal was the same one as last fall: repeal limited to the oil & gas industry. Grassley said he objected, saying he was opposed to targeted punitive measures, and adding that if LIFO repeal was to be considered, it should be across-the-board. Grassley told his constituents that Frist misinterpreted this throwaway line as representing Grassley’s support for across-the-board LIFO repeal.
As our source remarked: “Sounds a little pat, but that’s the story Grassley fed his constituents.”
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Net businesses have problems paying sales tax in multiple states.
Jared Vogt at Avalara explains why his company’s online tax-compliance service is so crucial
BusinessWeek: About $20 billion is lost by state governments every year to uncollected online sales tax, according to independent accounting research company Bay Street Group. As states become aware of this monumental shortfall, they are beginning to aggressively audit companies doing business across jurisdictional lines and stiffen the penalties for tax violators, as well as redefine the term “nexus,” or what it means for a company to have a tax-liable physical presence in a state. Read the full BusinesWeek article.
Get the Bay Street Group research report, “The Looming Crisis in Cross-Jurisdictional Internet Sales Tax Compliance,” prepared in conjunction with Avalara.
InfoWorld: The compliance burden here is a potential nightmare, provided it plays out the way Avalara says it will. Every transaction must be weighed against the sales tax jurisdictions of both buyer and seller as well as any third-party intermediaries. Screw it up and you’re in hot water. They’ve got an interesting white paper on the topic of SSTP.
Bay Street Group research also featured at:
– KIRO TV (seattle)
– E-Commerce Times
– CRM Buyer
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CashBoard Inc., an Emerald Hills, Calif.-based startup from former PayCycle CEO Rene Lacerte, has raised $2.1 million in Series A funding, according to a regulatory filing. DCM-Doll Capital Management reportedly led the deal. READ MORE →
Never before have so many disparate and seemingly unrelated forces converged upon the professions to force deep and pervasive change.
We are approaching a tipping point,Bruce W. Marcus asserts. And there’s no fighting it, or turning back.
OK, so what to do about it?
Marcus advises:
– Learn to think forward, not backward.
– Learn to listen better to clients. Learn their businesses and industries, and to hear and understand problems before, not after, you give advice
– Learn what other firms are doing in such forward-thinking ideas as value billing, two-tier structures, knowledge management and internal communications
– Learn to question everything you do. The question you ask yourself is, “This is the way it was done yesterday. Is there a better way to do it today and tomorrow?†A truly powerful question.
– Recognize that the shortage of brains and talent in these times is so acute that you can’t afford to concern yourselves with the race or color or age or gender in which those brains and talent come.
– Recognize that you may be professionals, but you’re in a business, and business requires trained and talented leadership, and flexible structures to meet the challenges of a dynamic environment.
Read the rest at The Marcus Perspective.
Most accountants mix, match and improvise fee structures. Which method works best? Join the study: Get the report.
by Rick Telberg
At Large
Regardless of whether they consider themselves cost-based, market sensitive or value billers, accounting practitioners use a variety of idiosyncratic sub-strategies for charging clients. And they’re not shy about adjusting their rates for different situations.
Bay Street Group’s study of a broad cross-section of accountants, most from small accounting or consulting practices, found dozens of different pricing strategies in play, including ones using a hybrid of popular methods. Also, 47 percent surveyed said they charge different rates for different clients and/or services.
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The average medical expenses for a family of four increased by 9.6% from $12,214 in 2005 to $13,382 in 2006, according to BenefitNews.com.
Companies are bearing higher inflation rates than their employees, even as they increase amounts employees pay in premium contributions, deductibles, copays and coinsurance.
The inflation for the employer’s share was 11.3% in 2005 and 2006, while employee’s share saw a 6.8% increase this year, compared to 5.8% last year. The average family of four paid $2,210 out-of-pocket for medical care this year with coverage from a typical PPO.
Citing Milliman consultants, Benefit News says the average annual rate of increase between 2002 and 2006 was 9.7%, and inflation rates will stay in the 9% to 10% range for the next several years.
The total costs include the cost of physician visits (36% of total costs), inpatient hospital care (30%), outpatient hospital care (16%) and pharmaceuticals (14%). The steepest inflation was found in outpatient and inpatient care this year. Some good news: The upward trend in pharmacy costs slowed considerably.
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Would you recommend your CPA firm to a friend?
by Rick Telberg
For the Finance Executive
CPAs and CFOs share a common question: How much longer will their relationships go on?
The question begs another: What might cause the client to switch accountants?
Bay Street Group’s studies of accountant-client relationships go straight to the second question and we’re getting a surprising dichotomy of answers. CPAs tended to say one thing, while CFOs said another. Surprised?
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