Diverse breed of new entrepreneur drives micro-biz trend
by Rick Telberg
At Large
I know what you’re wondering: What’s next? One minute, humankind is hunting and gathering; the next, we’re harvesting amber waves of grain. Then all of a sudden we’re building infrastructure and factories like crazy, but pretty soon everyone’s racing down the information superhighway.
So what, you wonder, is next?
Well, Intuit and the Institute for the Future have done some thinking on just that question, and what they see coming is yet another economic transformation. If you’re a finance or accounting professional, especially in a small-to-medium-sized shop, you’re going to like this one. It’s got small businesses popping up by the millions, all of them in need of someone who knows accounting, finance, payroll, and other aspects of business management and administration.
READ MORE →
How the rent-versus-buy concept applies to the accounting profession
What do CPAs want in ERP? Join the study. Get the answers.
by Rick Telberg
At Large
If you or your company hasn’t yet confronted the question of shedding some operations and outsourcing them, then hold on; you will.
Outsourcing, especially finance and accounting outsourcing, is growing by leaps and bounds as businesses strip down to their core competencies and as alternatives spring up near and far. Outsourcing represents an opportunity for CPAs to add value in a variety of ways, ranging from helping companies make the right decisions to taking on the work themselves. The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals estimates that outsourcing is already a $6 trillion-a-year industry worldwide. And it’s not just an option for Fortune 500 companies. It’s been estimated that outsourcing by small businesses in the United States will become a $25 billion market by 2009.
READ MORE →
A $170-million judgment against BDO Seidman LLP could put the global firm out of business. The firm plans to appeal.
A Florida jury found BDO guilty of gross negligence for failing to spot a fraud that led to the bankruptcy of E.S. Bankest LLC, a Miami-based financial-services company, and the loss of $170 million in investor funds, the Wall Street Journal reports. The verdict leaves BDO potentially open to punitive damages that under Florida law could be triple the amount that investors initially claimed. In a legal filing last September, the firm said such a penalty could sink the firm.
The verdict was a victory for Banco Espirito Santo SA, a Portuguese bank that is a former investor in Bankest. Banco Espirito sued BDO, claiming the auditor negligently failed to spot the fraud. In assessing damages, the jury will weigh BDO’s role against the role of others at Bankest, who actually perpetrated the fraud. Two former Bankest executives have been sent to prison after being convicted on criminal charges connected to the fraud.
An attorney who represented Banco Espirito, said the jury’s verdict showed that BDO “chose not to do the right thing” in its audit work and was compromised by a conflict of interest involving one of its executives and a company connected to privately held Bankest. BDO said it disagreed with the jury’s finding and that the firm is “confident that this verdict will be reversed on appeal.”
In a separate action, BDO is suing Banco Espirito Santo, claiming the directors it appointed to Bankest’s board were negligent.
More at the Miami Herald… READ MORE →
What mobile accountants need to know to stay in touch
by Rick Telberg
One of the big problems with being a mobile accountant is that you aren’t in the office. That seems pretty obvious, but it’s less obvious what some of the disadvantages are in not being at your desk.
READ MORE →
DEXTER, MI. (Thomson Corp.) – Thomson Tax & Accounting has launched a new Client Management module—an add-on module to the company’s practice management application, Practice CS. Termed “the most significant enhancement to Practice CS this year,” the Client Management module enables firms to track client communications at a detailed level. The Client Management module extends the practice management capabilities of Practice CS. Using the module, firms can record every detail of client activity so they always have the most updated information. The Client Management module enables firms to logically organize, store, and access all client interactions to support all areas of client activity—including work-in-process, billing, prospecting, and cross-selling.
READ MORE →
Optimism Remains Stable for Individual Companies
NEW YORK (AICPA) – Escalating fuel prices and the weakened housing market are coloring the opinion that C-suite CPAs have of the U.S. economy, according to the Spring 2007 Business and Industry Economic Outlook Survey conducted by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Many of these executives also believe that energy availability and the significant number of sub-prime mortgage foreclosures could affect their own businesses.
READ MORE →
How the rent-versus-buy concept applies to the accounting profession.
How CPAs make accounting and ERP decisions. Join the study. Get the answers.
by Rick Telberg
At Large
If you or your company hasn’t yet confronted the question of shedding some operations and outsourcing them, then hold on; you will.
Outsourcing, especially finance and accounting outsourcing, is growing by leaps and bounds as businesses strip down to their core competencies and as alternatives spring up near and far. Outsourcing represents an opportunity for CPAs to add value in a variety of ways, ranging from helping companies make the right decisions to taking on the work themselves.
READ MORE →
