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
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… 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.
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