How worried are your clients?

31% see prolonged recession.

And they all have an opinion to deal with.

Bookmark and Share

Posted on April 30, 2009
Filed Under BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | 1 Comment

CPA Exam Myths: Blogger has Questions, Gets Answers

Blogger Jeff Elliott at another71 put a few questions to the AICPA and got some answers.

Questions like…

Get all the answers at another71.com

Bookmark and Share

Posted on April 29, 2009
Filed Under BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | Leave a Comment

12 Questions to Test Your Competitive Fact-Finding Skills

How good are you at obtaining competitive intelligence and applying it to business development?

Wolosky

Wolosky

By Howard Wolosky

“An Educated Consumer Is Our Best Customer®” is how an off-price clothing retailer positions itself.

Although not similarly copyrighted, as of late, I have come across a number of other businesses that live by that slogan with a single word change, “An Educated Consumer Is Our Worst Customer.” Unlike that off-price clothier, they don’t publicize the slogan that they actually live by, and, in fact, do their best to hide that fact. Here are two of them:

1. A vitamin chain offers a particular supplement for 10 dollars more than its online price. A clerk at their store refuses to match the price for a regular customer. The manager insists that the customer must go home and print out the proof even though the store has Internet access.
2. A bank automatically renews your two-year CD unless you come in. The rate is one percent, while if you came in, you could obtain a higher rate by renewing the CD for only seven months. Additionally the bank is offering those that open a two-year online CD a much higher rate of 2.85 percent.

Contrast those two examples with a national department store chain advertising that customers can check on computer terminals in their stores for cheaper prices available from competitors on the brand appliances its sells, and that it will match the competitor’s cheaper price.

Clients will be needing help adjusting and prospering in this brave new world where technological advances are overhauling and significantly transforming the rules of the game. Is your firm ready to help? And more importantly, how deep is the firm’s understanding and knowledge of the virtual and brick-and-mortar worlds and the possible interactions.

To find out, how about giving a 12-question test to firm members from every level of the firm–the managing partner, partners, staff accountants, marketers, technologists, and administrative support (if applicable)?

Read more

Bookmark and Share

Posted on April 28, 2009
Filed Under BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | Leave a Comment

What CPAs Need to Know about Swine Flu

Most companies have a disaster plan in place. This is the time to dust if off and see if you’re ready.

Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA.CITP, at InfoTech Partners North America Inc., offers some resources:

Ask yourself:

  1. Are your remote technologies in place, so people can work at home if they need to? Big companies may be using Windows Terminal server or Citrix. Small firms: XP Remote or GoToMyPC.
  2. Are your laptops and smartphones working well and can they connect to the office applications?
  3. Are your work-at-home and flextime policies up to date.
  4. Are all the personnel and client lists up to date and accessible?
Bookmark and Share

Posted on April 28, 2009
Filed Under BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | Leave a Comment

SaaS and Solar Power: What a Combo!

NetSuite lands solar-panel manufacturer.

via Netsuite

The Americas Unit of Suntech Power Holdings, the World’s Largest Producer of Solar Panels, Chooses NetSuite to Help Manage its Growing Number of Suntech Authorized Dealers

NetSuite Inc., a leading vendor of on-demand, integrated business management software suites, has announced that Suntech America, a unit of Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (NYSE: STP), a manufacturer of photovoltaic (PV) modules, is the latest enterprise company to go live on NetSuite after a successful and on-time implementation.

Read more

Bookmark and Share

Posted on April 27, 2009
Filed Under BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | Leave a Comment

The AICPA’s Eight-Point Plan for Re-Regulating the Broken Financial System

Melancon cites “clear gaps” in the rules.

via the AICPA

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants is recommending to Congress a series of specific measures to promote transparency and strengthen investor protections in the U.S. financial system by requiring tighter audit requirements, AICPA President and CEO Barry Melancon said in a news release today.

“There are clear gaps in the existing regulation of the financial system,” AICPA President and CEO Barry Melancon said. “As objective experts and trusted advisers, CPAs want to play an active and constructive role in improving the current system and providing policymakers with the benefit of our knowledge and experience.”

To begin this initiative, the AICPA is offering eight recommendations based on an AICPA analysis of proposals currently pending in Congress. Melancon announced the new effort at the spring meeting of the AICPA’s governing Council in Washington, D.C. today. More than 350 CPA leaders from all 50 states are convening in the nation’s capital for three days and will be making these recommendations in personal visits with members of Congress.

The AICPA supports and recommends:

  1. The continued registration and regulation of broker-dealers by the Securities and Exchange Commission and professional self-regulatory organizations. The AICPA believes that auditors of public broker-dealers, as well as non-public broker-dealers that perform clearing or custodial functions should be subject to registration, inspection and enforcement by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. (PCAOB.)
  2. Regulation and registration of hedge funds by the Securities and Exchange Commission, assuming the term “hedge fund” is more clearly defined and with exemptions for small investment vehicles, such as investment clubs. Any such regulation should be carefully crafted not to impede beneficial, private capital-raising activities.
  3. A requirement that these newly registered hedge funds obtain annual audits by independent certified public accountants.
  4. Investment advisers that are currently subject to registration with the SEC should continue to be regulated under the Advisers Act.
  5. Repeal of the present “private advisor exemption,” a change that would subject hedge fund advisers to SEC regulation.
  6. The AICPA supports a proposal by SEC Chairman Mary Shapiro to require all investment advisers with custody of client assets to undergo “surprise” examinations to confirm safekeeping of assets.
  7. Requiring evaluations of controls over custodial functions. Every custodian should be required to retain an independent public accountant to review and report on the effectiveness of the custodian’s internal controls related to its custodial functions.
  8. Adequate funding for the SEC to fulfill its regulatory responsibilities.
Bookmark and Share

Posted on April 27, 2009
Filed Under BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | Leave a Comment

Where are the regulators?

In January 2009 there were 129 new prosecutions for government regulatory matters, fewer than in any month since May 2000.

Counterfeiting and forgery cases accounted for 45% of these prosecutions, with the remaining cases falling under various categories including:

For details, see the TRAC Report at:http://trac.syr.edu/tracreports/bulletins/regulation/fil/

Bookmark and Share

Posted on April 27, 2009
Filed Under BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | Leave a Comment

AICPA Leaders Prepare for Massive Regulatory Reform

Financial system rules and regs take the spotlight at AICPA 2009 Spring Meeting of Council.

“I firmly believe that any sound solution to the severe economic challenges facing our country will require the insights and contributions of the CPAs in this room… and in every corner of our great nation,” AICPA Chairman Ernie Almonte said at the opening of the meeting.

The Journal of Accountancy reports today:

Mark Peterson, AICPA vice president, governmental and public affairs, said he expects Congress to begin to work through numerous proposals aimed at closing gaps in financial regulation. The various proposals may be pulled together into a larger reform bill, Peterson said. He predicted Congress would then address the idea of a systemic regulator-an entity that could oversee the financial market as a whole.

Regulatory areas the AICPA is focusing on include broker-dealers, hedge funds and investment and hedge fund advisers. For broker-dealers, the AICPA supports continued registration and regulation by the SEC and Self-Regulatory Organizations (SROs). The Institute also believes that auditors of public broker-dealers and non-public broker-dealers that perform either clearing or custodial functions should be subject to registration, inspection and enforcement by the PCAOB.

The AICPA also supports enhanced regulation and registration of hedge funds by the SEC, with the establishment of a “de minimus” threshold that exempts smaller investment vehicles such as investment clubs. Regulation, the Institute is recommending, should be carefully crafted not to impede beneficial, private capital-raising activities. The Institute also supports a requirement that registered hedge funds obtain annual audits by independent public accountants.

For investment advisers/hedge fund advisers, the AICPA believes all investment advisers currently subjected to registration with the SEC should continue to be regulated under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. The Institute supports the repeal of the current “private adviser exemption,” which would subject hedge fund advisers to SEC regulation. The Institute supports a proposal by SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro to require all investment advisers with custody of client assets to undergo an annual “surprise” third-party examination to confirm the safekeeping of those assets. And the AICPA also favors the performance of procedures to evaluate the effectiveness of the controls the adviser has in place over its custodial functions.

In addition, the AICPA is recommending that in order to provide evidence that a custodian has controls in place to identify each client’s assets, every custodian should be required to retain an independent public accountant to review and report on the effectiveness of the custodian’s internal controls related to its custodial functions, which would be made available to the custodian’s clients.

Bookmark and Share

Posted on April 27, 2009
Filed Under BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | Leave a Comment

What CPAs Learned From Tax Season

Now CPAs are carefully recalibrating plans for the next several months.

by Rick Telberg

It’s clear that a sense of unease pervades the profession. People are worried about the economy, about their clients and their own jobs and practices. Indeed, the AICPA has issued a memo laying out steps to take in considering cutbacks and providing valuable cost-saving advice to firms to make sure layoffs are used only as a last resort.

HOW WAS TAX SEASON FOR YOU?
WHAT’S YOUR OUTLOOK ON THE ECONOMY?

Join the survey; see the results.

(Free. Confidential.)

John J. Hack, owner of a small practice in Wausau, Wisc., says he had about as good a year as last year, and counts himself lucky. He expects the economy to remain stubbornly “stagnant” for the foreseeable future. But he was able to upgrade his client base this year and hopes to make similar gains next year. For next year, he plans to push himself to “work harder” on finishing tax returns faster and earlier.

Sole practitioner Mark J. Knighton in Glen Burnie, Md., is coming off a better year than last year and expects to stay busy in the coming weeks working with financially strapped clients on their IRS problems. His big lesson from Tax Season ’09: “Encourage clients to come in earlier.”

Michael S. Warner at Warner & Co. in Woodstown, N.J., is “staying the course” at his local CPA firm, but “with a watchful eye on clients and cash-flow.” His lesson: “Don’t accept new clients who immediately begin asking for discounts.”

A mid-level staffer in Bangor, Maine – call him Jim – expects “the economy will continue to slide downward until about year-end, and then we should start to see it turn around.” As a result, his firm “will probably pick up several more part-time staff for tax season and per-diem work” and not hire full-time staff until the economy improves. “Our clients are feeling the pinch,” he says. “But we expect very little in the way of bankruptcies or businesses closing.”

For next year, Jim W. says, “We need to do a better job training staff on proper IRS form prep. Some items were not consistently treated and it made checking more time-intensive than it needed to be.”

John T. Drawdy Jr in Woodstsock, Ga., sees problems with the economy; but they’re manageable. “I expect super inflation,” he says. Still, the firm will be hiring again next tax season.” And, as for clients? “They get better because I fire the bad ones.” His No. 1 Lesson from Tax Season 2009: “Start extensions earlier.”

Paul Hense, at Hense & Associates in Grand Rapids, Mich., is swimming against the tide of a contracting economy. But he’s learned to “work and not worry.” Hence has had a long, 40-year career and has seen a lot of ups and downs. Nevertheless, he finds he needs to hone a “habit of not letting stress affect productivity.”

Some firms have already started shedding staff. One senior staffer at a large firm reports, “We let go almost 20 people yesterday, probably more
to come.”

But one sole proprietor is toughing it out. She said her “one assistant quit in the middle of tax season.” She “survived with the help of my sisters.” One is willing to help with data-entry whenever needed.

And another CPA sees “shrinkage everywhere.” But keep asking around and you might just as readily find a CPA who reports they “might be adding one more person in a supervisory position.” So the job outlook for CPA firms remains murky, at best.

Bookmark and Share

Posted on April 27, 2009
Filed Under BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | Leave a Comment

keep looking »