OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

WTF! CPAs React to Money Crisis

Finance and accounting professionals are gaping in awe and astonishment at the worldwide financial unraveling.

To capture some of the sentiment and maybe a few useful ideas, we floated a query on LinkedIn. If you’re not already on LinkedIn, please join us. We’ve been asking, “What should finance and accounting professional make of the crisis?” Here are some comments from some LinkedIn users…

Peggy Ireland, Consultant at Investors Group and Board Member at Consumers Association of Canada, Ontario, Canada:

What the hell were they thinking?

Greg Steinbrenner, Assistant Vice President at Guaranty Bank, Milwaukee:

GM just recently tapped a line of credit. They say its not because a crunch of their working capital but because the line may not be available much longer.

Joe Eckelkamp, President and Owner at Eckelkamp & Associates CPAs, St. Louis:

The single most critical action is to capture all of the liquidity you can NOW. Draw down and arbitrage at as small a net carrying cost as possible any cash you can reasonably foresee needing because it may not be available when you need it. You cannot be too liquid right now in a business. It is liquidity to a greater degree than actual asset quality that is causing the crisis at present.

John A. Wheeler, Founder & Managing Principal, Wheelhouse Advisors LLC, Atlanta:

They need to review incentive programs to determine whether employees are continuing to be rewarded for taking excessive risks. This is one of the tell-tale signs that a company is headed for trouble.

Chris Kelly, Partner at Kelly Partners LLP, United Kingdom:

Largely I agree with Joe Ecklekamp above. Co-incidentally I wrote an article for audit executives on the same topic which you can access at the link below. In summary it highlighted the following as areas that should be of concern to executives:

1. rising cost of debt & therefore cost of capital rendering some projects unviable

2. pressure on employees who may be suffering their own personal hardships

3. action to take on working capital (creditors and debtors)

4. ensuring cash & management information is up to date and reliable

Download Chris’s article: Surviving the Credit Crunch

2 Responses to “WTF! CPAs React to Money Crisis”

  1. Rick Telberg

    Michelle,

    Thank you for the thoughtful comment. I apologize for offending. I allowed my exasperation to show. Indeed it was unprofessional, but also wholly authentic. On a day with a 1,000-point swing in the Dow, I’m afraid I was at a loss for words — and could only resort to letters.

    — rick

  2. Michelle Briggs

    Dear Rick,
    As a respected editor of our profession, it surprises me that you could not come up with a more intelligent and professional way of showing expression other than WTF. Regardless of the shock and awe of what is going on in our economic society right now, do we really need to digress to that level? What our society lacks more than anything is RESPECT and this is just another way of proving my point.

    Sincerely,

    Michelle Briggs