Author: GoingConcern

Are Big Banks Really Helping Small Business?

This story is republished from CFOZone, where you’ll find news, analysis and professional networking tools for finance executives.

In the latest move by a big bank to make itself into a friend to small business, Chase recently announced a program to offer incentives to small companies for hiring. But the actual benefit to most small businesses is hard to see.


Specifically, the bank will lower its interest rate on new lines of credit by 0.5 percentage points for each new hire, up to three employees, for the life of the loan. The offer is available to business owners who are approved for a line of credit of up to $250,000 or existing business customers who increase their line of credit by at least $10,000. And if you open a business checking account, you get an additional half percent discount on your loan rate.

A typical interest rate on a line of credit is 6 percent. According to the bank, if you choose the whole ball of wax – take the discount for three hires and open a checking account – you’ll lower that to 4 percent. And counting the discount for a new checking account, small business owners can save about $4,000 over three years on an outstanding balance of about $65,000.

Trouble is, that’s an offer most businesses are likely to refuse. Those already planning to hire and that are in good health might take advantage of the deal. In fact, they’d be silly not to. But the offer is hardly enough to inspire a business to hire if it wasn’t going to do so already.

What the offer might accomplish is to help Chase seem like a nice institution, not the greedy enterprise that helped bring down the economy. And it’s hardly the only attempt by Chase, or other banks, to do something to lift their image, something I’ve written about before. For example, last year, Chase unveiled plans to increasing lending to small businesses by $4 billion to a total of $10 billion. Bank of America recently said it would buy more from small businesses. In May, Citicorp launched a $200 million fund to boost small-business lending in low-income communities. And of course, last year, Goldman Sachs announced its own $500 million small-business fund.

It’s also a way to attract healthy businesses at a time when loan demand is down.

So a win-win for Chase. Not so much for small businesses.

An Argument for Techie Accountants

My one piece of advice for the next generation of accountants right now is, enroll in some Computer Science courses. Learn to code. Learn how to manage a small server farm. Learn APIs, SQL, HTML5, JAVA, etc.

Drop that Poli-sci course right now.

Technicalntant’s best friend nowadays. It should be self-evident as to why. Data. Data. Data.

My first accounting gig was in a tax firm. We had an old mainframe crunching numbers and all the programming was in COBOL. In industry, reports would have all been generating output as text files; but who cares, there’s no ‘export to file’ function anyways.


Actually, that’s a good test. If you want to know whether your current software vendor is investing in the future of their product, look at the file output from your reports. If they come out as text files (you open Excel and each line of output is just one cell), this means the reporting architecture is really, really old.

It’s kind of like when you and your friends one-time go for an afternoon horseback ride. Inevitably, one person gets plunked on the beatest, tired old nag you ever seen. Yeah, technically she still rides but she ain’t even long in the tooth. All the teeth, they fell out.

Consider it the carbon dating of your accounting system.

You see, just because there has been consolidation in the ownership of companies in the enterprise software space does not mean the units have consolidated their products. Most units (purchased or raised) continue to operate independently. Revenues are generated from new sales obviously; but equally important, from a big, juicy installed base of maintenance contracts within the business units. You know that. And it’s fine. The amount of new investment in the product however, would be a corporate management decision from head office. Some products are the equivalent of that tired old nag.

Back to the point on technical skills though. Unlike back in the day, technology is no longer just auxiliary to what we do. It’s central and 100% pervasive. A commenter last week summed it up really well when I talked about the accounting tools:

“Three letters for you bitches, S to the Q to the mofo L.”

Getting a bit more techie will help you appreciate the humor in this quote. It’ll also help you recognize the tired old nag before you saddle up and ride.

In practice, normally we’re simply subject to whatever system happens to be installed. You deal with it, right? And that’s fine too. Recognition goes hand in hand with acceptance.

The reports kick out to Excel in text files; you find the delimiters, execute a ‘text-to-columns’ command, split up what you can and do your reporting. In the past, I’ve also had to occasionally create an Excel formula for pulling out text that’s really buried using the LEFT, RIGHT, functions. Then, I write a macro to automate as much as possible. Poor tired old nag.

Technology and data are just like riding a horse. With the correct instruction, you can get the horse to do what you want. But you’ll always be limited by what the horse is physically able to do.

If you don’t know anything about horses, this analogy might not make much sense at all. Which, I would say, just proves my initial point. Learn your technical skills now while you’re still in school. Leave all the fluffy horsebackriding and philosophy courses to the guys who’ll be serving you coffee after graduation.

In my view, technology skills are just as important for accountants as debits and credits. You may or may not like it, but it’s time to see how the dog food is made.

Enjoy.

Old farm adage: “If you’re going to have livestock,… you’re going to have deadstock.”

Geoff Devereux as been active in Vancouver’s technology start-up community for the past 5 years. Prior to getting lured into tech start-ups, Geoff worked in various fields including a 5 year stint in a tax accounting firm. You can see more of his posts for GC here.

Job of the Day: Genworth Financial Needs an Accounting and Reporting Team Leader

Genworth Financial is looking for an experienced professional to assume a leadership role in their accounting and reporting group.

The position is located in Richmond, Virgina, requires someone with a strong accounting background in insurance, a minimum of five years experience with a CPA, and a MBA is preferred.


Company: Genworth Financial

Title: Team Leader, Accounting and Reporting

Location: Richmond, VA

Responsibilities: Coach, develop, and lead reporting analysts; Quarterly financial reporting for assigned Insurance Legal Entities; Review Statutory and GAAP quarterly financial statements; Plan and draft new disclosures for financial reporting as needed and review disclosure checklists prepared by reporting analysts; Review and approve quarterly entries; Review and lead reporting analysts in the completion of Statutory and GAAP audited financial statements; Review quarterly Statutory analytics, including GAAP to STAT reconciliations; Review results of quarterly Risk Based Capital; Review quarterly GAAP analytics, including Schedule 6’s; Support and respond to requests from State regulators, State examiners and external auditors, and review responses to audit and exam requests prepared by reporting analysts; Coordinate the completion of deliverables with multiple suppliers, internal and external to the business Segment Review supplemental NAIC and State required schedules quarterly and annually; Lead and implement improvement projects related to financial reporting.

Qualifications/Skills: CPA with 5-7 years Insurance experience; Accounting and/or finance degree; Strong Accounting foundation; Deep understanding of Insurance regulations; 2-3 years experience managing teams; Strong organization and communication skills; Working knowledge of Oracle or General Ledger system; MBA and GAAP and Statutory accounting and reporting experience are preferred.

See the entire description over at the GC Career Center and visit the main page for all your job search needs.

Small Business Amendment to Financial Reform Bill Draws Mixed Feelings

This story is republished from CFOZone, where you’ll find news, analysis and professional networking tools for finance executives.

The financial reform bill contains a small-business related amendment that hasn’t received a lot of attention. And it’s either very small-business friendly or very unfriendly, depending on whom you listen to.

Sponsored by Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, the ranking Republican on the Small Business Committee, it directs the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to take into account how proposed regulations would affect the cost of credit to small companies. It also mandates that the bureau be covered by the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996.

That law, until now, has applied only to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It’s aimed at policing proposed regulations that could have a “significant impact on a substantial number of small entities.” In that case, a special government panel has to consult with small businesses who could be affected by the law to see just how they think it could hurt them.


Opponents, like the Consumer Federation, objected to the amendment on the grounds that it required the consumer bureau to consult with the very businesses it regulates. And they said it would slow down the regulatory process, thereby hurting small businesses that need fast access to credit to finance their operations.

On the other hand, such odd organizations as the National Federation of Independent Business–which didn’t much like a whole lot about the rest of the bill–supported the amendment, presumably because they liked including small businesses in the rule-making process.

Who’s right? It’s undoubtedly true that the amendment allows–requires–that the consumer bureau seek input from the folks it’s supposed to regulate. But the bureau doesn’t have to pay attention if it thinks the input lacks merit. The law only says that “Where appropriate, the agency shall modify the proposed rule.” It doesn’t say the bureau is required to modify the proposed rule.

And in the few occasions when a special panel was convened to deal with OSHA and EPA issues, the officials did their work well within the 60-day limit the law requires, according to Rob Mandelbaum in the You’re the Boss blog.

So, on balance, it’s not a bad thing.

Job of the Day: Nemours Needs an Assistant Treasurer

Nemours is looking for an experienced accounting or finance professional to fill an Assistant Treasurer role in its Jacksonville, Florida location.

The position requires an MBA with three years experience and knowledge of accounting principles and financial analysis.


Company: Nemours

Title: Assistant Treasurer

Location: Jacksonville, FL

Description: This position is responsible for providing assistance with analysis and management of short- and intermediate-term investment pools. Additionally, will provide assistance with analysis and management of self-insurance, captive and risk retention group investment pools. Finally, this position will be responsible for ongoing monitoring and analysis of existing debt structure.

Responsibilities: Prepares analyses and provides reports on investment holdings and investment performance of Nemours short- and intermediate-term investment pools; Prepares analyses and provides reports on investment holdings and performance held by Nemours’ wholly-owned subsidiaries; Researches and coordinates new cash management products and procedures. Provides assistance in designing and implementing technical and process improvements to the organization’s cash management functions, including float optimization and maximization of portfolio earnings and acceleration of cash collections; Assists Managing Director of Finance/Treasurer with cash flow analysis to ensure optimal investment of funds. Ensures funds are available to meet the needs of all Nemours’ expenditures, including Payroll and Accounts Payable, while timing availability to maximize investment of unexpended cash.

Qualifications/Skills: MBA with an emphasis on Finance, along with three (3) to five (5) years of related experience; Excellent written and verbal skills; Knowledge of general accounting principles; Knowledge of financial analysis techniques and methods for assessing the operating effectiveness and financial condition of organizations.

See the entire description over at the GC Career Center and visit the main page for all your job search needs.

Job of the Day: Vanguard Needs a Corporate Tax Accountant

Vanguard is looking for an experienced tax professional to join their team in its Valley Forge, PA location.

Responsibilities include preparing and filing of domestic and federal compliance related documentation for international subsidiaries, maintaining transfer pricing documentation and preparing and reviewing returns.

Candidates need a minimum of three years experience, two that are specific to tax compliance. CPA or Masters in tax is a plus.


Company: Vanguard

Title: Corporate Tax Accountant – International

Location: Valley Forge, PA

Responsibilities: Preparing and ensuring the timely filing of domestic and federal compliance related to international subsidiaries (Form 5471, FBAR form), including coordinating the timely receipt of key source documentation and the preparation of applicable tax work papers; Maintaining up-to-date transfer pricing documentation; Owning the responsibility for direct and indirect tax compliance (income tax, value added tax, goods and services tax, etc.); Coordinating the preparation and review of returns; Performing compliance reviews of Form W-8 in coordination with Accounts Payable Services, including the annual review of Form 1042 and Form 1042-S for foreign vendors; Assisting in the quarterly calculation of the global tax provision for foreign entities, including variance analysis and periodic projections; Owning the responsibility for the calculations of FIN 48 and FAS 5 tax exposure related to foreign issues (i.e., transfer pricing, subpart F, PE, etc.); Completing quarterly tax account reconciliations of foreign subsidiaries; Preparing tax footnotes for applicable foreign subsidiaries; Completing quarterly reconciliation of foreign subsidiary tax-related general ledger accounts; Maintaining work papers related to foreign subsidiaries, including earnings and profits, foreign tax pools, and subpart F detail; Preparing foreign tax credit calculations and related tax forms as required (Form 1118)

Qualifications/Skills: Undergraduate degree (accounting or finance preferred) or equivalent combination of training and work experience; Minimum of three years of general experiences, including two years directly related to accounting or tax experience; Certified Public Accountant (CPA) or Master of Science in Taxation (MST) a plus; Knowledge of the financial services industry preferred; Proficiency with Microsoft Office.

See the entire description over at the GC Career Center and visit the main page for all your job search needs.

Supreme Court Ruling Could Expose PCAOB to More Political Pressure

This story is republished from CFOZone, where you’ll find news, analysis and professional networking tools for finance executives.

We’re not quite as sure as others are that yesterday’s Supreme Court decision regarding SarbOx is so utterly meaningless regarding the future of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

Sure, the court said the law is still fully in effect, blah, blah, blah.

But letting the Securities and Exchange Commission fire PCAOB board members for any reason instead of “for cause” could easily subject the board to significantly more political influence.


While Floyd Norris says the commission is unlikely to fire anyone on the PCAOB, the fact is the has commission has thrown its weight around in similar fashion in the case of the Financial Accounting Standards Board when companies have complained to Washington about FASB’s accounting rule making.

What’s to stop them from complaining to the SEC that the PCAOB is being too hard on its auditors, and the SEC from succumbing to that pressure?

Much depends, of course, on who’s leading the commission. Mary Schapiro might not easily bend to the political winds, but her predecessor, Christopher Cox, clearly did just that in connection with FASB.

After all, when during a conference on accounting I asked Conrad Hewitt, the SEC’s last chief accountant under Cox, about the SEC’s threat to hold up approval of FASB’s budget unless it let the commission vet nominations to the board in advance, Hewitt said the SEC was acting properly in its heightened role as the FASB’s overseer under SarbOx.

Yet a FASB member privately insisted to me afterward that the SEC had no authority to do what it did.

And at another conference a few months later, I asked Hewitt what the White House was telling the SEC to do about exemptions for small companies from SarbOx’s requirements for internal controls, the infamous provision known as Section 404. At that, Hewitt, as somnolent a figure as ever occupied the job, sat up in his chair as if he’d just had a bucket of cold water thrown in his face, and insisted that the SEC was an independent agency.

But given what happened to Cox’s predecessor, William Donaldson, I think Hewitt’s reaction to this question was disingenuous.

And both of his answers help explain why the big argument on the court yesterday over the theory of “the unitary executive” and the ability of the president to fire “independent” agency personnel isn’t quite as irrelevant to the PCAOB’s future as most everyone else seems to think.

Job of the Day: Toyota Financial Services Needs a Senior Analyst

Toyota Financial Services is looking for an experienced professional to fill a Senior Analyst of Accounting Commercial Finance role in its Los Angeles location.

Responsibilities include designing, developing and executing all daily and monthly analysis, maintaining SOX narratives and process flows and periodic testing of key controls.

Candidates should have three to five years experience with at least two in public accounting, a CPA or experience and education to obtain a CPA is required.


Company: Toyota Financial Services

Title: Senior Analyst – Accounting Commercial Finance

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Responsibilities: Design, develop and execute all daily and monthly analysis; Review analysis with Product Accounting management monthly or more frequently if necessary; Assist in the preparation and review of account reconciliations; Assist other areas of the organization with product related questions; Fully cross train on monthly close procedures and maintain ability to effectively execute process if needed; Maintain SOX narratives and process flows; Perform periodic testing of key controls and review results with Product Accounting management; Maintain group desk top procedures.

Qualifications/Skills: Bachelor’s degree in Accounting or Finance required; C.P.A. or experience and education required to receive license required; A minimum of three to five years of accounting experience; At least two years of public accounting experience; Evidence of increasing levels of responsibility; Strong knowledge of Microsoft Excel, Word, Access and PowerPoint; PeopleSoft accounting software preferred or similar general ledger software experience; Familiarity/capacity to learn database/query tools/techniques; Knowledge of SAP and/or Hyperion a plus.

See the entire description over at the GC Career Center and visit the main page for all your job search needs.

Job of the Day: Duff & Phelps Needs a Due Diligence Analyst

Duff & Phelps is looking for a Due Diligence Analyst to join its Los Angeles office.

Selected responsibilities include researching technical accounting topics, reviewing target companies accounting policies and analyzing quality of earnings.

Candidates should have one to three years of audit or due diligence experience. Travel required as needed.


Company: Duff & Phelps

Title: Due Diligence Analyst

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Responsibilities: Preparing analytical schedules to be used in discussions with Management of target companies; Identifying transaction focus areas based on preliminary analysis; Researching technical accounting topics for contemplated transactions; Researching public industry and competitor information relevant to the target company; Analyzing cyclicality of target’s business and working capital trends; Investigating contingent liabilities, off-balance sheet items and related party transactions; Analyzing quality of earnings and non-recurring items; Reviewing target company’s accounting policies for proper application of GAAP; Participating in discussions held with Management; Contributing to the report-writing process.

Qualifications/Skills: Bachelor of Science/Business Administration in Accounting from an accredited college or university; 1-3 years of Audit or Due Diligence experience: However, new graduates with a minimum GPA of 3.2 will also be considered; Strong analytical, comprehension and problem solving skills, as well as strong verbal and written communication skills; Flexibility to travel, as needed.

See the entire description over at the GC Career Center and visit the main page for all your job search needs.

Credentials for Accountants – Your Wheelbarrow Barrel Needs Tech Tools

Over the last couple months, GC has been profiling various accounting-related credentials. CPA, CFP, CMA, CIA, CFE, CVA, CFA… it’s a veritable alphabet soup of designations and employers are more and more likely to ask for a second helping these days. And you might want to pick up an MBA while you’re at it too. Y’know, in your spare time. In Canada, you can go ahead an//www.cga-canada.org/en-ca/Pages/default.aspx”>CGA, CA, and CBV to the mix as well.

Another day, another designation for yet another self-regulating body.

We’ve all heard of “grades inflation.” Well, in my view, we’re currently subject to “credentials inflation” at a rate that would make a Banana Republic cringe. In contrast, Zimbabwe Ben would likely nod in approval.


Beyond credentials though, there’s another critical piece in the employment puzzle that you would be well advised to consider as you venture into the field. Tools.

What are an accountant’s tools?

I’m not talking about the wheel barrel you’ll need to cart all those credentials to your job interview. I’m talking about the business software that more and more employers want pre-installed on their prospective employees.

At the entry level, it tends to be more of a ‘nice to have’ than a ‘must have’. But more and more, your progressive career path is affected by the type of tools you learn early in your career. There’s just no way to separate accounting and finance from the technology that facilitates accounting and finance work.

In the small business space, this is less of an issue. One small business accounting package is much like another. The “canned” reports (built in) will largely suffice, point and click. Just get yourself a healthy functional skill level with MS Excel and you’re ready to go.

Moving up into the enterprise, it’s a different story. The difference between having experience with Quickbooks versus SAP is akin to the difference between a degree from Eastern Michigan University and Princeton.

Think about that when you are venturing out into the job market for the first time. What are your aspirations? Where do you want your career to take you?

It’s difficult to blame employers for this predilection. Enterprise software is complex, subject to cryptic reporting languages, and training is expensive. The expertise is seldom institutionalized within the enterprise instead residing in the head’s of one or two key people. The “gurus.” Sometimes the expertise just walks right out the front door. It’s just way, way easier for everyone when “the new guy” can hit the ground running.

We may see this sad reality change in time.

Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, is a key person leading the charge for change. He is an out-spoken advocate of the “consumerization” of enterprise software. In Benioff’s view, enterprise software should be as easy to use as Facebook and we’re seeing this manifest with every iteration of the Salesforce.com platform.

Unfortunately, Salesforce is the exception rather than the rule and the incumbent systems are deeply rooted in business. The technology “stack” as it’s called is built up over time and choices of enterprise systems are traditionally big, capex decisions. Change is rarely proactive and technology is normally kept well beyond the end of its useful life.

The complex enterprise systems will continue to be persistent for sometime to come. So be prepared to factor this into your career calculations. When you’re out there looking for work, ask the question of prospective employers. What systems do you use? Then, research that system to figure out its prevalence in the market: Are they using some niche software product built upon an ancient architecture? Is it a proprietary system that you’ll never see again? Is it a “legacy system”? Is it vertical specific?

Don’t underestimate the importance of these questions. No one has the bandwidth to learn all the tools currently offered. Examine your career aspirations carefully within the context of these technology tools because it can be difficult to backpedal. The tools you learn have just as much bearing on your career as the credentials you chose.

And inflation is a fact of life.

Geoff Devereux as been active in Vancouver’s technology start-up community for the past 5 years. Prior to getting lured into tech start-ups, Geoff worked in various fields including a 5 year stint in a tax accounting firm. You can see more of his posts for GC here.