Author: GoingConcern

FEI Survey: Half of CFOs Don’t Plan to Replace Laid Off Positions

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

This is not the news you hear when there is talk of “recovery.”

Plus, it’s bad news for President Obama. The morning after our leader joined the rest of Americans and finally acknowledged that jobs are the most important issue facing the country, chief financial officers signaled they don’t expect the employment picture to improve anytime soon.

Sure, 62 percent of the 371 corporate CFOs who participated in the latest quarterly survey conducted by Financial Executives International (FEI) and Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business said they do not plan any layoffs for this year. Big deal. Most companies have already gotten around to this cost-cutting measure. In fact, 77 percent of those surveyed said they already cut rank and file during the economic downturn.


More significantly, nearly half of the CFOs that previously laid off people said they do not plan to replace those positions. Rather, they figure to deploy other strategies to increase production or output. For example, they plan to reinstate overtime for existing employees, turn to outside consultants, hire part-time employees, and/or make current part-time employees full time before rehiring new full-time employees.

Just 44 percent of the total surveyed said they anticipate an increase in hiring at their companies. On the other hand, about one-quarter of the finance execs expect to cut back on hiring. Not too encouraging, huh?

What’s more, non-cash payments seem to be high on the list of anticipated cutbacks. For example, executive perks were cited more than any other area for potential cutbacks (37.2 percent). Benefits in general ranked third (31.5 percent).

“As far as the new normal is concerned, efficiency is the name of the game,” Marie Hollein, CEO and President, Financial Executives International, said in a press release.

CFOs may become more confident later in the year, however. Virtually half of the respondents to the survey said they believe indicators such as bond yields, mortgage interest rates, U.S. unemployment rate and rising GDP will collectively improve and result in the start of a recovery in the U.S. economy in the second half of this year. Another 22 percent don’t expect these conditions to materialize until the first half of 2011.

In general, however, CFOs indicated they were more optimistic about the U.S. economy in the fourth quarter survey than they were three months earlier.

They are also more optimistic about their own company’s financial prospects than they were in the third-quarter survey.

Job of the Day: Citi Needs a Financial Accounting Analyst

If busy season is already kicking you in the teeth and nothing has been able to motivate you, then perhaps it’s time to try something new. Or perhaps you just woke up and you realized you’ve got to pull your life together.

Whichever applies, Citi is looking to fill a Financial Accounting Analyst position with a minimum of five years experience in New York. Get the rest of the details after the jump.


Company: Citi

Title: Financial Accounting Lead Analyst

Location: New York

Minimum experience: 5 years

Responsibilities: Participate in analyzing and advising on the regulatory capital implications of broad Corporate strategic initiatives (including, for instance, potential M&A activities); Partner with the Corporate Regulatory Reporting team in addressing regulatory capital and reporting issues of significance; Interface with Corporate staffs (e.g., Accounting Policy, Treasury, Corporate Reporting) regarding certain regulatory capital matters; Garner exposure to Clearing House discussions as well as those with the U.S. banking agencies (Fed and OCC) regarding complex and/or nuanced regulatory capital or other relevant regulatory matters of significance.

Skills: Bachelor of Science Degree – Accounting Major; CPA; 5 – 10 years professional experience, preferably a combination of public (ideally Big 4) and private within the financial services industry (commercial or investment bank); Preferably GAAP Accounting Policy or Regulatory Reporting or Advisory experience

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: State Street Needs a GAAP Guru in Boston

After taking Wednesday off, the Job of the Day returns with an opportunity at State Street that has the expectation for advancement within the Corporate Accounting and Finance departments.

The catch is, you better know your GAAP; specifically FAS 123, FAS 158 and FAS 132. Don’t ask us which topics they are in the new codification.

Check out the details for a Policy and Technical Accounting Director in Boston, after the jump.


Company: State Street

Title: Policy and Technical Accounting Director, Vice President

Location: Boston

Minimum experience: 8 years

\Responsibilities: Reviews transactions of high complexity, determines appropriate GAAP accounting and communicates this to management; Interacts with various line and corporate functions to provide input into the initial structuring of transactions to achieve desired accounting results, providing innovative and creative solutions to clients; Analyzes FASB, IASB and SEC pronouncements and assists in preparing of corporate response; alerts and educates management on accounting developments, and provides input into strategies to take advantage of accounting developments; Develops and communicates changes in accounting policies and current accounting issues; Drafts guidance, where necessary, on new accounting rules, and regulations from regulatory bodies such as FASB, EITF, AICPA, IASB and SEC.

Skills/Requirements: Proven track record of advancement, with a minimum of 8-10 years experience at a large financial institution or a national Public Accounting Firm; Subject matter expert in accounting and finance with some knowledge of bank and securities industry policy and reporting; Capital markets experience and solid knowledge of FAS 123, FAS 158 and FAS 132 necessary; Bachelor’s degree and CPA required; Some travel required.

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

A Little Housekeeping

Your cubicle isn’t the only place it’s busy season. We’ve been working hard to make your GoingConcern experience as streamlined as an ez401K, an effort we revealed today with a move to the popular Wordpress platform from our old Movable Type framework, a few design changes, a brand new comment system, and — yes, we admit — even a bit of downtime!

We realize that change can be scary, but we encourage you to tell us what you think in our new, more flexible comment system, which will allow you to sign in with your Twitter, Facebook, or OpenID accounts and make your voice heard loud and clear across the internet. We encourage you to give it a go — and of course sign up to follow GoingConcern on Twitter, become one of our fans on Facebook, or sign up for our e-mail newsletter.

On top of that, the choir of voices harmonizing on GoingConcern will be growing. You’ll be getting more frequent posts from the likes of The JDA and Francine; plus, we’re teaming with the gang at CFOZone for more corporate finance insight and analysis.

We’ll also be looking to interview more of you, dear readers, to hear more about what’s on your mind. If you or someone you know will make a good subject, or if you just want to play editorial director and let us know what we should be covering, just drop us an email at tips@goingconcern.com.

In Non-iPad Apple News, A Look at Earnings Under New Accounting Rules

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

Yes, yes. There’s plenty of iPad talk going on out there but we’ll resist the urge and focus on the numbers here.

Ron Fink wrote back in September about concerns over new accounting rules for revenue recognition doing little more than providing more areas of confusion for investors.

Under the new rules, companies can book revenue based on estimated sales prices for all the components of “bundled deliverables” all at once instead of on their current fair value. The expectation is that the rule will boost upfront earnings for tech companies whose products combine hardware and software.

Well, on Monday night, Apple made its first quarterly earnings report under the new rules and they certainly gave the tech darling a boost, but it’s unclear whether it will ultimately confuse investors. Indeed, they were likely distracted by Apple raking in $3.4 billion in net income for the quarter ended Dec. 26, up 50 percent from a year earlier.

Apple went to great lengths to explain the effect of the rules on its financial statements. The company revised its financial statements for each quarter from fiscal 2007 through fiscal 2009, the period it’s been selling both the iPhone and Apple TV, which it had previously used subscription accounting for because it periodically provides free software upgrades and features for them.


Under subscription accounting, revenue and associated product cost of sales for iPhone and Apple TV were deferred at the time of sale and recognized on a straight-line basis over each product’s estimated economic life of 24 months. This resulted in the deferral of significant amounts of revenue and cost of sales related to iPhone and Apple TV. The changes had the effect of slimming the company’s balance sheet considerably. Assets at the end of its fiscal year 2009 were reduced by $6.4 billion and liabilities were cut by $10.2 billion, giving a $3.8 billion boost to shareholders’ equity.

And in reconciling its first quarter 2009 to the new accounting standard, Apple showed net sales got a nearly 17 percent boost, while its cost of sales went up just 11 percent. That had the effect of stretching gross margins from 34.7 percent to 37.9 percent.

Apple, which wasn’t required to adopt the new rule until the first quarter of its fiscal 2011, certainly is not objecting to the change. In its earnings conference call Monday, CFO Peter Oppenheimer said, “We are very pleased by the FASB ratification of the new accounting principles as we believe they will better enable us to reflect the underlying economics and performance of our business and therefore we will no longer be providing non-GAAP financial measures.”

Fraud Risk, Staffing Reductions, and OJ Logic at CFO.com

orangejuice_Full.jpgEditor’s Note: Robert Stewart is a former Big 4 auditor and ex-Marine who has since served in several executive management roles in both Internal Audit and Corporate Finance. He is also the founder and chief contributor to the online accounting and audit community, The Accounting Nation. Outside of work, he is a husband, father, brother, writer,uate aspiring triathlete.
You can always count on CFO.com for logic flaws and surface reporting. It’s like drinking that concentrated orange juice in a can when you add three parts too much water and then put ice cubes in it because it’s warm, which makes it even more watery which… Where was I going with this?
Oh yeah. In one of their latest articles, entitled “As Internal Audit Staffs Shrink, Will Fraud Rise?“, the author portends — based on a Deloitte survey and subsequent interview — that the decrease in internal audit personnel somehow increases the risk of organizational exposure to fraud. What? Ever hear the phrase “Correlation is not Causation”? Symptom or cause.


Here’s my $0.02: such staffing reductions may increase the risk that fraud will go undetected (though only nominally given that IA only uncovers about 12% percent of frauds according to the ACFE’s Report to the Nation), but the risk to the organization more than likely remains constant, right? Am I missing something here?
After all, Internal Audit is a downstream event unless you make the argument that the organizational perception of being “watched” has diminished with the reductions in internal audit/compliance staffing, thus emboldening would-be fraudsters (i.e. strengthening the “opportunity” leg of Cressey’s Fraud Triangle). But this article doesn’t make that argument.
The article further states that:

Despite the reduction in compliance personnel, 50% of respondents to the Deloitte survey, who included CFOs, CEOs, board members, and middle managers in finance and risk management, said their compliance and ethics programs are strong. Another 36% said they are adequate. Many public companies and some private companies invested significantly in their compliance programs after the passage of Sarbox in 2002, notes Francis, and they may now feel confident that those programs are effective even with a reduced staff. But that confidence may not always be justified.

Confidence? I would hardly call the above percentages “confidence” on the part of the respondents. If I told you that 50% of the airline pilots felt that their pre-flight checklist procedures were strong, how would you feel about flying? No F*#$ing way I’m getting on that plane.
The words wrapped around the survey results and subsequent interview quotes don’t at all support the conclusion that this article is trying to draw. Perhaps it’s because the survey was designed and administered by a firm (Deloitte) that has a vested interest in drumming up some business through fear tactics? After all, you’re never going to hear a burglar alarm company extolling the improvements in public safety.
And you’re never going to hear a company that sells risk-related services conducting and publicly releasing results that don’t support their strategic objectives. Or perhaps it’s just bad writing at CFO.com in order to satisfy a quota? The World may never know (I think the World will be fine with this). Either way, I’ve wasted double the amount of time that I should have on this topic (i.e. read it and wrote about it). And so with that…I bid you adieu.

Job Opportunity:

CFO talent needed to run a business unit (does not have to have had a CFO title). Leadership qualities a must. Team player and leader (10-25 people). 9-12 years experience needed. Big 4/CPA a plus. Ohio based. Great company and benefits. 150-175K base. EEO. Email BRS Ltd. for more info.

Renegotiate Everything NOW

Thumbnail image for negotiation.jpgEditor’s Note: Chad Cohen is a licensed CPA in California and currently serves as a Senior Director of Finance and Corporate Controller for Zillow.com in Seattle, WA. He has over 13 years of experience in corporate finance, audit and accounting; primarily in the technology and entertainment sectors. He has also functioned in financial planning and Sarbanes Oxley compliance efforts. Previously he also worked as a Big 4 auditor of high technology clients both domestically and abroad. Chad spent the first 12 years of his life in Hong Kong and as such enjoys eating dimsum in Chinatown and practicing Kung Fu in his free time. You can follow him on Twitter @cfolounge.
Unemployment is over 10%, the US dollar is going through the floor as interest rates continue to tank and Congress wants to push through a 2,000 page, $1 trillion health care bill. It might appear that our country is coming apart at the seams but if you are riding out this tidal wave, now is the perfect time to take advantage of the crappy macro conditions and start turning the screws to your vendors.
I don’t care if you’re an accounting manager, a senior buyer, AP clerk or CFO; everyone in the finance department should have a part in looking for ways to save the company some coin and NOW is the perfect time.
Here are a few ideas off the top of my head:


Commercial real estate is in the crapper &mdash Talk to your landlord about extending your lease and locking in or lowering your rents for the next 3 to 5 years. Get concessions, push for free TIs, get a couple more parking spaces, etc.
Strong Arm Your Outside Accountants &mdash Accounting firms have been laying off employees left, right, and center so lock in a long term contract and negotiate a steep discount on standard audit rates and other services like taxes. OR have a bake off with other accounting firms. This will get your auditors attention and encourage them to drop their rates to be competitive with these other firms. BDO, Moss Adams, RSM, etc. also audit public clients (it’s not just the Big 4 firms, folks) and their fee structure is 20 – 30% less than the Big 4. Don’t be afraid to switch firms or give parts of your accounting business (tax compliance, SALT, audit, etc.) to other firms.
Contracts &mdash If you find yourself in the middle to end of a contract term, try to extend your subscription, maintenance or service contract for multiple years in exchange for steeply dropping prices. Mandate that your IT, sales or marketing departments bid out services to multiple businesses when deciding who to give your precious business to. Find a free service that can do what your paid service does &mdash these do exist (they’re usually crappier but you may not need the “Cadillac”).
Price out hardware purchase orders with new vendors &mdash You’ll be surprised what others are willing to do now to get your business. You can usually negotiate better at quarter-ends as sales departments have quotas and targets to meet.
I could go on and on but I think you catch the drift.
I read a book on negotiations a couple years ago that encouraged its readers to negotiate “fearlessly”. I couldn’t agree more.
Thoughts?

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Prisoner’s Dilemma and the Art of the BF

handsbars.jpgEditor’s Note: Robert Stewart is a former Big 4 auditor and ex-Marine who has since served in several executive management roles in both Internal Audit and Corporate Finance. He is also the founder and chief contributor to online accounting and audit community, The Accounting Nation. Outside of work, he is a husband, father, brother, writer, and woefully inadequate aspiring triathlete. To learn more about The Accounting Nation, go to http://www.accountingnation.com.
Everything in business these days is focused on teams and teamwork. And yet…in the worlds of accounting and finance…and especially in public accounting…the concept of teamwork often feels like such a joke.
More, after the Jump


There always seems to be that one douche bag that stays too late, gets there too early, inflates chargeability, eats hours, works weekends, foregoes vacation, or does some other trick in an attempt to make everyone else look bad and try to the be the superstar of the game. “Semper Fi…fuck the other guy” as the motto goes. And as a result of his selfish actions, causes everyone else to follow suit in order to compete in the marketplace. It raises the bar higher and higher, costing each person their sanity and ruining their long-term job satisfaction and work/life balance.
NO SEX SIGN 2.jpg
I like to call that person the buddy fucker, or BF for short. Every group or team has one. And as Dane Cook would say, “if you can’t think of who that person is on your team…then you ARE that person….I know…its funny because it’s true.” It’s so funny…because it’s so true.
If you could somehow get all parties to agree to a common set of working “rules” or standards, then everyone would be happier. But this, my friends, will never happen…and it’s because of a little thing called the Prisoner’s Dilemma. The Prisoner’s Dilemma describes a common strategic situation in game theory whereby two or more opponents in a given “game” must make a strategic decision, absent knowledge about what the other party will do, in order to maximize their individual payoff. Both parties inevitably end up choosing an option which results in a less-than-optimal outcome as a result of his or her lack of certainty about what the other party will do.
In other words, rational players (i.e. your fellow employees and staffers…it’s a stretch of a moniker…I realize) will always BF in order to protect their downside. If you make an agreement with your fellow staffers that nobody will work more than 50 hours per week and that one BF breaks ranks and works 60…everybody else looks like a slacker. So everybody protects their downside by working 60 hours…and everybody is worse off as a result of it. This applies to so many things in life and business…just think about the applications…mind boggling. But guess what…It’s just part of the Game…so get used to it…or get out of it. There’s no dignity in complaining. Accept and move on…

Who is the Mastermind Behind Accountants’ Lack of Prestige?

conspiracy.jpgEditor’s Note: Robert Stewart is a former Big 4 auditor and ex-Marine who has since served in several executive management roles in both Internal Audit and Corporate Finance. He is also the founder and chief contributor to online accounting and audit community, The Accounting Nation. Outside of work, he is a husband, father, brother, writer, and woefully inadequate aspiring triathlete. To learn more about The Accounting Nation, go to http://www.accountingnation.com.
Harris Interactive recently published their annual list of the most prestigious occupations, as perceived by the obviously mal-informed public being led astray by the obviously biased and poorly designed Harris Interactive survey. Here’s the headline…
The rest, after the jump

Firefighters, Scientists and Doctors Seen as Most Prestigious Occupations
Real estate brokers, Accountants and Stockbrokers are at the bottom of the list

bobs-big-boy-statue.jpg
Don’t pull any punches Harris…God forbid. Just put it right out there. In my opinion, this is a very narrow survey that does a great injustice to the world of accounting as it seeks to strengthen its image and recruit the leaders of tomorrow. I think much of the problem arises from shades of gray attached to the moniker “accountant”. If I say that I am a police officer…you probably have a pretty good idea about the scope of my responsibilities.
But if I tell you that I’m an accountant…you might think you know what I do…but do you really? I could be a Controller at a Fortune 500 company, a Partner at E&Y, or an accounts payable clerk at Bob’s House of Meats (a fictitious entity…but I envision an 8-store family business with a giant Bob’s Big Boy-esque statue out front that sells the finest cuts of meat from across the land…just me? I digress). Clearly all three would have remarkably different responsibilities …but all three are technically “accountants”. See the issue there? It’s in the pitch. It plays into the public perception and stereotype rather than painting the true picture.
Doesn’t the accounting industry have any lobbyists out there that can work some mojo to influence the slant of these types of reports??? As if the accounting profession doesn’t have enough publicity problems what with the continuous onslaught of media-inflated accounting nightmares …now we have to deal with these types of shenanigans..and annually no less…like some bad recurring nightmare about alligators trying to eat you or some other manifestation of your self-perceived inadequacy.
Perhaps it’s a bigger conspiracy propagated by the business community at large in order to dissuade the bestest candidates from pursuing a career in accounting thereby lowering the profession’s overall collective IQ and subsequently clearing the way for them (the business community at large…pay attention) to have their way with financial statements and the investing/banking communities for all eternity? Why are you looking at me like that…it could happen…it could totally happen.