When accounting goes unaccounted for
PROGRAMMING NOTE: I’ll be on vacation next week in an undisclosed location but you’ll be in the very capable hands and permanently ink-stained arms of Adrienne. I don’t think I have to explain to you what will happen if you don’t behave.
Because I know you’ll miss me with every fiber of your being (and it’s Friday), I’ve presented the following video for your enjoyment.
[via TaxProf]
Do you have needy clients? You know the type – they want to talk to you when every little thing goes wrong. They call to chit-chat for no reason in particular. They need your opinion on EV-ER-Y-THING. How are you responding to these people? Are you not returning their calls? Are you showing up late to your meetings with them? Do you just listen passively on the phone while repeating, “Uh, huh. Yes. I understand,” as you struggle with level 6-13 on Angry Birds? THOUGHT SO.
Well, they’re on to you. They sense your lack of interest. Your lack of giving a rat’s ass. And you know what? They are FED UP. There are plenty of CPAs out there that would love a client like them and MAYBE they’ll just go out and find one:
“Business is out there, but you have to market yourself differently,” [Allan Koltin, chief executive of Koltin Consulting Group] said, noting that one out of seven accounting firm clients are not happy with their accounting firm and are open to switching firms.
He urged attendees to spend time learning the personal goals of their clients. Among the factors affecting a client’s decision to leave an accounting firm, fees were ninth on the list, he indicated. “The number one factor was that the firm didn’t spend enough time with the client.”
“They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care,” he said.
Got the message? They aren’t going to put up with your shit forever.
The CFTC’s action against PwC probably came as a result of a shocking CME Group announcement late Wednesday: “It now appears that the firm [MF Global] made … transfers of customer segregated funds in a manner that may have been designed to avoid detection.” These transfers, CME Group said, appeared to have taken place after its audit team showed up last week at MF Global to take a look and found everything to be in order. CME Group couldn’t have been hoodwinked like that if PwC had been doing its job all along. You can’t circumvent controls unless there are none or there are holes. It was PwC’s job to review controls and the adequacy of policies and procedures to support them. [Francine McKenna/AB, Earlier]
Once in awhile, management and their auditors don’t see eye to eye on things. If semi-well adjusted adults are involved, usually cooler heads prevail and differences are sorted out. On the other hand, if there are egomaniacs or individuals of Irish descent involved, then things can sometimes go badly. Not badly in the physical sense, mind you. Badly in the sense that auditors usually get fired. When that happens it usually raises eyebrows of investors and people start asking all sorts of questions. Luckily, footnote disclosures usually detail the dispute and everyone moves on. That’s precisely what didn’t happen at Olympus:
In May 2009, Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, the then president of the camera-maker and medical equipment firm, announced that the contract for its then auditor, KPMG, had ended and that another global accounting firm, Ernst & Young, would take over. Kikukawa made no mention of any row with KPMG, although Japanese disclosure rules require companies to notify investors of “any matters concerning the opinions” of an outgoing auditor. In a confidential internal document, Kikukawa wrote to executives in the United States and Europe, revealing that there had been a disagreement with KPMG which he did not plan to disclose to the stock market. “The release to be published today says that the reason of this termination is due simply to expiry of accounting auditors’ terms of office,” Kikukawa said in the letter dated May 25, 2009, which was written in English.
You may have recently heard that Olympus is in a bit of situation. They up and fired their new CEO after he was on the job for two weeks because he was asking a few too many questions. You see, Michael Woodford was of the opinion that the $687 million advisory fee the company was paying for to a firm assisting them with a purchase the company in the UK was a tad steep and wouldn’t keep [yapping motion with hands]. Mr. Kikukawa – who has a reputation as an ‘emperor‘ – didn’t care for that, so he and the Board of Directors told Woodford that his services were no longer needed, chalking it up to Woodford being a little too British.
Fast-forward to today’s news – The accounting issue in question – goodwill impairment – was related to the company, Gyrus Group Plc., Olympus purchased back in 2009. And who do you suppose gave Reuters the memo outlining the whole we’re-firing-KPMG-because-they-disagree-with-us-and-we’re-not-telling-anyone-about-it thing?
The confidential letter was given to Reuters by former Olympus CEO Michael Woodford who was ousted after just two weeks in the job on October 14 for what he says was his persistent questioning over the Gyrus advisory fee and other odd-looking acquisitions. Woodford says the letter was addressed to him in his role as head of Olympus Europe at the time and to Mark Gumz, then head of Olympus Corp America.
Apparently this is no big whoop as long as it’s not material and “the numbers add up” says an accounting professor who has ties to Olympus. Oh! In that case, I guess everyone should just move along.
Exclusive: Olympus removed auditor after accounting [Reuters]
Instead of giving the same piece of advice I’ve given a hundred times over, today’s post is a plea for information. I know MANY of you (too many, if you ask me) have had Prometric issues over the years, and by issues I mean:
• Prometric Gestapo harassing or hassling you over items not specifically listed in the CPA exam candidate bulletin
• Prometric equipment failures, blank screens, entire exams disappearing, etc
• Generally distressing exam environment issues including excessive noise, uncomfortable temperatures, etc
If you have experienced any kind of issue at Prometric (even the little ones), please leave a comment below or email me with your story. You will remain anonymous unless you tell me otherwise.
I’m hoarding your answers for a follow-up post I will put up later and submit to The Powers That Be (as in the AICPA) so please be as elaborate as you need to be. General dates help (like if you took the exam in 2006, please say that, it’s possible that Prometric has had a chance to address your issue by now). Feel free to include feelings, I won’t hate if Prometric made you cry like a baby on the way home from the exam.
Thanks in advance, guys!
For starters, “taxes” is an awful word, it pains him to have to utter it so often. Secondly, Rahm Emanuel could really use his mouth washed out with soap.
I’m sorry, have you met my libertarian friend Adrienne Gonzalez? She’d probably agree with you on several issues but you’d have to get comfortable with the colorful language.
MF Global CEO Jon Corzine resigns under fire [Reuters]
Jon Corzine has resigned as MF Global Holdings Ltd’s chairman and chief executive officer four days after the futures brokerage filed for bankruptcy protection, culminating a rapid downfall for one of Wall Street’s best-known executives. Corzine said his decision was voluntary and was best for the company and its stakeholders. “I feel great sadness for what has transpired at MF Global and the impact it has had on the firm’s clients, employees and many others,” Corzine said. “I intend to continue to assist the company and its board in their efforts to respond to regulatory inqui ted to the disposition of the firm’s assets.”
MF Global Masked Debt Risks [WSJ]
The activity, referred to in the financial industry as “window dressing,” suggests that the troubled financial firm was shouldering more risk and using more borrowed funds to facilitate its trading than investors could easily detect from the firm’s regulatory filings. This comes as it emerged that MF Global, which filed for bankruptcy protection amid questions about its bookkeeping and whether it had properly segregated customer funds, lobbied against a Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposal that would have placed tighter restrictions on how futures-trading firms can invest cash sitting in customer trading accounts.
Corzine Is Said to Hire Criminal Lawyer [DealBook]
Jon S. Corzine has hired Andrew J. Levander, a leading white-collar criminal defense lawyer, according to three people briefed on the matter, as the former New Jersey governor deals with fallout from the collapse of MF Global, the brokerage firm he has run since last year.
Report Shows a Mere 80,000 Jobs Added in U.S. in October [NYT]
Employers added 80,000 jobs on net, slightly less than what economists had expected. That compares to 158,000 jobs in September, a month when the figure was helped by the return of 45,000 Verizon workers who had been on strike. While job growth is certainly better than job losses, a gain of 80,000 jobs is hardly worth celebrating. That was just about enough to keep up with population growth, so it did not significantly reduce the backlog of 14 million unemployed workers.
Freddie Mac seeks further $6bn from taxpayers [FT]
What’s another $6 billion between friends? “Freddie Mac, the US-controlled mortgage financier, has requested an additional $6bn from US taxpayers, following a $4.4bn third-quarter loss, the company’s worst three-month performance in more than a year.”
IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman Wants a Real-Time Tax System [AT]
And I would like Padma Lakshmi to make me breakfast everyday. Can we both get what we want?
Boehner on supercommittee: Tax increases are out, revenues could be in [The Hill]
“I think there’s room for revenues, but there clearly is a limit to the revenues that may be available,” Boehner told reporters Thursday during a roundtable discussion. He added, however, that he was only open to new revenues if Democrats agreed to significant changes to mandatory spending programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. “Without real reform on the entitlement side, I don’t know how you put any revenue on the table,” he said.
And this after GGN said such nice things about the Speaker.
Thursday, when NBC News’ Luke Russert asked Boehner if Norquist makes a positive impact on the party, Boehner thought it over for five seconds, The Washington Post’s Felicia Sonmez reports, before responding, “Our focus here is on jobs. We’re doing everything I can to get our economy going, to get people back to work. It’s not often I’m asked about some random person.”
I’m not sure how a person could bounce back from such an outright snub but it appears the Godfather of Tax Policy is taking it in stride and standing by his man.
[via AtlanticWire]
Don’t an expect an apology from PwC, like some firms.
PwC declined to comment.
UPDATE: Can you believe that they didn’t bother to call us? BBW reports:
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission sent the subpoena seeking information about $633 million missing from customer accounts, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter isn’t public. The subpoena was received yesterday, the person said.
Initially the House of Klynveld wasn’t worried about any MF Global clients getting their money back. Then yesterday we learned that plenty of people were pretty cranky, including one trader who thought the firm’s efforts so far were hilarious. Now, after a number of cranky phone calls and thousands of sternly-worded emails, KPMG is apologi[z]ing for all the “disruption” since they’ve been appointed as the administrator of MF Global:
“We are working with the companies’ staff to transfer client positions wherever possible. Where exchanges and counterparties have defaulted the company under their own rules, we have worked closely with them to try to optimise the outcome,” said Richard Fleming, UK head of restructuring at KPMG. “We understand the frustration among clients and market participants at the disruption that is currently being experienced and are sorry for the inconvenience this is causing. In relation to client assets and monies held by the company we are actively working to reconcile holdings and accounts in order to enable assets to be released as soon as possible.”
So, c’mon guys; I know it’s been over 72 hours but please bear with them.
Or maybe months ago. Or years ago. Unfortunately this news just came out today:
Free iPhone 4S at PwC! Well, for some people anyway – Email went out this morning that if your current contract is up for renewal, you can switch your service to AT&T (keeping your existing #) and receive a FREE iPhone 4S 16GB. Only question remains is what will Siri’s bill rate be?
Obviously the opportunity here is to delegate some of the more important intern duties to Siri such as where the team will get takeout, advice on how to fix the copier, among others.
Yep! And apparently there’s new evidence “suggesting” as much:
The Chartered Accountants’ Benevolent Association is logging rising numbers of calls from professionals who appear to be developing mental health issues, or believe they are at risk of doing so. Interim operations team manager Helena Coxshall said the evidence is not conclusive as the helpline does not offer medical diagnosis, but highlighted rising numbers of calls in the second half of 2011. “These are coming from people who feel that they are heading towards a potential breakdown and we also see it from people who call us regarding other issues, but appear to be showing symptoms of mental illness of which they may be unaware,” she continued.
So take care out there, masters of the double-entry system. The last thing we want to see is any of you cracking up.
Accountants’ mental health ‘hit by stress’ [Accountancy Age]