Category: Uncategorized

Hopefully the IASB Gets the Point

stephen-colbert.jpgAfter learning yesterday about the Accountancy Age Awards we thought that the celebration of accounting couldn’t get any better. And by “better”, we mean incredibly lame.
Satire being a common theme here, we definitely appreciate Christian Aid‘s attempt to help accountants, most specifically the CRAPASS IASB, to reconsider their indirectly screwing of poor countries:
Continued, after the jump

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has been handed a tongue-in-cheek award from Christian Aid, after winning the charity’s Greatest Potential for Tax Reform award…PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PwC), KPMG, Ernst & Young and Deloitte & Touche also collected awards…Campaigners want the Board…to instigate urgent and far-reaching reforms – including forcing companies trading internationally to report profits made and taxes paid in every country where they operate. Christian Aid estimates that countries in the developing world are deprived of $160 billion annually in lost revenues by companies disguising their tax liabilities.

This is probably the closet thing to a Razzie that exists for the accounting industry so we’re happy to support them for the sake of argument.
If you’ve got other ideas about other awards that accountants deserve and who the recipients are, submit them in the comments.
Accounting Standards given tongue-in-cheek reform award [politics.co.uk]

The IASB is Getting Serious About Convergence

Trying to get accounting standards to converge is hard work. It’s so difficult, in fact, that the International Accounting Standards Committee is considering changing the name of the International Accounting Standards Board to the IFRS Board.
This critical move will obviously speed up a process that has been going on, seemingly, since Luca Pacioli was in short pants. We’re definitely in favor of putting your agenda out in front but this still seems to be typical accountant passive-aggressive behavior.
Since we’re sure you have much better ideas for the what the IASB’s new name should be, submit your suggestions in the comments. The best we could come up with appears in the tag line.
IASB Could Be Renamed IFRS Board [Web CPA]

Sometimes You Need Help Getting Your Game On Track

We’re going to talk about a serious topic people. Many of you have discovered tricks of the trade to hep you focus on work that functions better than any sleeping aid out there.

What it basically amounts to is your focus. Sometimes, just sometimes, you require a little help getting your concentration back on track. It can be anything really. For example, if your plans for meeting your less-overworked friends out for a cocktail are totally blown, you might eat five frozen entreés out of the fridge that aren’t yours to feel better and just get your ass in gear to make last call.

Some of you probably rely on less-proven methods but sometimes this is a mental challenge and you have to take the necessary steps to up your game.

Others of you may take advantage of the discounted, yet ever inflating soda prices in your office or at a client location combined with the Adderall that you swiped from your spastic roommate.

We’re pretty sure some of you have come up with your cocktail of methods that, somehow, allow you to do an insurmountable amount of work in a a freakishly short amount of time. Since time is money, your superiors probably have no problem with whatever approach you’ve discovered so share your favorite method of reigning in the focus in the comments. We’re not encouraging illegal behavior here, so keep it below the felony level.

UPDATE: On the advice of counsel and because we care about all of you (yes, all). If you or someone you know needs help, call 1-877-RxAbuse (1-877-792-2873).

We Picture the Trophies as Gold Plated 10-Key Calculators

red_carpet.jpgYou may have noticed that we reference a lot of stories from across the pond. Simply, it appears that the British seem to be a little more concerned with accounting world than us here in the States, where we’re virtually ignored at every turn (except when poop + fan).
The Brits are so enamored with accounting, in fact, that Accountancy Age, bless their hearts, has an awards ceremony.
The awards have their own website with a countdown clock, a gallery with last year’s winners, oh and you’re allowed to vote on Employer of the Year and Personality of the Year. Other awards include Audit Team of the Year, Tax Team of the Year, and Accountant of the Year.
The dream, continued, after the jump


There’s a lot of directions we could go with this but this has to be the most obvious case of accountant self-aggrandizement we’ve ever seen. We can’t even fathom the idea of hundreds of bean counters in tuxedos and cocktail dresses accepting hideous trophies under the pretense that the work done demands such recognition.
Perhaps since accountants are so used to an environment devoid of gratitude, Accountancy Age thought they would go out of their way to start showing some appreciation. WTFK really?
In any case, we would request Accountancy Age to assign us as a Joan Rivers role of sorts in order to liven up the bean counter Oscars. Since Accountancy Age’s list is a little ho-hum, come up with some of your own ideas for awards and their nominees in the comments.
Accountancy Age Awards 2009 shortlist announced [Accountancy Age]

Launch Your Career, Part Deux

human-cannonball.jpgWe took another look at BusinessWeek’s Top Places to Launch a Career list because: 1) lists out of business magazines, no matter how trite and meaningless, have a way of sucking us in and B) we figured there may be more information that you would find interesting.
As we mentioned last week, Deloitte knocked E&Y off the mountain by having the best stats in some key categories like salary, three-year retention rate, and lowest drop in entry level hiring.
Here are a few more stats we discovered in BW’s list:
• Only 2% of Deloitte’s new associates received a performance bonus, and the average bonus was $296. This compares to 35% for E&Y, 27% for P. Dubya, 68% for KPMG, and 85% for GT. The respective average bonus was $5,141; $4,900; $3,700; $1,552.
Continued, after the jump


• E&Y really loves their new associates so much that they spent, on average, $18,500 on training for each one. The next hightest was KPMG at $7,689. We double-checked the E&Y number, thanks.
• We mentioned the three year retention rates for the firms last week and Guest 3 noted how this is um, not good. Interestingly enough, the five year retention rate is worse, with all the firms hovering around 34%, except for GT whose five year retention rate was 28%
• PwC had the youngest partner at 30 years with eight years seniority while E&Y and GT both had partners with seniority of seven years with seven years. Deloitte’s youngest was 31 with ten years and KPMG’s was 32 with 9 years.
Unfortunately, the list does not contain happy hour to new hire or hottie to nottie ratios but we figure these fairly close too. So of you’re a recruit this probably leaves you just as confused as before.
Discuss the stats in the comments and try to guide our college friends in the right direction. Recruits, if you’ve got your mind made up, let us know which firm and why. You’re going to have to sell it though.

Congress Needs More Testimony on Accounting Stuff They Won’t Understand

Maxine Waters2.jpgWe don’t know about you but we here at GC are relieved that Congress is back in session this week. For starters, we’re trying to find someone that will help Charlie Rangel keep track of all his money.
Also, we feel as though we’re a little overdue for some legislative nose-poking into accounting and auditing rules. Thankfully, the House Financial Services Committee is scheduled to revisit H.R. 2664 this week.
The Promoting Transparency in Financial Reporting Act would require annual testimony from the SEC, FASB, and PCAOB big wigs on accounting and auditing rules before the committee.
More legislative wisdom, after the jump


The testimony is supposedly going to enlighten the committee on progress of:

• Reassessing complex and outdated accounting standards;
• Improving the understandability, consistency, and overall usability of the existing accounting and auditing literature;
• Developing principles-based accounting standards;
• Encouraging the use and acceptance of interactive data; and
• Promoting disclosures in ”plain English”.

Excuse the cynicism, but since this particular bill’s title doesn’t include the words “patriot”, “American People”, or “anti-bonus”, there is virtually no opportunity for shameless grandstanding and most members of the committee will probably opt out of sitting in on the testimony.
That being said, the collective competence of the committee will increase exponentially if Maxine Waters is not in attendance so maybe our judgment is premature.
Promoting Transparency In Financial Reporting Act Up For Vote In Congress [FEI Blog]

Wanted: Auditor for a Failing Bank (And a Buyer Too)

GeorgeCostanza_art_200v_20090306003944.jpgIn another case of an auditor giving a Titantic-esque bank the ‘It’s not you, it’s me’ routine, E&Y resigned as the auditor of Corus Bankshares, Inc., in a filing late last Friday.
This one really had no chance. After the Chief Accounting Officer resigned after five months on the job, family shareholders continuing to dump their shares, and filing their Q late, you can’t really expect Ernie to stick around.
E&Y had given the going concern paragraph kiss of death on Corus’s audit opinion earlier in the year and according to the last amended quarterly filing, Corus had over $7 billion in assets but negative equity. So, nature seems to be taking its course. Chalk it up, She Bair.
Ernst & Young resigns as Corus’ accounting firm [Chicago Tribune]

WORST. DAY. EVER.

watercooler.jpgThe first post-holiday workday is tough. We’re pretty sure most of you are to the point of seriously considering packing it up because the melancholy is too much for you. For those of you that aren’t using a cocktail of illegal prescriptions to get you through this day, get caught up on some stuff you may have missed last week. It will help you make it to lunch at least.
• Deloitte Tops Business Week’s “Top Place to Launch a Career”. E&Y, PwC, KPMG round out the top four. GT landed at 51. Highest three year retention rate for these five was 56%.
• E&Y bans Pandora, seemingly to save on bandwidth. It’s still worth bitching about.
• Nearly half of you didn’t work this holiday weekend which means half of you did work (12% worked all weekend). Of course, lots of you probably didn’t get asked to take mandatory PTO.
• Surprisingly, bitterness is rampant.
• RSM McGladrey seems to have a good understanding of why men are interested in golf.
Feel better people, it’s a short week (for some).

Charlie Rangel Needs Your Help

charlie-rangel.jpgFor those of you that don’t concern yourselves with civics nonetoomuch, Chuck is the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. Ways and Means writes the tax laws for this fair land of ours. Get it?
Anyhoo, Rangs has a bit of a problem. People are shouting from the rooftops that this guy has to go. Why? A small matter of forgetting to list some assets on his disclosure forms.
Minor omissions, after the jump


Web CPA:

…in the Washington Post today decrying some of the newest revelations from last week, including a Merrill Lynch account valued between $250,000 and $500,000, tens of thousands in municipal bonds, and between $30,000 and $100,000 in rent from a Harlem brownstone that he owns, all of which he failed to list on his congressional disclosure forms from 2002 to 2006.

And if you remember:

This comes on top of the news last year about the four rent-stabilized apartments he rented at below-market rents, his use of government stationery to raise money for a pet project, his failure to report income from his sale of a Florida condo, and his failure to pay taxes on rental income from another home in the Dominican Republic.

According to the WaPo piece, Rangs’s net worth doubled-ish, “from between $516,015 and $1,316,000 to between $1,028,024 and $2,495,000”.
Yeah, so, that’s kind of a big change. We’re thinking that Chuck is way too busy being a tax wonk to track all this stuff. Or maybe he’s just too tired. Either way, it’s way easier to forget about four rent-controlled apartments than you think.
Rangel Under Pressure to Step Down [Web CPA Debits & Credits]

The PCAOB Wants You to Know That the New Accounting Standards Codification is Not Optional

The PCAOB would like all of you auditors to know that you better learn how to use this Codification thing and quit your bitching about how you don’t like it because they can hear you screeching about how much it sucks.
Nevermind that the P is already making your lives difficult with new rules and leaving lame ducks on their board.
Seriously. Get with the program.