Going Concern

Chinese Company Wraps Themselves in the Security Blanket That Is an Unqualified Audit Opinion From PwC

Caleb Newquist
May 27, 2011

You may have noticed that a number of Chinese companies have had some issues with their accounting. This typically leads to the company’s auditor quitting, the CFO resigning, an SEC filing explaining all of it and then the revelation of some embarrassing details to accompany it all. Like a video of company’s employees sleeping. Or taking audit workpapers hostage. The best part about these stories is that the companies typically go on the defensive, and some make claims about their prestigious auditors just moments before the shit hits the fan.

Today we bring you Li & Fung, Ltd., a supply chain manager out of Hong Kong. L&F has reacted to a recent report from UBS that has…wait…yes, called attention to an accounting change and that “the company’s future GAAP earnings might not fully reflect the profitability of operations and that the new revenue recognition policy may distort a declining margin trend.”

Li & Fung has reacted right on cue:

“These statements are misleading,” Company Secretary Terry Wan said in the statement.

“The company has disclosed the relevant accounting policies in note 1.1 of its 2010 accounts, which have been audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers and are in full compliance with the HKFRS (Hong Kong Financial Reporting Standards),” Wan said.

Li & Fung: UBS Report On Firm’s Accounting Policies Not Factually Accurate [Dow Jones]

CPA Exam

CPA Candidate, Who Hasn’t Taken a Single Exam, Is Already Freaking Out

Adrienne Gonzalez
May 27, 2011

Side note: I’ve never seen anyone use double periods in a sentence like this..So it goes without saying that the following has been edited and please, don’t do that on BEC. Here’s a tip: if you are looking for more written communication practice, try it on lazy, F-bomb-obsessed bloggers or even in emails to your mom. That’s all the AICPA is looking for; you don’t even have to be correct, just on topic. They make up 15% of your BEC score so get in the habit of pretending like random communications are being graded by a machine. It’s an undervalued commodity in your professional lubmission from the mailbag was close to correct (a beginning, a middle and an end, somewhat on topic) but needed a little work to be aesthetically pleasing to the CPA exam robots. Working on our emails would be a good supplement to whatever CPA review materials you bought, and I don’t say that to be mean.

Adrienne,

I am just about to begin the grueling process of the CPA exam..

I have been debating whether to take BEC or FAR first before starting work in July. Because I have more time to study now than I will for future tests I want to take the hardest one first. For me I feel like this will be BEC because this seems like it has the most new material and I did pretty well in Intermediate accounting. However it sounds like no matter how much studying some people do, they just can’t get prepared for BEC because it has recently changed. Should I just play it safe and use all this time I have to get prepared for FAR or should I take a shot at BEC?

Also, my firm only supplies me with Gleim self study books. Have people done alright on BEC with just these? How should I supplement these?

Sincerely,

Already freaking out

First, stop freaking out. You haven’t even started yet. Start and then let me know if you are still freaking out. You might like it. Get words like “grueling” out of your head now but you’re more than welcome to pull it out later if your experience proves to be exactly that. Until then, try to stay neutral on how much of pain the next 6 months – 2+ years of your life will be.

Second, we’ve discussed CPA review plenty, you can check the CPAnet forums for comments from actual review students who are taking whatever you bought or are looking at buying and any combination thereof. My experience has been that BEC is pretty hit or miss and that no review course covers it in as thorough detail as FAR, AUD or REG. That doesn’t mean they don’t do that section well, it just means I tend to hear the most complaints across the board regarding various review courses’ inability to truly cover BEC.

Don’t blame that on the new exam; that complaint goes back several years. It isn’t fair to compare the last version of computerized testing (CBT 2004 – 2010) to this one (CBT-e) as they are different exams, it’s too early to judge whether review courses and candidates promptly catch up to the new material, along with the AICPA. They have been clear about this being an improving work in progress for 2011, therefore it would be equally unfair to make a call at this time. Don’t say everything is “because of the change” as if you’re a Boy Scout with a flashlight under your face trying to scare everyone around the campfire. Was it this bad when the exam went from paper and pencil to blips on a screen and digital fingerprints?

Third, don’t get high on study drugs while studying for BEC or you might really be freaking out.

I always tell candidates to start with the section that will be hardest for you as that’s when your 18 month timeframe begins so your plan sounds good. If you bomb a section a few times, the clock isn’t ticking. Of course, this also leads to procrastination if you continuously bomb, which is an entirely different problem. Not to make you freak out.

Accounting News Roundup: China’s Frauds; Goldman’s Audit Committee; O’Keefe’s Nonprofit | 05.27.11

Caleb Newquist
May 27, 2011

The Audacity of Chinese Frauds [NYT]
In mid-March, just after the fraud at China MediaExpress was exposed, Longtop announced plans to put some of the cash to use by spending up to $50 million to repurchase its own shares. On April 28, the company tried to assure analysts that the fraud claims were bogus. Derek Palaschuk, a Canadian accountant who served as the company’s chief financial officer, wrapped himself in Deloitte’s prestige, saying that those who questioned Longtop were “criticizing the integrity of one of the top accounting firms in the world.”

Funding Concerns Still Surround IASB [CFO Journal]
The International Accounting Standards Board has faced questions for years about whether its funding sources are stable enough for it to truly be the world’s top accounting standard setter. So it was likely an uncomfortable day last month when it disclosed an operating deficit of £1.3 million ($2.1 million) for 2010. But perhaps even more awkward for the IASB is the fact that the Financial Accounting Foundation, which funds and oversees the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board, recently stepped forward to help it with its finances.

Goldman Sachs Needs a New Audit Committee [Bloomberg]
Jonathan Weil takes a look at the members of Goldman’s audit committee – the chair of which is James Schiro, PwC’s former CEO – and doesn’t like what he sees.

Goldman CFO says clients “past” Levin — analyst [Reuters]
Goldman Sachs believes its clients are “largely past” the regulatory investigations and accusations that have surrounded the bank, according to an analyst who met its Chief Financial Officer. Goldman Chief Financial Officer David Viniar said the bank does not expect the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to bring any more claims against it after a $550 million settlement last year, according to a report from Susquehanna Financial Group analyst David Hilder.

SJSU announces scholarships in memory of 2 slain honor students [SJMN]
Days before Marcory “Cindy” Tarlit Caliguiran and Thomas Kyle Williams would have graduated with honors from San Jose State’s business school, SJSU announced scholarship funds have been created in their memories.

Small Businesses Fight IRS Over Data [WSJ]
The Internal Revenue Service, moving aggressively to collect more taxes from small businesses, is telling companies being audited to turn over exact copies of the electronic records kept in their business-software programs, according to a letter from an agency official to the American Institute of CPAs. The accounting group fears this will force small businesses to turn over customer lists, personnel data, confidential client information and other unrelated information often contained in the off-the-shelf software programs many businesses use to manage all aspects of their finances.

Conservative Group Wins Nonprofit Status From I.R.S. [NYT]
The Internal Revenue Service has granted nonprofit status to the group that brought down two senior executives at NPR and dealt a death blow to the community organizing group Acorn with videos of its employees giving tax advice to people claiming to be a pimp and prostitute.

SEC Staff Presents “Condorsement” as Possible Method for Move to IFRS [JofA]
A staff paper published Thursday by the SEC’s Office of the Chief Accountant (OCA) presents in detail and solicits comments on the so called “condorsement” approach to incorporating IFRS into the U.S. financial reporting system. “The Staff’s discussion in this Staff Paper is not intended to suggest that the Commission has determined to incorporate IFRS,” the paper says, “or that the discussed framework is the preferred approach or would be the only possible approach.”

Investors in Allen Stanford’s (Alleged) Ponzi Scheme Sue BDO

Caleb Newquist
May 27, 2011

Nearly two years after Texas financier Allen Stanford was indicted in an alleged massive Ponzi scheme, investors have just filed a $10 billion proposed class action suit against his auditor—the giant accounting firm BDO.

The suit—filed Thursday in federal court in Dallas—says BDO did not only aid and abet the $7 billion dollar fraud…it was a “co-conspirator.” “BDO’s cozy relationship with the Stanford Financial Group was steeped in conflicts of interest and required ongoing deceptive and duplicitous manipulation of the facts to allow the Ponzi scheme’s exponential growth for over a decade,” the complaint says. “The result of this deception is the loss of thousands of investors’ life savings.” [CNBC]

Deloitte

Deloitte Announces New Heads of Tax, Consulting

Caleb Newquist
May 27, 2011

Rounding out the spring of leadership changes for Deloitte are Jim Moffatt who will be the new Chairman and CEO of Deloitte Consulting and Carl Allegretti who will serve in the same roles for Deloitte Tax.

U.S. CEO Elect Joe Echevarria is already finding his stride with the boilerplate praise, saying of Moffatt, “Jim is an excellent choice to build Deloitte Consulting’s market leadership. During his 23 years with Deloitte, Jim has served clients with distinction, and demonstrated his ability to drive the Deloitte Consulting strategy and seize market advantage.”

And he’s equally stoked for Allegretti, “In each of his leadership roles, Carl has made and maintained strong connections with both clients and people. This is a formula for success that has served him well.”

That should do it for announcing new Deloitte overlords since the new fiscal year starts next Wednesday but if someone else gets squeezed in between now and then, we’ll let you know. And since the new fiscal year means compensation speculation, drop us any rumors you’re hearing around merit increases and bonuses.

[via Deloitte and er…Deloitte]

News

This Accountant Underwent Counseling for an Addiction to Sausages

Caleb Newquist
May 27, 2011

Accountants are not without their vices. Whether it be booze, sex, or DVRing every single HBO TV series, we all know someone who can’t quite break the spell of certain pleasures in life after they become addictive. Today in double-entry junkies, we meet David Harding. David loves sausages. He loves them so much that he has eaten at least one a day since the age of five. He loves them so much that he has undergone hypnosis to try and conquer his craving of salty pork links. He loves them so much that he was willing to do a live audition for the “Gluttony” role in Se7en.

Okay, I made that last part up but this accountant LOVES SAUSAGES:

A father-of-three has become the first person in Britain to undergo counselling after developing an unusual addiction to sausages. David Harding, 47, has paid out almost £2,000 in an attempt to beat his bizarre habit, which sees him eat up to 13 bangers per day.

Now if you think this is merely a man who lacks self-control, you’d be wrong. This is obsession, my friends:

He said: ‘I genuinely cannot bear the thought of living without sausages. ‘Drug addicts crave their medicine of choice, and it’s the same for me – except that my drug is a banger.’ Accountant David has eaten at least one sausage per day – in sandwiches, fry-ups or main meals – since the age of five. He spends up to £700 per year on bangers and has even bought a deep chest freezer to store the vast quantities of his favourite McWhinneys Irish pork sausages. David realised he could be an ‘addict’ last year when wife Susan decided to do ‘something different’ for dinner and failed to serve-up his usual fare. He said: ‘I went a bit mad at the thought of it. It threw me completely off-track. It was then that I realised something wasn’t quite right and sought professional help.’

As for these McWhinneys folks, they’re taking this in stride, much like a Philip Morris exec might:

McWhinney’s Sausages MD, Kevin McWhinney, said: ‘We are pleased that this gentleman likes our sausages, but wish him well in his quest to control his habit.’

Help me battle my SAUSAGE ADDICTION! Accountant forced to have counselling to get him off the bangers [Daily Mail via AwebUK]

Mary Schapiro Wants Accountants to Get Better at Their Jobs

Caleb Newquist
May 26, 2011

Did you work hard this past busy season? Did you toil away for hours and hours to provide exemplary client service? Did you take one for the team when that creeper client contact wanted to dance at the end-of-the-year party? Great. Well done, good and faithful capital market servant. But guess who still isn’t satisfied? The SEC Chair, Mary Schapiro. Why? Well, it’s becuase you’re still not meeting investors expectations and the SEC is hearing about it. Everyone is demanding the best and you’re simply not cutting it right now.

“At the SEC, we have heard from investors that they are not as confident as they could be, and they have areas in which we all could expect more from accountants, from accounting standards, from regulators and from those who provide assurance through the audit process,” she said. “I believe that, when your customer asks for more, especially after the challenges of recent years, you need to listen.”

So maybe this is what KPMG is talking about when they say things are going to the next level?

SEC’s Schapiro Says Investors Expect More from Accountants [AT]

News

Former Senator Alan Simpson Is Having Trouble Expressing His Thoughts on Grover Norquist

Caleb Newquist
May 26, 2011

“What kind of a nut is this guy?” former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson said of Norquist.

He told an audience at Wednesday’s Peter G. Peterson Foundation fiscal summit that Norquist was “some guy just wandering around the swamps taking a pledge from people when America was flush, and then pushing people like Orrin Hatch off the cliff as if he were a commie.” Simpson has said similar things to Norquist’s face. [The Hill]

Technology

Mobile Expense Tracking, The Easy Way

Adrienne Gonzalez
May 26, 2011

While we won’t all admit it, many of us are pretty lazy. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, and given the right set of tools, lazy bastards like us can actually spend more time procrastinating and less time worrying about how to blow off whatever it is we’re trying to avoid.

When it comes to expenses, we can all use an easier way, lazy or not. Here are three apps that should help.

Evernote (free) MACPA CEO Tom Hood uses the Evernote iPhone app to snap a pic of his receipts, which he can then send directly to his office for safe-keeping and reimbursement. This means no stuffing random receipts into your pockets hoping they make it back to homebase. You can also use it as a sort of mobile Post-it note and scrapbook, capturing clips from newspaper articles, meeting notes and even business cards.

iXpenseIt This app ($4.99 in the Apple store) can help you track your own personal expenses as well as any you might incur for work. Voted one of the 50 Most Useful iPhone Apps by Laptop Magazine and a Best iPhone App by CNN Money.

ProOnGo Expense (free 30-day trial, pricing varies) goes a step further and even allows you to track your billable hours. It is compatible with iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and even Windows Mobile. Using the GPS feature, you can track your mileage too. The receipt reader feature allows you to put all your receipts into a neat Excel sheet or QuickBooks file.

Just for clarity’s sake, we’re sure you’re aware of this but here are the IRS rules on business expenses for your records. File it!

KPMG

(UPDATE, VIDEO) What Is the ‘Next Level’ Coming to KPMG?

Caleb Newquist
May 26, 2011

From the mailbag:

Relatively ominous link on our internal homepage saying “get ready” “the next level is coming” as of 6.6.11.

We’ve confirmed this “next level” with several people and also that there is a video that Klynveldians are watching. We’d really like to see some screen shots of this, just to get some context. In the meantime, we encourage you to speculate about this “next level” and why you have to “get ready.” I’ll kick things off:

A) Tim Flynn’s retirement party is going to be epic.

B) Omaha Steaks announces a special “KPMG Package” that will drive the other, non-meaty firms crazy.

C) KPMG seeks revenge on PwC with their own competitive poaching efforts by offering the head of the mailroom at 300 Madison a 10% raise and a Phil Mickelson autographed hat.

D) Your ideas.

UPDATE:
Supposedly, this is the transcript to the video (still no screen shots, it’s called “Print Screen” people!). Our tipster wrote, “Interesting video that gives very little hint to what the ‘Next Level’ is other than lots of talk of a ‘high-performance’ culture. Maybe it has something to do with changing performance review structure a la PwC. The video definitely gives an ominous feeling as if the KPMGers in it are running out of time and people aren’t adapting to the changing market fast enough for their liking. All in all pretty strange vibes.”

Welcome to the Next Level – Video Transcript

[VARIOUS VOICES DELIVERING SHORT PHRASES]:

The market’s changed…

In order to compete in today’s world we have to keep up with change…

It’s a mindset… It’s a way of behaving…

It’s about a continuous journey…

Our ambition is greater than where we are today…

The attitude is contagious…

We’re not satisfied…

It’s really about taking it to that next level.

Keep us updated.

UPDATE 2:
Another tipster hears that it has something to do with the-next-level.com but “[I] don’t really know what they plan to do with it.” Poking around the site, it appears that it would be related to “Developing the Next Wave of Senior Leaders” but I’ve checked out for the week and don’t have the will to dig further right now.

UPDATE 3:
Well, the video finally made it’s way into my inbox and I’ve posted it on the next page for your viewing pleasure (I realize Klynveldians have seen it already).

After watching it a number of times I still can’t make heads or tails about what the “next level” will be but hopefully it’s does just to this movie trailer-esque video.

Don’t Miss the Big Surprise at the Maryland CPA Summit, June 2 – 3 in Baltimore

Adrienne Gonzalez
May 26, 2011

If you are anywhere near Baltimore and looking for something to do on June 2 – 3, have you considered checking out the Maryland CPA Summit?

I’m specifically going to check out the new CPA swearing in as I hear from a reliable source that the MACPA crew is planning something very special that I just can’t share with the class at this point. Trust me, you’re not going to want to miss it.

You can also pick up some CPE in such fun and exciting topics as healthcare reform, fair value, revenue recognition & fraud, IFRS, XBRL and more. It’ll run you $125 if you’re a MACPA member, or $325 if you are not.

Maryland CPAs, I expect to see many of you there.

News

A Faux-Rapture Occurred at an H&R Block in Orange County

Caleb Newquist
May 26, 2011

Of course it was on the Sunday after the failed Rapture (maybe postponed?) which made this woman not only crazy but quite tardy.

Suspicious person/circumstance. 3:39 p.m. Sunday. 22400 block of Antonio Parkway. A woman was seen in front of H&R Block, saying that she is Jesus and dancing around.

[via OCR]

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