Going Concern

Accounting News Roundup: Why Did Power Integrations Fire Their CFO?; Spain Making ‘Sweeping Austerity Measures’; GM May Want GMAC Back | 05.12.10

Caleb Newquist
May 12, 2010

Power Integrations fires chief financial officer [AP]
Not to worry Power Integrations investors, Bill Roeschlein’s firing “was not related to financial statements or regulatory issues,” according to the company. However, he is currently the “subject of a felony domestic assault criminal complaint filed in Missouri,” which he denies and naturally he will “defend himself vigorously.” Unfortunately, that might cut into the job search.

Spain joins euro zone austerity bandwagon [Reuters]
Spain has agreed to “sweeping austerity measures,” cutting civil service pay 5% and freezing it for 2011. The country will also cut approximately 13,000 public sector jobs.

Minority Owner Sues Cuban, Calls Mavericks ‘Insolvent’ [NYT]
Ross Perot, Jr. is suing SEC target Mark Cuban, accusing him of turning the Dallas Mavericks into a financial catastrophe. The Times reports, “Perot is seeking damages, the naming of a receiver to take over the team and the appointment of a forensic accountant to investigate its finances. Perot said that Cuban’s actions had diminished the value of his investment in the team and violated his and other minority owners’ rights.”

Cuban, as you might expect, isn’t impressed with Charts Boy, Jr.’s loserness. He wrote in an email to the Dallas Morning News, “There is no risk of insolvency. Everyone always has been and will be paid on time. Being in business with Ross Perot is one of the worst experiences of my business life. He could care less about Mavs fans. He could care less about winning.”

Failed Bomber’s Resume Fail [FINS]
Faisal Shazad’s resumé sucks.

Is G.M. Looking to Buy Back GMAC? [AP]
Sources say that GM is interested in buying back GMAC (now known as Ally Financial) “so they can offer more competitive lease and loan deals.” The U.S. Government currently owns 56% of GMAC and 61% of GM, who plans to announce its first quarter earnings next week.

Quote of the Day

Memo to Big 4 Partners

Caleb Newquist
May 12, 2010

“Overtime-induced work stress might contribute to a substantial proportion of cardiovascular disease.”

~ Gordon McInnes, professor of clinical pharmacology at the University of Glasgow’s Western Infirmary.

Bonus Watch ’10: Ernst & Young Is Rewarding The Hard Workers

Caleb Newquist
May 12, 2010

From the mailbag:

EY Mclean Office- partners are reaching out to people giving $400 spot bonuses for hard work during busy season.

This particular lucky duck was in the tax practice. Cash? Gift certificates at the Cracker Barrel? Just McLean? If you’re getting greased, phone them in.

Today in Tax-Related Violence: Man Shoots at H&R Block Employee for a Mistake on His Tax Return

Caleb Newquist
May 11, 2010

It’s been far too long since we’ve heard about violent and/or completely irrational behavior as it relates to taxes, hasn’t it?

Thank God for Ohio, where bulldozers are commonly used to show disdain for pretty much anything. This time it’s firearms.

Police said a man opened fire on a woman after she apparently made a mistake on his taxes. Officers said the man threatened to get revenge on the H & R Block employee because he was audited by the IRS. Dayton police said they [sic] shooter fired several shots into the tax worker’s car. However, she managed to dodge the bullets.

There are lots of things that might conjure up murderous rage but a mistake on a tax return prepared by a H&R Block employee? The good news is that this lunatic is still on the loose somewhere.

Police: Shots Fired At Tax Worker [WHIOTV]

News

Fire at Grant Thornton Boston

Caleb Newquist
May 11, 2010

May 11, 2010 – The Boston office was evacuated due to a fire in the building. All Grant Thornton employees appear to have been evacuated safely.

Sure enough, we tried calling Beantown and we were automatically re-routed to GT New York. If you’ve got details, get in touch.

News

Grant Thornton Saying Aloha to Honolulu Office

Caleb Newquist
May 11, 2010

Over the weekend we learned that Grant Thornton was pulling up the stakes in Hawaii. According to our sources, the partners of the Honolulu office will be purchasing the business from GT and joining Pannell Kerr Forster, and international network of independently owned firms (U.S. locations).

GT Honolulu has approximately 60 professionals and according to one source familiar with the situation, all will be retained after the transaction According to our source, Doreen Griffith, the Honolulu Office Managing Partner will be moving to the San Francisco office to lead the tax practice there while Patrick Oki, an assurance partner will head up the new PKF office.

Our source told us that the reaction of the GTers was that of surprise but not upset, “I would say that employees are very happy but shocked.”

Grant Thornton’s disposal of this office follows the closure of its Madison, Wisconsin office, announced just last month and the Greensboro office that we reported on back in February. Several sources have speculated that Grant Thornton is moving out of smaller markets to focus business opportunities in larger markets.

Despite these moves, none of them had been previously mentioned on either of the the firm-wide calls held by Grant Thornton CEO Stephen Chipman held this year.

PKF North America’s President & CEO, Terry Snyder spoke with us briefly about the transaction, confirming that the partners in Honolulu were taking over the business from Grant Thornton and that Mr Oki “was the man to speak to.” He declined to comment on GT exiting the Honolulu market.

Messages left with Patrick Oki, Doreen Griffith and Grant Thronton’s national PR team were not returned. Emails to both Mr Oki and Ms Griffith were not returned.

If you have information on this transition in Honolulu, you can drop us a line at tips@goingconcern.com.

Career Center

Job of the Day: Computer Sciences Corporation Needs a Senior Accountant

GoingConcern
May 11, 2010

Computer Sciences Corporation is looking for an experienced accountant to join their group in Sterling, VA. The position is responsible for supervising the posting and balancing of general and subsidiary ledgers, along with account analysis and journal entries.

The position requires a bachelor’s degree, a minimum of six years experience, including three year of supervisory experience and a CPA license is a plus

Company: Computer Sciences Corporation

Title: Accounting Senior Supervisor

Location: Sterling, VA

Description: Supervises the posting and balancing of general and subsidiary ledgers; ensures accuracy and timeliness. Oversees the preparation of account analysis and journal entries to ensure records

Responsibilities: Supervises the posting and balancing of general and subsidiary ledgers; ensures accuracy and timeliness; Oversees the preparation of account analysis and journal entries to ensure records are organized and standardized; Oversees the coding of invoices and vouchers with proper account distribution support to ensure accuracy and validity; Oversees and prepares, as appropriate, foreign currency exchange and remeasurement calculations and journal entries; Supervises and assists in the compilation of data for preparation of regularly scheduled and special accounting reports; verifies statements to ensure accuracy and to meet company information needs; Supervises and assists in the implementation of accounting systems and accounting control procedures to ensure adherence to company guidelines; Recommends and/or initiates the selection and hiring of employees. Trains and evaluates employees to enhance their performance, development and work product. Addresses performance issues and makes recommendations for personnel actions. Makes recommendations for salary increases, transfers and terminations to manager; Provides supervision of the accounting staff to ensure activities are completed accurately and in a timely fashion. Analyzes and resolves work problems or assists employees to resolve problems;

Qualifications/Skills: Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and experience; Bachelor’s degree in business administration, accounting or related field strongly preferred; Six or more years of accounting experience; Three or more years of leadership experience included; CPA or CPA candidate preferred; Experience working with generally accepted accounting principles; Experience with SAP, Hyperion and Lotus Notes a plus.

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

Small Business Still Not Showing Signs of Life

GoingConcern
May 11, 2010

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

Don’t look for small businesses to lead the economic recovery.

The monthly reading from the National Federation of Independent Business Index of Small Business Optimism clearly shows little optimism among small business.

Sure, nine of the 10 components that comprise the index rose from the prior month.

However, some of the critical factors that would indicate whether small business owners plan to invest in their firms did not show encouraging results. The NFIB’s job measures barely moved and capital expenditure plans were flat.

More specifically, according to the survey average employment per firm was negative in April. What’s more, since July 2008 employment per firm has fallen steadily each quarter, logging the largest reductions in the survey’s 35-year history.

If small business is key to job growth – as some pundits think – then this does not bode well for our economy.

And the jobs small businesses create are not exactly great ones. They are more likely to come without benefits and less time off for vacation.

Meanwhile, the Index does not suggest that small businesses will be investing heavily in non-personnel. It noted that plans to make capital expenditures over the next few months were unchanged from the prior month and its reading is only slightly above the 35-year record low.

Yikes!

The survey also noted that small business owners continued to liquidate inventories and weak sales trends gave little reason to order new stock. In fact, more owners plan to reduce stocks than plan new orders, according to the NFIB.

Meanwhile, regular borrowers continued to report difficulties in arranging credit. “Historically weak plans to make capital expenditures, to add to inventory and expand operations also make it clear that many borrowers are simply on the sidelines, waiting for a good reason to make capital outlays and order inventory that requires businesses to take out the usual loans used to support these activities,” the report notes.

Obviously, small businesses are not going to turn this economy around any time soon.

Michel Barnier: EU Is ‘Impatient’ with SEC, FASB Pussyfooting Around on Accounting Standard Convergence

Caleb Newquist
May 11, 2010

Michel Barnier is certainly doing his damnedest to make a name for himself by virtue of the accounting standards convergence and scrutinizing the role of auditors.

Accountancy Age reports his latest soundbite at a speech in Washington today, telling “leaders” that while their efforts to converge international accounting standards and U.S. GAAP are admirable, that he and the entire continent of Europe are getting sick of the stalling.

“I appreciate that the US authorities have made progress towards convergence, but in the EU, we are getting impatient.”

Apparently Mr Barnier has had enough with this little dance going on between the FASB and the SEC. The FASB has been punting to the SEC fairly regularly and we’re all aware of the SEC’s tendency for inaction, so maybe Barns figured that a Frenchman calling out Americans on their own turf would help move things along.

Barnier tells US that Europe is “getting impatient” on accounting convergence [Accountancy Age]

What the AICPA’s New Website Means for CPA Exam Candidates

Adrienne Gonzalez
May 11, 2010

The short answer: not really anything but I spent 3 years slogging through that last design and can I tell the AICPA that it was absolutely awful? I’m not bitter or anything but I can only imagine what candidates felt like trying to find even the simplest bit of information.

They tell you before you take on the CPA exam to check out cpa-exam.org and run the tutorial before you actually sit down for a section so you can familiarize yourself with the computerized format. CPA Review providers cannot duplicate exam content or the environment exactly, as it is proprietary information, so simulations are a must-do and navigating is a skill you’ll pick up along the way if you don’t already have it. So as long as you’ve already done that, your next stop is the redesigned AICPA website.

Watch a PPT on becoming a CPA, learn about joining the AICPA as a candidate member, or check out their many resources on career options in the accounting industry. You’ve seen Start Here Go Places (an AICPA project that markets the exciting career of accounting to high schoolers and beyond), I don’t need to point you to that.

The AICPA is hot on marketing and excellent at it, even if they do make a poor choice every now and then (Benjamin Bankes, I’m talking about you, dude), so it’s no surprise that they are trying to seduce undecided college students and disgruntled finance professionals looking to switch professions. Things are slightly better in accounting so it isn’t all slick marketing, but I digress.

You can check licensure requirements for your state and even find out how much “average” accountants make. I encourage all of you considering accounting as a career to doublecheck those numbers with Going Concern salary threads.

Anyway.

Overall it’s an improvement and hopefully aggregating this information on the AICPA’s website will make it easier for candidates to find what they need. What do you think?

(Remember also that the ultimate authority on your CPA exam experience is your state board, NASBA, or CPA exam administrating company (like Washington), not the AICPA. Always check with your state board et al. before filing applications or forms if you are unsure on any CPA exam information you read.)

Adrienne Gonzalez is a Going Concern contributor and former CPA wrangler. You can see more of her posts here and all posts on the CPA Exam here.

ANR
News

Accounting News Roundup: In Defense of Sherrod Brown; Former H&R Block CFO Gets the Parachute; Intuit Snatches Up Medfusion for $91 Mil | 05.11.10

Caleb Newquist
May 11, 2010

Sen. Sherrod Brown Prods SEC/FASB to Fix Accounting Standards [The Summa]
This is Professor Albrecht’s take on Senator Brown’s amendment SA 3853 to the S. 3217: Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010. The Professor is less concerned about this particular attempt at financial accounting legislation, reasoning that the SEC and the FASB have had plenty of opportunities to fix these issues (e.g. repurchase accounting) and have passed them up.

Given the severity of the problems, and the inability of today’s standard setters to gird their loins and solve the problems, is it appropriate for Congress to pass a law directing the SEC and its standard setter to produce a desired outcome? Absolutely. Accounting standard setting is an inherently political process, as I explained in my popular essay, “Economic Consequences and the Political Nature of Accounting Standard Setting.” Because the SEC has passed on its legislative charge to establish accounting standards that adjudicate between competing economic interests, and because the private standard setters follow their own political agendas when preparing accounting standards, it behooves Congress to step in when things get too far out of whack with national priorities. Such is the case here.

In other words, s— or get off the pot, FASB and SEC. The argument is a fine one, however, if legislation of accounting has to force the FASB’s into action, where does it end? When FAS 157 was being decried as the cause of all our problems, Barney Frank called in Bob Herz, scared the living bejeesus out of him, and got the result he wanted. Is that preferable to this situation? That depends. At the very least, the Sherrod Brown method susceptible to the influences of others while the B. Frank method skips the voting and signing stuff altogether (which has proven tricky in the past).

Former H&R Block CFO gets $620,000 cash in severance [KCBJ]
Becky Shulman (no relation to the Commish, as far as we can tell) is getting $620k for walking away from H&RB along with automatic vesting of 148,725 outstanding stock options. There’s no indication that she is eligible for lifetime complimentary tax prep service.

Intuit to buy Medfusion in $91M deal [SV/SJ Business Journal]
Intuit, owner of QuickBooks, Mint.com, Quicken, etc. has now added Medfusion to its stable, expanding its SaaS holdings. The deal is scheduled to close this July, the 4th Quarter of the company’s fiscal year. CEO Brad Smith, from the press release:

“This transaction expands our software-as-a-service offerings with a solution currently used by more than 30,000 healthcare providers, the vast majority of whom are essentially small businesses. The combination of Medfusion’s industry-leading patient-provider communication solutions and Intuit’s expertise in creating innovative solutions that improve the financial lives of small businesses and consumers, will help us create new solutions that make the clinical, administrative and financial side of healthcare easier for everyone.”

Amateur Accountants Need Not Apply

Caleb Newquist
May 11, 2010

“It is the last part of the business I would hand over to someone who is less than qualified.”

~ Barbara Taylor, co-founder of Synergy Business Services, on the accounting function.

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