Going Concern

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day | 01.28.10

Caleb Newquist
January 29, 2010

“Bernanke fiddled while our markets burned”

~ Richard Shelby, Republican Senator from Alabama during the Senate debate on Ben’s second term as Fed Chairman.

Fraud

Koss VP Sue Sachdeva: Shopping Addict or Burgeoning Retail Queen?

Caleb Newquist
January 29, 2010

It’s been a few days since we had read anything on embezzler of the year 2009, Sue Sachdeva. We figured the whole thing was on the fast track to getting resolved since her attorney started claiming that the woman has an addiction. Well today, we checked in over at Fraud Files Blog where Tracy Coenen has come up with a theory that blows the whole shop until you die argument out of the water

Since Sue had 461 different pairs of shoes that ranged from sizes 8 to 14 (!) and 34 fur coats, Tracy is thinking that S-squared didn’t have a shopping problem; she was simply working on achieving an entrepreneurial dream:

She couldn’t have worn that range of sizes, but that range would have been perfect for someone retailing the merchandise. I bet we’re going to hear soon that Sachdeva was selling this merchandise to domestic and overseas retailers at a fraction of their wholesale value.

It’s already a matter of record that SS was having garage sales at her desk, so Tracy’s logic makes sense. We’re now convinced Sue had bigger plans.

Obviously enamored with the idea of a Sachdeva Goodman’s, Suze may have gotten a little ahead of herself as Tracy notes, “[I]n late 2009 (which is fiscal 2010 for Koss) she got greedy and stole much more in a six month period than she ever had in one year.”

The indictment lists six wire transfers (total of nearly $3 mil) from Koss accounts directly to her personal AMEX accountant, so girl was definitely burning up the plastic. That’s not an addiction; that’s inventory. Besides, isn’t a shopping addiction a faux-addiction? The real tragedy here is that a dream was not reached and an accounting firm was fired. Neither makes us feel very good.

KPMG

Tim Flynn Will Not Serve Another Term as Chairman of KPMG

Caleb Newquist
January 29, 2010

Tim Geithner better be paying attention. This could be your successor.

As you may know, my five-year term as U.S. Chairman ends in June of this year. Late last week, I informed the Board and subsequently announced to the partners, that I have decided not to serve an additional three-year term as U.S. Chairman after my initial term ends this June, as permitted by the firm’s governance.

This decision was made after much thought and personal reflection. KPMG’s partnership agreement has a well-defined and time-tested set of protocols in place whereby the Board of Directors is expressly responsible for managing the succession process for Chairman. Over the next 60 days, the Board will execute that process, the planning for which began late last summer.

Our firm has an outstanding group of partners and an effective, seasoned leadership team that is focused on our partners and employees, our clients, and the marketplace.

You have my personal commitment that I and the entire leadership team will remain focused on these key priorities throughout the remainder of my Chairmanship.

Thanks for all you do every day for KPMG.

Chairman_Succession

This Is How Some Accountants Are Surviving Busy Season

Daniel Braddock
January 29, 2010

Thanks to those who stopped by Tuesday’s post to discuss work-life balance issues. I also received an email from a PWC reader which details the firm’s “official” tips for dealing with ~~hell~~ busy season. Let’s begin with the PWC checklist of helpful tips. The best of:

“Work late two nights a week and stay for dinner. The ve by 7, 7:30 so you can have dinner at home. This way you aren’t staying until 9 or 10 and eating at the client every night of the week.“

Is Dubya promoting a four-day workweek or just assuming that most people don’t count Friday as anything more than a 9 to 5 barnburner? Either way, factor in a 7:00pm departure, home by eight, dinner on the table an hour later. While thoughts of what you left at work brewing on your mind? I don’t think so.

“Work 7am – 7pm Monday through Friday. This allows for team members to have dinner at home and eliminates the need to work weekends.“

It also means your team members land the best parking spots in the lot. It’s all about the little victories, isn’t it? FTW.

Agree which weekends the team will work from the client site at the start of the audit if this is something that can be accomdated by the engagement team. Set an agenda for those weekends and send a calendar invite. This way everyone knows what their expectations are upfront related to hours you will work and what you should try to accomplish. Sending a calendar invite and working hours for the weekends gives staff the opportunity to plan around those hours instead of not knowing when you might wrap up that Saturday.

I like this one. Communication is constantly at a shortage when it comes to weekend work, especially on larger engagements where weekend face time is an awful reality. Nonetheless, you competent team leaders out there should consider this. Be mindful of the realistic possibility that some team members will finish Saturday’s agenda on Friday. Do these people still need to come in on Saturday?

Make your course of action known ahead of time. The personal motivation of your staff will be severely threatened if their timely work is unknowingly rewarded with more. There’s nothing wrong with updating the meeting request Monday through Thursday as work progresses; but at some point the staff needs to know what to expect.

PWC’s list also included the popular idea discussed in the comments of Tuesday’s post regarding leaving early one night a week. Commenter bitteraccountant made this point:

“If you think that it (a work-life balance) does exist, and going home at 6pm during the week and working till 10 the remainder is what work life balance means, you have a fucked up image of a life.”

Touché, bitteraccountant. To a degree, the comment rips the blinders off and exposes the truth of the situation. Is it naïve to think that the public accounting industry can really have a near balance of work and life, especially during busy season? Oftentimes it’s not happy hours or PTA awards that your staff needs to get through the winter months (although the vodka doesn’t hurt). Clear communication from everyone, straightforward status updates, and a minute amount of respect for colleagues is a stronger foundation than most teams care to admit they’re missing.

Ernst & Young Shares the Glory of Its Fortune 100 Victory

Caleb Newquist
January 29, 2010

Shockingly, many of you don’t get too excited where your firm falls on the F100BCTWF list. Well, in case you’ve forgotten, your firm cares. They care a lot and they want you to care too because dammit, this is important. Somebody over at E&Y got to thinking and decided that bribing you with pastries was the solution to get you Scrooges to appreciate the firm’s 12th year on the list aaannnd being the highest ranking accounting firm on this year’s list:

We’re guessing Jim Turley might be phoning someone in order to save him all the bearclaws, so you best get there early.

Career Center

Job of the Day: State Street Needs a GAAP Guru in Boston

GoingConcern
January 29, 2010

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.

KPMG
Video

Tim Flynn at Davos: We’re Moving Toward the Green Light of Trust

Caleb Newquist
January 28, 2010

After wondering aloud if the Big 4 was just going to spend the entire week at Davos chasing blondes and eating chocolate some of the more easily rankled of you pointed out that Tim Flynn was all business and had already given an interview with CNN. Plus, since we saw Dennis Nally this morning it would seem like there is work being done. God forbid the guys do anything fun while they’re over there.

Anyhoo, we finally got around to watching TF’s chat with Richard Quest at Davos and we thought he did a pretty bang-up job. One thing we would have done different — if we were T Fly that is — was ask DQ why we were excluded from the last CNN interview. “What about it CNN? I’m not good enough for APEC piece but you’re happy to include me on this little campout?” Or something to that effect. We imagine that he was asked to keep it cordial.

Back to business: The one thing that threw us off was the red light/green light of trust thing. Trust doesn’t really strike us a color, least of all green. Think about it: Green = money = Goldman Sachs. Plus, has T Fly seen those tea party people? They don’t trust anyone. See why we’re confused? If you get it, please explain, but watch first.

Uncategorized

Busy Season 2010: Generous Accountant Thinks About Others; Arranges Gathering

Caleb Newquist
January 28, 2010

Because busy season is in full swing, we’ve been discussing motivation a fair amount this week. The latest pick-me-up came way of Houston from someone that decided to take matters into their own hands:

So I know everyone is busy, busy, busy, but I was given a free Happy Hour at Howl at the Moon and wanted to share it with all of you!

What: Happy Hour event

Where: Howl at the Moon (midtown)

When: February 5th, 2010

Time: 9pm – 12 am

Hope to see ya there! It should be a good way to brush off all the stress that busy season has brought!

Happy auditing,

Having never come across such generosity in our own professional experience, we tracked down this noble soul to find out the dealio. Well for starters, our hero reminded us that it’s difficult for the firms to arrange shindigs this time of year so our savior just decided to make it happen.

Plus, people haven’t been able to get together and share their Busy Season 2010 war stories and lament on the days and weeks to come. This is the perfect opportunity to get together and do just that. Also, they told us that you’re all so awesome and you deserve a break.

Gosh, this might be the feel good story of the season. Enjoy Houston!

Salaries

Accounting Salaries Are Dead Even; Is Big 4 Work Experience the Difference?

Caleb Newquist
January 28, 2010

Last month we opened a thread on your salaries and your response was impressive. Just for fun, we found some poor soul to crunch some of the numbers so that we might share some information on the data we gathered.

We’ll start off with a post facing off the Big 4 salary against non-Big 4 salary. Here are the average salaries for each based on the data we collected:

• Non-Big 4 – $72,136

• Big 4 – $71,166

If you getting worked up over less than a $1,000 difference, then you’re more shrewd than we imagined. For the more reasonable of you, the discussion is, what are the unmentionables here? Both Big 4 and non-Big 4 firms have their advantages and many of you have made the jump from Big 4 to non-Big 4; non-Big 4 to Big 4; Big 4 to non-Big 4 back to Big 4, whatever.

A popular argument is that the Big 4 work experience is irreplaceable on a resumé but is it? Will potential employers really pick someone with a Big 4 background the majority of the time?

Most people would agree that auditing is auditing and the tax law is the same no matter where you work. Smaller firms have just a many unique clients as large firms so there’s experience to be gained everywhere.

Now before you start shouting, “if you want a job at a Fortune 500 company, blah, blah, blah” how many of those jobs are really out there? Enough so that everyone that has left a Big 4 firm will be able to find a job? Let’s not pretend we all have the same ambitions here.

Accounting News Roundup: Obama Talks Taxes in the SOTU; SEC Issues Guidance on Climate Change Disclosures; Video of Dennis Nally in Davos | 01.28.10

Caleb Newquist
January 28, 2010

• Tax Portions of President Obama’s State of the Union Speech [TaxProf Blog]
The POTUS gave his first State of the Union address last night and he talked about a lot of things over his 70 minute chat. Luckily if you didn’t manage to watch, listen, or were simply screaming at the TV during the whole thing, Paul Caron summed up the tax portions for you, “Let me repeat: We cut taxes. We cut taxes for 95 percent of working families. We cut taxes for small businesses. We cut taxes for first-time homebuyers. We cut taxes for parents trying to care for their children. We cut taxes for 8 million Americans paying for college.”

Whoa, what was that part about small businesses? ” I am also proposing a new small business tax credit — one that will go to over one million small businesses who hire new workers or raise wages. While we’re at it, let’s also eliminate all capital gains taxes on small business investment; and provide a tax incentive for all businesses, large and small, to invest in new plants and equipment.”

Is he talking about — GASP — bonus depreciation? And eliminating capital gains taxes? Maybe! Regardless, the President has his work cut out for him since he’s dealing with an angry populous and negotiating with some resistant players across the aisle (who would likely propose the same ideas).

• SEC Issues Interpretive Guidance on Disclosure Related to Business or Legal Developments Regarding Climate Change [SEC.gov]
Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean that companies will get all Al Gore on you with Climate Change talk but they will have to expand on the existing disclosures. Mary Schapiro isn’t interested in their opinion on the matter anyway; she’d rather that issuers just explain the impact of certain areas that may require disclosure. Pesky regulation, treaties with foreign countries, impacts on their business, you get the idea. Filings aren’t complex enough anyway.

• PwC Chairman Nally Says CEOs Are `Cautiously Optimistic’ [Bloomberg]
Looks a little cold over there in Toblerone land but Dennis looks like he’s enjoying himself. He also isn’t surprised that people aren’t as freaked out as, say, a year ago but dang it, things are still a little hairy.

Announcements

A Little Housekeeping

GoingConcern
January 28, 2010

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.

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day | 01.27.10

Caleb Newquist
January 28, 2010

“You give lame excuses then, and you’re giving lame excuses now.”

~ Representative John L. Mica, Republican of Florida to Tim Geithner on his role in the bailout of AIG.

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