Going Concern

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Job of the Day: Bank Controller at Morgan Stanley

Caleb Newquist
January 25, 2010

As a result of Morgan Stanley becoming a bank holding company, the firm has now the unenviable responsibility of dealing with FDIC oversight. The silver lining here is that all kinds of exciting new jobs were created. Thanks FDIC!
Check out the details for a Bank Controller position at Morgan Stanley in New York, after the jump.

Company: Morgan Stanley
Title: Bank – Controller
Location: New York
Minimum experience: 8 years
Description: Looking for a strong Senior Manager / Vice President for an exciting new role for with the Morgan Stanley Bank (MSBNA – is an FDIC insured, state non-member bank. The Bank produces its own audited financials, has a board of directors, conducts quarterly board meetings, and undergoes examinations by the DFI (state of Utah) as well as the FDIC).
Responsibilities: Conducting an in depth analysis of the financials (Net Revenue and Balance Sheet) on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis; Reviewing the financial and ad hoc reports for quarterly board of directors’ meeting; Ensuring the Legal Entity control frame work is robust and all encompassing; Overseeing all daily p/l and balance sheet production and reporting; Developing, implementing and managing the Reg W reporting process and ensuring timely remediation of breaches working with Operations and the Business Unit Risk Management Team; Liaising with Bank Regulators (OCC and FED), Bank Senior Management, Internal and External Audit, Operations and Product Controllers on a regular basis as it relates to the Banks financials and regulatory requirements; Assisting with new product analyses as they relate to compliance with GAAP and Bank regulatory requirements
Skills/Requirements: Proficient in Excel and be able to quickly learn various front office and finance related systems; Knowledge of regulatory / legal entity reporting and annual report preparation; Experience in Product Control or Regulatory Reporting is a plus; BS Finance / Accounting degree and/or a CPA; 8+ years related work experience preferably from another securities firm or large bank.
See the entire description over at the GC Career Center and visit the main page for all your job search needs.

The JDA

Jr Deputy Accountant and Michael Panzner Discuss 2010 Part II: The Impotent Fed; An Election Year; Waiting for the Recovery

Adrienne Gonzalez
January 25, 2010

In case you missed part one of JDA’s 2010 Outlook interview with Financial Armageddon’s Michael Panzner, you can find it on Going Concern here.
For the first half of my 2010 talk with Panzner, I focused on the other shoes left to drop; commercial real estate, political backlash, and the threat of the massive bubble still being inflated in China. But even bears have their bright sides and Panzner is no different. So what do we have to look forward to this year? Oh crap, more doom and gloom; sorry, I got my interviews mixed up.

Panzner points to our leaders’ missteps throughout the crisis as a major factor that could place a damper on any hope of recovery. “Many of the problems and imbalances that helped about the crisis have gotten worse,” he says, “That means people have less in reserve than they did before, and many have not positioned themselves for a ‘new normal.’ That suggests the next leg down, economically speaking at least, could be much worse than what we’ve experienced so far.” If only we’d been prepared for the worst instead of coddled into believing everything is better, eh?
When asked to take a guess as to when the Fed would finally raise interest rates, Panzner gave an interesting answer. “In my view, the Fed is no longer in control – of the economy or its destiny. For the most part, market and other forces, not the FOMC, will determine what happens to interest rates in future.” So I guess it doesn’t matter when they’ll raise rates, markets are no longer listening. Or are they?
A big picture sort of guy, Panzner identifies sociopolitical threats as another major concern this year, and with this being an election year (hello, Scott Brown anyone?), I’m willing to go on the record as agreeing wholeheartedly with him (shock). “Wait and see what happens to the social and political mood if and when the economy rolls over,” he says ominously.
Oh, believe me, JDA is waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Still no rollover but dammit, I’ll still be here twiddling my thumbs.
Hopefully I’ll get a chance to check in with Panzner again come summer to see where we are.
Editor’s Note: Want more JDA? You can see all of her posts for GC here, her blog here and stalk her on Twitter.

Let’s Speculate as to Why Certain Accounting Firms Weren’t on the Fortune 100 List

Caleb Newquist
January 25, 2010

By now you’ve digested the Fortune list to the point of nausea, so we’ll dispense with rehashing the firms that we covered last week.
What we do want to address is the obvious absence of Grant Thornton, BDO, and RSM on this year’s list. Hell, they aren’t on any of the lists going back to 2006. Are these omissions meant to be a thumb in the eye to these storied firms?
Perhaps they blew their lobbying budgets on the BusinessWeek lists? OR maybe — GASP — they just don’t GAF?

We’ll dispel with that for now and assume each of these firms were dying to be on this year’s list. Accordingly, the reason for their exclusion leaves ample room for wild-ass guessing:
• Grant Thornton – We realize Steve Chipman just started his new job and he’s trying to get a blog up and going but for crissakes, how does he explain this to you? Will this regime change make a difference? He didn’t mention it on the call so should we assume this disappointment will continue in perpetuity? Could the Koss fiasco be the reason?
• RSM McGladrey – This one doesn’t make any sense at all. Does anyone at Fortune know that RSM sponsors this woman? Aaaaannddd, we realize it’s too late for this year but RSM is now helping get Yele Haiti’s house in order. Please note both of these for next year.
• BDO – They owe Banco Espirito half a billion dollars and they’ve been planning a 100th birthday extravaganza. Maybe campaigning for the list isn’t at the top of their to do list but still.
If any of you GTBDORSMers have any idea just what the hell is going on (i.e. why this gross oversight has gone on for at least five years), fill us in.

Deloitte

Technology SNAFU of the Day: DeloitteNet 2.0 Has a Case of the Mondays

Caleb Newquist
January 25, 2010

We were notified last week about some exciting news for the capital market servants at Deloitte. DeloitteNet 2.0, the D’s new and improved internal intranet debuted today and the message was, because of this upgrade, your busy season, hell, your LIVES we’re going to be infinitely better:

Scheduled to launch Monday, January 25, DeloitteNet 2.0 is the result of an organization-wide effort to upgrade and redesign our intranet. It will include a new content structure and navigation, a new search engine, your very own “My DeloitteNet” site, and much more…
DeloitteNet will still be your go-to resource for the latest news and information. It will still provide access to essential tools and resources to get your job done, as well as offer access to the applications you need to manage your life here at Deloitte.

Not only that but Deloitte’s very own social networking phenomenon, D Street, would be fully integrated into the new intranet including a “My status” feature in case you want to tell everyone about the weather or how much you hate Mondays.

All this excitement was scheduled to kick off today with much fanfare. Many of you raced into work this morning, not being able to sleep last night in anticipation of this occasion were devastated to be greeted by this:

Maybe too many people were distracted by the diversity debate or caught up thinking of new ideas for Project JARED.
Regardless of the cause, we’re sure everything is hunky-dory by now (?) and you’re all enjoying the plunders of DeloitteNet 2.0.
Earlier:
Big 4 Technology: Open Thread

Accounting News Roundup: Obama Signs H.R. 4462; Sam Antar Warns KPMG; Mary Schapiro Found an Employee by Reading His Op-ed

Caleb Newquist
January 25, 2010

• Obama signs H.R. 4462 making Haiti donations deductible on 2009 tax returns [AccountingWEB]
The bad legislation officially becomes law with the POTUS’ signature. The new law applies only to cash contributions and you still have to provide documentation to substantiate your claim. For those of that donated by text message, your phone bill that shows the donation will suffice.
• Open Letter to KPMG: A Warning About Overstock.com, Your New Audit Client [White Collar Fraud]
There’s no doubt that the new audit team has a difficult task on its hands, taking Overstock.com as a new client. Sam Antar sent KPMG an open letter giving the firm some advice:

I believe that you should cut your potential exposure and resign. Some clients are simply not worth the risk. Since I don’t believe that you will resign, I feel that I owe you some advice just for old time’s sake to avoid another audit meltdown similar to what happened at Crazy Eddie.

However, I have my doubts that any firm can properly audit Overstock.com given its apparent lack of effective internal controls, its management integrity issues, and its continued willingness to violate GAAP and SEC disclosure rules.

There’s no way to be certain how all this will work out. Maybe KPMG will solve all of Overstock’s problems and everything will be fine and dandy. Regardless, we’ll be watching.
• At SEC, a Scholar Who Saw It Coming [WSJ]
Henry Hu will head the new Division of Risk, Strategy and Financial Innovation at the SEC. Mary Schapiro found this latest member of the Commission’s dream team in a somewhat unorthodox fashion:

In a Wall Street Journal opinion article in April 2009–which Ms. Schapiro says prompted the job offer from the SEC–Mr. Hu suggested Goldman Sachs Group Inc. used a kind of derivative called a credit default swap to turn itself into an empty creditor of AIG. He wrote that this may have encouraged Goldman to push for extra collateral from AIG, even when that threatened AIG’s existence.

The Journal reports that Mr. Hu wrote an article in 1993 warning about derivatives so while there would be an urge to chide the SEC for ignoring warning signs but we’re used to that.

Quote of the Day

Quotes of the Day | 01.22.10

Caleb Newquist
January 23, 2010

“They’re never afraid to print rumor and innuendo. They’re keeping accountants and auditors honest, never afraid to write about the idiocy frequently displayed by finance professionals and executives.”
~ Tracy Coenen, of BloggingSuits and Fraud Files Blog on a certain website
.
“It is self-debasing greed. It is avarice of the corrupted soul.”
~ Professor David Albrecht, Concordia College on those who will profit from a switch to IFRS from U.S. GAAP.

Yele Haiti Names RSM McGladrey as New Accountants

Caleb Newquist
January 23, 2010

Are you paying attention Fortune? After last week’s controversy around the finances of Yele Haiti, RSM McGladrey has been appointed to administer the donations pledged to Wyclef Jean’s foundation.

Yele Haiti has also retained Grant Thornton, who filed the three years of tax returns for the foundation just last August.

All the hubbub was over the foundation less than timely filing of its tax returns and paying expenses on the behalf WJ’s production company.
Not filing tax returns is one thing but there is some debate over whether the payment of expenses is actually anything to worked up over:

John Colombo, a University of Illinois law professor specializing in tax-exempt organizations, said tax laws permit such fees.
“If you told me the organization raised $1 million and it all went to him, then I would have some issues,” Colombo said. “Paying him an arm’s length salary for services he actually performed just isn’t a problem.”
But Alvin Brown, a tax lawyer who runs the site IRSTaxAttorney.com, said such transactions were “scary” and “could be viewed as fraud.”

“Viewed as fraud” isn’t the same as “is a fraud” but we after the last week, Yele Haiti has heard worse.
Wyclef’s Haiti Charity Gets New Accountants [AP]
Earlier:
We Knew Accounting Firms Were Helping Haiti

Uncategorized

Five Questions with The Exuberant Accountant

Caleb Newquist
January 23, 2010

We here at GC love accountants, contrary to what some of you might think. Starting today, we’ll occasionally introduce you to a few of the finest accountants in the blogosphere.

Our debut is with Scott Heintzelman, The Exuberant Accountant. Scott is a partner at McKonly & Asbury an accounting and consultaning firm in Camp Hill, PA. And make no mistake, this is one EXUBERANT accountant. The fact that he is a CPA, CMA, and a CFE should be enough to convince you. If you’re still not sure and follow him on Twitter and that should it.

Here are Scott’s answers to a few questions we threw his way earlier this week:

Why do you blog?
A passion to educate and arm busy organizational leaders with trends, best practices, and updates.

If someone had to read just one post of yours which one would it be?
Is Our Country on a Collision Course?

Accountants are…
Great lovers – at least that is what Mrs. Exuberant Accountant tells me!

If you’re an accounting blogger you must…
Hopefully understand assets less liabilities equals equity

What’s best accounting firm we’ve never heard of?
McKonly & Asbury – hands down the best kept secret!

KPMG

The Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For: KPMG #88

Caleb Newquist
January 23, 2010

Last, but definitely not least, on the F100BCTWR is the House of Klynveld. We figure that if you judged the HoK based solely on the fact that it sponsors a golfer who can manage to keeps his pants on for five minutes, they dominate this list. Unfortch, Fortune takes additional variables into account out of respect for the process.

KPMG – Previously ranked #56. It’s great because, “[The] firm introduced a sabbatical program allowing employees to take leaves of four to 12 weeks at 20% of pay. Some 450 employees immediately signed up for it. Employees average 25 paid days off.” Thoughts?

Other interesting stats per the snapshot:
• New Jobs (1 year): -1,581
• % Job Growth (1 year): -7%
• % Voluntary Turnover: 12%
• No. of Job Openings at 1/13/2010: 2,700
• Most common salaried job: Senior Associate with average salary of $78,100

So the numbers aren’t so hot compared to others. Not to worry though! TF is out there rallying the troops even jumping across the Hudson every now and again just to check on everybody. What more could you ask for?

Earlier:
Ernst & Young #44
Plante & Moran #66
Deloitte #70
PwC #71

Tweets and Pokes: How the Big 4 Is Recruiting the Next Crop of Accountants

Daniel Braddock
January 23, 2010

No one here is arguing that there is a vast disparity between the intern program experience and the stark reality of working in public accounting. What’s bothersome, however, is the smoke and mirrors that the firms use to convince recruits that their careers should start in one location over another. This begins and ends with spending exorbitant amounts of time and money on campus, growing multi-yeardressing up public accounting as one’s best bet if you want to work globally.

It has come to the point where the firms’ online presence is two-faced. One side of the proverbial coin shows the straight-laced, information-packed websites that industry and employees see. Flip it over and you’ll encounter extensive and oftentimes flashy sites targeting tomorrow’s crop of new hires:

• Deloitte
• E&Y
• KPMG (warning – mute your speakers)
• PwC

Accounting never looked so sexy.

Many of these sites are taking advantage of the technology that students use, which makes sense. E&Y spent thousands on creating a presence on Facebook, one that would show advertisements to a select target of majors. KPMG chose to go the YouTube route, primarily to promote its Global Internship Program. PwC’s campus-focused site has its own “.tv” brand. And of course, Twitter.

All of these methods of communication and established online web presences are fine and dandy, albeit expensive to maintain (marketing teams are dedicated at each firm solely for campus recruiting needs). However, what about the relationships with the students? Recruiters target students as freshman, four to five years prior to any chance of return on investment. Honors programs are sponsored by firms; same goes for professor salaries. Every Big 4 hosts their version of a “leadership summit” – these generally take place one or two years prior to being eligible for an internship. These multi-day summits occur under the sun and are attended by the respective firm’s national leadership. Trust falls and scavenger hunts in sunny Florida. Or Arizona. Or California. Every year. At every firm.

By the way, that bonus you were expecting? Sorry, can’t find the money in the piggybank.
In defense of the Big 4’s marketing gurus; their work is paying off. BusinessWeek’s 2009 ranking of “best” internships has the Big 4 in the top five: Deloitte is #1; KPMG, #2; E&Y, #3, PWC #5. This translates to the same firms taking the top four spots in BusinessWeek’s ’09 rankings of best places to launch a career. This comes as a no-brainer when you consider the vast majority of new hires were former interns. The Kool-aid has been known to have long-term effects.
But the questions remain – is the multi-million dollar recruiting campaigns run by each Big 4 firm worth it? Are these rankings worth the time of students and the decisions they need to make? And what happens after your career has been launched? What’s the next step?

Daniel Braddock, your friendly Human Resources Professional could very well be considered the hypothetical love child of Suze Orman and Toby Flenderson. Following his varsity jacket wearing college days, he entered the consumer markets as an auditor for a Big 4 firm in New York City. He spent three brisk years as an auditor before taking the reins of stirring the HR kool-aid. He currently resides in Manhattan. Daily routines include coffee breakfasts and scotch dinners. You can follow him on Twitter @DWBraddock.

Career Center

Job of the Day: Fund Accounting Manager – Private Equity at J.P. Morgan

Caleb Newquist
January 22, 2010

This position involves various responsibilities including financial, operational, client service, and deal related. The House of Dimon will not stand for slackers.

Check out the details for this position in Chicago, after the jump.

Company: J.P. Morgan
Title: Fund Accounting Manager – Private Equity
Location: Chicago
Minimum experience: 5 years
Requirements: Must have a strong accounting and tax background, familiarity with acquisitions, partnership accounting, investor relations, partnership agreements, the ability to deal effectively with sophisticated accounting and tax issues and a strong attention to detail. At least five to seven years experience with a Big 4 public accounting firm is required and additional experience at an established private equity firm is desirable.
Responsibilities: Establish process and procedures to provide accurate and timely financial reporting to multiple constituents; maintain and ensure accuracy of distribution calculations/waterfall models; maintain capital accounts and available commitments; work with other groups to ensure all accounting and other information (e.g. security type, custody…) are consistent with deal documents; manage the operations and reporting for regulatory authorities; budget/prepare financial projections of income and cash flows for funds and management companies

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

The Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For: PricewaterhouseCoopers #71

Caleb Newquist
January 22, 2010

Next on the F100BCTWF is PwC. While one of you (yes, we’re speculating that it was an inside job) was irked enough at P Dubs to send bogus checks out to randos, enough of you still love the place to keep it on the list.

PwC – Previously ranked #58. More lemons into lemonade from Fortune, “Accounting firm had minor layoffs (less than 1% of the staff), canceled 2008 year-end holiday parties, and gave two extra paid holidays to employees.”

Other interesting stats per the snapshot:
• New Jobs (1 year): 402
• % Job Growth (1 year): 1%
• % Voluntary Turnover: 8%
• No. of Job Openings at 1/13/2010: 5,097
• Most common salaried job: Manager/Supervisor with average salary of $93,274

Still not sure about that number of job openings but it’s less unbelievable than the 11k that Deloitte had in their snapshot.

We still get the feeling that PwC is the biggest of Big of Brothers what with everyone’s utilization getting extra special attention. We’re not saying utilization can’t be considered but motivating employees with something more useful, like say, tighty whiteys, may be a better approach. Certainly wouldn’t hurt the ranking.

Earlier:
Ernst & Young #44
Plante & Moran #66
Deloitte #70

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