Going Concern

On Campus

Accounting Program Rankings: Open Thread

Caleb Newquist
December 17, 2009

A tipster pointed us to a link that went up on Tuesday over at the College of William & Mary’s Mason School of Business that announced the school as the “number one ranked small school for both their undergraduate and Master of Accounting programs.”
The website gives us the lowdown on the Public Accounting Report’s 2009 Annual Survey of Accounting Professors :

For the first time, the rankings have been split into three categories: small, medium and large schools, according to the number of teaching professors at the institution. The school rankings are based on professors’ ranking of accounting programs on a 1 to 10 scale in answering the question, “which programs consistently turn out students capable of some day attaining partner status?”

Judging by our partner thread poll over 60% of you aren’t interested in making partner and only a small percentage of you will actually become parters, so the question seems narrow to us.
We did some looking around and the only other school we’ve found that is making any noise about this so far is the University of Texas’ McCombs School of Business:

Following a venerable tradition in the PAR, McCombs continues to excel across all three rankings–undergraduate, graduate, and PhD.–each of which ranks the top 25 programs in the nation.

tu UT ranks #2, #1, #1, and #1 in undergrad, grad, doctoral (teaching), and doctoral (research). The #1 ranked school for the undergrad program was the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign but nothing appears on the website yet.
So if only two schools are making a fuss about this, the question is worth asking: do the rankings mean anything? The Big 4 recruit at many schools and it’s no secret that academic “prestige” does not guarantee professional success so are schools making a BFD out of something of marginal importance?
Our question is merely our own musing so opine it if you like but this is an open thread on accounting school rankings so discuss at nauseam whatever you like. If your school has sent out an announcement related to the “Public Accounting Report’s 2009 Annual Survey of Accounting Professors” toss it our way and we’ll update the post with other rankings.
UPDATE: Check out select placement stats for the College of William & Mary and UT Austin here.
McCombs Tops List of Accounting Programs in Latest Ranking [McCombs Today]

Don’t Forget about the Ernst & Young Holiday Rager Tonight!

Caleb Newquist
December 17, 2009

In case you’ve been so distracted by the Tiger Woods story that everything else has been pushed to the back corners of your mind, we’ll remind you that New York FSO Holiday Party is tonight from 6 to 10 pm over at Tavern on the Green.

For the less fortunate of you, this may be your last chance to get some shameless ass-grabbing done. So if you’ve got nothing better to do, we suggest you check it out.

On the booze front, we’re keeping our fingers crossed that you’ll have open bar, but judging by the actions of other E&Y offices, you might want to stop by the ATM just in case.

Our invite appears to have gotten lost so if someone wouldn’t mind sending ours over that would be great. We’ll accept especially festive pics in lieu of an invite (read: JIM. TURLEY. DANCING.) Have a great time, and don’t forget who you’re representing (?).

Preliminary Analytics

Preliminary Analytics | 12.17.09

Caleb Newquist
December 17, 2009

• Ben Bernanke: Time’s “Person of the Year” – The JDA almost fools you into thinking that she wasn’t that upset over Time’s selection. [JDA]
• BofA Taps Moynihan as CEO – The search is now on for the location for the Ken Lewis send-off. [WSJ]
• Proxy Disclosure Of Stock-Based Comp To Change Under SEC Final Rule Approved Today [FEI Financial Reporting Blog]
• SAC Capital, Steve Cohen (And His Brother) Sued By Ex-Mrs. C – She’s alleging insider trading, concealing of assets during their divorce, and wants $300 mil for her trouble. [DB]
• Citi to Suspend Foreclosures for 30 Days – “The New York-based bank said Thursday the suspension will run from Friday through Jan. 17. It applies only to borrowers whose loans are owned by Citi. Borrowers who make payments to Citi but whose loans are owned by other investors are out of luck.” [AP via NYT]

Review Comments

Review Comments | 12.16.09

Caleb Newquist
December 17, 2009

• Swiss Report First Appeals Filed in UBS Tax Case – Two scofflaws from the pool of 500 want to talk this over some rocky nougat. [NYT]
• The Top Recession Lesson for 2010 – Plus, there’s a countdown clock to 4/15/10 already. [CPA Trendlines]
• Are We Asking for Future Problems? – “There are some wonderful masters programs in accounting. There are many, though, that don’t provide sufficient value for the extra buck being charged.” [The Summa]
• Tax Court Finds Thighmaster’s Tax Shelter Flabby – “[F]irm thighs only get you so far in Tax Court.” GTK. [Tax Update Blog]
• Fidelity fires four for playing fantasy football – You’ve been warned. [Star-Telegram]

Career Center

Job of the Day: You’re Good Enough for Government Work

Caleb Newquist
December 17, 2009

The word on the street is working in government isn’t a bad move. Plus, Texas doesn’t have an income tax.
Check out the details for a financial examiner position for the Credit Union Department for the State of Texas located in Houston, after the jump.

Company: Credit Union Department – State of Texas
Title: Financial Examiner IV
Location: Houston, TX
Experience: 3 – 5 years
Compensation: $50,000 – $70,000
Description: Professional examining position with the responsibility for conducting examinations of complex credit unions with persistent problems, in addition to routine examinations. Work involves examining and verifying financial and operating statements, analyzing and interpreting financial and statistical data, ascertaining compliance with applicable state and federal laws, rules, bylaws, and sound business practices, and evaluating management performance. Functions as the Examiner-in-Charge of large team examinations or provides oversight responsibility for a specific function of the examination. May be an examiner with extensive experience or expertise in one or more areas of the examination process, such as accounting, specialized lending, management consulting, or investments.
Responsibilities: Verifying the accuracy of accounting records and related financial statements; reviewing a sample of loan files to ascertain proper documentation and adequate procedures; reviewing board policies and verifying compliance; verifying investments and determining that investment policies are adequate and appropriate; verifying compliance with applicable sections of the Texas Finance Code, Commission Rules, and Bylaws; verfying compliance with other related laws or applicable federal regulations; and evaluating management effectiveness and internal controls.
See the entire description over at the GC Career Center and visit the main page for all your job search needs.

Uncategorized

Accountant of the Decade Poll

Caleb Newquist
December 17, 2009

Picking nominees for Accountant of the Decade was not an easy task and we hope we’ve presented you with some appropriate nominees. If you don’t like the any of them then you should’ve been more vocal during the nomination process.
Or put another way: piss off.
Personally, we would have nominated Stella but we vowed to let the people speak on this matter and not allow our personal preferences to cloud the democratic process.
The nominees are as follows:
Peter Olinto — CPA; JD; Rival of P. Diddy; CPA Exam Maven; Lover of mnemonic devices.
Tim Flynn — Chairman of KPMG; Servant of capital markets; Part-time caddy to Phil Mickelson; Full-time sweater vest buddy to Phil Mickelson.
Tim Gearty — CPA; Infrequent Tweeter; CPA Exam Maven; Kicks it with Bob Herz on boats.
Andy Fastow — Enron CFO; Book cooker; Asshole (so we hear); Inmate #14343-179.
David Friehling — Former partner at Friehling & Horowitz; Bernie Madoff pal; Worst auditor ever; Inmate #TBD.
Now vote.

Online Surveys & Market Research

Deloitte

Deloitte Changes Its Mind on Kohlberg Capital’s Ability to Value Its Investments

Caleb Newquist
December 16, 2009

A friend of GC pointed us to this 8-K filed by Kohlberg Capital Corporation yesterday. Unless we’re misinterpreting this, there are some seriously awkward conversations going on between Deloitte and Kohlberg right now (our empahsis):

Deloitte issued an unqualified opinion on the Company’s December 31, 2008 financial statements, which was included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 16, 2009. The Company is not aware of any allegation or belief by Deloitte that the information provided by the Company to Deloitte at the time of the preparation of the Financial Statements regarding the Company’s valuation methodology and procedures was incomplete or inaccurate or omitted any information requested by Deloitte at such time. On December 10, 2009, the Company and its management were advised by Deloitte that (i) the audit report issued by Deloitte accompanying the Company’s financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2008 in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for such fiscal year and (ii) Deloitte’s completed interim reviews of the Company’s financial statements for the interim periods ended March 31, 2009 and June 30, 2009 in the Company’s Quarterly Reports on Form 10−Q for those respective periods should no longer be relied upon because Deloitte had changed its position with respect to the appropriateness of the methodology and procedures used by the Company under SFAS 157 to value the Company’s investments as of the end of each of those periods and, as a result, the Company has been informed that Deloitte now believes, based upon such changed position and the additional information provided to Deloitte by the Company following Deloitte’s internal inspection process, that such Financial Statements contain material misstatements with respect to the value of the Company’s investments included therein. Accordingly, the Financial Statements should not be relied upon until the foregoing matters are resolved.

This filing followed up Kohlberg’s filing of an 8-K and form 12b-25 on November 9th to let everyone know, um, yeah, that Q is going to be late because Team D wants to take a look at this 157 stuff again. That was probably annoying enough.
But nowwwww it looks like the audit team spent the last month realizing that the pooch had been screwed on the last two 10-Qs annnnd last year’s 10-K. So yeah, don’t pay attention to the those filings. The one bright side to this is that Kohlberg had the sense to not file an unreviewed Q.
If you’ve got details on this, definitely get in touch with us, we’d love to know how the partner broke the news and how Kohlberg took it. The 8-K certainly doesn’t do that conversation justice.

Announcements

Thanks to This Week’s Advertiser

Caleb Newquist
December 16, 2009

A quick word of thanks to this week’s advertiser on Going Concern:
• Verizon Wireless
If you’re interested in advertising on Going Concern, email us at advertising@breakingmedia.com. Thanks!

Deloitte

Deloitte’s Latest Survey Reminds Everyone That Americans Like Vedging Out

Caleb Newquist
December 16, 2009

Deloitte threw their “State of The Media Democracy” survey together for the fourth year in a row, and man are we glad they did. This latest opus informs us that TV is 34% of Americans’ favorite form of media and that it ranks in the top three for 70% of Americans. Viewing hours increased to almost 18 hours a week, up two hours from the same study last year.
The same survey also states that 60% of the U.S. Households have a gaming console including 70% of GenX households. So for many of you, after a long day of opining and complying, you like to go home and pwn some noobs.
Forget — for a minute — about what this reveals about Americans in general. What’s really important is that Deloitte is going out of their way to perform a survey annually that will remind all of us how lazy we are.
This is almost as helpful as as the reports based on World of Warcraft analysis. Keep up the good work, D.
Deloitte “State of The Media Democracy” Survey: Recession Intensifies America’s Love for TV [Deloitte.com]
Study: Interest in TV viewing on the rise [The Hollywood Reporter]

>75: Seriously. Enough with the “Am I Outdated?”

Adrienne Gonzalez
December 16, 2009

Editor’s note: Welcome to a special Wednesday edition of >75, our weekly post on questions that you have related to the CPA Exam. Send your questions to tips@goingconcern.com and we’ll do our best to answer as many of them as possible. You can see all of the JDA’s posts for GC here and all our posts related to the CPA Exam here.
Enough with this question, I’m going to start emailing students this article directly.
First of all, if you don’t send me questions, I can’t answer them. No question is too stupid, trust me, I’ve been in CPA Review for almost 3 years. They don’t tell you kids shit about the exam in college, better to ask than listen to some guy you work with (he’s wrong 87% of the time – or so I have calculated from professional experience via our students). So send them in. I’ll try to be nice and at least sort of useful.

That being said, I keep getting the question at work about materials. 2010 materials. Updates to 2009 materials. Being the most up-to-date in the cubicle farm. I got it, your brain is programmed to think December 31st equals a whole new year. How many of you are getting married this 31st, btw? Happy Anniversary to my boss – the CPA – and his wife on that fine day that you CPAs love so much. Deductions, bitch.
As previously disclosed, the AICPA Board of Examiners doesn’t want you to know they’re cheap. Those difficulty-weighted questions cost a whole shit ton of money to pop in that exam (speaking of which, any IFRS experts out there willing to contribute their time to screwing with CPA exam candidates? Prestige! Honor! No money though.) and the BoE likes questions that have a little more, erm, staying power. Those guys’ “creativity” keeps me in a job so I can’t really elaborate, you get the point.
That means you’ve got a 6 month window to work with from the time pronouncements are announced and when they actually start appearing on the exam. They might appear earlier as pre-test (not counted toward your score and about 15% of exam content) but unless specifically noted – as in SFAS 141(r) – pronouncements trickle into the exam slowly and on a delay.
When new exam content does appear (as it does twice a year, inevitably), it tends to be introduced slowly. Think about it – the only test run those questions got was pre-test, and you were not expected to know that information anyway. How can they gather intelligence from candidates’ collective knowledge of things they don’t know? Seems bizarre to me but whatever, can’t question the wisdom of the AICPA.
Except in the case of the Feed the Pig campaign.

Preliminary Analytics

Preliminary Analytics | 12.16.09

Caleb Newquist
December 16, 2009

• U.S. gave up billions in tax money in deal for Citigroup’s bailout repayment – “While the Obama administration has said taxpayers are likely to profit from the sale of the Citigroup shares, accounting experts said the lost tax revenue could easily outstrip those profits.” Thanks Treasury! [WP]
• The Estate Tax Debate: Watch the Rate, Not the Exclusion – “In some perverse way, it’s fun to watch lawmakers dive into a mess largely of their own making. But as you do, don’t be distracted by the argument over the size of estates that should be excluded from tax, or whether the rules are extended for one year or two. The real argument is over the rate. That’s where the bucks are.” [Tax Vox]
• Lump of Coal: How to Deal With a Bad Bonus – Besides crying in the corner obviously. [FINS]
• Rajaratnam, Chiesi Charged in Insider Case – Raj is looking at 17 counts and a possible 145 years. All over a measly $20 million? Someone in North Carolina is unimpressed. [WSJ]
• SEC Mulls Surprise Audits For Investment Advisers – “Under the May proposal, the surprise audit would apply to about 9,600 of the 11,000 registered investment advisers including those who have physical custody and those deemed to have custody or the ability to deduct fees from their client’s assets.” [Reuters via NYT]
• EU Formally Ends Microsoft Antitrust Case – “The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, agreed to abandon its case against Microsoft over whether the software giant is illegally abusing its dominance in the Internet browser markets without a fine, in return for a legally binding commitment from Microsoft to start marketing rivals’ browsers alongside its own Internet Explorer.” Doesn’t everyone hate Explorer now anyway? [WSJ]

Review Comments

Review Comments | 12.15.09

Caleb Newquist
December 16, 2009

• Why, Oh Why, Must Stimulus Come but Once a Year? – Namely, your tax withholding refund. Which you’re loaning to the government tax free for the rest of the year. [Tax Update Blog]
• Over 275,000 Federal Workers Are Tax Deadbeats – That seems about right. [TaxProf Blog]
• re: The Auditors Named One of 75 Best Business Blogs of 2009: Business Pundit – Congrats Francine! [RTA]
• The continuing Mary Kay Cosmetics con – “The reason why sites telling the “other side of the story” about May Kay is because the company’s success depends so heavily on half-truths, long-running myths, and outright deception.” [Fraud Files Blog]
• The Updated 990 – The Seminar Topic that won’t go Away (Thankfully!) [Nonprofit GPS]
• ‘Dreamliner’ Pilot: Composite Jet Is New, But ‘We Think We’re OK’ – Place your orders now. [NPR]

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