Going Concern

Big 4

Ernst & Young Has Another Vote Counting Gig

Caleb Newquist
October 14, 2009

WAY more prestigious than the Emmys mind you. No, E&Y has now managed to snag the coveted honor of counting the votes for the inaugural NASCAR Hall of Fame class.
The other firms are, no doubt, insanely envious of E&Y for landing this prestigious gig but we have several important questions:

• Will the E&Y auditors have to memorize the winners and all of their sponsors?
• Shirts (let alone tuxedos) seem a little formal for a NASCAR event so what will the auditors wear?
• Instead of simply handcuffing the results to their wrists, will the auditors need guards armed with Desert Eagles to keep the crazies from highjacking the results?
• Instead of Dr. Horrible, who will make a special appearance to distract the audience during the explanation of the vote tabulation? Jeff Foxworthy seems too obvious.
• Will E&Y be paid in Bud Light as it seems to be accepted as legal tender in these circles?
Let us know your thoughts on E&Y’s new engagement and your ideas on responses to the questions posed above.
Hall of Fame Announcement Set For Wednesday [FanZone Sports]

Uncategorized

Let’s Try and Forget About Money

Caleb Newquist
October 13, 2009

We realize that might sound like kooky-talk but we said try you twerps.
Ajilon Professional Staffing released its salary guide for 2010 and is predicting a decrease in salaries of 0.85% overall. CFOs and Treasurers are expected to take the biggest hit with an expected drop of 7.7%.
Now before you all start belly-aching about less money, the report does indicate that because of regulatory and compliance changes the scope of positions for those with backgrounds in accounting and finance will broaden.
More survey results after the jump

Additional findings:

• The majority of accountants (86%) believe that the convergence from U.S. GAAP to International Finance Reporting Standards (IFRS) will have a positive impact on the finance/accounting profession.
• The demand for financial analysis, budgeting and forecasting due to the recession will be the #1 driver of job opportunities for accounting professionals, followed by the transition to IFRS and the economic stimulus package.
• No surprise, nearly 60% of accountants say they have been spending more time on cost-cutting initiatives as a result of the recession and financial crisis. Some of the things they have been doing to reduce expenses include: cutting discretionary spending; taking a harder look at business lines, product and sourcing; and increasing attention to driving reported earnings and cash flow.
• Fifty-one percent (51%) of accountants said they have imposed across-the-board spending and capital freezes as a result of the recession.

So the last two bullets probably are of most interest because, you know, some of you are intimately familiar with them.
Nevermind that though, it’s in the past. IFRS, even if it’s a DeLorean ride away and government overhaul fever will create jobs for you and you’ll all be back in your McMansions in no time. At least attempt to channel some of that Tony Robbins shit.
Or continue being bitter, whichever.
Ajilon Professional Staffing releases 2010 Salary Guide [Press Release]

Big 4

PwC pretty much admits that they are…

Caleb Newquist
October 13, 2009

…whores for the insurance industry.

The firm issued a statement today after nearly every news outlet called them out as corporate trollops after the release of their report on the Baucus healthcare reform bill yesterday.

Per Politico:

America’s Health Insurance Plans engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers to prepare a report that focused on four components of the Senate Finance Committee proposal:
· Insurance market reforms and consumer protections that would raise health insurance premiums for individuals and families if the reforms are not coupled with an effective coverage requirement.

· An excise tax on employer-sponsored high value health plans.

· Cuts in payment rates in public programs that could increase cost shifting to private sector businesses and consumers.

· New taxes on health sector entities.

The analysis concluded that collectively the four provisions would raise premiums for private health insurance coverage. As the report itself acknowledges, other provisions that are part of health reform proposals were not included in the PwC analysis. The report stated on page 1:

“The reform packages under consideration have other provisions that we have not included in this analysis. We have not estimated the impact of the new subsidies on the net insurance cost to households. Also, if other provisions in health care reform are successful in lowering costs over the long term, those improvements would offset some of the impacts we have estimated.”

It seems as though P. Dubs is trying to clarify that, “We know we’re whores. We even said so in our report. We’re the classy type of whore though. We won’t do anything unless the money is right but we are good at pleasing our clients.”

What we’re wondering is why PwC would go to the trouble of putting out a report that they knew was one-sided and then their client dances around like the report was brought down by Moses from Mount Sinai. Maybe the firm wasn’t expecting such an enthusiastic response.

WTFK but something tells us that AHIP may not be enjoying their PwC Experience as much as they were yesterday.

PWC statement — Not so helpful for AHIP [Live Pulse/Politico]

Uncategorized

Codification Will Affect You Whether You Like It or Not

Caleb Newquist
October 13, 2009

In case you’ve forgotten, the new FASB Accounting Standards Codification is all up in your shit since it is effective for all financial statements dated after 9/15/09. One source is already less than enthused about the whole thing:

[From] what I can see it requires you to go through your financials and any place you referenced something like FAS 142 you have to change it to reference one of the like 5,000 topics, subtopics, sections, paragraphs, and subparagraphs within the standard. I think Operating Leases (Lessee) will now be labeled as follows (I am serious): “840-20-a”

After we got the vomit out of our mouths, we realized that this new reference has an uncanny resemblance to IRC referencing but maybe that’s just us. This is especially disheartening for those partners who spent their entire careers committing SFASs, EITFs, and APBs to memory so that they could be the go-to technical accounting wonk. So if that’s you, consider your life’s work completely ruined.
And the PCAOB has kindly reminded you that you get NO SAY in this matter, so just accept it. On the bright side, new associates will be starting or have already so replacing all those references on workpapers should keep them ~~busy~~ chargeable in between making copies and calling/emailing India to check on the cash reconciliations.
This will probably give more than a few of you heartburn this season but some of you may remain clueless about it until the eleventh hour which will make for some excitement. Discuss your excitement/melancholy in the comments.
UPDATE: We had short chat with one Big 4 auditor who summed it up this way, “its fuckin retarded espcially if convergence is happening soon.” Very poignant. Convergence and soon are obviously subjective but the point is duly noted since any sort of global standards would no doubt torch the FASB’s codification.

Big 4

‘The Global Firm’: Reality or a Marketing Gimmick?

Caleb Newquist
October 13, 2009

In what amounts to another example of the Big 4 not having any control over their “global” operations, a new scandal has come up in Sri Lanka that involves both PwC and E&Y. According to the Sri Lankan Sunday Times the firms have “forfeited their reputations” in that country after working on a privatization transaction of a public enterprise.
The article is a tad on the long side so we’ll give you the highlights:
• Unauthorized preparation for the sale of SLIC – Both firms helped move the transaction along without the required approvals and questionable independence. Bureaucracy is a pain in the ass anyway.
• Manipulation of Accounts – Both firms were either producing or working with shoddy numbers and then weren’t exactly upfront about it.
Continued, after the jump

• Conflicts of interest – “Deva Rodrigo, a senior partner of PWC, was also a member of the Steering Committee that selected PWC as consultants on the transaction. He supervised their work and authorized payments to them while he simultaneously worked for them himself and received a share of such fees as a Senior Partner, PWC Sri Lanka…The report stated that [E&Y] continued to be the auditors of SLIC after the purchasers took possession, management and control on April 11, 2003. At the same time, E&Y was committed to audit SLIC accounts on December 31, 2002 and April 11, 2003 for the government, i.e., the sellers. The report further states that because of its representation on the Steering Committee, PWC was aware of the misconduct of E&Y.”
This less than flattering news for P. Dubs and E&Y follows the snoozer raids of the E&Y offices in Hong Kong and the PwC and KPMG offices in Reykjavik, Iceland. Regardless of the lack of dramatic moments in these raids, we can safely say that the firms would rather that they make news by issuing less than objective reports rather than raids and scandals involving blatant chicanery by their employees.
Dennis Howlett points out that the firms continue to market themselves as “global” firms when it’s pretty obvious that there is very little control over what goes on in each individual country: “Message to the Big Four: stop pretending you are in control of the global networks. Either do the job properly or acknowledge that in reality it’s all a PR stunt.”
Does DH have a point? Are firms just faux-global? Sure you can do a rotation, new associates can get their own rooms in Rome, and you can send a prank email to a partner in Sydney from an intern’s laptop but is does that mean they are global organizations or just have money to burn?
Make your case for or against the ‘Global’ mantra in the comments.
PWC and EY heavily implicated in unlawful privatization [AccMan]
Unlawful privatisations in Lanka – Role of the Auditors [Sri Lankan Sunday Times/FT]

Announcements

Survey Reminder: Our Intentions Are Good, We Swear

Caleb Newquist
October 13, 2009

Regardless of how you feel about a certain editor’s grammar or questionable mental state you’ll be doing us a huge solid by taking our reader survey.
This isn’t like those big firm surveys where we’ll shamelessly exploit the good feedback and present the bad feedback as a terrible joke at the end of the presentation.
No, we’ll only use your personal information for the forces of good. Your ideas will help GC reach new heights of useful and occasionally funny information.
Plus, since you have a chance to win a $100 AMEX gift certificate, it’s totally worth a fraction of just one your chargeable hours today. We don’t know what the return is on that but it beats the hell out of an ice cream scoop.
Besides, it’s not like we have diabolical plans to brainwash you all to form some sort of bean counter army. What would be the point of that? Start our own firm?
Thanks for your participation.

Preliminary Analytics

Preliminary Analytics | 10.13.09

Caleb Newquist
October 13, 2009

• Business Fends Off Tax Hit – “Lurking behind the tax debate was the administration’s need for new sources of revenue to fund its increased spending. Jason Furman, a White House economic adviser, made that point clear at the end of a session with a dozen or so lobbyists in March. Catherine Schultz, head of tax policy at the National Foreign Trade Council, who was at the meeting, says Mr. Furman basically told the group: ‘We need the money.'” – So, that’s a bit of a problem. [WSJ]
• CIT Says Chief Executive Peek to Resign, Effective Year End – The board knew something was up when Peek showed up to work yesterday with a Fu Manchu. [Bloomberg]
• Schwarzenegger Signs Bill Creating Harvey Milk Day – Good job Arnie but state employees still have to work and will now receive OT. IOU’s should work. [NPR]
• AIG to sell Taiwan insurance unit for $2.15 billion – “The sale of Nan Shan Life on Tuesday was another step in AIG’s effort to repay U.S. taxpayers after the government injected $80 billion into the company, but the insurer faces two more sales processes in Asia and others across the globe.” We lost count on what they’ve paid back but we’re guessing they owe somewhere in the nabe of a shitload. [Reuters]
• So Much Auditor Litigation Makes For Strange Bedfellows – Uncle Dangle has some interesting problems re: Merrill Lynch and BoA that they would prefer just went away. [RTA]

Review Comments

Review Comments | 10.12.09

Caleb Newquist
October 13, 2009

• Washington: First in War, Peace — and Accounting – Father of the Country apparently knew his debits and credits. He even documented his gambling losses to keep the those filthy bookies off his back. [Washington Post]
• Chicago Cubs file Ch. 11 bankruptcy – Just to move things along. [Chicago Tribune]
• National Association of Business Economists: ‘Great recession is over’ – How many times is this thing going to get called? [Denver Business Journal]
• Wesley gets ‘Sniped’ – Tax problems simply aren’t enough. Let’s throw some Ponzi related victimization. It may be time to seriously consider White Men Can’t Jump 2. [NYP]
• SEC Adds to KB Home’s Troubles – “In a quarterly filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, KB said the SEC staff has issued a ‘formal order of investigation…regarding possible accounting and disclosure issues.'” – Never good. [WSJ]

On Campus

Accounting Student Demands

Caleb Newquist
October 13, 2009

Maybe demands are a stretch but they do have some ideas of what they would like. CPA Success has a short list that covers stuff that isn’t related to money or free booze:

• Mentoring with senior people in your organization.
• An understand the big picture and why they are doing things.
• A career pathway or road map: What are the rules of the game and what do they need to do to get promoted?
• Flexibility when possible. They believe work is an activity, not a place to go.
• An open-door policy to the senior management.
• Involvement and a sense that they are valued for their talents and education.

How realistic do you, as the current members of the bean counter workforce, believe these to be? “Rules of the game” sounds a little like, “how do I get promoted without being good at my job”. Plus, “sense that they are valued for their talents” isn’t exactly a strong suit from what we hear.
Are students in for a rude awakening? Help them out people For the students out there, feel free to add other demands to the list, this can’t cover everything. Run with it.

Big 4

Don’t Sulk Big 4, Things Aren’t That Bad

Caleb Newquist
October 13, 2009

Regardless of what accounting firms may say about their current troubles because of “tough economic conditions”, lots of these “conditions” can be pret-tay good for business.
Reuters reports that several companies, including your favorites, have pulled down more than a fair amount fees related to the “asset protection scheme” that insures risky assets held by Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group.
KPMG (£6.5M), E&Y (£4.3M), and PwC (£4.2M) were the top earners assisting the Brits with their version of the magic money printing machine. Oddly, Deloitte is no where to be found in this article but maybe that’s got something to do with the £59 million they received from RBS. That seems to make up for it.
Stateside, E&Y is pulling down $60 million for its work with the New York Fed on AIG which makes the RBS/Lloyds fees look like a lemonade stand.
Since misery loves company, it might be poor taste for any firm to be excited about the money that is rolling in. So nevermind our tendency to focus on the positive. Go back to feeling sorry for your slumping revenues.
KPMG Earns Most From Bank Asset Plan [Reuters]

Big 4

PwC Lends a Hand to the Insurance Industry

Caleb Newquist
October 12, 2009

We’re confident that you all enjoy talking about healthcare reform. If it wasn’t for the long hours you had to work, we’d be reading about all the accountants showing up at the town hall meetings to bring sanity to what otherwise appears to be a meeting of escaped mental patients.
Now, just when you thought that the debate had saturated the country into submission, America’s Health Insurance Plans has put out a new report, courtesy of P. Dubs, that states that the costs of health insurance would rise significantly under the plan submitted by Senator Max Baucus of Montana.
Continued, after the jump

From the executive summary:

There are four provisions included in the Senate Finance Committee proposal that could
increase private health insurance premiums above the levels projected under current law:
• Insurance market reforms coupled with a weak coverage requirement,
• A new tax on high-cost health care plans,
• Cost-shifting as a result of cuts to Medicare, and
• New taxes on several health care sectors.
The overall impact of these provisions will be to increase the cost of private health insurance coverage for individuals, families, and businesses. The net impact of these increases on households would include the impact of these increases and the new subsidies provided under the bill.

The report states that on average, costs will go up 79% under the current system between 2009 and 2019 and 111% for the same time period if the provisions are implemented.
Politico calls bullshit, “The industry, which didn’t like last week’s [Congressional Budge Office] report, bought its own analysis and will tout the PricewaterhouseCoopers findings in new ads.”
On the one hand, you can’t really expect PwC to do put out a report like this for nothing but did anyone really expect them to come to a different conclusion?
As we pointed out recently, accounting firm reports typically don’t get lots of attention but when they do, it’s usually over something that causes people to get all crazy for their particular side.
PwC will certainly be perceived as the insurance industry whore here but since they aren’t actually an insurance company, the firm won’t likely receive the worst of the populist chastisement and will just enjoy some free publicity.
Insurers, docile till now, go to war [Politico Pulse]
Potential Impact of Health Reform on the Cost of Private Health Insurance Coverage [PwC Report]

The JDA

Comverse: One More Epic Regulatory Failure

Adrienne Gonzalez
October 12, 2009

Telecom company Comverse hasn’t filed financial statements in 4 years and the SEC has just now gotten around to settling with them. Does that make sense to anyone?
Continued, after the jump

Three years after getting caught in a huge stock-options backdating scandal, technology company Comverse appears to be nearing the end of its crisis. The company recently reported that it had come to an agreement with the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission, consenting to a permanent injunction over any future violations by the company of American securities laws.
Comverse will also have to meet its periodic reporting requirement to the SEC no later than Feb. 8, 2010.
The agreement acknowledges that Comverse neither admits nor denies the allegations that the SEC filed against the company, and no fines will be imposed. The settlement is subject to court approval.
Comverse President and CEO Andre Dahan called the settlement an important step forward. “With these matters resolved, we remain focused on our plan to be relisted and on carrying out our strategies for the long-term success of Comverse Technologies,” he said.

(source)
That’s all well and good but no fines? That sounds like encouraging bad behavior to me. What the SEC is saying, in effect, is that companies don’t really need to file financial statements, and if they do they can backdate all they want and perhaps the SEC will come around eventually to slap them on the wrist. Sounds like effective regulating to me.
Comverse subsidiary Ulticom finally filed 2005 – 2008 financial statements with the SEC this month and the company promises it will resume issuing quarterlies to the SEC in 2010. Well shit, why?

During the probe of the effects of the options backdating affair, following which Comverse CEO Kobi Alexander fled Israel to Namibia, Ulticom discovered additional accounting irregularities in the company’s financial statement preparations. Mistakes had been made in the recognition of postponed revenues in the years 1998-2004, and the expenses on intangible assets during 1999-2004 had been incorrectly assessed.
The correction of these irregularities resulted in a $6.8 million write-off from revenues prior to 2005, after which the company filed complete statements.

(source)
What’s the lesson here, kids? Do whatever the hell you want, it’s not like the SEC is going to stop you. It’s the IRS you’ve got to be afraid of, not the children over at SEC Elementary.
Also see: Where’s the Sex Tape, Comverse?

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