Going Concern

Review Comments

Review Comments | 10.09.09

Caleb Newquist
October 10, 2009

• GC October Survey – A chance for a $100 AMEX gift certificate people. Get on it.
• $100 million settlement for bankrupt Phila. lender – American Business Financial Services is bankrupt. Now the trustee wants BDO to pay $962 million. Ouch. [Philadelphia Inquirer]
• Internal Audit Staff Hit Hard by Recession [Web CPA]
• Corporate bully of the day: Hertz – Audit Integrity called out Hertz. Hertz sues Audit Integrity. That’s mature. [Felix Salmon/Reuters]
• FASB Finalizes New Revenue Recognition Rules – Yes, the wait is over. [Compliance Week]
• Tax Consequences of President Obama’s Nobel Prize [TaxProf Blog]

Uncategorized

Obvious Sign of Fraud: You’re Having Sex with the Client

Caleb Newquist
October 10, 2009

In case you young auditors thought you needed to have highly acute senses to detect fraud at your clients, you’re dead wrong.
Best thing you can do is immediately become skeptical if you find yourself trying to figure out the best posish for the client’s office supply room:
More, after the jump

“These auditors from the Big Four accounting firms are usually single kids just a few years out of school. What do kids in their 20s think about all the time? Sex,” said [Sam] Antar, who was at the center of a multi-million dollar fraud 20 years ago.
So Antar would pair “cute hot female” employees with male auditors as part of his distraction strategy. “In effect, I was a fraudster, matchmaker and pimp,” said Antar, who avoided jail time by working with the U.S. government, and now advises government agencies and businesses on avoiding accounting fraud.

As we’ve covered, the opportunities for accountants to get some action can be few and far between so this strategy makes perfect sense.
This will put many of you in a very difficult situation. We really wish the best for all you of in the getting laid department especially when it involves someone that would ordinarily be way out of your league.
But you may have to decide: Do you uncover the next diabolical Ponzi scheme or do you totally cave to the irresistible charms of the guy that looks way too much like Chace Crawford?
Who would it take for you to overlook a few million in misappropriated funds? Discuss in the comments.
Financial fraud — accounting for criminals [CNN]

Big 4
Video

Since When Do They Let Accountants on CNBC?

Caleb Newquist
October 10, 2009

What were these guys really saying? Other than accountants are NOT to be blamed for anything. Discuss. And for crissakes Jim, learn how to tie a Windsor knot.

Tax
Video

Method Man Hasn’t Spoken to His CPA in 3-4 Years

Caleb Newquist
October 10, 2009

NBD.

Also: TaxProf Blog and DB.

The CPA Exam: It’s Too Late Now

Adrienne Gonzalez
October 9, 2009

It’s October which means CPA exam candidates have about 7 weeks left to sneak in one more exam part before the end of the year. If you’re like most candidates, you blew off this entire year with excuses or got disappointed by failing scores early in the year and haven’t given the exam much thought since. Well you better start because you’ve got about 1,248 hours until the final window of the year is closed.
Sometimes procrastination pays off but in this instance, the exam will never get easier and you’ll never get through it if you keep putting it off.
Continued, after the jump

Typical prep time for the sections is as follows*:
BEC – 64 hours
AUD – 80 hours
REG – 96 hours
FAR – 132 hours
With 1,248 hours remaining until the December blackout, you should easily be able to fit in FAR, right? Wrong. If you’re working fulltime, lets just take out 50 hours a week, leaving you with 898 hours. But you’ve got to sleep, right? So if you get 6 hours a night, that leaves 580 hours. Well hell, you could prepare for two sections in that time, couldn’t you?
Not so much. Do you think you’re the only one who waited until the last minute?
The lesson for next year? Schedule early. Chances are if you’re trying to fit in one more section before the end of the year, you will not be able to sit at the Prometric test center of your choice, or may not be able to get the time/date that you desire. Well, that sucks for you, so hopefully you remember that for next time.
If you don’t start studying now, you’ve probably blown it for the year and should just wait for the first window of 2010. Remember the CPA exam isn’t like college, you can’t just stay over-caffeinated for a weekend and cram everything in that you need. Think of the information like a fine wine, it’s got to ferment in your brain to be useful come test day. Your brain learns best in layers anyway and without the foundation, you’re going to get tricked by the easiest MCQ simply because you don’t have the background on each concept.
Otherwise it will be November before you know it and you won’t have cracked a single CPA Review book between now and then. Trust me on this one, kids, start early and start slow. I’m trying to help you.
*Time based on video lectures and AICPA recommendation of 2 – 3 hours of self-study MCQ/sims for every hour of lecture but we’re sure you’re all Einsteins when it comes to this stuff so it’s probably less.

Career Center

Job of the Week: Lions Club International May Even Let the Gents Grow Out Their Manes

Caleb Newquist
October 9, 2009

hire me2.jpg The lion. King of the jungle. They’ve even got a club. Sorry, there’s no liger club. We checked.
Lions club needs an accountant. A CPA even. This could be you.
Details after the jump.

Company: Lions Club International
Location: Chicago
Description: This position provides overall accounting and financial support to our Foundation.
Responsibilities: Compiling and analyzing financial information; account reconciliations, report generation and the preparation of financial presentations for upper management; preparation of budgets and forecasts, preparation of supporting schedules for annual reports, Form 990 and related state tax filings. Supervises one staff member. Ideal candidate will have experience in general accounting with tax exposure.
Skills Required: Bachelor’s degree; 3+ years accounting experience (public accounting experience preferred); CPA preferred
See the full description at the GC Career Center and a gig with a non-profit organization named after an animal doesn’t get you excited, go to the main page and find your next temporary dream job.

Uncategorized

CPAs Rank #6 for Best Jobs in America

Caleb Newquist
October 9, 2009

Don’t have enough corporate magazine lists in your life? Didn’t think so. CNN/Money’s Best Jobs in America dropped this morning and lo and behold, CPAs come in at #6.
Seem high? Maybe. CPAs did only receive grades of ‘C’ on “Benefits to Society” (you don’t keep people from dying) and “Low Stress” (‘C’ seems generous).
Also, CPAs only rank in the top ten in “Flexibility” but still managed to sneak into the top ten overall.
Continued, after the jump

Dubious, right? Money still makes their case:

Businesses began stocking the payroll with CPAs after major accounting scandals earlier this decade, and a host of new corporate accounting rules going into effect soon should ratchet up demand further.
Government agencies are also hiring CPAs, to monitor how well companies are complying with the new regs. Add inevitable changes to personal income tax rules and you have a pretty recession-proof profession.
“Unless Congress does away with taxes, we’ll always have work,” says CPA Lisa Featherngill of Winston-Salem, N.C. Some 33,000 independent CPAs also work for themselves, typically as tax preparers.

Debunk:
1. Scandals early in the decade? What about present scandals? Lotta good hiring all those CPAs did.
2. Remind us which agencies are doing a bang up job keeping companies in line with regulations?
3. Oh, and regardless of the certainty of taxes, this happens.
Maybe we’re overreacting. Perhaps they’re pointing out that if you’ve got a CPA, that gives you options (get crackin’ non-CPAs). Regardless of what Grant Thornton’s latest survey says.
So, if you’re a CPA and you’re happy, clap your hands. And discuss the list and why (or why not) being a CPA kicks so much ass.
Best Jobs in America [CNN/Money]

Announcements

GC October Survey

Caleb Newquist
October 9, 2009

All right people, it’s gotten to the point where we need to know some things about you. TPTB kindly ask that you take a short, perfectly harmless survey.
Your participation is strongly encouraged because 1) you get to tell us how you really feel and B) we asked Chuck for a favor and he’s agreed to track down those of you that don’t play ball.
Personally, unless you’re Natalie Gulbis, we’re not interested but we don’t call the shots around here. Oh, and if you participate, you have a chance to win $100 AMEX gift certificate, which sure beats the hell out of a sharp stick in the eye.
We appreciate your participation.

Mary Schapiro Would Never Support Low Quality Global Accounting Standards

Caleb Newquist
October 9, 2009

Whether Mary Schapiro was just craving Toblerones right out of the factory or just needed to cool off after head butting the staff involved in the Mark Cuban case to get them fired up, the Chair of the Commission is over in Basel, Switzerland letting some other Schape-types know that she’s 100% behind “a global set of high-quality accounting standards.”
That’s great and all but why do we keep hearing the phrase ‘high-quality accounting standards’? Maybe it’s our wild imagination but is there a back room somewhere filled with bizarro accountants devising a plan to develop “the biggest set of piss-poor global accounting standards you could possibly imagine”?
Is that why the convergence will take so long because there are opposing forces with their own agenda? We all want quality accounting standards M. Schape unless you’re not telling us the whole story.
SEC seeks common goal for accounts [FT]

Preliminary Analytics

Preliminary Analytics | 10.09.09

Caleb Newquist
October 9, 2009

• GM Expected to Seal Hummer Sale – $150 mil. Totally worth it. [WSJ]
• Bernanke Ready to Tighten When Recovery Sufficient – Don’t rush the man, you impatient twerps. [Bloomberg]
• FDIC questions Citi management review: report – ‘Cause, you know, they almost destroyed the WHOLE WORLD. [Reuters]
• 34 Banks Miss TARP Dividends and Almost No One Notices – AIG, CIT, and Bancorp are the top three slackers. Thanks guys. [Naked Capitalism]
• In Surprise, Nobel Peace Prize to Obama for Diplomacy – Glenn Beck’s hysterical dismissal of the legitimacy of the award in 3…2…1… [NYT]

Review Comments

Review Comments | 10.08.09

Caleb Newquist
October 9, 2009

• LandAmerica: The final days appeared like a Ponzi scheme – Adrienne’s opus on LandAmerica’s shiesty last days. [The Mortgage Lender Implode-o-Meter]
• Ethics Committee Expands Rangel Investigation – You might have a rent-controlled apartment if it wasn’t for this guy hoarding them all. [NYT]
• Obama Has Lunch With Bezos, Business Leaders – C’mon Bam, no JT? [WSJ]
• IFRS Returns to the Front Burner – Tweedie says they’re working hard, working weekends and ordering in to get this done. [CFO]

Big 4

KPMG’s Report on the Atlantic Yards Project Didn’t Impress Some People

Caleb Newquist
October 9, 2009

We might be going out on a limb here but it seems like a lot of studies that the large accounting firms put out don’t get much attention. There might be a press release and a mention here and there but otherwise not too much excitement.

That being said, KPMG must be thrilled that the Atlantic Yards Report is taking such exception with thlantic Yards Project:

KPMG’s Atlantic Yards market study, conducted on request of the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), backs up the assertion that Atlantic Yards might be completed in the announced ten years, rather than, as then-ESDC CEO Marisa Lago said in April, “decades.”

Well, not only are projections about condo values questionable, as I wrote earlier today, but KPMG’s report has some very shoddy research. Consider that the report (dated August 31) claims that Richard Meier’s On Prospect Park is 75% sold. (Only rental buildings are pre-leased.)

However, the New York Times reported September 27:

While the developers say half of the building’s 99 units have been sold, the real estate Web site StreetEasy.com documents only 25 closings through public records.

KPMG claims that the Oro Condos are also 75% sold. But just this week Crain’s reported that prices at Oro had been slashed 25%.

If you’re not familiar with the Atlantic Yards Project, you’re lucky. Let’s put it this way, it’s a $5 billion project that involves moving the New Jersey Nets to Brooklyn courtesy of Nets owner Bruce Ratner and sixteen new high-rise buildings and will be finished long after we get global accounting convergence.

So yeah, a developer’s paradise. Problem is that all the hype has transformed into a giant argument that pretty much involves everyone. As NoLandGrab points out, “if the Atlantic Yards project is so great, why does everyone pushing the project forward, and every alleged ‘study’ extolling its virtues, have to stray so far from the truth to make it appear viable?”

~~The obvious benefit we foresee is that the project may get rid of the worst Target on Earth but we may lack vision.~~

As for the Radio Station, they probably had the best of intentions when preparing their report but now, for better or worse, KPMG, who has yet to respond to our request for comment, is near the center of the rage. Enjoy.

What was KPMG smoking? Report claims 75% of Meier’s On Prospect Park has been sold; other statistics are way off [Atlantic Yards Project via NoLandGrab]
KPMG Atlantic Yards Market Study.pdf

UPDATE – July 13, 2010: Hey gang – a bit of belated correction/clarification here. Norman Oder, who writes the Atlantic Yards Report got in touch with us about our little quip about Target. He wrote to us “I know you’re trying to be entertaining, but that’s not close to true. The Target is across the road from the project site.”

So I guess our wishing out loud for the big Brooklyn bullseye to be destroyed won’t be happening (it’s not part of the plans at least) but we stand by our assertion that the Target is a hellhole and needs to be destroyed.

Careers

Big 4

News

Technology

Practice Management

Site Search

Twitter Feed

Get the Accounting News Roundup

Quick Reads

Sponsored Content

Get the Accounting News Roundup

Remote Accounting & Tax Director

Remote Tax Manager

Remote Tax Advisor, CPA Firm

Remote Accounting & Tax Director

Remote Tax Manager

Remote Tax Advisor, CPA Firm