When accounting goes unaccounted for
While staff in tax at EY US will soon be spending more time with their flesh-based colleagues due to a return-to-office mandate that requires them in the office for an…
Fortune has released its Best Companies to Work For list for 2026 and we just realized we didn't cover it at all last year. Shrug, it's all just marketing anyway.…
We covered this story in yesterday's Monday Morning Accounting News Brief but it's significant enough news to earn its own spot in a separate article as it's a large market…
Oh my God it feels like it's 2010 all over again with that headline. Thanks to the algorithm for putting this item in my feed since no one saw fit…
Ed. note: This article was originally published on March 5, 2026. It was updated on March 18 after KPMG made a public announcement confirming Gary Wingrove as Global Chairman and…
Hey. To our readers in tax let me just say you're doing great! Almost there! For everyone else, hopefully you're hanging in there as well. To everyone: be sure to…
Footnotes is a collection of stories from around the accounting profession curated by actual humans and published every Friday at 5pm Eastern. While you're here, subscribe to our newsletter to…
We covered this story in yesterday's Monday Morning Accounting News Brief but it's significant enough news to earn its own spot in a separate article as it's a large market…
Good morning and happy Monday, capital markets servants. I ventured out into the muck to dig up some news for you to start the week. In this news briefYour Services…
Footnotes is a collection of stories from around the accounting profession curated by actual humans and published every Friday at 5pm Eastern. While you're here, subscribe to our newsletter to…
While staff in tax at EY US will soon be spending more time with their flesh-based colleagues due to a return-to-office mandate that requires them in the office for an…
Commence to fantasizing about what you'll do with all that glorious free time when you lose your job to AI in 12-18 months because that's the confident prediction made by…
TIL that early AI accounting platform Botkeeper has died. I found out via this CFO Brew article which pointed to a post on Botkeeper's own site. Turns out r/accounting was…
The image is upside down because Australia. This story sounds like a joke but we assure you it is not. KPMG Australia has expanded KPMG's storied cheating repertoire by being…
As reported by Financial Times on February 6, included in Friday's edition of Footnotes, and widely chuckled at by public accountants both current and former across the world since, KPMG…
Struggling to Find Remote Accounting or Tax Talent? We’ve Got You Covered.If your firm or internal team is having a tough time sourcing qualified remote tax and accounting professionals, you're…
Struggling to Find Remote Accounting or Tax Talent? We’ve Got You Covered.If your firm or internal team is having a tough time sourcing qualified remote tax and accounting professionals, you're…
Struggling to Find Remote Accounting or Tax Talent? We’ve Got You Covered.If your firm or internal team is having a tough time sourcing qualified remote tax and accounting professionals, you're…
Struggling to Find Remote Accounting or Tax Talent? We’ve Got You Covered.If your firm or internal team is having a tough time sourcing qualified remote tax and accounting professionals, you're…
Struggling to Find Remote Accounting Talent? We’ve Got You Covered. If your firm or internal team is having a tough time sourcing qualified remote tax and accounting professionals, you're not…
Via @Inc: Meet the AI Co-Worker That Snitches to Your Boss—and Never Stops Working
South Florida rapper known as “Walking Bankroll” arrested for alleged multimillion-dollar tax fraud scheme
Recruiting firm Brewer Morris has released its 2025 US CPA salary guide and should you want to read the whole thing you can request it from them here. Perhaps you,…
Saw this on the bird app yesterday and thought its message would be worth passing along what with 20 days remaining until April 15 and nerves as strained as ever…
Ed. note: An earlier version of this article's headline stated the sheriff is investigating. The Alexander County Sheriff's Office informed us they are not investigating, only fielding calls from the…
Boston Business Journal wrote an article about Deloitte's new office in Boston and for some reason they chose to lead with this: You won’t find trash cans at the desks…
We realize the decision to run maintenance on IRS systems likely isn't made by anyone who understands deadlines but surely someone who does could inform the IT department of these…
Looking to staff up for a season or hire a freelancer for a project? Accountingfly is ready to partner with you! Gain full access to a pool of highly skilled…
Every accounting firm struggles with project management, with smaller practices that are rapidly expanding taking the brunt of the damage. As your firm adds new clients, takes on more work,…
Email: The word itself sounds innocent, doesn't it? Kind of like "snail mail," but faster, sleeker, and without the slimy trail. But don't be fooled—email is secretly a sinister beast,…
Business growth is always a high priority for accounting firms, especially small-to-midsize practices. Take care, though, because growth can be a double-edged sword. If your firm expands too quickly or…
Your winner after the jump:
“EY reimbursed me for this dress with the money that would have been used to pay your bonus“
With nearly 75% of the vote. A landslide of Iranian proportions. The rest:
• Two more Deal or No Deal rejects reenact their failed auditions for the cameras – 11%
• The sun never sets on a badass. – 9%
• To help lower the deficit, the Secret Service started selling ad space on the President’s “football” – 5.5%
Is money all you people care about?
What’s with the PCAOB being all up in everyone’s business? Is this the most effective way to tackle total financial failure or just more bureaucratic red tape?
The good news is that there may be some, er, technical difficulties in the implementation of the PCAOB’s latest move. But don’t think you’re off the hook just yet, they’ve got their little web monkeys all over it.
The PCAOB postponed the effective date for registered public accounting firms required to report under its new rules to Dec. 31, 2009, from the previous date of Oct. 12, in order to resolve technical issues related to deploying the board’s new Web-based system for processing and publishing filings on the new forms, according to a news release.
Forms 1, 2, 3 and 4 must be filed electronically through that system.
The postponement will not affect the timing of the first annual reports required from registered firms, which will still be due on June 30, 2010, for the 12-month period ending March 31, 2010.
Under the new rules, approved by the SEC on Aug. 13, 2009, certain events– ranging from administrative matters such as changes in a firm’s contact information to more substantive matters, including certain types of legal proceedings against a firm or its personnel–that occur on or after the Dec. 31 effective date must be reported by a registered firm in a special report on PCAOB Form 3 within 30 days after the event.
Since the PCAOB appears to be on a roll, we have a few more suggestions for reports that they may find useful, while we’re on the mandatory reporting tip, and hopefully implementation of these won’t cause the PCAOB Internets to go all wonky:
• All management must submit weekly urine samples, and samples must be signed off by partners, who must also submit weekly samples.
• All new hires must complete Ropes Course team-building exercises, as well as sensitivity training. First years will also be required to watch the Gilmore Girls box set and will be required to submit hours dedicated to this to the PCAOB each month. No cheating, Golden Girls is not a substitute and firms who do not comply will be fined $25 for each DVD in the box set.
• Firms must report staff Facebook status to the PCAOB on a weekly basis, as well as what staff “likes” and the results of “Which Superhero are You?” quizzes. Twitter status updates from firm staff are optional reporting, and the PCAOB will accept public comment on this issue (via @ reply only) until December 31st, 2009.
If you have suggestions for more PCAOB mandatory reporting that will just make for more headaches at work, do let us know in the comments (and no, “shove it up your ass, PCAOB” is not a good suggestion, and frankly we’ve suggested that one already ourselves).
Your patience is unmatched, Klynveldians.
Rumor is that the Advisory practice in the Southeast region is having a conference call today (which is slightly more awkward than a voicemail) with all the non-exceptional managers and staff to communicate their banishment to compensation-Siberia. Our source indicated that this has never been done before, in case it sounds strange.
If you’ve got more details on this call or if you’re in another region and have details drop us a line. In the meantime, you’ll probably have to live with the official silence until at least Monday.
UPDATE, 4:02 pm: All right you guys. Sounds like it was a pretty awesome call. If you’re not above under an “SP5” you might actually get a pay cut and there’s no chance in HELL that you’re getting a raise. Also, apparently the HR rep phoned in from home and his dog was barking in the background which just crosses the line of appropriateness in all kinds of awesome ways. We’re picturing a pomeranian (can’t leave them alone, they eat the bloody furniture) but if we’ve got it wrong, please let us know.
We don’t know a damn thing about gemstones but we’ll go out on a limb to say that 10,700 carats is a lot. That’s the size of a “ruby” that E&Y has the esteemed pleasure of trying to sell, as the administrators of now bankrupt Wrekin Construction in the UK.
The stone was once valued around £11 million but turns out its worth closer to £100.
E&Y is now resorting to hocking this overpriced paperweight, that will certainly be re-gifted many times over, in Rock ‘n’ Gem Magazine in the UK and Colored Stone Magazine here in the Land of the Free.
Rare £11m gem becomes £100 rock [BBC]
Failed group’s £11m ruby ‘near worthless’ [The Daily Telegraph]
If you don’t have enough [insert anything] guides in your life, get yourself a job at Zagat, the mother of all guides to anything and then you’ll never have to wonder what to do ever again.
You may develop an annoyance, however, to all your friends asking for free copies.
Details, after the jump
Company: Zagat Survey
Location: New York
Title: Manager, Accounting
Responsibilities: Month end closing preparation; General ledger maintenance; Enter monthly journal entries and accruals; Account reconciliation and review; Account analysis; Supervise staff performing payroll, accounts receivable and accounts payable functions; Sales tax & Commercial rent tax preparation; Prepare quarterly commissions; Budgeting experience a plus; Supervisory experience
Primary Qualifiations: Bachelors degree; CPA required; Great Plains a plus; Proficient on Excel; Paychex payroll software knowledge a plus; 4-7 years experience acting in role
See the full description at the GC Career Center and check out plenty of other jobs on the main page.
No matter how good this guy was at preparing tax returns, we recommend finding someone else, if you’re in the Mesa, AZ area:
Jess Alan Skousen was arrested at his Mesa accounting business Wednesday for allegedly having illegal child pornography on his laptop computer
Mesa Police Department spokesman Ed Wessing sai [sic] Skousen, 40, was arrested after his wife found sexual images of children on his computer.
Ouch. The wife turned him in. Can’t say that we blame her.
Wessing identified Skousen’s business as Self Tax Preparation on Stapley Road. The pictures found on the computer include those of children between ages of 2 and 15, some in sexual poses, according to Wessing. The Arizona Corporation Commission lists a number accounting, tax and other businesses under Skousen’s name.
Eight year-olds, Dude.
Mesa tax preparer arrested on child porn charges [Phoenix Business Journal]
Jesus, that was fast. After Wednesday’s snoozer raids at the E&Y office in Hong Kong, Icelandic police have raided the offices of KPMG and PwC in Reykjavik, Iceland, according to the Daily Telegraph.
More, after the jump
Police have raided the offices of KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Reykjavik, seizing documents and computer data as part of an investigation into alleged criminal activity at three collapsed Icelandic banks…The office of Olafur Thor Hauksson, the Icelandic investigator charged with examining the collapse of
the three banks a year ago, confirmed that 22 policemen and six foreign accountants took part in the searches yesterday.
Six accountants? Whoa, this thing was way more serious. No coffee and bagel strategy here as it would have totally distracted the investigating accountants from their jobs.
Likewise, we doubt anyone was strapped for this raid. Especially the number crunchers. We can definitely picture them begging the police though, “C’mon, they don’t even have to be loaded. We’ll just leave them in the holsters. WE SWEAR.”
The most excitement that we can envision was some bean counter trash talk that may have escalated into open-hand slaps and flailing arms and legs. The real police, after enjoying this hilarious scene for a few moments, would have had no choice but to break up the nerd fight as it began encroaching on the investigation and other people’s personal space.
KPMG and PwC Reykjavik offices are raided by Icelandic police [The Daily Telegraph]
• Dunkin’ Donuts president quits – After Thursday’s success, he must have wanted to go out on top. [BBC]
• Strong dollar ‘very important’: Geithner – Not only that but we have to convince the world that we’re thrifty. Then we wouldn’t be Americans, would we? [Reuters]
• Heads Should Have Rolled at Raters: Congresswoman – Pols using hindsight for grandstanding? [CFO]
• CIT Discloses Its Restructuring Plan – “By simultaneously soliciting votes for a prepackaged bankruptcy alongside the debt exchange offers, the company is hoping to scare enough bondholders into supporting the out-of-court restructuring effort.” Run away. [DealBook]
• Don’t forget to vote in the poll for our Caption Contest. It closes at 3 pm EDT.
• Woods Becomes First Athlete to Earn $1 Billion, Forbes Says – Does that mean he can upgrade from a Buick? [Bloomberg]
• Global Convergence of Accounting Standards? In Whose Lifetime? – Jim Peterson’s take on the cat herding that is accounting rule convergence. [Re: Balance]
• Survey: Investors Want Enforcement, Not New Regulators – Oh? We thought vengeance was what they were looking for. [Compliance Week]
• Guess the Ken Lewis beard – Again, we picture the ZZ Top for KL. [FT Alphaville]
• Auditor-Small Issuer Controls Spats Seen – “Will smaller companies get along with their auditors when their internal controls get reviewed for the first time?” In short: No. [CFO]
Thanks. We assume he has a subscription.
Toupee Test: From Hair Hat to Good Match [WSJ]
We don’t know what to make of the raid at the E&Y offices in Hong Kong that occurred yesterday. We’d like to think that it was something out of 24 where Jack Bauer was “forced” into an impossible situation where he had to shoot a sheisty auditor in the leg to find out where the “certain documents” were.
Alas, it sounds as though it was considerably less dramatic, falling way short of anything worthy of the Absurd-o-meter.
The HK Fuzz probably even talked it over before going to the E&Y digs and said, “We’re going where? Accountants? We don’t even need our guns for this one. Let’s just take coffee and bagels and they’ll probably do whatever we ask.”
We’re probably not far off as E&Y was sure to reiterate their intent to ‘engage with and further investigations into the Akai matter’. Bor-ing.
Not that we were expecting much but it would have been nice that if just once we’d hear about accountants stonewalling some authority figures. Instead, the Head of E&Y China is stepping down, which is hardly the same as a vast conspiracy that may or may not involve the President of the United States. Sigh. There’ll be a next time soon enough.
Hong Kong Police Raid Ernst & Young [WSJ]
HK police raid E&Y offices over documents [FT]
Earlier: EY Doesn’t Want to Be Outdone By Anyone So They Went to Hong Kong for a Scandal
It’s been fairly quiet since this past Tuesday’s layoffs but it sounds like lots of cuts occurred in national support services in Montvale, NJ. We also received a tip that the Richmond office let go a few professionals from their Internal Audit Risk & Compliance team which adds to the advisory cuts that were reported last week.
We also got more details on the Chicago office’s layoffs of tax professionals:
In addition to the 5 from ICS there were at least these:
• 4 in Fed Tax (Consumer Markets) – 1 manager, 2 seniors, 1 associate
• 1 in SALT – manager
• 1 in EVS – senior manager
• 3 in Fed Tax (Real Estate) – 1 managing director, 2 seniors
There were lots of rumors of it continuing this week, so continue to keep us updated. The bright side is today is New Year’s Day in the land of Klynveld.
