- Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: Claude Starts a Turf War With Consulting; An Article About How Much Big 4 Sucks | 5.4.26
- Friday Footnotes: Maybe Deloitte Doesn’t Need Employee Trust and Retention; Minnesota Wants to Tax Fraud at 100 Percent | 5.1.26
- Layoff Watch ’26: KPMG Cuts 4% From Consulting
We Are…ParenteBeard
We know you’ve been anticipating the new name of the merged firm of Parente Randolph and Beard Miller like it was the most recent offspring of Bragelina and we’re happy to report that the two Pennsylvania firms have finally made their decision.
The new firm, which was officially born on October 1st, will be known as ParenteBeard, LLC. Sadly, we were pulling for simply “Beard”, if for no other reason, in honor of Ken Lewis’s sporting of facial hair to work, but what the hell do we know about naming firms? Web CPA quotes their reasoning:
“We selected the name ParenteBeard after considering the collective strengths and attributes of both firms and the significance of this combination,” said [CEO, Bob] Ciaruffoli in a statement. “Our new name honors our histories, while positioning the union as one firm, ParenteBeard.”
Still not convinced about the choice but maybe we don’t know the whole story. Perhaps there’s a serious case of pogonophobia among the top brass. If you’ve got better suggestions for the new firm’s name or discuss your own fear of beards, chinstrap or otherwise, discuss in the comments.
Parente Randolph and Beard Miller Merge into ParenteBeard [Web CPA]
(UPDATE) Is the PCAOB Going the Way of the Dodo?
Who knows? Our separation-of-powers principles knowledge is pretty much zilch. However, the PCAOB is currently “doubly insulated from both political pressure and presidential oversight” which some – including the Plaintiff in the case, First Free Enterprise Fund – think is unconstitutional.
The case, First Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB, will be argued during the new session of the U.S. Supreme Court on December 7th. Here’s the take of our sister site, ATL, last year when the possibility of the SCOTUS hearing the case first came up.
More, after the jump
We won’t rehash the whole immaculate conception of the PCAOB, as you’re all familiar with that story. First Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB, however, could make things interesting: “This case has the potential to undo the SOX accounting and auditing reforms. As such, the result may impact not just the auditing profession, but also every public company as well as the users of financial statements of those companies.”
‘Undo SOX accounting and auditing reforms’? That sounds kinda serious. We won’t go so far as to suggest that you start forgetting everything that you’ve been trying to get your heads around for the past seven years, but there’s at least a possibility that the PCAOB could become extinct. That could be exciting, or it could make you completely f*cking miserable again.
New Court Term May Give Hints to Views on Regulating Business [NYT]
The Supreme Court Term – Significant Cases for Business [SEC Actions via JDA]
Supreme Court Obsessed With Business This Session [Law Review]
Thanks to This Week’s Advertiser
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!
PwC Global Revenue Was Down or Flat, Your Choice
The spin continues in accounting firm earnings season, this time courtesy of P. Dubya. The Firm reported global revenues of $26.2 billion, according to today’s press release. This was down from fiscal year 2008 by approximately $2 billion from $28.2 billion in global revenues when adjusted for foreign exchange fluctuations.
Assurance services increased slightly, rising 4.8% while tax and advisory revenues both declined 7.5% and 11.4%, again, when considering the foreign exchange fluctuations.
North America’s revenues held up well, only dropping 3.2% ($9.3b to $9.0b) while Western Europe, PwC’s largest region in terms of revenue, had a 11.6% drop in revenues. The drop for this region was primarily due to the strength of the U.S. Dollar.
Denny Nally remains stoic despite Satyam the challenges out there:
“The past 12 months have been challenging for our network, with most PwC member firms facing tough economic conditions. While PwC’s results for FY 2009 are not as good as we would have liked, they have held up well in the circumstances,” said PwC Global Chairman Dennis M. Nally. “In addition the combination of first rate customer service and very competitive pricing has allowed us to increase our market share in many of our markets around the world.
“The ability of so many PwC member firms to successfully sustain their business and their people through this difficult period provides us with a strong platform from which to serve clients in the recovery and to continue to invest in our own growth. While we cut our costs substantially, the PwC network also hired about 30,000 new people and increased its total workforce to more than 163,000 demonstrating a commitment to attracting the right people to serve clients around the world.”
Data for number of employees in fiscal year 2009 isn’t up yet on the global website but we’ve got no reason to not believe Denny when he says that they’re attracting the right people and getting rid of people that cost too much.
Discuss the revenue results and Denny’s vision of the ‘PwC Experience’, which is probably nothing like an acid flashback, for the future in the comments.
PricewaterhouseCoopers* post FY2009 global revenues of US$26.2 billion [Press Release]
*PwC just wants everyone to know that there’s this thing called PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited (PWCIL) that doesn’t provide services to clients and doesn’t act as an agent for the member firms. PWCIL is NOT LIABLE for anything that these member firms f*ck up because that’s just ridiculous. If they screw the pooch, they are TOTALLY ON THEIR OWN. Don’t come crying to us about an audit failure because we will deny ’til we die. This has nothing to do with Satyam, btw. It doesn’t. We swear.
If KPMG Had Just Made Her Feel Like a Prostitute, They Would Have Gotten Off Way Cheaper
KPMG has been ordered to pay £45,000 to a former employee who failed The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales’s (ICAEW) computerized qualifying exams due to her dyslexia.
According to Accountancy Age, “[Dhrupa] Bid failed her first exam and was given permission by the firm to defer her retake so that a dyslexia assessment could be obtained from the ICAEW. She was warned by the firm if she failed she would have to be dismissed.”
More, after the jump
Previously, Ms. Bid had taken paper exams scoring in the 80s before taking the computerized exam and scoring 40% lower. She only found out that she had dyslexia until after she had failed the exam the second time. Her condition warranted her to an extension of time and to be given a paper exam.
It seems a little odd that she would take the exam again and fail, before finding out she had dyslexia since she was allowed to defer her re-take of the exam to determine if she had dyslexia.
Maybe the ICAEW was dragging on the assessment or KPMG didn’t have the patience to wait for the results but since Ms. Bid failed the second time she has had to return to Kenya since she no longer held a work visa.
KPMG issued the following statement:
“KPMG believes it acted properly and fairly at all times and did what was required of a responsible employer in supporting Ms Bid once the probability of her having dyslexia was made known to us.”
What’s not clear is whether the Radio Station would have preferred paying out less in damages and ended up being perceived as a pimp. Pretty tough call but it looks as though shelling out the additional £45,000 was worth it to the Firm.
The bright side for Ms. Bid is that she wasn’t made to feel like a prostie and she got paid way better than one too. Silver lining people. Silver lining.
KPMG forced to pay £45,000 in discrimination case [Accountancy Age]
Preliminary Analytics | 10.06.09
• Burned Bondholders Demand Movie, Bowling Alley Claims for Junk – “Blockbuster Inc. sold $675 million of debt on Sept. 17, agreeing to pay a 15.2 percent yield and pledge movies and video games as collateral. Brunswick Corp. used its bowling alleys and headquarters in Lake Forest, Illinois, to back a $350 million bond sale in August.” [Bloomberg]
• United States calls for rigorous IMF surveillance – ‘Cause were sure as hell not able to do it, TImmay [Reuters]
• PwC asks: When will banks learn? – Around the same time as accounting firms, probably. [Reuters]
• Justices Turn Down Appeal From Qwest’s Nacchio – Does this mean that this story is over? [Reuters via NYT]
• United Airlines to get $35.8 million in city incentives for Willis Tower move – Deloitte should have held out. [Chicago Tribune]
Review Comments | 10.05.09
• U.S. bill exempts firms from derivatives rules – Barney Frank. On it. [Reuters]
• For Whom Do The 47% Who Pay No Income Tax Vote? – One guess. [TaxProf Blog]
• The social media guru – Headphones. NSFW if you like to crank the volume. Or just risk it. Whatever. [AccMan]
• The AICPA is Drinking Ben Bernanke’s Kool Aid – C’mon the recession is basically over people. Name change! [JDA]
• Phishing attack targets Hotmail – Commence panic. [BBC]
• Bernanke Pressures Big Banks, But Are More Bailouts Coming? – Sure, why not? [NPR]
MySpace, Trying to Remain Relevant, Hires a CFO
Maybe it won’t help but at least they hired one. There may be something to the strategy of not having a CFO but we’ll be damned if know what that is. Hey, if you’re making money hand over fist and getting the checks cut on time, who gives a damn, right?
Unfortunately for MySpace, their ever-shrinking market share has maybe gotten to the point where some semblance of a financial strategy may be necessary. Enter Mark Rosenbaum who will surely help turn this ship around. Or maybe not, who knows. Good luck man.
MySpace Hires Finance Chief [WSJ]
Is AMC Auditor Shopping?
Maybe! But the movie theater company did dump PwC on October 1st according to a filing with the SEC after just two years.
According to the filing, P. Dubs had only been engaged as AMC’s auditors for the last two fiscal years (4/3/08 and 4/2/09) and the audit committee decided that KPMG will now get the pleasure of opining, also effective on October 1st (congrats, we guess?).
As is typical in these auditor swaps, AMC’s filing states that they had no disgreements with PwC “on any matter of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosure or auditing scope or procedure.”
We’d like to think this came down to a PwC partner making some sort of stand against the asinine concession prices that are borderline unethical but that’s just our personal vision. If you’ve got your own ideas about the reasons for the dismissal, discuss them in the comments.
AMC Entertainment hires KPMG to replace PricewaterhouseCoopers [Kansas City Business Journal]
The IRS Will Pay You for Snitching but You Better Have a Big Fish and Don’t Mind Waiting
Recently we discussed snitching on tax cheats in the UK and we speculated that tax rats Stateside would be less common because of the increasing trend of hating (or just plain killing) on the Federal Government.
Well, we were dead wrong. Since Congress passed the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, the payouts to whistleblowers increased from a maximum of 15% of the recovered proceeds to a maximum of 30%. So far the temptation is working as tips to the IRS have increased to 476 for the latest fiscal year (9/30) compared to just 116 in the previous year.
Continued, after the jump
The catch is that the IRS doesn’t want to hear about your elderly neighbor that’s running numbers out of their basement for extra cash. No, they want the serious scofflaws, according to the Tax Girl, “the tax, penalties, interest, additions to tax, and additional amounts in dispute must exceed $2 million for any taxable year (that’s the sother restrictions also apply).”
So if you crunch the numbers, you can see there’s plenty of motivation to flip on someone if you know they are a tax dodger. Problem so far is that because of the boring arcane nature of tax law and the swiftness of the American court system, not one payout has occurred to date.
Plus, the law isn’t exactly encouraging the most honest of folks to come forward when you consider that Joe Francis’s accountant ratted him out only to be accused of shenanigans himself. And as Joe Kristan points out, “…there is always something creepy about the IRS being able to horn in on confidential client-professional relationships…”
The IRS probably isn’t worried too much about who gives them the information, just as long as they get it, so they’ll probably make a run at this with an imperfect system and with sources of questionable motivation for the time being.
If You Pay Them, They Will Come [Tax Girl]
Informant Program Spurs IRS Whistleblower Tips [Web CPA]
30 Pieces of Silver or 30 Percent of the Gross [Roth & Company, Tax Update Blog]
KPMG Comp Discussions: Mid-Atlantic Says ‘No topic is off-limits’ and Possible Cuts in the Midwest
We’ve heard of at least one instance in the Detroit office where a manager’s pay was cut approximately 4%. At this time, it’s not clear if it will affect the entire Midwest region or just the Detriot office, so let us know the details for your office, regardless of location.
Meanwhile in the Mid-Atlantic, we received the text of an email that states that “no topic is off limits” in the comp discussion, which will hopefully invite some colorful discussion. If any other regions have a similar communiqué, kindly pass it along. We love reading emails. The text of the email that lists things that you should be prepared to discuss, appears after the jump.
During the week of October 4, our Midatlantic area Audit partners will be conducting Project Future discussions to address your individual compensation as well as personal and professional growth opportunities at KPMG. Project Future is an initiative that allows you to discuss various topics with firm leadership.
While the current state of the economy is on everyone’s mind, I encourage you to take this opportunity to share your experiences, interests, and short- and long-term career goals. You should also use this time to discuss the firm’s plan for growth, including new client opportunities and recent wins.
Remember, no topic is off-limits during the Project Future meetings, so bring your list of items to discuss. Here are a few items you should be prepared to talk about:
• Compensation
• Future engagement assignments, including your utilization, chargeability, and overtime hours
• Industry and career interests
• Your experience working for KPMG
• Personal and professional growth
• Tips on how to build a great career at KPMG
• Sabbatical program
• Promotion outlook
During the week of October 4, your assigned Project Future partner will contact you to schedule a convenient time to meet. If you don’t hear from your partner, please contact your local HR manager.
This is the fourth year we have conducted Project Future discussions, and I hope you continue to find value in meeting with your partners.
Thank you.
If you’re more comfortable discussing the points above here, please do so in the comments. And if you’ve got other suggestions of what you’d like to discuss, or care to expand on “Project Future” mention them as well and of course, share your euphoria or lack thereof with us after your sit-down.
