• Geithner urges end to ‘dumb regulation’ – “Tim Geithner, Treasury secretary, said there was “a lot of dumb regulation in our country” and urged lawmakers to act quickly in spite of resistance from the financial industry and other regulators to the administration’s plan.” [FT.com]
• California Senate Approves Budget Plan – “The California Senate early Friday approved a plan to close a $26 billion budget shortfall through steep spending cuts and a medley of one-time solutions and accounting moves.” Creative accounting, Cali? FTW! [WSJ]
• Buffett: I’m keeping my Goldman Sachs warrants – But thanks for asking. [Reuters]
• Madoff Trustee Battles Israeli Charity Over $4.7 Mln – “A charity for homeless and runaway Israeli children that lost money in Bernard Madoff’s fraud told a U.S. judge that the trustee liquidating the con man’s business wrongfully rejected its $4.72 million claim in the case.” [Bloomberg]
Even PwC Is Hyping Up GTA VI Now
With 14 days to go until the release of the most anticipated game of this decade, PwC has pushed out a bit of thought leadership-slash-economic analysis titled "Vice City, everywhere:…
Deloitte Guy’s Love Life Has Become a Federal Matter
Last Friday, 42-year-old Ian Brinksman was picked up by the feds for allegedly passing top secret national defense information to another individual. Though that individual wasn't named by any reports,…
Hackers Have Apparently Stolen a Whole Lot of PwC Homework
Oh no, hackers have swiped oodles of slides! PwC has confirmed that a third-party vendor it uses for employee records has been breached after a "cyber extortion group" said they…
PwC Ekes Past EY With $60.2 Billion in Reported Global Revenue
Wow, Big 4 are really rushing out revenue numbers this year aren't they? First we got Deloitte in late September, EY two weeks later, and now PwC has just dropped…
KPMG Australia Has Made a List of Things It Probably Should Have Done Already
...such as "support whistleblowers" and "punish people who do stuff that will give Australian Financial Review an easy 9 months of negative headlines." So KPMG Australia is still in its…
PCAOB Announces Five Specialized Enforcement Units to Ferret Out Audit Violations
The PCAOB announced yesterday that they've put together five new units underneath the enforcement umbrella, each with their own specialized expertise. In the PCAOB's words, those units are: Strategic Risk…
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: PwC to Teach Thinking; Support Your Local Whistleblower | 11.9.26
Hey. Got some news for you so you have something that isn't politics to talk about at the water cooler. In this news briefPwC Will Certify ThinkersThat's a Big Number"People…
Friday Footnotes: KPMG Settles With Investors; AICPA Proposes Outside Investor Guidance | 11.6.26
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…
Even PwC Is Hyping Up GTA VI Now
With 14 days to go until the release of the most anticipated game of this decade, PwC has pushed out a bit of thought leadership-slash-economic analysis titled "Vice City, everywhere:…
Turns Out Offshoring Isn’t a Cheap Forever Solution to Talent Problems
Well we knew this would happen eventually. An article published today in Accountants Daily is all about how small firms over in Australia are struggling to hire talent. Now, if…
Just in Case You Were Unsure, IRS Official Clarifies AI Is Not a Person Under Circular 230
The Journal of Accountancy has published an interesting article about comments made by the director of the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility at the AICPA National Tax Conference yesterday, an…
The Robots Want Your Emails, and the AICPA Has Concerns
Last month a pitch arrived in our editor inbox, the title of which was "Going Concern, meet the startup helping accounting firms turn old Slacks and emails into free money."…
Hackers Have Apparently Stolen a Whole Lot of PwC Homework
Oh no, hackers have swiped oodles of slides! PwC has confirmed that a third-party vendor it uses for employee records has been breached after a "cyber extortion group" said they…
Bill Gates Predicts AI Will Be Taking Clients’ Most Tedious Questions 24/7 Within a Few Years
Did you catch Bill Gates' recent chat with Ezra Klein? I didn't, thankfully my washed colleague regularly reads NYT and sent it to me via Slack. Many people are stuck…
The AICPA Wants Tax Pros to Take a Hit From Its New AI Risk CART
Rather than dropping a strongly worded letter on the topic of the IRS's position on AI in tax practice and dropping the topic there to focus on other pressing matters,…
Just in Case You Were Unsure, IRS Official Clarifies AI Is Not a Person Under Circular 230
The Journal of Accountancy has published an interesting article about comments made by the director of the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility at the AICPA National Tax Conference yesterday, an…
The Robots Want Your Emails, and the AICPA Has Concerns
Last month a pitch arrived in our editor inbox, the title of which was "Going Concern, meet the startup helping accounting firms turn old Slacks and emails into free money."…
Finance Leaders Are Shopping for a CAS Partner, and They Brought a List
Cash flow, automation, fraud protection. Your firm can deliver all three. Finance leaders would like some help with the accounting. Not a little help, either. BILL asked 354 finance decision-makers…
Expense Management: Because Apparently Clients Will Pay You to Make Expense Reports Suck Less
Spend and expense management is one of the most in-demand CAS services—and one of the most underutilized. There’s still plenty of room to get into the game. Clients are drowning…
For Firms, Growth is Down But Profitability Is Up
That's the headline from INSIDE Public Accounting based on the results of their 2026 Practice Management Report: The report draws on survey responses from 605 North American accounting firms, spanning…
Twitter Feed
White-collar jobs bounced back in October.
Professional and business services, which includes law, consulting and scientific research, added 70,000 jobs last month, per the October jobs report. That’s well above the sector’s average of 15,000 a month over the past year.
Via @Reuters: Investors settle with KPMG over Silicon Valley Bank collapse
Factory farm accountants sounds terrible tbh
Here Are Tax and Audit Salaries at Top 25, Top 300, and Regional Firms
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,…
Friendly Reminder Not to Work Yourself to Death For This Profession
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…
Accounting Firm Abruptly Nopes Out of Tax Season Early (UPDATE)
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…
This Deloitte Office Has Eliminated Trash Cans at Desks to Make Staff Get Up Off Their Asses
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…
The IRS Decided to Troll Tax Pros For 10/15
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…
Finance Leaders Are Shopping for a CAS Partner, and They Brought a List
Cash flow, automation, fraud protection. Your firm can deliver all three. Finance leaders would like some help with the accounting. Not a little help, either. BILL asked 354 finance decision-makers…
Expense Management: Because Apparently Clients Will Pay You to Make Expense Reports Suck Less
Spend and expense management is one of the most in-demand CAS services—and one of the most underutilized. There’s still plenty of room to get into the game. Clients are drowning…
Top Remote Accounting Freelancers: February 3, 2024
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…
10 Essential Project Management Principles for Accounting Firms
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,…
Yahoo and Microsoft Partnership Talk Continues to Annoy Us
In a follow-up to the most annoying potential corporate partnership in recent memory, Yahoo’s directors actually met with one another yesterday, after just yapping on the phone about it, to decide if they like Microsoft. Microsoft has been putting the moves on the search engine company for over a year now and some directors still aren’t sure they’re ready to put out.
Some directors are still grossed out and think that Microsoft will do naughty things like, “paying Yahoo for selling ads next to its search results”. GROSS. Other directors also don’t think that regulators would like the two companies getting together because it wouldn’t look very good.
No doubt we’ll be hearing more about these two flirting which will continue to make us nauseous.
Yahoo Board to Meet on Microsoft Search Deal [WSJ]
Try to Do Something Constructive this Weekend, Like Get the Whole IFRS Debate Settled
In what might be the biggest rager of the weekend, the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) are meeting today and tomorrow in London to get down to brass tacks on the whole global meltdown thing.
Also on the agenda for the IFAC: Coming up with a plan to get one set of global accounting standards, and also figure out how to convince the likes of Maxine Waters to BTFO of accounting rules and stick to cooking up dead-end legislation on banning of credit default swaps.
Let us know how it goes.
Accountants’ Group Calls for Single Set of International Rules [Bloomberg]
You Don’t Have the Worst Job in the World
Because we know that many of you feel that way on a daily basis. But nope, sorry. Dealbreaker tells us about the prosecutors in the Stanford case piecing shredded documents back together. If your job sucks worse than that, tell us about it because…WHOA.
Making CFO/Partner: A Guide
CFO.com has an article on “What to Do on the Way to CFO“. This encouraged us to come up with our own suggestions but we thought we’d expand our list to include you public accountants as well, so here’s a short list of our key suggestions on “What to Do on the Way to Making CFO/Partner”:
• Develop a personality disorder – Whether it’s OCD, schizophrenia, or histrionic personality disorder, few bean counters make it to the highest levels without a screw coming loose.
• Master the art of small talk – As a CFO or Partner you will likely have to engage with several “little people” in your organization that you are unacquainted with. Small talk is essential to avoid awkwardness in these interactions. Weather, weekend plans, sports are standard topics that will help you avoid the dreaded silence.
Maybe the most important thing is after the jump
&bull Get really passionate about accounting and finance Remember those Grant Thornton commercials that used to run on CNBC? That’s exactly the kind of passion that we’re talking about. If you find it difficult to talk to your spouse, friends, children, and especially co-workers about anything other than financing options for acquisition, key shortcuts in Excel, or how the general public doesn’t seem to appreciate the proposed changes to fair value accounting, then you probably don’t have what it takes to be a partner or CFO.
We realize that this is not an all-inclusive list and welcome your input on what other traits and skills are imperative to achieving the lofty and glamarous heights of a partner or CFO.
IRS Doesn’t Care for Kirk Herbstreit Burning Down His Own House
ABC/ESPN college football commentator and former Ohio St. QB, Kirk Herbstreit and his wife donated their house to to the local fire department back in 2004 and the Herbstreits took a $330,000 deduction on their tax return.
In an extremely convenient coincidence, the IRS, for the first time, challenged the practice of donating individuals’ homes for such purposes the same year.
The Herbstreits were audited and paid back taxes and interest of $134,606 but are now suing the IRS to get that money back.
Apparently this is a matter of debate amongst tax wonks out there, some saying the donation is kosh and some saying it isn’t. You Michigan fans obviously hope Herbie gets stuck paying the extra scratch but the real question is whether Lee Corso is getting to the age where he’s burning down houses just because he’s totally gone senile.
Herbstreit ‘fire’ puts focus on IRS dispute [Columbus Dispatch via TaxProf Blog]
Have You Any Tchotchkes?
In the spirit of Lehman Brothers’ desperation, we’re looking to find out which firm out there has the best chance of financing its next big settlement by virtue of hocking its tchotchkes on eBay.
Because no one can say with absolute certainty which big firm will be the next be rendered extinct (although there are some wagers on it) and thus, none of you working for any firm can be sure when all that schwag you’re accumulating in your cube farm will be worth anything, we thought we would get your submissions so that we can determine which firm has as shot at using auctions in cyberspace as opposed to closing up shop. At first glance, E&Y has nothing on eBay but books, so we’re guessing you guys have the most to prove here.
Check out another schwagtastic example after the jump
Some of you have probably checked out for the day already anyway, so you might as well start putting that camera phone to use and email your submissions to tips@goingconcern.com. Big firms, small firms, we don’t care, we know there are some real finds out there. Just like this beauty:
The best submissions will be posted here and the respective firm’s ability to spend money on frivolous junk will be duly ridiculed.
Audit Opinions May Soon Require Partners’ Names Signed in Blood
The details are still being worked out but another idea being floated around is giving partners the option of signing some opinions in dog feces, when the opinion being signed is in fact, of equivalent value.
Press Release [PCAOB.org]
PwC’s New Investigation Will Invite Terrible Bovine Jokes
PwC has investigators all up in their grills again as another audit is going to be subject to an investigation. This time a sub-prime lender in the UK, Cattles.
Cattles is blaming the whole shitshow on a “breakdown in internal controls”, which has been the standard PR sound bite since before Enron.
The Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board (AADB), which regulates the profession, announced the inquiry on Thursday.The board, part of the Financial Reporting Council, said it would examine the conduct of PwC and its individual auditors concerning the preparation of financial statements of Cattles and Welcome Financial Services, its subsidiary, for the year ended December 31 2007 and for the six months ended June 30 2008.
According to one analyst referenced in FT Alphaville, Cattles was letting loans go 240 days delinquent before taking any impairment charges. Apparently PwC was okay with that practice.
And since the AADB is going to be looking at “individual auditor conduct”, what are they going to discover? Besides the partner and manager’s daily fat-cat lunches, obv. We invite your thoughts.
We’ve also got the feeling that this might be the type of engagement where you could include a high-def photo of the manager dry-humping the partner’s leg (wearing a leash and spiked collar, natch) as part of the audit workpapers and it would get signed off on anyway. But, like we said, it’s just a feeling.
UK watchdog opens probe into PwC audit of Cattles [Reuters]
Regulator probes PwC over Cattles audit [FT.com]
Scoping | 07.24.09
• Warren Buffett to Teach Kids About Finance in New Web Cartoon [Bloomberg]
• U.K. GDP Shrinks More Than Expected – “Hopes that the U.K. economy was on the road to recovery after a severe recession received a major blow Friday with official data showing output contracted far more than expected in the second quarter.” [WSJ]
• After Buffett Rebuff, CIT Eyes a Breakup – “Conglomerates Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and Leucadia National Corp. made a bid to buy parts of CIT Group Inc. but were rebuffed by CIT, according to people familiar with the matter, because the price was too low.” [WSJ]
• The Man Who Sank New Jersey [Forbes]
Review Comments | 07.23.09
• Council fired Scott Janke after learning of marriage to porn star Anabela Mota aka Jazella Moore – Last we checked, this was still America and bagging a porn star is in the Declaration of Independence or something [NYDN]
• Dozens Arrested in New Jersey Corruption Probe – “Federal agents swept into New Jersey towns across several counties Thursday morning, charging 44 people, including three mayors and religious leaders, in a federal investigation into public corruption and money laundering.” [WSJ]
• Wall Street Journal Coverage Of Crisis Finally Gets Serious – Cankles. Page one. Yes. [DealBreaker]
• Microsoft revenue misses, shares tumble – In other news, Bill Gates is still rich. [Reuters]
Dear Becker,
A reader was kind enough to share with us a letter they sent to Becker after the software expired and was rendered utterly useless.
Here’s an excerpt:
“The Becker lectures sang to me like a siren’s song. Much like poor Odysseus, I screamed for more. Yet, unlike Odysseus, there was no one there to keep me safe. Tim Gearty became the man that I yearned to be. He is smart, funny, humorous, debonair, more dashing than James Bond and full of more knowledge than Ken Jennings. His style rivals that of GQ’s Man of the Month.”
Check out more love for Tim Gearty and Peter Olinto in the whole letter, after the jump