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The PCAOB Wants to Know Which Superhero You Are… Later

annoying list.jpgWhat’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.


Journal of Accountancy:

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).

annoying list.jpgWhat’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.


Journal of Accountancy:

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).

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Are Today’s Accountants Already Occupying Wall Street?

Caleb and I had a talk last night and it made me think about this whole Occupy Wall Street thing. More importantly, it made me think about what I am and am not doing to support it. I haven’t been to a rally, even to take pictures (last time I tried to do that, I was the only one out in front of the Federal Reserve Board at 6 in the morning except for the lone Fed cop patrolling the perimeter).

I get that people are pissed off. I’m pissed off too. I’ve been pissed off, don’t tell me about being pissed off. I was lugging around aFed sign made on top of “Ron Paul ’08” acrylic three years ago, you don’t have to tell me about being pissed off. (Here I am in 2009 on SF Citizen in a “Bernanke 00%” t-shirt at an anti-Iraq war rally)

And I get that for some people, all there is to do is go downtown with a drum and some poorly-written signs on cardboard ripped from your mom’s Costco packages in the recycle bin. That’s totally fine, everyone has their own way of sticking it to the man.

For a lot of Going Concern readers, sticking it to the man means showing up every day in business casual pretending to give a fuck about COSO but actually knowing that it’s all a lie. They work you to the bone until you leave or submit and get promoted to manager. Partner if you’re lucky. Run on that hamster wheel, here have this bonus, keep going and one day you can beat your own subordinates into submission. Go, go, go… Many of you get that this is bullshit but keep showing up every day anyway, and to me, you are your own special kind of protester. Same as last year, motherfucker, it’s the ultimate form of rebellion.

Too much?


Point being, everyone has their own way of screwing the establishment. Francine does it railing against the Big 4. Bill Sheridan and Tom Hood do it at the MACPA with professionalism. Tom Selling does it by riling up fellow academics. Professor Dave Albrecht does it by being seen in public canoodling with known incendiaries like yours truly.

I do it by ripping on the IASB as often as I am allowed to, infiltrating the Hill to sniff out what’s the latest in CPA lobbying efforts and getting in as many F bombs as I can on the dry subject of accounting. That’s all I can do. I can’t abandon my day job to hang out in Manhattan eating vegan paninis. I can make and distribute offensive Bernanke fridge magnets.

I completely understand why people are attracted to Occupy Wall Street; the part I’m struggling with is why so many of the 99 Percenters seem obsessed with this thing called “fairness” that does not, in fact, exist. Is it fair that any of us have to drag our asses to work every day and do what we do? Is it fair that Becker costs $3,000 and doesn’t pass the CPA exam for you? Is it fair that many of you are drowning in student loan debt and seemingly forced to get Master’s degrees just to work in your field? Is it fair that Caleb gets listed in all the accounting publications and I’m stuck as the sidekick hack who always manages to piss people off? This world is unfair, sorry to be the bearer of bad news. I have to write about accounting every day of my life, it’s un-fucking-fair, we get it.

In my view (for whatever that is worth, which is probably not more than our company pays me to write this post), the ultimate rebellion is assimilating and infiltrating the establishment to enact real change from the inside. Are partners scared as shit of this website? Yes. If they’re threatening you with termination if you even dare to write us for advice, we’re doing something right. And I didn’t even have to not shave my armpits to accomplish that (but Caleb probably shaved his).

Are any of you going to independently revolutionize the accounting industry? Probably not. But collectively, you have scared the pants off of lazy ass recruiters and partners across this country who thought you didn’t have it in you. They read us because they feel like they have to or else they’ll lose touch with what you guys are thinking, and it scares the living shit out of them. In my mind, that’s a far more effective message to send the The Establishment, whoever the hell they are.

I fully support the fundamental sentiment of Occupy Wall Street but much prefer fulfilling my incendiary duties here trying to get accounting kids riled up and questioning why they put up with the shit they do. Working mothers in public accounting should be allowed to have children. Interns should be allowed to ask questions (even dumb ones). Auditors should be expected to question last year’s logic. It’s not complicated but it’s important work that a lot of you do, and I hope that you get that.

It is not your fault that we’re here. Many of you just followed the rules.

Thanks for letting me be a part of that. Beats standing around with a fucking sign, that’s for sure.

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