2003 - Page 23 of 25 - Journal of Accountancy

The magazines

January 1, 2003

Privacy

A new Federal Trade Commission publication, Financial Institutions and Customer Data: Complying with the Safeguard Rule ( www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/safeguards.htm ), explains important aspects of the regulation ( www.ftc.gov/privacy/glbact ), which applies to businesses “significantly engaged” in providing financial products or services to consumers. The report includes a section called “How to

January 1, 2003

Ethics More Than Rules Compliance

The quiz, Test Your Knowledge of Professional Ethics ( JofA, Oct.02, page 110), gave the technically correct answer to question no. 4: Is the engagement partner independent if his mother-in-law is the controller of the client? But it would have been better if the answer reminded readers that professional ethics

January 1, 2003

Web Sites Worth a Visit

PERSONAL FINANCIAL PLANNING SITES www.ihatefinancialplanning.com Don’t let the URL fool you. Whether they love or hate financial planning, PFP professionals and clients can find useful information at this Web site. Visitors can register for free to access articles, checklists and interactive forms on topics such as annuities, asset allocation, budgeting,

January 1, 2003

Remove The “Wild Card” Feature From The Asterisk

Q. I have a problem that is driving me crazy! I know the asterisk (*) is used as a “wild card” when you’re searching for a file or data. But what I need to replace is a bunch of asterisks in an Excel worksheet and replace them with some data.

January 1, 2003

It Works for Them

ersonal financial planners help clients identify financial goals, organize ways to achieve them and set timetables for implementation. Together, a planner and client look at the clients total financial picture, including income, savings, investments and debts as well as his or her personal situation. Then, they analyze where the money

January 1, 2003

Fine-Tune Your Marketing Know-How

MONTHLY CHECKLIST SERIES Both professionals and firms must forge an identity. As the CPA, you are the brand and you have to put that brand in front of your intended audience. You accomplish this by getting the word out about your firm’s services. Prospective clients need to associate you and

January 1, 2003

Auditors Should Work Together

A New Accounting Culture ( JofA, Oct.02, page 27) was an important call to action for CPAs overall. In my more than two decades of experience as an internal auditor, I have witnessed too many times when CPAs took the expedient route over the proper one because of fees, friendships

January 1, 2003

U.S. Government Plays Favorites

Source: Tax Foundation, www.taxfoundation.org .

January 1, 2003

More Bang! Bang! for Our Bucks

Source: Tax Foundation, www.taxfoundation.org .

January 1, 2003

Hunnicutt Lauded for Career Contributions

The AICPA bestowed its Medal of Honor on John E. Hunnicutt, who retired in October after serving for 11 years as senior vice-president of public affairs at the Institute. The award recognizes non-CPAs who served the profession well.

January 1, 2003

Maintain Excellence, Cut Risk

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THERE ARE TWO BASIC RISKS IN the CPA profession: catastrophic service failure, such as that from providing inaccurate audit-related services, and business failure caused by losing top-quality clients. A FIRM THAT CONCENTRATES ON IMPROVING leadership, staff and the client base can enhance partner, staff and firm performance and

January 1, 2003

Retirement

The IRS releases 2003 cost-of-living adjustments related to benefit and contribution limits for qualified retirement plans ( www.irs.gov/pub/irs-news/ir02-111.pdf ). Many such savings caps are not changing this year because the increase in the cost-of-living index fell below the statutory thresholds that otherwise would trigger their adjustment. However, several will increase

January 1, 2003

Socially Responsible Investing

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AS CONCERN FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, SOCIAL ISSUES and corporate governance increases, CPAs may find more interest among their clients in investment strategies and mutual funds that emphasize social responsibility. SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS INVESTORS MAKE DECISIONS by screening for positive and negative issues, shareholder advocacy, community investing and providing social

January 1, 2003

Watch Your Appearance

In Test Your Knowledge of Professional Ethics ( JofA, Oct.02, page 110), the answer to question no. 4 indicated that the CPA firm would be independent because the engagement partners mother-in-law (also the clients controller) is not considered a close relative or immediate family under the new independence rules. The

January 1, 2003

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January 2003 > Audit Redux Flowchart

January 1, 2003

Golden Business Ideas

The Art of Pricing Your CEO comes to you for advice. It seems employees in the marketing department are laboring over how much to charge for a new product. After getting their recommendation and hearing how the marketing mavens ran simulated tests and even test-marketed the product, she doesn’t feel

January 1, 2003

Unlink Stubborn Sticky Links In Excel

Key to Instructions To help readers follow the instructions in this article, we use two different typefaces. Boldface type identifies the names of icons, agendas, URLs and application commands. Sans serif type indicates instructions and commands that users should type and file names. Q. I have an Excel spreadsheet that

January 1, 2003

Tax Notes

TAX NOTES The Treasury Department and the IRS select 102 people to serve in a new group—the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel—which will identify taxpayers’ concerns, along with suggestions for improving customer satisfaction, and convey them to the service ( www.irs.gov/pub/irs-news/ir02-107.pdf ). Previously, the body was known as the Citizen Advocacy Panel

January 1, 2003

An Even Better Way To Make Excel Formulas Constant

In October of 2001 , we described in this column how to use the dollar sign ($) to make an Excel formula constant—so when you copy a formula to a different location on a spreadsheet it won’t automatically change to reflect the move. Subsequently, a reader suggested a better way:

January 1, 2003

In Favor of Regulation

The reprint of Mr. Melancons speech at Yale University was impressive A New Accounting Culture ( JofA, Oct.02, page 27). However, it failed to address the real reason we are in this situation: Partners at the largest firms need to make the payments on their million-dollar houses and $80,000 Porsches.