The AICPA is providing a free online job finder to help accounting employers and employees find opportunities during the current recession. The CPA Job Finder is located at www.cpajobfinder.com, and listings are free to AICPA members and firms.
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The magazines
Exiting Your Business, Protecting Your Wealth: A Strategic Guide for Owners and Their Advisors
by John M. LeonettiJohn Wiley & Sons Inc., 2008, 238 pp. Private business owners who need a business exit strategy should read Exiting Your Business, Protecting Your Wealth. With considerable experience in the realm of exit planning, author John Leonetti helps business owners assess their exit readiness in order to
Engage the Option: Click Inside a Word to Select the Entire Word
When I used Word 2003, I could italicize a whole word by putting the cursor anywhere in the word and then pressing Ctrl+I. But when I do that in Word 2007, nothing happens. What’s up? Word 2007 can do it, but you have to tell it to. Here’s how: Click
A Fast Way to Launch an E-mail
There are a handful of people I communicate with by e-mail a half-dozen times a day. Each time I want to send them a note I have to set up a new e-mail and either click for their address or type it in. There has to be a better, faster
Financial Reporting
FASB issued a proposal intended to improve financial reporting by resolving some potential ambiguity about the breadth of the embedded credit derivative scope exception in Statement no. 133, Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities. The proposal would amend certain accounting and reporting requirements of paragraph 14B of Statement
Auditing
To help auditors, management and others involved with gauging the effects of the economic crisis on an entity’s viability and whether these effects should be described in the financial statements, the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) released the practice alert Audit Considerations in Respect of Going Concern
Capital Contributions Increase Stock, Not Loan Basis
Two brothers’ additional capital contributions to S corporations of which they were shareholders could not offset their ordinary income from payments for loans they made to the corporations, the Tax Court held. The court rejected their argument that their capital contributions restored the previously reduced basis of their shareholder loans.
Regulation
The Government Accountability Office released a report that provides a framework for reforming the U.S. financial regulatory system. A Framework for Crafting and Assessing Proposals to Modernize the Outdated U.S. Financial Regulatory System was drafted with input from 29 agencies and other organizations, including federal and state financial regulatory
Burzenski, Shelton Join PCFRC
John R. Burzenski, president and managing officer of Burzenski & Co. PC, in East Haven, Conn., and Steven A. Shelton, president and managing partner at Way, Ray, Shelton and Co. PC, in Tuscaloosa, Ala., were named to the Private Company Financial Reporting Committee. The PCFRC is a FASB committee that
And You Thought Your Boss Was Bad
One boss took a bite of someone’s doughnut while they were away from their desk, another showed everyone a kidney stone he had passed, and a third declared “Talk Like a Pirate Day.” While these might sound like scenes from the TV show The Office, they all really happened, according
Keeping It Together
Retirement, health issues for an owner, the desire to grow—all of these are reasons firms engage in mergers or acquisitions. Most firms decide to merge or acquire only after considerable analysis of financial and professional outcomes. Last month we gave general advice for ensuring a merger or acquisition goes smoothly.
Produce a Quick Line of Dots, Dashes or a Border – Without Leaving the Keyboard
I usually enhance my memos with borders—lines and dashes—but it’s a tedious job clicking all those keys. I know I can do it by going to the Format menu and clicking on Borders and Shading, but that’s even more cumbersome. Is there an easier way to do it? Yes, there’s
Partner-Level Defense Rule Held Valid
The Tax Court upheld the validity of temporary regulations requiring a partner to raise partner-level defenses to penalties in separate litigation after resolution of unified partnership proceedings. Andrew Filipowski created New Millennium Trading LLC in 1999 to generate a deductible loss through the use of foreign currency options. In 2005,
International
The Trustees of the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) Foundation, the oversight body of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), announced constitutional changes that address recommendations made in comment letters from numerous stakeholders, including the AICPA, as well as those made by G-20 leaders at the group’s November summit
New, Not Necessarily Improved
After reading the article “Shaking Up Financial Statement Presentation” (Nov. 08, page 56) and reviewing Exhibit 2, I am baffled as to how the new approach of netting assets and liabilities and separating the balance sheet into operating, investing and financing sections similar to the statement of cash flows is
Out, Out Nasty Ins Key
I can’t tell you how many times I accidentally pressed the Insert (Ins) key and innocently typed over a complex paragraph that I worked on for more than an hour. Thanks for the blessed Ctrl+Z keystrokes, which undid my accidental erasures. Isn’t it about time the Insert key was removed
Weathering the “Other-Than-Temporary” Impairment Storm
As if a recession, the credit crisis and the housing downturn were not causing enough stress, many companies, and their accountants and auditors, must also consider an accounting issue that has become increasingly pressing—should their investments be considered “other-than-temporarily impaired”? This issue is relevant not only for financial institutions but
Excel Shortcuts
Ctrl+1: Displays the Format Cells dialog box. Ctrl+2: Applies or removes bold formatting. Ctrl+3: Applies or removes italic formatting. Ctrl+4: Applies or removes underlining. Ctrl+5: Applies or removes strikethrough. Ctrl+6: Alternates between hiding objects, displaying objects and displaying placeholders for objects. Ctrl+7: Displays or hides the Standard toolbar. Ctrl+8: Displays
Make the Most of Meetings
For many employees and managers alike, meetings can have all the appeal of a trip to the dentist. Here are some tips to help make them a little less painful and a lot more productive: Set an agenda. Let employees know what to expect. Hold regular team meetings at the
Features
FROM THIS MONTH'S ISSUE
Create interactive dashboards with Excel PivotCharts and slicers
Leave the static spreadsheets behind. This JofA Technology Q&A article with video walkthrough provides a step-by-step guide for creating interactive dashboards in Excel that decision-makers can use.
From The Tax Adviser
January 31, 2026
Trust distributions in kind and the Sec. 643(e)(3) election
January 31, 2026
Effects of the OBBBA on higher education
December 31, 2025
