Business valuation is a relatively new discipline. Financial valuation—the process of determining the value of a financial asset or liability—belonged first to those on Wall Street who focused on trading securities; the concept of business valuation, or valuing private companies, arrived on Main Street about 25 years ago by entering
Expert Witness Testimony
Tips for Starting a BV Practice
Business valuation is not an area of accounting to be entered into lightly. Statistics show there are many litigation claims against CPAs in the valuation area, mostly due to a misunderstanding of what services the CPA was to perform as part of the engagement and the CPA’s lack of formal
A Fast-Moving Practice Niche
Business valuation (BV) and forensic & litigation services (FLS) are the fastest-growing niche markets in the CPA profession. This special section highlights these niche practices and the issues practitioners are facing. CPAs looking for additional technical and practice management guidance on BV and FLS topics also can visit the AICPA’s
Professional Issues
The AICPA augmented its CPA Marketing Tool Kit with a free brochure, How to Afford a Long, Happy Retirement, that practitioners can share with clients. Members can go to www.aicpa.org/cpamarketing/ and print color or black-and-white versions that leave space for a CPA firm’s name and contact information. The tool kit
International
The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) proposed four international auditing standards (ISAs) ( www.ifac.org/guidance/exd-outstanding.php ): ISA 600 (revised), The Audit of Group Financial Statements; ISA 260 (revised), The Auditor’s Communication with Those Charged with Governance; ISA 705, Modifications to the Opinion
FYI
Cheryl Linthicum, Mark Taylor and Teri Yohn will begin one-year terms in August as academic accounting fellows in the SEC’s Office of the Chief Accountant. Linthicum is associate professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio; Taylor holds the John P. Begley Chair in Accounting at Creighton University in
Personal Financial Planning
The Institute, the AICPA Foundation, the National Endowment for Financial Education and the American Red Cross jointly published Disasters and Financial Planning: A Guide for Disaster Preparedness, which CPAs can use to help consumers obtain insurance and take other loss-mitigation steps before a catastrophe occurs. “Protecting the public interest is
Ethics
PEEC issued an exposure draft of a new ethics interpretation under Rule 101, Independence (AICPA, Professional Standards, volume 2, ET section 101.01) ( www.aicpa.org/members/div/ethics/ethics ). The proposed interpretation defines the terms financial interest , direct financial interest and indirect financial interest and provides guidance on their practical application. Comments are
Forensic And Litigation Services
The Institute’s Forensic & Litigation Services Committee released Practice Aid 05-1, A CPA’s Guide to Family Law Services (# 055299JA), which provides practical guidance for practitioners providing services involving domestic relations, divorce relations and litigation and matrimonial disputes. This product is available from the AICPA online at www.cpa2biz.com or by
Government Accounting
The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) issued Concepts Statement no. 3, Communication Methods in General Purpose External Financial Reports That Contain Basic Financial Statements, which defines various means of conveying information and provides criteria for effectively using them. The statement (# GC03) is available from GASB at http://store.yahoo.com/gasbpubs/gc03.html or at
Retirement
The AICPA augmented its CPA Marketing Tool Kit with a free brochure, How to Afford a Long, Happy Retirement, that practitioners can share with clients. Members can go to www.aicpa.org/cpamarketing/ and print color or black-and-white versions that leave space for a CPA firm’s name and contact information. The tool kit
Accounting
The SEC released Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) no. 107, Share-Based Payment ( www.sec.gov/interps ). Its purpose is to help public companies implement FASB Statement no. 123 (revised 2004), Share-Based Payment ( www.fasb.org/pdf/fas123r.pdf ), which addresses transactions in which entities exchange their equity instruments for goods or services. The SAB does
Financial Literacy
The AICPA Personal Financial Planning Membership Section, state societies and the U.S. Department of Labor are offering free seminars to educate employers and service providers about their fiduciary responsibilities under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ( www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/ebsa/ebsa2004898.htm ). Small business owners and CPAs are invited to attend sessions
AICPA Launches Community Web Site for Business Valuation and Forensic & Litigation Services
he AICPA is committed to supporting its members who specialize in business valuation and forensic & litigation services (BV/FLS). Through member research and feedback, the AICPA learned that CPAs in BV/FLS believed that a sense of community was a top priority. “Our goal is to provide an online home for
So You Want to Be an Expert Witness
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THE RANGE OF ACCOUNTING ISSUES involved in court disputes today covers so many aspects of finance that CPAs of all types may be qualified to offer expert witness services in one or more areas. CPA LITIGATION SERVICES ENCOMPASS several roles: expert witness (who renders an opinion before a
Attorney-Client Privilege: CPAs and the E-Frontier
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGE EXTENDS to accountants under the Kovel rule when a CPA acts at the direction of the lawyer to provide information for the client. Inadvertent disclosure of confidential information may lead to loss of the privilege. A PRACTITIONER WHO DOES LITIGATION CONSULTING should document the circumstances of
Niche Development Tips
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CPAs WITH DIVERSE EXPERTISE tell JofA readers what niche development techniques or processes helped them accumulate clients in a certain category. To learn about the automotive industry, for example, one firm attended automotive conferences, took dealership classes and interviewed car dealers. TO BUILD A FORENSIC ACCOUNTING, family law
Start a BV Engagement the Right Way
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY EACH VALUATION ASSIGNMENT IS UNIQUE, and often there’s more than one way to answer a question, interpret a fact or approach a problem. How the valuator prepares the client for the BV engagement sets its direction and becomes the foundation of the engagement letter and, ultimately, a responsible
Five Tips to Steer Clear of the Courthouse
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AS PART OF THEIR RISK MANAGEMENT strategy, companies are increasingly hiring an array of experts, including CPAs, to review their policies and controls and scrutinize internal procedures to help keep them out of the courthouse. CPAs ACCUSTOMED TO ASSESSING controls can recommend these “best practices” to their clients:
Modeling and Discounting Future Damages
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY IN LITIGATION INVOLVING FUTURE ECONOMIC damages, experts’ calculations must discount the amounts to present value. The courts have offered little guidance on appropriate discount rates. BUSINESS DAMAGES MAY BE FOR THE TERM of a contract, the technological life of a product or until the plaintiff could reasonably be
Features
FROM THIS MONTH'S ISSUE
Building a better CPA firm: Stepping up service offerings
A key step in business model modernization is determining how to implement services that satisfy clients and employees.