EXECUTIVE SUMMARY To find out what promising young accounting professionals want from employers, the AICPA Private Companies Practice Section (PCPS) conducted a new “Top Talent Study.” CPA firm partners asked their most highly valued nonpartner employees about their hopes for growth opportunities, job benefits and firm culture, and how
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Information management and technology assurance
Partly Secret Way to Hide a Worksheet
Key to Instructions To help readers follow the instructions in this article, we used two different typefaces: Boldface type is used to identify the names of icons, agendas and URLs. Sans serif type shows the names of files and the names of commands and instructions that users should type into
Highlights
FASB issued Statement no. 157, Fair Value Measurements, which provides enhanced guidance for using fair value to measure assets and liabilities and will apply where other standards require or permit fair value measurements ( www.fasb.org/pdf/fas157.pdf). Although the statement does not require any new measurements, some entities will have to change
Tax Software 2007
Data from more than 2,000 AICPA Tax Section members responding to the JofA annual tax software survey help you decide which product is best for you.
Risk Management
On October 19 and November 16, 2006, the AICPA will offer free Infocasts presented by specialists who have authored titles in the Institute’s series of Management Accounting Guidelines (MAGs). Business Continuity Management will be the subject of the October 19 Infocast presented by author Eric Krell. The November 16 Infocast
Government Accounting
The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board issued an exposure draft of a proposed Interpretation, “Items Held for Remanufacture” ( www.fasab.gov/pdffiles/edinterpretation.pdf ), that would provide guidance for the classification, valuation and reporting of items held for remanufacture prior to sale or issuance, such as items being inspected, disassembled, evaluated, cleaned, rebuilt,
XBRL
AICPA President and CEO Barry C. Melancon and SEC Chairman Christopher Cox will be keynote speakers at the 14th International XBRL Conference & Exhibition in Philadelphia on December 4–6, 2006. “XBRL’s potency as a business tool is recognized worldwide,” Melancon said. “It facilitates the transmission and analysis of financial information
Accounting
For news from the AICPA and state societies, visit www.cpa2biz.com , which also offers online CPE, AICPA professional literature, practice management aids and links to state society Web sites. FASB posted on its Web site a compilation of all changes made through July 10, 2006, to the guidance in Accounting
Financial Reporting
The SEC granted relief from a Sarbanes-Oxley Act section 404(b) auditor attestation requirement to foreign private issuers that are accelerated filers (but not large accelerated filers) that file their annual reports on forms 20-F or 40-F ( www.sec.gov/news/press/2006/2006-136.htm ). They will not have to comply with the section 404(b) requirement
Auditing
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) issued Staff Audit Practice Alert no. 1, Matters Relating to Timing and Accounting for Options Grants, which advises auditors of emerging risks to consider during audits of financial statements or of internal controls over financial reporting ( www.pcaobus.org/news_and_events/ ). The alert was prompted
FYI
Kathleen L. Casey was sworn in as the 88th SEC commissioner by Chairman Christopher Cox in July. She is a 13-year veteran of Capitol Hill, having served as legislative director and chief of staff for Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) and staff director of the Senate Banking Committee’s Subcommittee on Financial
International
As the direct result of December 2005 talks between SEC Chairman Christopher Cox and Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) Chairman Arthur Docters van Leeuwen, the two groups in August published and implemented a joint work plan on the application by international companies of international financial reporting standards (IFRSs) in
Highlights
In the most sweeping change to pension law since the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed the Pension Protection Act of 2006 in August. Key provisions include the following: Increased funding requirements for single- and multi-employer defined benefit plans. The rules
Get the Most Out of Word’s Find and Replace
Key to Instructions To help readers follow the instructions in this article, we used two different typefaces: Boldface type is used to identify the names of icons, agendas and URLs. Sans serif type shows the names of files and the names of commands and instructions that users should type into
Edit the Recently-Used-File List
When I’m out of the office, other accountants often use my computer, which by itself doesn’t bother me. What does disturb me is that a few clicks will reveal the names of the last nine files I’ve opened, and that invades my privacy. Short of password-protecting my computer, is there
A Substitute for the Hard-to-Reach Equal Sign
Why don’t computer manufacturers put an equal sign (=) in a more convenient place on keyboards? It’s such a pain to find that out-of-the-way key we use in so many Excel formulas. The answer is simple: Keyboard designers aren’t accountants. But cheer up, here’s a simple work-around. When you enter
Highlights
The AICPA Auditing Standards Board issued three exposure drafts. A proposed Statement on Quality Control Standards (SQCS), A Firm’s System of Quality Control, will replace all existing SQCSs and provide guidance for a CPA firm’s responsibilities for its system of quality control over its accounting and auditing practice ( www.aicpa.org/download/members/div/auditstd/ed_sqcs.pdf).
Nobody Asked Me, But…
Here are a few tidbits that readers might find useful: A gem of a calculator: Microsoft quietly introduced a powerful little conversion calculator that not only adds, subtracts and divides but also converts all the major world currencies to the currency of your choice. The exchange rates are current—downloaded in
Excel Shortcuts
Ctrl+1: Displays the Format Cells dialog box Ctrl+9: Hides selected rows Ctrl+0: Hides selected columns Ctrl+(: Unhides any hidden rows within the selection Ctrl+): Unhides any hidden columns within the selection Ctrl+~: Applies the general number format Ctrl+$: Applies the currency format with two decimal places (negative numbers in parentheses)
Search Out Files Across A Network With Google
In theory, going paperless is a great idea. In practice, however, the biggest obstacle, at least in my office, is not the work to convert documents into electronic files; it’s finding them afterward and retrieving them. We try to get everyone in the office to agree on a unified way
Features
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Artificial intelligence (AI) is moving beyond chatbots and into accounting workflows. A new generation of agentic AI tools can plan, execute, and adapt as they complete tasks, raising expectations for what automation can do inside firms and finance departments. What can agentic AI realistically do today and what challenges are there in its implementation? Find out in this Journal of Accountancy sponsored report.
From The Tax Adviser
August 31, 2026
2026 tax software survey
July 31, 2026
