Celebrate Memorial Day by Giving Back

Many service men and women encounter challenges upon returning from active duty, including finding employment. Starting a business is an attractive option, but like many entrepreneurs, veterans need support. The good news is that CPAs are in a great position to offer help.

Thanks to the Veteran Fast Launch Initiative, U.S. veterans have the opportunity to gain free help from experts. Through AICPA’s partnership with SCORE, an organization that provides mentoring and training to entrepreneurs, this program connects veterans with CPAs across the country. CPA volunteers provide up to five hours of free financial advice to veterans on starting and growing a business.

Your Professional Image - What 10 Minutes on LinkedIn can Do

I review LinkedIn profiles almost every day. By now, I have seen at least 2,000, and I just cringe when I see things that could or will hinder someone’s professional image.  I am not in a position to advise people individually, so this blog is the next best thing.

Keep in mind that LinkedIn goes beyond looking good for recruiters.  Even if you are not interested in a new job, your online image still needs attention. If anyone Googles you - a potential client or employer, your company’s VP, a former supervisor, a reporter or even a prospective date - your LinkedIn profile could easily be the first thing that shows up. You want your best foot forward all the time.

Understanding the ACA’s Mandates

I am at the AICPA Tax Strategies for the High Income Individual conference in Las Vegas. This popular conference features national experts who dig keep into new tax policies and offer strategies for navigating new laws so that CPAs can advise their high-income clients with confidence.  

Today I am live blogging the "Affordable Care Act: Understanding the Individual and Employer Mandates” session with speaker Eddie Adkins, a partner with Grant Thornton LLP. This session delves into challenges and responsibilities faced by employers and individuals to comply with the provisions of the complex health care reform law, and technical aspects of the responsibility provisions and traps for the unwary. 

Follow along with the live blog below (email subscribers can view the live blog on our website).

5 Facts Recruiters Need to Know about Millennials

Is your CPA firm involved in the scramble for talent? As I give presentations and work with CPAs around the country, it seems like many CPA firms are in hiring mode. Increasingly, I’m telling these firms that to remain competitive, they must understand their younger recruiting candidates—Millennials. Millennials are the generation born roughly between 1980 and the early 2000s.  I tell CPA firms, if they want to get into the Millennial brain, they should be aware of five important facts.

Fact #1: Millennials are poised to take on more responsibility. The oldest members of this generation have now entered their thirties. With about 10 years on the job, they have built the kind of experience that CPA firms need to remain successful. However, if they don’t believe the firm offers them the opportunity to grow and contribute, these younger professionals won’t hesitate to move on to a better option.

The takeaway for CPA firms: Employee surveys or one-to-one discussions can help you better understand staff expectations.

AICPA 2014 Spring Governing Council #AICPAGC14

The AICPA governing Council’s spring 2014 meeting is taking place this week, May 18 to 20. Focused on the profession’s future, the governing Council will discuss topics such as future learning opportunities and continued audit quality. AICPA leaders from each of the 50 states and U.S. territories are attending the meeting. You can follow along with Council action with the hashtag #AICPAGC14 or view the stream below. (Email subscribers can view the stream on our website.)

Protecting Your Good Name Online

It is probably understood, but here it is anyway: You should not post photos of yourself doing questionable activities to social media. This is just common sense when it comes to managing your online reputation, right? Yet, you would be surprised how many people forget their professional etiquette when posting. Sure, it is fun to share your weekend escapades with all your friends, but do not ignore the business aspects of your online presence as well.

Thanks to the Internet, you most likely developed an online reputation without even knowing it. Now it’s up to you to protect your good name—or do a little damage control. As Warren Buffett once said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”

Accounting Careers and the Boiled Frog

Most of us are familiar with the story of the frog that was dropped into a pot of boiling water and immediately jumped out to save itself. The same frog later found himself in a pot of water at room temperature. The temperature was gradually increased and the poor frog, not noticing the danger, remained in the pot to suffer an untimely demise. Although not scientifically accurate, the anecdote serves as a metaphor for one’s inability to notice gradual change.

In our careers, we can all feel like we are that frog at times. Just like temperatures, careers can change for the worse, often gradually and without notice. However, if we pay close attention to the red flags in our careers, we can know when to jump long before the water starts to boil.

I would like to share a few thoughts from my own experiences that may help you – whether on a partner or CFO track – detect the warning signs along your career path and keep yourself out of hot water. 

Money Matters for Mothers and Daughters Alike

This Sunday is Mother’s Day. While many mothers may be treated to flowers and breakfast in bed, it’s also a day to celebrate the strength that comes with being a mother. But sometimes, that strength can waiver when it comes to finances. 

"Be Prepared, Not Scared" is what I have been telling my clients for years. This is especially important for female clients. According to a 2012-13 Prudential Research Study on the financial experience and behaviors among women, only 22 percent of women feel “very well equipped” to make wise financial decisions. A likely reason for this is that, in male-female relationships, most often the “chore” of planning is handled by the husband. My goal is to change that. While most of my married clients are men, we push to get wives involved at the earliest point in their personal financial planning engagement.

Crowdfunding Isn’t Like Shopping Retail

In our last blog post on crowdfunding, Charles Landes, CPA took a deep look at equity crowdfunding, specifically how the Securities and Exchange Commission rules are shaping up as required by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012. However, equity crowdfunding is not typically one’s first introduction to this new funding approach. Many are first introduced to crowdfunding through one of the various crowdfunding platforms that exist, such as Kickstarter. If you are not familiar with crowdfunding through a platform like Kickstarter, the concept is relatively simple. A person or company comes up with an idea, determines the cost to create this idea and sets a funding due date. Projects also feature rewards based on the contribution, for instance, backers may receive a T-shirt or the actual product they are supporting. If the project fails to meet its finance goal by the set date, then the project is not funded.

Backers have funded all types of projects, from virtual reality systems, like Oculus Rift (which was recently acquired by Facebook), to dream cars, like a DeLorean Hovercraft. Other projects have gone on to win an Oscar and be featured at the Cannes Film Festival. However, not every project makes it. What happens when a funded project fails to deliver on its promise?

A Business Model with No Managers? Yes, it Works

There’s a lot of talk within public accounting about altering the existing business model to adapt to a changing marketplace and the evolving needs of our clients and staff. At my six-person firm, we decided to take a leap into the future by completely rethinking our business model. In July 2012, we went from a traditional firm—one with an office and a hierarchy—to a digital practice where there are no managers. Virtual means a lot of things to different people, and for us it meant closing our doors on our traditional office location. We tried it as an experiment beforehand, and it worked so well we decided to switch completely.

At the same time, we also instituted a Results Only Work Environment, in which we rate performance, not attendance. For us, that also meant doing away with the management structure. I lead the firm and set our future direction, but I don’t know what anyone is doing throughout the day. In fact, no one oversees what our team members do all day—or tracks their vacations or time off--as long as they achieve the required results for the firm.

A Strong Professional Network is an Invaluable Resource

Many people think of networking as either schmoozing or as a purely social activity. In reality, a strong professional network is an important resource for an up-and-coming CPA. A strong network is diverse and includes clients/customers, peers, senior professionals, business partners and vendors. A strong network helps to build us as professionals and provide better solutions to the organizations we serve.

Just imagine if everyone you had in your network were just like you. How would you find the variety of insights you need to deal with complex issues? We need more varied perspectives and knowledge to make better decisions.

IRS E-Services: Where are We Now? And Where are We Going?

As the staff liaison for the AICPA’s Internal Revenue Service Advocacy and Relations volunteer committee, I am in the unique position to listen to our members’ concerns and discuss those issues with the IRS.  When the online e-services of Power of Attorney and Electronic Account Resolution were terminated on Sept. 2, I heard concerns from numerous practitioners.  In fact, we received more calls regarding this issue than all other issues combined last year. 

The AICPA adamantly voiced members’ frustrations and concerns to the IRS.  The backlash the IRS felt from the AICPA and other members of the practitioner community was so severe that IRS officials made it clear they never wanted this situation to repeat itself.  This was a top priority to then-Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel.  The IRS also quietly looked into different possibilities to bring back these online e-services.

Want to Focus More? Stop Multi-Tasking

I confess: I am a multi-tasker. At any one time, I am working on 10 different projects, planning what to have for dinner, looking up which movies are playing and pondering what really happened to Eddie Wilson of Eddie and the Cruisers. You probably have similar habits and consider yourself a multi-tasker. We wear this label as a badge of honor. And who can blame us? Technology has made it so easy to multi-task.

Nevertheless, how many times do you intend to check the weather on your smartphone, only to be distracted by another app? Then you get a text message, which leads to an app notification and pretty soon you’re looking at cat photos on Facebook, forgetting all about the reason you picked up your smartphone to begin with (it was to check the weather, in case you forgot).

5 Key Regulations to Get Right in Crowdfunding

From the newest design inventions to the Thai food truck that showed up in your town last week, the crowdfunding movement is allowing individuals to unleash their entrepreneurial spirit and turn their dreams into reality. By sharing their ideas on the web, users can raise funds to support the launch of their small businesses.

Numerous crowdfunding platforms exist, many focusing on the type of project being funded. For example, certain platforms serve non-profits and philanthropic causes, music, theatre, small business and so forth. Even with such specialization, investing comes with risk. Crowdfunding indeed opens investment opportunities to a new pool of potential stakeholders.  Many of those investors may not fully understand the risks involved. During the next few weeks on AICPA Insights, we will look at the benefits and risks of crowdfunding.

Social Media Fear? To Quote the Eagles: “Get Over It”

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I saw the Eagles play the PNC Arena in Raleigh a few weeks ago. You know… Hotel California. Desperado. Witchy Woman.

It was a rocking show from a band—and a brand—that has been going at it for more than 40 years. I’m a huge fan and I wanted all my friends to know I was there.

Which is why I was pretty disappointed to see signs at the security gate, banning phones, texting, photos and videos inside the arena. I thought it was a joke, but… no. The Eagles were dead serious and the arena staff was fully empowered to enforce the rules. Several times, I saw ushers scolding concertgoers, keeping them from posting selfies from this historic event.

Come on, guys! Take it easy!

3 Tips to Find Your Professional True North

Finding your professional true north, a path you can be passionate about and one that will provide you with direction in the future, is attainable – when you have the right navigation. Whether it is honing your personal skill set, positioning your practice for growth or transforming your organization’s technology infrastructure, it is important that you be the navigator. There are endless possibilities to explore, pursue, master and achieve, and it is important you arrive exactly where you want to go.

Keep in mind that finding your way often means asking for directions and talking with others who have already arrived at your desired destination. They can tell you what is not on the map and the best roads to follow to enhance the quality of your journey. Here are three quick tips to find your professional true north:

Succession Planning: The Talk You Need to Have

Strong planning skills are a must for anyone who wants to be at the top of their field. CPAs have these skills in spades. Our fingerprints can be found on the successful business plans of companies throughout the country—from the mom and pop store down the street, to the Fortune 500 company with thousands of employees, and everything in between. Helping organizations chart their long-term future makes us indispensable threads in the fabric of the U.S. economy.

Why, then, do so many of us not engage in planning for the long-term future of our own firms?

In the News: It’s Never too Early to Think About Taxes

The deadline to file your 2013 taxes – or file for an extension – passed earlier this week. What’s the significance of that? It’s time to think about planning for the 2014 filing season.

As many CPAs will tell you – taxes are something to consider year round. And one of the best ways to ensure that you are best positioned to pay no more than you owe is by being meticulously organized throughout the year. Enterpreneur.com recently posted an article suggesting some technology tools that will keep you organized in advance of next tax season – and no, a shoebox to hold all your receipts is not one of them.

Tax Planning is a Critical Factor in Financial Planning

Congratulations on making it through another tax season! From those long hours, including rigorous reviews and meetings with clients, you’ve gained unique insight into their lives—insight into their incomes, spending habits, investments and life events. Income tax planning and estate planning elements have become a more critical part of overall personal financial planning with the enactment of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 and the Net Investment Income Tax. While reviewing those 1040s, you are able to envision potential tax impacts of financial decisions and begin considering tax planning strategies for your clients, which broadens your relationship. This is a great first step in helping them meet their overall financial planning needs, including making estate, retirement, investment and risk management planning decisions to move them toward their long term goals.

5 Tips for a Culture of Inclusivity

When it comes to success, we often see and hear more well-intentioned plans and how-tos than we could ever use. Websites, blogs, consultants, colleagues and for many of us, our friends and family, all have opinions on what can help businesses stay on course. But what if one of today’s best resources for success is right inside our own companies and it just isn’t being developed as strongly as it needs to be?

I found some great insights into that issue recently when I attended Tomorrow’s Company’s launch of their report, Tomorrow’s Global Leaders: How to Build a Culture that Ensures Women Reach the Top.Tomorrow’s Company is a London-based global think tank that helps guide senior executives in leadership, talent, sustainability, governance and other top management areas.

Volunteer This Financial Capability Month

April is National Financial Capability Month, an annual event designed to help Americans improve their understanding of finances. As a CPA, you can significantly increase its value and impact, and help ensure the month is more than just a reminder to consumers to save and spend wisely. When you get involved, you can:

• Help Americans build their financial understanding and capabilities
• Strengthen and advance the CPA profession
• Give young CPAs an opportunity to develop leadership skills
• Volunteer and build your network at the same time

Confessions of a Tax Season Junkie

As I shot up in bed last night in a cold sweat, I realized that a nightmare must have interrupted my peaceful night’s sleep. Waking up during tax season in a panic was pretty common during my over 20 years in public accounting, but why now? As a recent convert from tax practice, this spring is the first one since the early ‘90s that I am not preparing tax returns.

After some reflection, I discovered my dream was, in fact, about tax returns: phones ringing, emails and all of the anxiety-causing triggers for CPAs during tax season. Having sold my practice after last tax season, the only tax return I have to worry about is my own, so what was my trigger? 

I realized that the source of my anxiety was a recent project where I had to draw on my prior tax season experiences. I was preparing for the AICPA’s Tax Power Hour webcast on managing tax season burnout. To truly empathize with the participants, I mentally placed myself back at my old office during the height of tax season. I could hear the phones ringing and the postage machine humming, I could smell the hot printers being overused, and I remembered the sight of peers walking into my office to ask a “quick question.”  The experience was so real for me that I actually felt the urge to pick up my computer and hurl it at the wall.

4 Steps to Conquer the Difficult Assignment

You have just been handed the project. You know the one – the assignment no one else wanted, and even though you thought you were flying under the radar, the project still landed in your lap. Now what?

You have two options: run away from your boss’s office or face the project head on—and come away a victor. It’s up to you.

Don’t Daunt It, Flaunt It

I think we all face the “dreaded project” at some point or another in our careers, probably on more than one occasion. It can be particularly daunting as a young CPA to get an assignment that’s outside what you consider your realm of expertise, and sometimes, you just can’t say “no.” Yet, to think you will come out of the experience unscathed might not be realistic. Nevertheless, it’s my experience that you will learn and become empowered for the next big challenge.

Here are a few tips to help you handle the difficult assignment—and conquer it:

The Many Advantages of Defining Your Firm’s Value

It all began when I did some research on how our firm members could better understand their worth and confidently present their value to clients and others. We settled on an approach in which participants answer questions about who they are, what they do, how and why they do it, what sets them apart and why clients should do business with them. You’d be surprised at how much you can learn by really considering the answers to such seemingly simple questions.

10th Anniversary of Computerized CPA Exam

Computerization of the CPA Exam has led to momentous benefits for candidates, the boards of accountancy and the CPA profession. Here are some interesting facts in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the first computerized CPA Exam delivery on April 5, 2004.

The candidate test-taking experience has improved with computerization, resulting in more available days to sit for the CPA Exam and faster score reporting. During the pencil-and-paper days, candidates could take the CPA Exam twice a year – either in May or November. The CPA Exam is now available 243 days a year (and 244 during a leap year). Before computerization, candidates waited 90 days to receive their scores. Score reporting now ranges from seven to 45 days, depending on when a candidate sits for the CPA Exam.

3 Succession Planning Tips from Comedy’s Best

The AICPA hears a lot from CPA firms that are in need of a succession plan, and challenged by acquiring new talent or engaging the next generation of staff. In figuring out how to leave their firm in good hands, I think the profession can learn many lessons from today’s comedy leaders like Lorne Michaels of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, Jon Stewart of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show and Harold Ramis, as Bill Sheridan pointed out in his Feb. 26 post on CPA Success. They’re working a smart succession planning model. They each gather together a group of gifted staff and give them the opportunity to develop their strengths, making for some very valuable broadcast properties.

Through SNL, Lorne Michaels has nurtured a long list of actors who went on to movie or television stardom after cutting their teeth on the show, including Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Billy Crystal, Eddie Murphy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus,  Jimmy Fallon, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Daily Show alumni Stephen Colbert and John Oliver each have their own shows, and Steve Carrel has had both television and movie hits. A lot of talented people have left each program, but that’s alright because the shows’ successes—and the achievements of their alumni—attract new generations of promising young people who want to come on board.

How CPAs Can Manage Vendors and Still Focus on Their Core Business

Organizations must focus on their core business – and that often means hiring vendors and service providers to perform tasks which fall outside of that core.  A prime example of this is upgrading your organization’s information technology structure.  While you may know exactly what you want and how to go about getting it done, chances are that most CPAs lack the time or staff to make that goal a reality – without some outside help.

Managing vendors and service providers ranked among the top ten technology initiatives in both the U.S. and Canada according to the AICPA's 2013 North America Top Technology Initiatives Survey Results. Although overall confidence levels have declined, the survey showed some interesting differences between how public accounting firms and those in business and industry in both countries ranked the issue. In the U.S., public accounting firms rated the issue of managing vendors and service providers as the eighth most important; however business and industry organizations rated it tenth. 

Before Your Clients Run to the Cloud, Remember SOC

You keep hearing about “the cloud.” You have read articles and attended conference sessions encouraging the use of cloud services. It is clear that the cloud is increasingly becoming a part of our business processes and solutions. Your clients are starting to clue in. This is for good reason. The cloud may enable them to reduce costs, better use their resources and perform more efficiently.

As your clients seek cloud services, how are you advising them?

Your clients should understand the importance of Service Organization Control reports. It is essential that they have trust in their cloud service providers and are assured that their information is being protected by the necessary security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, privacy controls and/or internal controls over financial reporting.

A Look Inside the Business of American Indian Gaming

American Indian gaming generates an estimated $26.2 billion in annual gaming revenues within the United States. The industry has seen a vast expansion over that last two decades encompassing 237 tribes in 28 states. The economic impact of American Indian gaming has given tribal nations the opportunity to rebuild their infrastructure and strengthen their culture after decades of destructive federal policies.

As an enrolled member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and chief financial officer/director of finance at Prairie Band Casino & Resort, I know first-hand that tribal nations have been limited with the economic development opportunities that reside within defined reservation boundaries. Therefore, the advent of Class II and Class III gaming operations on reservations presented a real opportunity for tribes to raise capital and strengthen their communities. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 stipulates that a tribal nation must have land in trust status prior to 1988, and complete a state compact with the state that they reside in to conduct Class III Gaming. Further, the state must already be involved in gaming, and in this case any major lottery qualifies a state.

Data Analysis Expressions: PowerPivot’s Secret Weapon

In my last blog post, I expounded on the value of Excel 2013’s new feature: PowerPivot. However, this new feature has a secret weapon that makes PowerPivot even more valuable for the power Excel user. DAX is easily the best feature of PowerPivot. DAX stands for Data Analysis Expressions. DAX formulas are created in the PowerPivot window using the xVelocity in-memory analytical engine, which executes DAX code. DAX enables the Excel user to create formulas that consist of more advanced calculations that work on data stored in multiple tables. The use of DAX formulas also supports the creation of self-service business intelligence solutions in Excel.

There are two types of DAX formulas: calculated column and calculated fields (also known as measures). In order to understand DAX formulas and their capabilities you have to understand the term evaluation context. In any DAX formula, the evaluation context is applied first in the formula and then the aggregation takes place on the evaluated context. Context is what makes it possible to perform dynamic analysis with DAX formulas.

Depletion Deductions for Landowners Receiving Gas Royalties

It is filing season and landowners receiving natural gas royalty payments may be shocked by their tax liability if they have not been planning with their CPAs. Landowners who sign a lease with a gas company own a royalty interest. When royalty income is received, the landowner is entitled to depletion. Similar to depreciation, depletion is the cost recovery of a natural resource and, in the case of royalty owners, natural gas. It is provided for by IRC §611 and the rules governing it are IRC § 613 and 613A.

The Internal Revenue Service provides for two methods:

1. Cost depletion - allows the taxpayer a deduction based on the ratio of units sold to the number of units available at the end of the year plus the units sold during the year. 
2. Percentage depletion - allows the taxpayer a deduction based on the gross income of the gas producing property.

Working Late? Think Twice Before You Order Dinner

It is no secret that CPAs have been working longer hours since busy season started. Moreover, you will probably continue to do so for a few more weeks. In order to keep up the pace, you should take time to refuel, both mentally and physically. Unfortunately, skipping meals or opting for delivery often becomes the norm.

According to a recent Seamless Brain Food Survey, the first quarter of every year is a peak time for corporate food orders at accounting firms where 4 p.m. orders are 4.5 times higher than in the second and third quarters. Office food orders are on the rise as well – suggesting that CPAs are working longer hours due to increased client demands and increased complexity of tax laws and regulations. . In fact, food orders at accounting firms in 2014 are already 17 times higher than normal. 

In the News: AICPA Survey Finds Businesses Increasing Hiring and Spending in Coming Year

The AICPA recently released the results of the first quarter Economic Outlook Survey, which found business executives reporting a more favorable view on hiring and business expansion in the coming year. One of the motivating factors of this is an increased optimism about the U.S. economy as a whole.

Fox Business coverage of the survey, which polls CEOs, CFOs, controllers and other CPAs who hold executive and senior management accounting roles in U.S. companies, noted that just under half of respondents (49 percent) are feeling optimistic or very optimistic about the U.S. economy. Only 38 percent of executives felt equally positive last quarter.

Value of Mentorship Realized in New CFF Program

A wise man once said to seek the advice of people that have been there before you. When employment numbers among forensic accountants are projected to expand at an average rate of 9.6% per year through 2018, the need for CPAs experienced in forensics has never been greater. The AICPA has launched the CFF® Mentor Program to meet the demand of CPAs looking for a formal mentoring program to continue their growth and expand their knowledge within forensic accounting. 

Trumping the Patent Trolls

Ever found yourself wondering why all the fuss over patent trolls? Aren’t patent holders entitled to invention protection and the right to license their discovery to others who manufacture and sell it? Of course. But, in a disturbing trend, many patent assertion entities – better known as patent trolls – are using litigation to wrongfully target end-users of such products. 

If, for example, your office has a copier with a “scan to email” function, your company or employer could be at risk. As holders of vague patents, some PAEs have sent letters to small businesses, demanding approximately $1,000 per employee for the use of such scanners. The demand letter’s message: settle or be sued. Most choose to settle, primarily because of concerns about the cost of a defense.

Re-envisioning the CFO as the Chief Future Officer

Are you ready to be the chief future officer? That is what I imagine to be the ultimate role of today’s CFO, someone who offers the kind of multifaceted, high-end skills that organizations can use to achieve their strategic financial goals and drive innovation.

The role of the CFO is already undergoing rapid change. In fact, 66% of global CFOs don’t believe the current definition of that title adequately captures the diversity of their position, according to an Ernst & Young study. Finding the skills needed to move an organization forward is going to be an ongoing challenge, however. In an Accenture survey, 40% of decision makers in Europe believed that the future success of their organizations depended on high-end analytical skills, but only 15% said they had these skills. So-called soft skills are also vital. IBM research has found that CEOs believe the critical skills for future success are being collaborative, communicative and creative.

How Can You Impact the Future of Global Finance?

That’s a question I am constantly asking myself and my staff. Management accounting is more relevant than ever. Forward-looking and externally-facing, it brings structured solutions to unstructured problems.

The AICPA and CIMA believe there is an unmet need for a set of global principles to help organizations gain an integrated view of the business environment. That is why we have developed the Global Management Accounting Principles©, which are open for public consultation until May 10, 2014.

March Money Madness

While many CPAs are in the depths of tax season right now, sports fans are entering the height of the college basketball season: March Madness. Even the most lackadaisical college basketball fan can’t help but get into the spirit. It also can be a prime time for overspending, whether buying rounds of drinks while watching the game at the bar or participating in the office pool. Although the NCAA tournament may be a one-and-done system, CPAs know all too well that this is not the case with personal finances.

The commonsense financial approach to events like March Madness are usually your typical stick to a budget, think before you spend, etc. But often no matter how many “tips to save money” you put out there, consumers are still drawn in by the pressures of friends, family and the media. While the individual consumer may know all the tips and tricks and understand the impact their decisions will make, that doesn’t mean it’s easy, and it doesn’t mean they’ll do it. So how do we, as professionals in the finance community, combat this? How do we change the thinking of Americans to one be focused on financial wellbeing?

Happy St. Patrick’s Day – The Luck of the Beer Tax Continues

It should surprise no one that the amount of Guinness consumed worldwide on St. Patrick’s Day more than doubles, to approximately 13 million pints. Celebrations are held far and wide from Australia to Russia to the International Space Station, where astronauts like Catherine Coleman play Irish music in space.

As a Maloney and a Fitzpatrick, I love the idea of a global Irish celebration - makes the world feel a wee bit friendlier (even if the saint being honored is technically Scottish).

The U.S. accounts for much of the increase in St. Patrick’s Day Guinness consumption. But while the enthusiasm may be spread out across the  country, the excise tax on beer collected by each state varies considerably.

The map created by the Tax Foundation shows an interesting pattern - a low-tax band across the middle of the country, with a few Western states collecting the least, while southern states charge the most, with Tennessee coming in first at $1.17 per gallon. The Mid-Atlantic area defies categorization – my state of Virginia is in the middle but neighboring Maryland ranks much higher.

The Urge to Merge Continues

With 2013 in our rear view mirror, many want to know what the merger and acquisition marketplace will look like in 2014. I have been involved in anywhere from 75 to 100 M&A deals a year over the last 4-5 years, and over 1000 deals since 1990. My firm’s involvement may include deals which we develop ourselves, or deals in which we are brought in to consult upon.

What we’re seeing is a very steady M&A market with potential for growth in the future. With baby boomers gearing up for retirement, the M&A market among CPA firms could certainly heat up and my firm is fielding a number of calls from practitioners looking for guidance.

Capturing Online Sales and Use Tax: The Battle Continues

Have you purchased something online this past year, month or day?  You probably looked at the cost of the item purchased, but did you pay attention to whether you paid taxes on your purchases?  Sorry to tell you this, but just because a sales tax was not charged does not mean you don’t owe a tax on the transaction.

All states that impose sales taxes also require purchasers to remit use tax on any taxable purchases if sales tax is not paid. Many, if not most, consumers are unaware of the use tax and, therefore, do not comply.  It is almost impossible for state taxing authorities to enforce these laws with respect to individual consumers (but businesses often are audited for use tax). 

PowerPivot: A Game Changer for Excel Pivot Table Users

As a CPA and a power Excel user, my goal in Excel has always been to create useful reports and analysis for audit documentation as well as to meet my client’s need for information and reports. I quickly discovered that the best tool in Excel to meet my goals was to learn and master the capabilities of pivot tables. Learning pivot tables has increased my efficiency in almost every project that I have worked on and has been the tool I most often turn to in order to complete projects in a timely manner.

As great as pivot tables are they do have limitations, for example pivot tables do not work with data sets larger than one million rows. Pivot tables also can only work on one data set at a time. If I want to create a single report from multiple data sets, I must use V-Lookup formulas. If I want to perform calculations in my pivot table, I must use Calculated Items and Calculated Fields, which are cumbersome to work with and are not well supported by the Microsoft team.

Is Your Nonpublic Bank (or Credit Union) Considered a Public Entity?

Many nonpublic companies have looked to the Financial Accounting Standards Board – through the creation of the Private Company Council – to examine the existing accounting standards and make recommendations for alternative approaches to financial reporting. 

Based on the PCC recommendations, the FASB has now issued two Accounting Standards Updates, one standard provides simplified accounting alternatives for accounting for goodwill, the other for applying hedge accounting to certain plain vanilla interest rate swaps (which is explicitly not available to financial institutions) and have others in the pipeline for release. Financial institutions may want to proceed cautiously before moving forward with adoption of any of the PCC alternatives. 

Staying Mentally and Physically Motivated during Winter Tax Season

How do we stay motivated to continue to get a full night’s sleep, hydrate and enforce good habits when the pressures of work and the reality of deadlines, client demands and day-to-day fire drills become overwhelming? Long hours of winter busy season don’t allow for extra time to take care of our physical well being. Our daily workouts are replaced with early morning or late night staff meetings. Saturday afternoon pickup basketball games at the YMCA are just a fond memory. The only thing worse than going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark is dealing with the bitter winter weather in between.

Managing the Risk of Emerging Technologies

It is likely that we have all been told to get our heads out of the clouds at one point in our lives. However, emerging technologies are now forcing us to get our heads into the “cloud” and our hands on our mobile data.

Mobile computing, remote computing, social media, big data and cloud computing have enabled CPAs and others to access, use and manage information most anywhere, at any time.  

While these technologies are expected to drive 90% of the growth of the IT market from 2013 through 2020, determining out how to best leverage them is a hot issue for the accounting profession. In fact, the issue of leveraging emerging technologies ranked among the top ten technology initiatives in both the U.S. and Canada according to the AICPA's 2013 North America Top Technology Initiatives Survey results. 

Second Screen Gold: #Sochi2014

Social media has the power to connect people across the globe who are interested in a common topic. Over the past few weeks, millions of users flocked to social media to share insights about the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. 

As with other high-profile televised events, using social media gave viewers the opportunity to create a very interesting ‘second screen’ experience during the Olympic Games.  According to Mashable, the term ‘second screen’ refers to “…the use of an additional monitor (e.g. tablet, smartphone) while watching television. It allows the audience to interact with what they’re consuming whether it’s a TV show, video game or movie.”

A Look Inside the Oscars

We are now a couple days away from one of the most watched and tweeted awards shows, the Academy Awards. Earlier this week the AICPA's CPA Letter Daily polled its readers to see which movie they thought would win the Best Picture Oscar. “12 Years a Slave” was the top vote getter, with 31.71% of the vote. Coming in next was “American Hustle” (19.59%) followed by “Gravity” (13.79%). We will just have to wait and see if the readers predicted correctly.

A highlight of most award shows, at least for CPAs, is not necessarily who won what or what they were wearing, but rather those 30 seconds of fame for the CPAs featured on stage during the national broadcast. Most years the CPAs wave from the stage, sporting briefcases embossed with their firm’s name. However, some years, they get a slightly different mention, as the cast of “The Big Bang Theory” gave CPAs two years ago at the Emmys.

In January, PwC, which has overseen the balloting process for the Oscars for the last 80 years, announced that Brian Cullinan, CPA, chair of PwC’s U.S. board of partners and managing partner of PwC’s Southern California practice, joined the leadership team managing the 2014 balloting process alongside Rick Rosas, CPA. They will be the only two people in the world who know the identities of the Oscar winners before they are revealed on Sunday.

Hidden Traps for Small Employer HRAs in 2014

Like many small employers with under 50 full-time equivalent employees, I thought my company would be relatively unaffected by the Affordable Care Act. I was surprised to discover that my company Healthcare Reimbursement Arrangement is legal, but is now completely unworkable.

I have offered for several years to full-time employees a standalone HRA for which they get pre-tax reimbursements for out-of-pocket medical expenses and health insurance premiums, up to the annual predetermined dollar limit. HRAs generally fall under Code Section 105(b) and are considered employer self-insured accident or health plans. By design, HRA plans have dollar limits on annual and lifetime benefits provided to participants. However, to be a qualified group health plan in 2014, the plan must provide minimum essential health benefits without annual or lifetime dollar limits. My company’s HRA fails to meet this basic requirement. 

No Matter What You Call It, Valuation Standards Apply

Since Statement on Standards for Valuation Services No.1 was released in June of 2007, I have received numerous questions about when SSVS No. 1 applies. It is important to note that all AICPA members are required to follow all AICPA standards, and many state boards of accountancy require CPAs to follow AICPA standards as well. 

SSVS No. 1 was promulgated for one reason: To protect the public and the reputation of CPAs. Before SSVS No. 1, both CPAs and non-CPAs would tell their clients the value of their business based on what amounted to a rule of thumb measurement. The client would then rely on that number for tax returns, transactions, employee stock ownership plans and many other purposes, sometimes with negative consequences for their own clients.

A Golden Opportunity: Performing IPSAs of Conflict Minerals Reports

Have you read about conflict minerals in the news? Apple Inc. recently stated in its supplier responsibility report that the company’s entire supply of tantalum used in its products was verified as conflict free, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. The report also noted that “we’re pushing our suppliers of tin, tungsten, and gold just as hard to use verified sources.”

This news relates to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s final rule issued in August 2012 which required public companies to disclose their use of “conflict minerals” in their manufacturing processes and supply chains. The term “conflict minerals” describes certain minerals—tantalum, tungsten, tin and gold—that are mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its surrounding areas. Public companies might be required to file a Conflict Minerals Report, which may also be subject to an Independent Private Sector Audit. As a CPA, you are the premier provider of such an audit and the AICPA provides resources to help with inquiries you may be receiving from your clients.