February 1998 - Journal of Accountancy

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY STATEMENT ON AUDITING STANDARDS no. 84 replaces SAS no. 7 with new guidance on communications between predecessor auditors and successor auditors. REVISED DEFINITIONS OF predecessor and successor auditors reflect todays current proposal environment KEY POINTS OF THE NEW SAS include required communications and the need to evaluate these

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ALTHOUGH TECHNICAL COMPETENCE is important, a key but neglected area of a CPAs development is supervisory skill. CPAs NEED TO LEARN HOW to communicate, organize, motivate and direct the efforts of others in their firm A LACK OF INTERPERSONAL SKILLS may be a major reason why many qualified

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY IF YOU WANT TO PUT on a presentation that will engage your audience, turn to multimedia presentation tools. While many take time to become proficient in, they can deliver a message with lots of impact. YOU ALSO CAN CREATE a run-time file that lets you show the presentation

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY SINCE 401(k) PLANS WERE INTRODUCED, Congress has reduced the amount of benefits companies can provide under these plans. While these and other qualified plans are still attractive, companies frequently use nonqualified deferred compensation to provide supplemental benefits. EMPLOYERSAND CPAsMUST BE AWARE of developments at the Department of Labor,

The American Institute of CPAs wants all cutting-edge CPAs to step forward. As one part of the CPA Vision Projecta grass-roots effort to help CPAs come up with a picture of where they want the profession to be in the next century and then devise a plan to actually get

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THE CHOICES COMPANIES ADOPTING an employee savings plan face have expanded in recent years. Making the right choice—as well as understanding the programs offered by insurance companies, mutual funds, banks and brokerage firms—is key to making sure a company can focus on its own business instead of retirement

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY HOW SHOULD A MAJOR FINANCIAL institution implement an intricate new accounting standard? For Diane Butterfield, comanager of corporate accounting policies at Chase Manhattan Bank, the first step is to keep a close watch on the standards under consideration. SHE ALSO LOOKS TO HER PEERS in the banking community

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY MANY GREAT ACCOUNTING IDEAS have died in the executive suite because top managers never fully understood them. Thus, a key challenge for all in-house financial professionals is to master the art of upward communication. INTERVIEWS WITH top-ranking finance managers identify the best communicators as those who know they

Our profession is built on the public interest. When we talk to regulators about change in the profession and about standards, the public interest is always the underlying concern. What is more in the public interest than being the advisers to 8.2 million small businesses, in helping them be more