July 2003 - Journal of Accountancy

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CUSTOMER CASE RESEARCH (CCR) can reveal how a company’s people and circumstances influenced it to engage one CPA and not another or to obtain one accounting, tax or consulting service and not another. Such case studies illustrate situations business managers must solve all the time, and CPAs can

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY IN A HOT REAL ESTATE MARKET, CPAs HAVE AN opportunity to advise clients buying homes on a wide range of issues including financing and price negotiations. Accountants also can help clients refinancing existing mortgages make the right decisions while interest rates hover at historic lows. LOW INTEREST RATES

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THE NUMBER OF VENDORS offering online courses to CPAs has grown considerably since 1998 when the JofA first reported on the subject. THE NUMBER OF ONLINE COURSES reported in a survey of CPE providers grew sixtyfold to more than 3,000. EMPLOYEES AND CPAs WHO STUDY online spend less

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY SMALL BUSINESSES ARE THE CORE of U.S. enterprise—70%—and the backbone of the small and local CPA firm market. Stresses caused by the rapidity and degree of change in the business world and the culture at large are putting pressure on CPAs to provide them with an ever-more-complex range

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY MEYNERS INSTITUTED A PAY-FOR-PERFORMANCE system to get employees involved in the firm’s growth efforts. It includes an annual salary increase that reflects a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) and three bonus pools related to three areas: core values, core competencies and meeting goals. EMPLOYEES UNDERSTAND WHAT’S EXPECTED of them and

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY SINCE SEPTEMBER 11, BUSINESSES HAVE INCREASED their use of company-owned aircraft for employee travel. To successfully defend the cost of this travel as a business expense, it must be ordinary, necessary, reasonable and not lavish. UNDER IRC SECTION 162(a), COMPANIES CAN DEDUCT travel expenses while employees are away