December 2005 - Journal of Accountancy

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY MARRIED COUPLE CPA FIRMS ARE FINDING SUCCESS on their own terms and learning valuable practice management lessons along the way. EACH INDIVIDUAL SHOULD HAVE AN INDEPENDENT practice area. Having autonomy over final decisions in specific areas prevents spouses from stepping on each other’s toes. In many cases, this

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AMONG ENRON’S PROBLEMS WAS ITS USE of variable interest entities, which allowed it to leave significant amounts of debt off its balance sheet. In response to concern about this practice, FASB issued Interpretation no. 46 in January 2003 and a revised version in December 2003 to help companies

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY FASB HAS ISSUED STATEMENT NO. 154 PROVIDING rules for how companies should treat changes in accounting principle. The statement requires retrospective application in all comparative financial statements for prior years. UNDER THE IMPRACTICABILITY EXCEPTION, when companies can’t determine either the period-specific or cumulative effects of a change on

Editor’s note: This article uses a simplified example to illustrate how a lattice model works. In the exhibits, the option term is only four years—much shorter than the 10-year life of a typical employee stock option. So in practice the calculations will be more extensive than in these exhibits and

     ust a few years ago it was relatively easy to select the electronic equipment for a small office. All you needed was a computer, a printer, a phone and a fax machine. But today’s technology offers a bewildering choice of options—from local and wide area networks (LANs and

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY QUALIFIED RETIREMENT PLANS THAT HAVE NOT BEEN properly updated or have not been operating according to plan provisions may be disqualified and, as a result, lose important tax benefits. THE IRS’s EMPLOYEE PLANS COMPLIANCE RESOLUTION System (EPCRS) can help plan sponsors correct qualification failures. THE EPCRS CONSISTS OF

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY MANY CPA FIRM STAFF MEMBERS AND SOLE practitioners as well as chief executives use home offices in their professional work. CPAs can apply some principles of feng shui—which uses placement design to achieve harmony, health and prosperity—to make a workplace more pleasant and efficient. PRACTITIONERS WHO WANT TO