February 2014 - Journal of Accountancy

Know the revised “repair regs.” and their implications for property acquisition, improvement, and disposition.

Carol Kenner, CPA, CGMA, knew her company’s financial statements backward and forward. Every number on every page made sense to her. But not everyone at Solix Inc., the New Jersey company where Kenner is CFO, knew what the numbers meant.

As hardware and software have proliferated—and come down in price—more businesses have tools and settings at their disposal to implement continuous monitoring techniques. This article provides a few simple ways small and medium entities can improve monitoring processes to detect fraud and other risks.

There are ways to avoid disasters at the launch of the software and afterward, and some think accountants could play a bigger role in implementation work that has been largely dominated by IT and computer experts.

If all goes as planned, a revised AICPA Code of Professional Conduct will be adopted by the Professional Ethics Executive Committee at its Jan. 28–29 meeting. In stark contrast to today’s code, the reformatted ethics code is intuitively organized. It separates the guidance by line of business, then by topic, and topics are further broken down as necessary into subtopics and sections. In addition, a number of substantive changes were made to existing guidance.

Employee benefit plan auditors can use this guidance to avoid relying on improper certifications or overrelying on certifications from trustees or custodians, which can result in inappropriately limiting the scope of the audit.

Young talent is at the core of successful internal succession plans. How can firms identify and develop the leaders they need to replace retiring partners? Find out in the eighth installment of the series “CPA Firm Succession: Solidifying the Future.”

CPAs can use several techniques to protect themselves against risk exposures related to failure to detect theft and fraud.

Small businesses that offer health insurance to their employees should learn about this credit and claim it if they are eligible.