Just launched a new blog, Once Upon Internal Control, at www.onceuponinternalcontrol.com.
That will be the home of cartoons I create to illustrate the ideas from the book of the same name. Will also have extracts from the book and eventually the full text.
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New blog for cartoons from Once Upon Internal ControlRead More »
The team at Econstories.tv have made the Fear the Boom and Bust and Fight of the Century available on MP3. For free. If you enjoyed the video, you might enjoy the mp3.
The videos of the rap songs are also available for download. For free.
You can get them on the right side of their home page, linked above.
Have a post, Inflation watch, up on my other blog. April numbers are continuing at the increased level that started in late 2010. See my post for graphs.
Just launched the first in a series of cartoons at my other blog, Nonprofit Update.
The series will tell the story of internal controls in a local church. Click here to see the video.
Accountants can easily see patterns in numbers. When I look at a financial statement, say when I’m preparing a proposal for a potential client, I can study the report and in a short time get a good understanding of what is happening in the organization. That’s the goal of financials, isn’t it? To explain what happened.
Accountants and other financial types can look at a column of numbers and easily see the story.
Here is the challenge: How do we, as accountants, help other people see the story that is so obvious to us? How does anyone that works with a large volume of data help ourselves and others see the story?
That is what visualization of data is about.
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Visualization of data – a challenge for accountantsRead More »
(duplicate of post at my other blog, Nonprofit Update.)
Knowledge is power. When we learn what is involved in location tracking on smart phones, we can then determine what impact it has on us and our organizations. Then we can adjust to avoid bad results.
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What if your-situation plus smart-phone-location-tracking equals uh-ohRead More »
John Hufnagle has a short recap of ASU 2001-03, Transfers and Servicing (Topic 860), (which deals with repo accounting) at his blog. His post is Repo Accounting (ASC 860) Changed by ASU 2011-03.
Common perception of the new ASU I’ve seen from commentators is that it is a response to the perceived abuses by Lehman Brothers.
(duplicate of post on my other blog, Nonprofit Update.)
So bad things could possibly happen if someone gains access to the tracking data on your phone. How could someone get access to the file where that data is stored?
I attended the Christian Leadership Alliance conference in Dallas last week. Learned lots of new stuff and had fun visiting with lots of colleagues. Picked up info on location tracking that I wanted to mention. Steve Hewitt of Christian Computing Magazine provided some information, which I will so identify.
Here are a few ways to get access to the location tracking data:
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Upping the ante on smart phones tracking your locationRead More »
(duplicate of post at my other blog, Nonprofit Update.)
What could be the problem with your phone keeping track of your location and sending that to Apple or Google?
What if someone hacks the Apple or Google site? Or hacks your phone? Or merely gains physical access to your phone for a few minutes to grab the file that has the tracking data?
“I’m not breaking the law” I hear your say. Fine. Let’s consider a few other scenarios.
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A few downsides to smart phones tracking your location – Worried yet?Read More »
(duplicate of post from Nonprofit Update)
The great economists Hayek and Keynes continue their rap encounters. This time they go to a congressional hearing and wind up in a boxing ring.
Check out Fight of the Century at EconStories.
Some of my favorite lines:
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Rappin’ economists, round 2. Yes, rapping. Yes, round 2.Read More »
For your general entertainment, just wanted to let you know that there are 7,692 pages in the Accounting Standards Codification (ASC, which constitutes GAAP) and 226 pages in SSARS.
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Just how many pages are there in GAAP, SAS and SSARS?Read More »
Don’t get lulled into the mindset of ‘don’t worry, it’s only a compilation’. Plenty can still go wrong. Compilations are not zero-risk.
John Hufnagle has a post discussing the concept of risk in a comp – Compilations – Still Scary After All These Years.
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(duplicate post from Nonprofit Update).
I have written a 3-hour online CPE course called Compilation and Review: Practice Issues (Third Edition). It is now available at the CCH Learning Center website.
Here’s what the course covers, from the CCH site:
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Compilation and Review: Practice Issues (Third Edition) CPE course now available onlineRead More »
The final clarified SASs are available at the AICPA website here.
They are in 36 files. Downloaded them for ease of reading and checking on things for some projects I’m working on. The total size of the PDF files is 6.3 MB.
Lots of material there. Might be good to start reading them soon since they are expected to go into effect for audits of 12-31-12 financial statements (precise transition is financial statement periods ending after 12-15-12).
Update: There are 5 clarified/rewritten SASs in draft form, which can be found here. Also one omnibus draft that makes several revisions to other clarified SASs.