Other stuff

Individuals or organizations that own bank accounts overseas or have signature authority on those accounts may have to file a certain report with the Treasury Department every year. If the balance in those accounts goes over $10,000 you need to file an FBAR report by June 30 of the following year.

Deadline for filing this report for 2009 and earlier has been extended.

This requirement applies to nonprofit organizations as well. In addition, individuals who are merely signers on those accounts have a personal obligation to report.

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Filing deadline for overseas bank accounts extended for 2009 year and earlierRead More »

The IRS announced an increased mileage rate for the last half of 2011 due to high fuel costs.

Starting 7-1-11, the optional rate for business use of vehicles is 55.5 cents per mile. For medical and moving the optional rate is 23.5 cents per mile.

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New optional mileage rate for last half of 2011Read More »

CPATrendlines highlights some data from the AICPA/PCPS MAP survey:

• Average billing rate by firm size (from <200K revenue to >10M) and staffing level (partner, director, manager, seniors, associates)
• Net remaining per partner by firm size with 2010 compared to 2008
• Fees per partner by firm size with 2010 and 2008 data

Looks like 2,937 firms participated, which is a rather high percentage of all CPA firms. That is about 6.6% of all firms.

Great article with some really good data on how things are going at other firms: How Much to Charge?

I have a post on my other blog, Nonprofit Update, about ‘transition relief’ for very small NPOs whose exempt status was revoked by the IRS for not filing any tax returns for three consecutive years. See the post Slim relief for getting exemption back after automatic revocation for very small organizations.

I would like to provide a complementary copy of my book Once Upon Internal Control to pastors of local churches. This short fable is the basis for the cartoons you see on my other blog.

Update:  This book is now available on Amazon for $0.99USD. 

Free offer good for delivery in U.S. only, effective December 5, 2011.  Free offer will expire on December 31, 2011.

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Free book offer for pastors of local churchesRead More »

On my other blog I have a discussion of the automatic revocation of exempt status for about 275,000 NPOs, announced by the IRS on 6-8-11.

Post is:  IRS publishes list of NPOs whose exemptions were automatically revoked

Hey, it is just plain fun to read the Going Concern blog. Really should add it to your RSS feed.

For those of us in small firms who might have some idle curiosity of what the staffing looks like in a large office in the Big 4 world, Going Concern has some juicy details of the headcount by job level in the LA office of Deloitte.

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What does the staffing of a big office of a Big 4 firm look like?Read More »

Some short scenes have been combined into a 9 minute cartoon along with an intro and extro. The first of several feature-length cartoons is available on my other blog, Once Upon Internal Control. This one discusses some creative internal controls over cash and a few ideas on how to maintain security over the offering until it is counted by the count team. More to follow!

Cartoon can be found at:

Once Upon Internal Control – part 1

Posted at Once Upon Internal Control: The exit interview with the reporter who was investigating reports of extravagant spending. Final cartoon in the tale of the church that did internal controls well can be found here.

All four cartoons plus the intro will be rolled into a feature cartoon.

I have a new cartoon posted at Once Upon Internal Control showing good internal controls in a local church. The dramatization is based on a reporter calling for comment about rumors of a high-flying lifestyle.

Cartoon called: When a reporter calls, good procedures save the day. Visit the other blog for the cartoon. I will be posting cartoons there.

Going Concern is a blog that’s worth reading everyday. Would be worthwhile to include it in your RSS reader. The site covers the Big 4 world from a staffer’s perspective. Lots of juicy news from the trenches. Lot’s of great accounting news.

Today’s scoop is an excel spreadsheet that lists the PwC compensation structure from new staff level through year 14 director and new partner. Includes base pay and bonus.

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Compensation grid for PwCRead More »

Don’t know how to interpret this. You can figure for yourself what it means for your practice.

Looks like the prospects for new accounting grads is good.

CPATrendlines, in their article, Number of Accounting Grads Hits New High, reports:

Newly minted accountants have some of the brightest job prospects in the nation, with nearly 90 percent of accounting firms forecasting the same or increased hiring of graduates this year compared with 2010, and nearly three quarters, 71 percent, of the largest firms anticipating more hiring – an indicator of a rebounding economy.

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Hiring trends strong for new accounting graduatesRead More »

I wrote an article for Bank of the West called Essentials of Internal Control.  It discusses one superb internal control you should be using for cash, explains that trust is not an internal control, and offers a creative idea to improve control over cash.

A one sentence summary of internal control is at the end of this paragraph:

CPAs can talk for hours about internal control. Can the concepts in all those long presentations be made a little simpler to grasp? Let’s try to boil down all those internal control ideas to one sentence. Ready? Internal controls are the procedures you put in place so that one person cannot do something wrong and hide having done so.

The three key ideas discussed:

• The bookkeeper should not sign checks
• Trust is NOT an internal control
• Review unopened bank statement by someone outside of accounting

Please read the full article.

My article was included in this newsletter.

Future cartoons will be announced on this blog and can be seen at my other blog, Once Upon Internal Control.

Here is the cartoon discussing how to maintain dual control over the offering count, which is a place where churches typically have a struggle maintaining good procedures:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuboFGqXAi4]

Other cartoons available at Once Upon Internal Control.