Other stuff

A: Yes, according to CPATrendlines at their post NEW SURVEY RESULTS: Busy Season Prices Heading Up 4.1%.

Their survey shows that overall, CPA firms are starting to increase fees a bit more in 2012.  Some holding stable.  Some increasing a bit.  Some increasing fees for problem clients.  Overall though, a 4.1% increase.  Average increases in 2010 were reported at 3.2%.

Their survey also shows CPAs are expecting a better busy season in 2012 than 2011.

There are dangers if the Chinese economy does not continue to grow at 9%.  By the way, economies just don’t go straight up forever.  That means the road ahead could be bumpy.

If what happens in China is of interest in your firm or at a general level, it might be worth checking out my post, Continue to pay attention to China at my other blog, Outrun Change.

Quick reminder for CPAs in California.

You need to have a minimum of 20 hours CPE in each of the two years of your license period.  No more of this routine of running up all 80 hours in the last six months before renewal.

Also, you need 4 hours of ethics every two years and 2 hours on regulatory rules every 6 years.  Those classes need to be approved by the state board.

Your PTIN needs to be renewed for 2012.  Need to get that done by 12-31.

The IRS has opened up the renewal process. You can get started here.

Just renewed mine today.  Took 16 minutes from start to end.  (Yes, yes, I timed it since I was planning to write this post.)

MACPA (the Maryland state society) has some good background here.

Nothing to write about in accounting.  You’re pulling my leg, right?

Looks like an all-hands conversation is brewing on the topic of why there are not more accounting professors who blog.

Survey of the current discussion by David Albrecht is at More on Why Accounting Profs Don’t Blog.  I will extend the discussion to ask why are there so few posts from accounting practitioners who are blogging.

One of several threads in the discussion amongst the profs is there’s not a lot of interesting stuff to talk about.

That idea gave me a chuckle yesterday while attending an 8-hour accounting and auditing conference put on by the California Society of CPAs.

While jotting down notes from the speakers, I put an asterisk by ideas that seemed to be a possible blog post.  At the end of the day I had 32 asterisks plus an outline for this post.

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Short, simple lesson of frequently goofed grammar rules at AmEx’s Open Forum by Barry Moltz:  Avoid These Simple Grammar Goofs in Your Business Marketing.  Also works for your emails or documentation memos or letters to clients.

Ten common mistakes.  Check it out.  Good reminders for me and it cleared up a couple fuzzy rules. 

The affect is you’re writing would be better.

(Sorry! I couldn’t pass up using three of the errors mentioned in the post.)

I have a post up at my other blog, Nonprofit Update, discussing the IRS’s announcement that personal use of business provided cell phones is no longer taxable. See the post Cell phone usage no longer a taxable benefit.

Why am I starting a new blog, Outrun Change? You can find it at www.outrunchange.com (new name and address listed after I moved the blog.)

The amount of change taking place today is staggering.  The rate of change is going to increase.  That change is making our knowledge and skills obsolete.  We need to be learning and growing to keep up with the amount of radical change taking place around us.  We need to learn fast enough to outrun change.

At the Christian Leadership Conference in April 2011, Dr. Richard Swenson said that there will be 1,000 times more change in the next century than in the 20^th century.  He also said there was more change in the 20^th century than the previous 5,000 years.  That is staggering.

My focus in the new blog will be on: …

New blog:Read More »

Where does the iPad fit into a CPA firm? Question explored at The iPad Decision, by Jeff Drew in the Journal of Accountancy.

The iPad happens to be the dominant device at the moment, but that could change by the end of the year. Or maybe next week.  I think the discussion applies to all tablets.  …

iPad in a CPA firm?Read More »

(cross-post from my other blog – Nonprofit Update)

If you want to conduct your ministry or business using anything other than your legal name, you have to get a fictitious business name.  This is also called a DBA, or “doing business as” name.

Let’s say you are on staff at Southside Community Church and are starting a major summer program as an outreach to the community.  This would be a big, ongoing project. If you’re going to be collecting money and trying to reach out beyond your local congregation, you just might decide to run the program under the name Southside Summer Swim.  If that is the case, you need to file for a fictitious business name with the county clerk’s office.

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Scam watch – you don’t have to pay someone $370 to help renew your fictitious business nameRead More »

(cross-post from my other blog, Nonprofit Update.)

It has been one year since I launched Nonprofit Update. On August 29, 2010 I started this blog to talk about issues affecting the nonprofit community. On October 14, 2010 I started moving topics of more interest to CPAs to a new blog, Attestation Update.

Many thanks to all who have stopped by to read!  This has been fun and I look forward to many more years of blogging.

Here are some stats from the first year for those who are interested in such things.

Number of posts: …

Happy birthday to Nonprofit UpdateRead More »

(cross-post from my other blog, Nonprofit Update.)

That is the title of a post by Seth Godin.

Here is his comment, which I quote in full:

Is there a simpler way to improve quality and responsiveness?

If you can’t sign it, don’t ship it.

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“Put your name on it”Read More »

New cartoon is available at Once Upon Internal Control.

Good procedures protect against false accusations – feature cartoon #2 from Once Upon Internal Control  illustrates another way that good procedures can  protect your staff. Cartoon runs about 8 1/2 minutes.

The first feature cartoon is here.