Firm News: June 21, 2013

International Firm News:

CANADA

Hedgebook, the cloud-hosted application for audit teams, has launched Hedgebook Audit, an online derivative valuation tool designed specifically for use by auditors.

WEST AFRICA

HLB International, one of the leading international accountancy networks, has recently signed a new member firm.

The audit, tax and consulting firm KMC, which is based in Niamey, Niger, has joined the network independent accounting firm HLB International. KMC will join HLB members located in Niger, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Benin, Mali, Togo and Guinea-Bissau.

U.S. Firm News:

ALABAMA

Decosimo will provide accounting, financial reporting, fraud detection and cyber security education on Friday, July 19 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m at the 21st Annual Decosimo Accounting Forum hosted by the University of North Alabama Continuing Studies and Outreach department at the Joe Wheeler State Park Resort Lodge in Rogersville, Ala.

ARIZONA

CCH Connections’ User Conference 2013 registration is now open.  

Networking events, will take place October 27-30 at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in Phoenix, Ariz.

CALIFORNIA

Sensiba San Filippo LLP has been named one of the top 20 small companies on the Bay Area News Group's list of San Francisco Bay Area Top Workplaces of 2013. ... Twenty-eight WNDE staff members spent a morning sorting food at the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County. Headquartered in Irvine, the Food Bank collects food and distributes it through 470 member charities in the community.

CONNECTICUT

Employees of BlumShapiro wear jeans on Fridays to raise funds for charity of their choice through its Jeans for Charity Program. The program provided a donation of $5,000 to the Alzheimer’s Association Connecticut Chapter.

GEORGIA

Frazier & Deeter launched FD Fund Administration, a provider of outsourced fund administration services to real estate, private equity and other funds.

ILLINOIS

Raymond James, St. Petersburg, recruited a team of advisors in Illinois for the firm’s independent broker/dealer Raymond James Financial Services. The team operates as Dashboard Wealth Advisors, an independent firm, with offices at 1520 Kensington Road, Suite 107, Oak Brook, Ill. … DG’s Computerworld has named Grant Thornton LLP to its 2013 Best Places to Work in IT list. The firm has been recognized by the publication for 10 consecutive years. ...In a recent study conducted by BDO USA LLP, Chicago, close to two-thirds, or 64 percent, of capital markets executives at leading investment banks anticipate U.S. IPO activity to increase in the second half of 2013, compared to less than a third, or 30 percent, who believe activity will remain flat with the first half of the year and just 6 percent who are predicting a decrease in deals. For survey results visit http://www.bdo.com/news/pr/2674. … McGladrey LLP released results from the 2013 Manufacturing and Distribution Monitor. According to its Manufacturing and Distribution Monitor survey, industry executives are optimistic about their companies’ growth prospects, but see government regulation, health reform implementation, the federal deficit, and other policy-related pressures as the greatest threats to their continued recovery. For detailed results visit Manufacturing and Distribution Monitor survey on the firm’s Web site. … UHY LLP and UHY Advisors Inc. have redesigned and updated its Web site - www.uhy-us.com.

MARYLAND

KatzAbosch, Baltimore, created a video compilation of its employees sharing their perspectives on what the firm’s new vision statement means to them with personal video diaries and skits. The video can be viewed on the KatzAbosch YouTube channel.

MASSACHUSETTS

Gray, Gray, & Gray LLP, Westwood, plans to help support Cradles to Crayons, a Boston-based charity that provides children from birth through age 12, living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive at home, at school and at play. Gray, Gray, & Gray staff members will be collecting items such as blankets, baby clothes, bottles, and strollers, in addition to raising money in order to provide much needed financial support.

MICHIGAN

Plante Moran is conducting its third annual Innovation Quotient survey. The third annual IQ survey from the public accounting, tax and business advisory firm will ask Midwest businesses and organizations to share how they use innovation to increase revenue, improve quality and cut costs. New to the survey this year will be three sections exploring collaboration, which was identified by the 2012 innovation “superstars” as key to their success. The 10-minute survey, which is available at http://www.innovationquotientsurvey.com/, asks C-suite executives and innovation team leaders to answer questions designed to measure innovation activity, the business value of innovation and drivers and constraints on innovation. 

MISSOURI

The Advisory Board, Think Tank to the Profession, launched its new interactive webinar series -“Live Talk Radio, presented by Winning-is-Everything.” The first Live Talk Radio show is scheduled for Tuesday June 25th, 1:00pm eastern featuring Tom Hood, executive director and CEO of the Maryland State Society of CPAs. Invitations went out on Monday June 17, 2013. … Brown Smith Wallace has launched Brown Boarding Business Series to help executives to strategies that can strengthen the bottom line. The first three episodes cover construction auditing, health care reform and captive insurance companies. …BKD LLP kicked off its Leadership Conference 2013 in Kansas City earlier this week. This year’s theme is “Putting the Pieces Together,” which ties into BKD’s focus on growing strategically, developing strong leaders and delivering unmatched client service as the firm marks its 90th year in business. In other BKD news, the firm was the recipient of multiple awards at the Association for Accounting Marketing’s (AAM) annual Marketing Achievement Awards (MAA) June 10, as part of the 2013 AAM Summit, in conjunction with the AICPA Practitioners Symposium and TECH+ Conference, which was held in Las Vegas, Nevada. The firm took home the Best Integrated Branding Program award, for the refresh of the firm’s experience BKD brand, the Best Recruiting Campaign, for the new “Become” college recruiting campaign launched in late 2012 and the    Best Integrated Online Marketing Campaign, for BKD’s efforts to create a more integrated system of providing more targeted industry information through relationship marketing.

NEW MEXICO

Accounting & Consulting Group, Albuquerque, has joined the independent accounting and consulting firms association PKF North America. The firm also now is a correspondent of PKF International Ltd.

NEW JERSEY

The annual New Jersey Society of CPAs Scholars Institute gave nearly 100 college students a forum to help give them a competitive edge in “the real world.”  As part of its two-day residency program, The Scholars Institute provided interactive programming that helped students identify their goals and provided them with the essential tools to reach them. In addition to supplementing classroom education, The Scholars Institute offered the opportunity to network and make valuable connections with fellow students, CPAs, human resource personnel and NJSCPA staff – future professional resources. The event took place in May at Montclair State University. … CohnReznick LLP, Roseland, through its CohnReznick Foundation and CohnReznick CARES initiative, donated a total of $150,000 to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation and the Joe Torre Safe At Home Foundation at its 22nd Annual Charity Golf Invitational held on June 10th. Over the past seven years, CohnReznick’s outing has raised a combined total of more than $1.15 million for these two organizations. … Cushman & Wakefield Inc. and the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University hosted “The Future of New Jersey’s Suburban Office Campuses,” a program geared toward regional investors and developers. The program featured a presentation reviewing the evolution of New Jersey suburban office campuses as well as trend-lines that could result in new real estate investment opportunities. … The Mercadien Group releases its 2013 Business Outlook Survey Report. For the full report visit the firm’s Web site.

NEW YORK

ACG New York announced finalists for the Accounting/Due Diligence Firm of the Year category.  New York based accounting firm finalists includes; CBIZ, Rothstein Kass, Marcum LLP, WeiserMazars and Anchin Block & Anchin LLP. …Margolin, Winer & Evens, Garden City, has revamped its Web site, http://www.mwellp.com. … The Bonadio Group, Rochester, has been recognized by the Accounting & Financial Women’s Alliance and the American Women’s Society of Certified Public Accountants AWSCPA, as a top accounting firm for women CPAs. … The New York CPA and advisory firm Berdon celebrates its contributing efforts for 2013. The employees have made donations to The Mission of the National Lung Cancer Partnership, Animal Haven and City Harvest’s Skip Lunch Fight Hunger. (See: Berdon employees inspire new charity efforts)… O’Connor Davies LLP, formed “O’Connor Davies Cares: Month of Giving.”  Throughout the month of June, O’Connor Davies will participate in several events designed to support the community in which its professionals live and work. The Firm’s “Month of Giving” was launched on Wednesday, June 12, when partners and staff participated in the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge. … Deloitte released its  fourth annual Corporate Development survey, which found that only one-quarter of executives are very confident in the accuracy of the financial forecasts they use to support M&A deal decisions; highlighting the high level of uncertainty in predicting M&A deal success in the current environment. The survey, which assesses how companies are managing strategic transactions, found that 75 percent of respondents believe they could improve the accuracy of their deal analyses but lack a crisp understanding of exactly how to correct their course. For a copy of the survey, visit www.deloitte.com/us/pr/corpdev2013. … The New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants has voiced its disagreement with key partnership provisions included in a series of rules the IRS is proposing for the new 3.8 percent Medicare tax on net investment income. In a comment letter published earlier this year, the Society stated that parts of the proposal were too complex, unfair to the taxpayer or beyond what the original statute demands. On a separate note, the NYSSCPA expressed agreement with a proposal from the Financial Accounting Standards Board that, if implemented, would standardize the treatment of net operating loss carryforwards or tax credit carryforwards on financial statements. According to the FASB, the Proposed Accounting Standards Update—Income Taxes (Topic 740): Presentation of an Unrecognized Tax Benefit When a Net Operating Loss Carryforward or Tax Credit Carryforward Exists (a consensus of the FASB Emerging Issues Task Force, was developed to establish a consistent methodology for the treatment of unrecognized tax benefits on a business’s financial statement. To date, some entities present unrecognized tax benefits as a liability unless they are directly associated with a tax position taken in a tax year, while others treat them as a reduction of a deferred tax asset. The NYSSCPA also agrees with a proposal from the FASB that, if implemented, would allow entities to consider the Fed Funds Effective Swap Rate, also known as the Overnight Index Swap, as a benchmark interest rate for hedge accounting, in addition to the U.S. Treasury rate and the London Interbank Offered Rate. … KPMG LLP has been recognized as one of the World’s Best Outsourcing Advisors by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals. 

OHIO

Walthall, Drake & Wallace has been selected as one of The Plain Dealer’s Top Workplaces for the third consecutive year. … SS&G has been selected as one of The Plain Dealer’s Top Workplaces in the midsize company category (150-499 local employees). This is the third year in a row SS&G has received this recognition. … BCG & Company has been selected as one of The Plain Dealer’s Top Workplaces. The employee survey is conducted by WorkplaceDynamics LLP, a research firm on organizational health and employee engagement. … The Ohio Society of CPAs names new executive board and recognizes five CPAs at its annual meeting. For a detailed list of new board members visit the association’s Web site. … As part of the Clark Schaefer Hackett 75th anniversary celebration, over 350 associates are raising funds for Honor Flight, a not-for-profit organization that transports veterans to Washington, D.C. to reflect at their memorials.

VIRGINIA

The National Society of Accountants Scholarship Foundation has awarded 39 students with scholarships. Collectively, they will receive $32,700 in award money.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Gelman, Rosenberg & Freedman CPAs received a 2013 Corporate Philanthropy Award, which is part of an annual program sponsored by the Washington Business Journal to honor top corporate philanthropists in the Greater Washington Area. Nonprofit Audit Principal Trevor Williams attended and accepted the award on behalf of Gelman, Rosenberg & Freedman CPAs.