Firm News: Nov. 21, 2014

ALABAMA

Warren Averett LLC, has partnered with Auburn University Harbert College of Business and Business Alabama Magazine for the inaugural Top Tigers program. The Top Tigers program recognizes the fastest-growing companies founded, owned or led by Auburn University alumni from each of Auburn's 12 degree-granting colleges and schools.

CALIFORNIA

As part of the firm’s community and philanthropic efforts, 39 management, staff and family members of HMWC CPAs & Business Advisors volunteered to serve on November 16th with St. Paul’s Episcopal church in Tustin at their Sunday Supper program – a weekly Sunday dinner at St. Paul’s for anyone who is in need of a meal or groceries. HMWC volunteers helped prepare food, serve guests at their tables, and organize and provide take-home groceries to guests in need. About 120 guests attended.

CONNECTICUT

FAF launched a new web page focused on the benefits of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles—GAAP—to public companies, private companies, not-for-profit organizations, and state and local governments in the U.S. The web page is available at www.accountingfoundation.org/gaap. This educational portal is part of a broader FAF initiative to highlight the benefits of preparing financial reports according to GAAP.

FLORIDA

TAG Foundation trustees have approved the disbursement of $10,000 USD from the foundation’s funds to assist Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières in their Ebola relief efforts in West Africa. TAG Foundation is the charitable organization founded by TIAG, an international alliance of independent accounting firms, and its broader organization, The TAG Alliances. The TAG Foundation is supported by contributions from TIAG members who have a long history of supporting relief efforts from natural disasters or humanitarian crises. … Abacus has wrapped up its 2nd Annual World Conference with 42 attendees from 10 different countries spanning 4 regions. The conference took place in Miami Beach at the Shore Club from November 1-3, 2014 creating a forum for business exchange, meaningful partner level interaction, and innovative idea sharing.

GEORGIA

Small accounting firms that utilize Wolters Kluwer, CCH Small Firm Services Client Accounting Suite are now able to take advantage of an enhanced Client Checkbook that streamlines data entry with check and deposit import and adjusting journal entry export capabilities. The 2014 tax season software continues to deliver proven platform performance and integrates seamlessly with ATXTM and TaxWise® professional tax preparation software solutions.

ILLINOIS

Crowe Horwath LLP has issued, “Tax Planning: 2014 Year-End Guide.” The “Tax Planning: 2014 Year-End Guide” includes information on income and deductions; family and education; investing; business; retirement; estate planning; and tax rates. To download the guide, please visit: www.crowehorwath.com/yearend-NR . … Ostrow Reisin Berk & Abrams, Ltd. has been ranked 15th among the Top 40 Small Workplaces by Chicago Tribune’s Top 100 Workplaces for 2014. ORBA received special recognition as being one of only 18 companies in the Top 100 that has been recognized for five consecutive years. …

The Illinois CPA Society is seeking minority accounting students to apply for the Mary T. Washington Wylie Internship Preparation Program. The highly competitive program helps minority students interested in the CPA profession prepare for entry-level accounting positions.

The internship preparation program, which honors Washington Wylie, a trailblazer for minorities in the accounting profession, is a three-day, all expenses paid program for up to 25 African American and other underrepresented racial/ethnic minority accounting students who are sophomores or juniors at an Illinois college or university with at least a 3.0/4.0 GPA.

The goal of the program is to prepare and place students interested in the CPA profession in successful internships at Illinois accounting firms through exposure to the profession, access to practical training, resources and mentors. At the end of the program firms, including Crowe Horwath LLP, Deloitte LLP, Ernst & Young LLP, Grant Thornton LLP, KPMG LLP, and Sikich, LLP, interview the students for a variety of paid internship opportunities. As an added bonus, all participants receive a $500 scholarship.The program is funded by donations to the CPA Endowment Fund of Illinois’ Mary T. Washington Wylie Opportunity Fund. Students interested in the program can apply at www.icpas.org. The deadline for applications is Nov.25, 2014.

KANSAS

Mariner Holdings, an independent financial services firm and the parent company of Mariner Wealth Advisors and Montage Investments, launched Mariner Consulting. Mariner Consulting is a tax advisory affiliate that provides comprehensive compliance services, proactive, creative tax consulting and year-round tax planning for a wide range of clients.

MASSACHUSETTS

Shepherd & Goldstein LLP, Business Consultants and Certified Public Accountants, has moved their Worcester office to a new location to 100 Front Street, 16th Floor Worcester, MA 01608

MICHIGAN

Yeo & Yeo has expanded and relocated its Ann Arbor office to accommodate the firm's growth. The new office is located at 1450 Eisenhower Place, one mile from the former office. In addition, the majority of employees in the firm's Southgate office also have relocated to the new Ann Arbor facility to bring together the expertise of the professionals in one location and increase its capabilities.

MOZAMBIQUE

HLB International recently signed a new member in Mozambique: NNC, based in the capital city Maputo.
NNC, which provides audit & accounting, tax and business advisory services, has special expertise in the public services, training, services, commodities, non-profit organizations, energy, agriculture and food sectors. The firm’s staff provides services in English, Portuguese, Spanish and German.

NEW JERSEY

EisnerAmper LLP and David C. Wiener, et al. announced the formation of David Weiner LLC, an affiliate of EisnerAmper LLP. DWLLC will have its primary offices in Iselin, New Jersey. The partners, associates and staff formerly of David Wiener & Company have joined DWLLC; and David Wiener will serve as the Managing Member of DWLLC. … WithumSmith+Brown has partnered with CFO Studio as the Audit Partner of the inaugural CFO Innovation Awards, scheduled for May 12, 2015, at MetLife Stadium. CFO Studio and CFO Studio magazine deploy the best of new and traditional media to promote finance executives as business and strategy thought-leaders in our region. The CFO Innovation Awards will recognize the area's top finance professionals in the categories of Innovation, Leadership, Success and Industry Transformation. Awards will also be given in the categories of "CFO as COO" and "CFO to CEO Evolution." The awards program is the closing segment of the full-day CFO Innovation Conference. … The Mercadien Group, is teaming up with the Liberian Council of Churches, East Coast Outreach Development International, Power of Caring and others in the Liberian community in Trenton to raise awareness of and preparedness for Ebola at the Trenton Ebola Awareness Walk on Saturday, November 22, 2014. The two-mile walk is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m.; it will start at City Hall, 319 East State Street, and finish at The African United Methodist Church, 1201 Greenwood Avenue, Trenton.

NEW YORK

RotenbergMeril has joined the BDO Alliance USA, as an independent member of the BDO Alliance USA, RotenbergMeril can expand the services offered to clients by drawing on the resources of BDO USA, LLP, one of the nation’s leading professional services firms, and other Alliance members. The firm serves clients through 52 offices and more than 400 independent Alliance firm locations nationwide. As an independent Member Firm of BDO International Limited, BDO serves multi-national clients through a global network of 1,264 offices in 144 countries. BDO International Limited is the fifth largest accounting and consulting network in the world. … The American Institute of CPAs is working to secure a new .cpa domain extension on the Internet, which would provide a globally recognized calling card for CPAs in the digital world. The AICPA has a pending bid to administer the .cpa domain before the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the organization that coordinates the Internet’s naming system. ICANN has been reviewing scores of applications for new domain extensions – known formally as generic Top-Level Domains, or gTLDs – that businesses, governments and community groups can operate. … PwC was among the select companies that Forrester Research, Inc. invited to participate in its October 2014 "The Forrester Wave™: Business Intelligence Service Providers, Q4 2014" report. It this evaluation, PwC was cited as a leader in business intelligence (BI) services. … 2014 Marcum Workplace Challenge pulled in $101,000 to donate to charity. The checks were presented to Long Island Children’s Museum, the Children’s Medical Fund of New York, and Long Island Cares-The Harry Chapin Food Bank at a special meeting for the beneficiaries and sponsors held at Marcum LLP’s Melville facility on. A record 9300 runners and walkers from 217 Long Island corporations, Government agencies and Not-for-Profits were on hand for this year’s Marcum Workplace Challenge to make it possible for the $101,000 to be raised. … Janover LLC is in the process of relocating from their Manhattan office to 485 Madison Avenue. …

According to a new report by PwC US, the IPO market continues to surge, it’s vital that companies preparing for their IPOs rigorously examine their risk management, controls and compliance infrastructure for a successful offering and to support future growth. The report, titled Fortified for Success: Building Your Company’s Risk, Controls and Compliance Ecosystem for the IPO and Beyond, outlines the seven critical steps businesses need to take in building a scalable risk management and compliance system to protect shareholder value post IPO. To amplify their chances of success leading up to the IPO and beyond, PwC laid out seven focus areas to help companies capture the full value of their offerings:

1. Hone your leadership and build your teams

Investors want assurance that there’s a depth of talent to endure the long process of becoming a public company, and demonstrate the ability to lead the company’s future growth. Building an expanded leadership team may require adding individuals with public company experience, in addition to potentially adding third-party advisors to help efficiently scale potential risks, controls and compliance efforts.

2. Evaluate your Sarbanes-Oxley readiness and controls infrastructure

Meeting the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act represents a compliance challenge for many companies planning an IPO. Management should start planning as early as possible to understand the various compliance timeframes and strategically plan for implementation.

3. Gauge the capabilities of your systems to meet new requirements

A company’s existing systems and processes will often prove inadequate for its future state as a public company. Areas in which risk assessments will typically uncover scalability issues include accounting, human resources and customer relationship management systems.

4. Create your ethics policy, standards and controls

Institutional investors and the investing community are paying more attention to creating and refining their corporate governance principles and practices when planning their public offering. Companies need to define each element of the code of conduct, detail compliance standards and address how they will be adopted across the enterprise for the long-term.

5. Conduct a compliance risk assessment

An IPO-bound company should conduct a thorough compliance risk assessment to help the organization catalogue and prioritize the full spectrum of its compliance risks, and gauge its resource allocations. A compliance risk assessment is part of a larger enterprise risk assessment that provides a detailed, overall picture of current and emerging risks to the organization.

6. Elevate your governance, risk management, compliance and internal audit activities

Companies preparing to go public will need to build out their risk, controls, compliance and internal audit functions, prioritizing the people, processes and technologies that will be most valuable. When these efforts are brought together in a coordinated system rather than operating in silos, the result is not only greater in efficiency but the ability to align systems, people and culture with management’s strategic priorities.

7. Instill a public company mindset

Becoming a public company requires a change in mindset, including finding the right balance between risk and control. Public companies must learn to speak the language of risk and compliance for a post-financial crisis audience of regulators, investors, analysts, journalists and NGOs, in order to not erode stakeholder esteem. …
EY’s CFO Capital Confidence Barometer released a survey of 500+ CFOs that shows most finance executives believe the global economy has stabilized – and while fewer CFOs believe the economy is improving, the proportion who believe it is getting worse has dropped to negligible levels.

CFOs are also more confident in several key business metrics. Here are some of the highlights from the latest section:

  • 46% of CFOs believe the global economy is stable – up from 34% in April
  • 77% of CFOs are confident in the outlook for corporate earnings
  • 65% are confident in the stability of markets in the short term
  • Executives in Asia-Pac are especially confident, while CFOs in Europe have a more conservative outlook

OHIO

The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption announced the eighth annual list of the Best Adoption-Friendly Workplaces in the consulting, accounting, legal and business services industry. KPMG LLC and PwC were among the accounting firm that made the list. The complete list of Top 100 companies and all industry lists may be viewed at adoptionfriendlyworkplace.org. … DHG Healthcare has entered into a strategic partnership with Socrates Analytics of Cleveland, Ohio. This innovative relationship combines DHG Healthcare’s deep industry understanding with the dynamic analytic capabilities of the Socrates Analytics platform. Through their distinctive new relationship, the two organizations will partner to extend and customize the capabilities of their current solutions and collaborate to rapidly develop new solutions to meet the urgent needs of healthcare organizations on their journey to risk capability.

SLOVENIA

Baker Tilly International has admitted Protokorp Svetovanje to its network. Operating from Slovenia’s capital city Ljubljana, Protokorp Svetovanje provides accountancy, taxation and management consultancy services.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Elliott Davis LLC has been recognized for providing one of the Best Overall Internships in the country by Vault.com, an influential source of ratings and insights for students and professionals. The Elliott Davis internship program ranks second, higher than any other accounting firms.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Councilor, Buchanan & Mitchell has expanded its professional services division. In addition to tax planning and preparation, auditing, and accounting, CBM offers a wide range of services to help professional service providers meet their short-term goals and attain long-term growth and sustainability. CBM’s professional services industry specialties include:

  • Strategic planning
  • Executive Compensation
  • Partnership Agreements & Corporate Structure
  • Succession & Exit Planning
  • Business Valuation
  • Merger & Acquisition Due Diligence
  • Budgeting & Forecasting
  • Cash Flow Management
  • Internal Control Review
  • Forensic/Fraud Services
  • Federal, State & local Income Tax Return Preparation

 

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