AT Think

With the holidays upon us, many firms and businesses are feeling charitable and giving what they can in the spirit of the season. One such organization, Legacy Professionals LLP, has implemented "Wear-It-Wednesdays" this year, in which staff can pay $5 each to wear jeans to the office, with collected donations put into the “Employees of Legacy Making a Difference Fund.” The money is then put towards local organizations nominated by Legacy's staff.

Global Upside released their holiday card this past week, featuring worldwide staff of the global services company taking part in the holiday favorite, "Let It Snow."

On Monday, the American Women's Society of Certified Public Accountants (AWSCPA) of Georgia announced their Legacies, Leaders & Luminaries Celebration Dinner to be held on January 8, 2015 at the National Center for Civil & Human Rights. The AWSCPA will honor Johnnie L. Clark, CPA, MBA, Ph.D. and other rising stars in the profession.

The AICPA issued a concept paper on Monday concerning the future of peer review, seeking input on the CPA profession’s practice monitoring of the future. The paper, “Evolving the CPA Profession’s Peer Review Program for the Future,” explains how the current peer review program for firms’ accounting and auditing engagements could be changed into a technology-driven, quasi-real time practice monitoring process.

Earlier this month, CPA.com released their CPA of the Future Study at the Digital CPA Conference. The Study is designed to measure CPA firms’ ‘future readiness,’ a concept developed by futurist and business advisor Dr. James Canton, CEO of the Institute for Global Futures, which conducted the research for CPA.com. "Future readiness" was defined as, “the capacity to be aware, predictive, and adaptive of emerging challenges, tech innovations, and trends and changes in business, population and social environment,” according to Dr. Canton.

Financial data provider Powerlytics has crunched the numbers and created a ranking of the most profitable states in which to operate an accounting practice.

According to a new analysis published today by Concur, the leading provider of spend management solutions and services, the third Monday of December has consistently been the busiest expense (claims) day of the year

According to last year's Hollinden Professional Services Marketing Survey, in which firms are polled as to their active marketing, percentage of time spent on business development, and lead generation tactics, about 80% of firms invest only 5% or less of their gross revenue in marketing themselves.

The University of Miami School of Business Administration announced on Monday that it will begin offering a new, online Master of Professional Accounting program beginning in May 2015. The fully online program is designed for those with no prior accounting experience or coursework, and will prepare students for careers in corporate financial accounting, taxation, and management accounting.

The New York-based accounting, tax and advisory services firm WeiserMazars LLP, its sister firm abroad Mazars Group and other business groups and government are collaborating on launching a global human rights survey.