Practice Management

Despite continued controversy over whether the use of private debt collectors is a direction the Internal Revenue Service should be moving in, a new federal report gave high marks to the first phase of the agency’s pilot program.

Reversing a trend of declining optimism over the past three years, CPAs serving as chief executive officers, chief financial officers and in other executive financial positions have a favorable view of the economy, according to the first quarter 2007 Business and Industry Economic Outlook Survey.

Integrated business technology solutions provider Net@Work has acquired Westchester, N.Y.-based Spitz Consulting Systems, an ACT! by Sage Software reseller and consultant.Previously, Net@Work did not offer ACT!, which offers small companies contact management services such as needs analysis, data discovery, database design, software installation, data importing, training and follow-up support, through its customer relationship management practice.

The Government Accountability Office says that the Taxpayer Advocate Service needs to be collecting better data on the type of cases it handles, as well as how those cases are actually being handled.The office was originally asked to examine why the advocate service has experienced an increased caseload since 2004, how well the service has conducted its activities in terms of measures such as customer satisfaction and quality, and finally, how well the service measures and reports its advocacy efforts.

The Internal Revenue Service is alerting taxpayers about common mistakes made by individuals while preparing their federal income tax returns.

The Internal Revenue Service announced the appointment of David R. Williams as director of the agency’s Electronic Tax Administration and Refundable Credits division.

Link2Gov Corp. announced that its Pay1040.com service, now in its fifth year of contracted electronic payment processing for the Internal Revenue Service, is experiencing a 63 percent year-over-year increase in the dollars being processed for federal tax payments.

I was reading an interesting profile this week of Steve Stoute, a respected marketer in the ad world who preaches a message that brands needs to change with the times.Stoute’s agency, Translation Consultation & Brand Imaging, specializes in repositioning brands, and tells its clients that companies need to embrace cultural changes in order to speak with a new generation of clients.

A number of firms, especially the larger regionals, are going corporate. This approach to firm governance is seen as having an overall advantage over the strict partnership model as partners at different stages in their careers and with different specialties and concerns often find it hard to reach consensus or take decisive action quickly.

I seldom veer off the subject of accounting in this space unless circumstances or events encourage me to do otherwise.