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New York-Securities and Exchange Commission Chief Accountant James Kroeker said that the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board should proceed with efforts to converge U.S. and international accounting standards, even though the SEC has not yet formally approved the proposed roadmap to International Financial Reporting Standards.

Chicago - Baker Tilly Virchow Krause has merged in Beers + Cutler to create what it expects to be the 13th largest accounting firm in the U.S., with over $250 million in revenue.

Mark Bailey & Co. is no stranger to the Best Firms roster. The Reno, Nev., practice repeated last year's feat of being ranked No. 1 in the small firm category and attributed that accomplishment to its management team striving to give their employees as much freedom as possible.

'I'm convinced it's all about our team," said Christy Pierce, managing partner at Atlanta-based Braver Schimler Pierce Jenkins, about her firm's success. "We have an extraordinary group of people who work very well together, we respect each other from a multitude of different places - from professional strengths as well as personal characteristics and abilities - and when we need each other, we're there. It permeates the office."

In response to the downturn in the economy, this year BlumShapiro decided not to hold an outside party in January for its employees and their families. Instead, it opted to keep the party in-house and donate the money it saved to local homeless shelters.

In the second annual Best Firms to Work For survey - a joint effort between Accounting Today and the Best Companies Group in Harrisburg, Pa. - we set out to find which firms are doing their best at keeping their workforce productive and content, even in these tumultuous times. The winning firms were divided into three categories for ranking: small firms with between 15 and 24 employees, midsized firms with between 25 and 249 employees, and large firms with more than 250 employees. Mark Bailey & Co. in Reno, Nev., Braver Schimler Pierce Jenkins in Atlanta, and BlumShapiro in West Hartford, Conn., garnered the first-place rankings in the small, midsized and large categories, respectively.

Small firms (15-24 employees)

Small firms Midsized firms Large firms All firms

On my first trip to India over six years ago, I witnessed innovative tax return processing strategies. These involve concepts foreign to many tax partners and staff involved in the preparation of individual and business tax returns.

DECEMBER