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Among the tragedies inflicted on thousands of victims by Bernard Madoff was that perpetrated on a tiny accounting firm in New City, N.Y., a hamlet some 30 miles north of New York City.

I'm standing shoulder to shoulder with you in the front lines. Your idea about competition between the International Accounting Standards Board and the Financial Accounting Standards Board ("Rethinking the rush toward convergence," Accounting Today, April 6-19, 2009, page 15) was new to me, but reflected an underlying reality.

The realities of volatile capital markets and a struggling global economy confront management decision-making at every turn. In recent years, the challenge of managing costs has become increasingly complex, due, in part, to relentless competition, complex global operations, compliance, efficiency imperatives, proliferating risks and the sheer speed of change.

Washington, D.C. - During a recent hearing of the House Small Business Committee, lawmakers questioned the Internal Revenue Service as to why small business audits are on the rise as corporate audits fall, and urged them to do more to help entrepreneurs struggling to comply with the complex tax system.

"Small business to face closer audit scrutiny" (March 16-April 5, 2009, page 5) stated that the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board issued new guidance for auditors that "effectively directs accountants to take a more skeptical, hard-nosed approach toward audits of their smaller clients."

New York - Two former KPMG managers who had left the firm over a decade ago received prison terms and multi-million-dollar fines in a long-running tax shelter case.

Washington, D.C. - Congressional leaders wrestling with President Obama's plan to make the Bush administration's tax cuts permanent for middle-class families earning under $250,000 a year are hearing a sharply divided response from top economic experts.

Communicating with clients is crucial in crisis

Accounting experts and industry organizations alternately praised and panned the Financial Accounting Standards Board's decision to loosen the standards for fair value and mark-to-market accounting.

On-demand accounting software developer Intacct and the American Institute of CPAs’ CPA2Biz subsidiary have introduced an Intacct Accountants Program that provides CPAs with free software, support and training, and the ability to set up clients on the software.