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2008 was a tough year for investors and 2009 so far is shaping up to be more of the same. Nevertheless, investors should not lose sight of the value of capital losses for tax purposes.Capital losses can help lessen the sting of the market's decline. Just as the government shares some of your gains by taxing them, it shares some of the losses by allowing certain deductions and carryovers. This article dusts off a handful of capital loss rules that are particularly relevant in today's economy - rules that may have been forgotten over recent years.

COSO ISSUES GUIDANCEAltamonte Springs, Fla. - The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission and Grant Thornton have collaborated on Guidance on Monitoring Internal Control Systems to help companies comply better with Sarbanes-Oxley requirements for auditing internal controls.

As the economy worsens and unemployment continues to rise, many people who have stayed invested may be asking themselves if they made a mistake by not selling out and remaining in cash.Conversely, those who have cashed out and have been sitting on the sidelines are patting themselves on the back for a job well done. However, at some point they will need to figure out how and when to get back in the market.

SENIORS LACK ECONOMIC SECURITYThree out of four senior households are said to lack the economic security needed to sustain them through their lives, according to a new study from the Senior Economic Security Index, a research project developed by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University and Demos, a national public policy and research organization. The study pointed out that 87 percent of all senior households are financially vulnerable when it comes to their ability to meet essential expenses and to cover projected costs over their lifetimes.

A year ago, the emphasis in document management systems remained on the core areas of scanning, storing and retrieving documents. But the emphasis has changed in the past year, making it clear that document management alone will give way to integrated workflow in which document management is only one part.This makes sense, given that the concept of managing documents simply to produce a "paperless office" never really got off the ground. It wasn't that accountants were disinterested in saving trees or eliminating the cost of storage. Rather, it was the fact that document storage was relatively cheap and the systems used to store and retrieve documents were already integrated into the practice workflow.

COUGAR MTN. NAMES NEW PREZ/CEOCougar Mountain Software has appointed Chuck Gossett as the accounting software company's new president and chief executive, succeeding his father, Bob Gossett, who is retiring from the company he founded in 1982 but will remain chairman of the board. His son Chuck has been a full-time employee since 2006 and has served on the family-owned company's board of directors for many years. He has also been a local business owner for over three decades and will retain a passive interest in one of his businesses, Gossett and Davis Appraisal Services.

Knowing what the future may hold for you and your firm is tremendously valuable in these uncertain times. While I can't provide every answer, I can offer some tools that will improve your thinking and the accompanying results. Perception is real, so how you perceive the current situation determines your reaction and behavior (good or bad), and that reaction will greatly influence the results. Steven Covey calls this the "See-Do-Get" paradigm.Over the past several months, I have witnessed leaders at numerous firms present varying tones when meeting with employees. These range from, "We must cut every possible cost in order to maintain partner earnings" to "Our firm has decided not to participate in this recession."

Accountability, according to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, is "the obligation or responsibility to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions."Let's explore what this definition means.

Are intergenerational issues within your firm stressing you out? You're not alone. That's why we launched Accounting Tomorrow, a new Web site that deals with the changing dynamics of a multi-generational workplace.With fresh blog posts every day and a new story every week, www.accountingtomorrow.com is already generating commentary and feedback from its readers.

Back in 1993, I began my first in-depth interviews with young people in the workplace. We’ve been studying young workers ever since. Based on what is now nearly 15 years of research, I am absolutely convinced that Generation Y has been much analyzed but largely misunderstood. Most of the so-called ‘experts’ have been simply reinforcing prevailing misconceptions about Generation Y. Here are the top 14 myths about Generation Y in the workplace and the corresponding realities: Myth 1: Gen Yers are disloyal. Reality: They offer the kind of loyalty you get in a free market—that is, transactional loyalty (whatever you can negotiate). Myth 2: They won’t do the grunt work. Reality: They are so eager to prove themselves they will do the grunt work or anything else. But they won’t do the grunt work, or anything else if they start to fear that nobody is keeping track of what they are doing and giving them credit. They are not about to do the grunt work in exchange for vague, long-term promises of rewards that vest in the deep distant future. Myth 3: They don’t know very much and have short attention spans. Reality: They may not have the same shared knowledge base that people with a certain level of education used to take for granted, but they walk in the door with more information in their heads and more information available at their fingertips than anyone ever has before. They think, learn and communicate in sync with today’s information environment. Myth 4: They want the top job on Day 1. Reality: They have no interest in taking their time to “get a feel for the place.” They want to hit the ground running on Day 1. They want to make an impact. Myth 5: They need work to be fun. Reality: Gen Yers don’t want to be humored; they want to be taken seriously. But they want to learn, to be challenged and to understand the relationship between their work and the overall mission of the organization. They want to work with good people and have some flexibility in where, when and how they work. Myth 6: They want to be left alone at work. Reality: If they actually care one bit about the job, they want managers who know who they are, know what they are doing, are highly engaged with them, provide guidance, help them solve problems and keep close track of their successes. Myth 7: They want their managers to do their work for them. Reality: They want managers to teach them. Myth 8: They don’t care about climbing the proverbial career ladder. Reality: Gen Yers will follow a self-building path made up of learning, relationships, proof of their ability to add value and lifestyle flexibility. Instead of climbing a ladder they are making a tapestry. Myth 9: Money and traditional benefits don’t matter to them. Reality: Of course, money and benefits matter to them. They want to get the best deal they can get. In fact, they are usually quite savvy about comparing what each employer offers. But money and benefits are only a threshold issue. If you offer money and benefits that are competitive with other comparable employers, then you can keep the conversation going. Myth 10: Money is the only thing that matters to them Reality: If they are asking for more, what they are really asking is, “What do I need to do to earn more?” Once you meet the threshold of competitive money and benefits, Gen Yers care about five other things: schedule, relationships, task choice, learning opportunities and location. Myth 11: They don’t respect their elders. Reality: They do respect their elders. They are closer to their parents than any other generation has ever been. But they want respect, too. Their parents, teachers, and counselors have always treated them with respect, so they feel they deserve respect from their managers, too. Myth 12: They want to learn only from computers. Reality: From computers, they want to learn stuff that is easy to learn from computers. But, they absolutely need the human element to do their best learning. They learn best from a combination of the human element—coaching, direction, guidance, support, shared wisdom—and the powerful capacity of menu-driven information systems to guide them through the tidal wave of information available at their fingertips. Myth 13: It’s impossible to turn them into long-term employees. Reality: You can turn them into long-term employees. You’ll just have to do it one day at a time. Myth 14: They will never make good managers because they are too self-focused. Reality: They make perfectly good managers if you help them learn the basics and then practice, practice, practice. Bruce Tulgan is an internationally recognized expert on young people in the workplace. He is the founder of RainmakerThinking Inc. (www.rainmakerthinking.com) and the author or coauthor of numerous books, including recently released “Not Everyone Gets a Trophy: How to Manage Generation Y.”