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Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 141 (R), Business Combinations, issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, promises to change how companies approach planning and reporting around mergers, acquisitions and ownership changes.The statement, effective for companies with fiscal years beginning after Dec. 15, 2008, covers how an acquirer should recognize and measure the identifiable assets acquired, liabilities assumed, and any noncontrolling interest in the acquiree; recognize and measure the goodwill acquired in the business combination or a gain from a bargain purchase; and determine what information to disclose to statement users.

Personal computers revolutionized a lot of things, including the way that bookkeeping and accounting is performed. Before the Apple //, TRS-80, and IBM PC, bookkeeping was a manual process, and general ledgers were, for the most part, exactly that — large hard-covered binders containing T-Account paper with manual entries. Sure, computers were being used for accounting, but with the buy-in costing tens of thousands of dollars on the low end, the average small business or accounting firm could at best afford an accounting machine such as those sold by NCR and Burroughs.

SEC URGES XBRL ON MUTUAL FUNDSShortly after proposing requirements for public companies to start filing their financial statements with interactive data tags, the Securities and Exchange Commission wants mutual fund companies to begin filing risk and return information using the technology.

Internal and external forces are driving change in the profession, with a host of new options and requirements surfacing almost every day. Uncertainty often lingers even among the most experienced partners and IT leaders. How a firm navigates these changes will predict its success, and there is no better time than now to take a step back and examine how to be most effective at change management.From my perspective, I see multiple definitions of change management:

Profitability and being client-focused go hand in hand. Intellectually, all accountants believe this, but they have a hard time identifying specific actions they can take to maximize both profitability and client service. Over the years, I’ve observed specific client-focused activities that correlate to firm profitability.Here are 12 specific things you can do:

MARCUM & KLIEGMAN MERGES WITH ROSENFARBWINTERSMelville, N.Y. — CPA firm Marcum & Kliegman is expanding from New York to New Jersey by merging with RosenfarbWinters, a specialist in forensic accounting. The combined firm will operate under the name M&K Rosenfarb. MKR will include M&K’s offices in New York City and Long Island, as well as Rosenfarb’s offices in Tinton Falls and Roseland, N.J., and New York City.

SoftwareSHARE — A LITTLE

CALIFORNIAJ.H. Cohn LLP announced that it will merge in Good Swartz Brown & Berns LLP, Woodland Hills, which will operate as Good Swartz Brown & Berns, a Division of J.H. Cohn, adding about 125 professionals to J.H. Cohn.

JULY7-8: Introduction to U.S. International Tax, Alliance for Tax, Legal and Accounting Seminars. Baltimore. Contact: www.atlas-sfi.com or (800) 207-4432.

CALIFORNIA