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Risk management has become a top concern of audit committee members, according to a new report.

Gorfine, Schiller & Gardwyn has hired two former partners and about 20 former employees of Grabush Newman & Co. after they left Smart & Associates, which acquired Grabush several years ago.

Rules and guidance issued last year by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board have made it easier for companies to cut the time they spend on Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.

CPA and business advisory firm The Rehmann Group, headquartered here. has merged in Novi-based Pew & Kearis. Terms were not disclosed. The union added four partners to TRG, bringing its partner total to 44. Pew & Kearis has subsequently shuttered its Novi location and moved into TRG's Farmington Hills office. The firm currently operates 12 offices throughout Michigan. Steven Kelly, TRG's chairman and chief executive, said the merger boosts the firm's strength in such industry niches as manufacturing, government/nonprofit, healthcare, retail/distribution, real estate, and closely held companies. The Rehmann Group ranked No. 38 on Accounting Today's 2008 Top 100 Firms list with revenues of $64.3 million.

Impacted by rising prices for such staples as gas and food, nearly eight of 10 small business owners feel the economy is getting worse, according to the Discover Small Business Watch -- the highest level since the SMB survey debuted in August 2006. The monthly poll, which surveys 1,000 small business owners, showed that 53 percent indicated that the economic conditions for their business are getting worse, compared to 47 percent in May, while roughly 58 percent rated the economy as poor, an increase from 50 percent from the prior month. Some 42 percent of small business operators said they have experienced cash-flow issues over the last 90 days, an increase from 39 percent recorded for the previous month.

The Justice Department has filed papers seeking an order from a federal court in Miami, authorizing the Internal Revenue Service to request information from banking and financial concern UBS AG regarding U.S. taxpayers using Swiss bank accounts to evade taxes. The Justice Department is seeking permission to allow the IRS to serve a "John Doe" summons on the bank. In June, former UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the IRS by assisting UBS clients in avoiding U.S. reporting requirements on income in Swiss bank accounts. Birkenfeld admitted to conspiring with an American billionaire real estate developer, Swiss bankers and co-defendant Mario Staggl to help the developer evade paying $7.2 million in taxes by helping him conceal $200 million of assets in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. According to Birkenfeld,, UBS employees assisted wealthy U.S. clients in hiding offshore assets by creating sham entities and then filing IRS forms falsely claiming that the entities were the owners of the accounts. He also claimed that UBS had approximately $20 billion of assets under management in undeclared accounts for U.S. taxpayers. If approved, the summons would mandate UBS to produce records that identify U.S. taxpayers with accounts at UBS in Switzerland who elected to have their accounts remain hidden from the IRS.

Financial and accounting software provider Sage has released Timeslips by Sage 2009, an enhanced version of its time and billing application that includes a number of new features and improvements. Sage said upgrades to the 2009 version include: * Streamlined billing. Enhancements to the Billing Assistant further streamline navigation, and customizable buttons activate user-defined billing procedures that reduce the number of steps required to complete routine tasks. * A new timekeeper report. Expands the available reports with the new Timekeeper Contributions and Collections report, which enables businesses to track work in process, billed time, paid bills, and write-offs for each timekeeper. * New reporting capabilities. Reporting capabilities now include more report fields, allowing clients to include information such as billing rates, overdue balances, last payment details, and fee allocation percentages on user-defined reports. Timeslips 2009 also offers the option to auto-fill transactions with a client's current balance, automatically run conflict-of-interest checks during the client-entry process, and the ability to hide inactive references. Timeslips by Sage 2009 has a suggested retail price of $499.99 for the single-user version. For firms with multiple timekeepers, Timeslips by Sage 2009 multi-user value packs have an SRP of $899.99 for up to five users, $1,599.99 for up to 10 users, and volume discounts available to firms requiring more than 10 users. For more information, go to www.sagesoftware.com

The Treasury and Internal Revenue Service have issued Revenue Procedure 2008-35, TD 9409, and Reg. 121698-08, which update the rules regarding disclosure of tax return information by tax return preparers.The new rules provide an exception that allows a U.S. tax return preparer to obtain consent from a taxpayer to disclose a taxpayer's Social Security number to a non-U.S. tax return preparer when: The U.S. preparer makes the disclosure through the use of an "adequate data return safeguard;" the non-U.S. preparer receives the SSN via an "adequate data protection safeguard;" and the U.S. preparer verifies the maintenance of the adequate data protection safeguards in the request for the taxpayer's consent.

The three new members of the Securities and Exchange Commissioners who have just been approved by the Senate will have to hit the ground running to cope with a multitude of unfinished business.

The seven deadly sins of career management were delineated by Kathleen Grace, founder of Grace Consulting Services, a professional services firm specializing in executive assessment, executive coaching and strategic succession planning, at the recent Forum for Women in Accounting, presented by The Advisory Board and Crosley + Company.