The Latest

President Bush said he would sign into law the economic stimulus package passed by Congress.

Larry Rodda, a former principal and managing director of KPMG Consulting, has agreed to pay an $80,000 penalty to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle charges that he deceived investigators over accounting fraud at Peregrine Systems.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has decided to issue final guidance that would defer for a year the effective date on which private and public entities would have to account for fair value measurements.

An advisory committee to the Securities and Exchange Commission intends to make its decision on Feb. 11 on whether to issue an eagerly anticipated report on improvements to financial reporting.

The Microsoft reseller was quite candid—Sage Software’s MIP nonprofit package was better than what Microsoft offered for the same purpose, and less expensive. Similarly, even though the latest version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 was substantially better than the previous package, it was still nowhere as good as Sage’s SalesLogix.

The Internal Revenue Service has improved its online refund-tracking tool and tax information publication.

A survey of leading corporate tax executives predicts that taxes will not be a major issue in Congress in 2008, apart from the one-year alternative minimum tax patch and the one-year extenders package.

Intacct said it has achieved record growth in 2007, thanks to demand for its software-as-a-service applications.

Kellogg & Andelson Accountancy Corp. has acquired the Los Angeles office of a subsidiary of UHY Advisors.

Intuit has introduced an online resource for small business owners, “The Guide to Hiring and Paying Employees.”