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Here's the situation: Your client needs to upgrade their accounting software from an out-of-the-box program to a more sophisticated, customized system. You know it and your client is avoiding it. What should you do?You might have to get a little creative.

'Truth" and "accounting" should not be concepts that are terribly hard to reconcile - unless you're also trying to bring "government" into the formula.Uniting those three ideas has been Sheila Weinberg's goal ever since she had a baby. Not that the baby had anything to do with it, but motherhood gave her some time off from her career as a CPA.

JACKSON HEWITT SAYS IT WAS CLEAR OF FRAUDPARSIPPANY, N.J. - Jackson Hewitt Tax Service said that it has completed its internal review of fraud allegations by the Justice Department against several of its franchisees, and said that its corporate employees were not involved.

During my extended stay in college, my idea of prudent financial planning was to put enough aside to order extra cheese at Pizza Hut on Friday nights. Several decades later, Friday is still pizza night for me, and I've upgraded a bit since then. Now, in a week without any unforeseen expenses like a brake job or a cut and highlights for my wife and daughters, I can splurge on a double order of garlic knots.My rather modest financial portfolio aside, I saw recently that financial planning perks have swelled among the chief executives of Fortune 100 companies. Last year, more than 74 percent of Fortune 100 companies disclosed that their CEO received financial planning-related perks, versus just under 30 percent in 2005.

Most states do not allow CPAs licensed in other states to do business within their borders unless the CPA first provides notification or pays a fee - and many CPAs find this practice unfair.States are increasingly attempting to enforce notice and fee requirements even if a CPA's business is being conducted over the Internet, by phone or by mail, and the CPA never physically enters the other state. A CPA may also face notice and fee requirements for simply preparing a tax return for a client with an investment in a business in another state. In the accounting profession, this issue has come to be known as the "mobility crisis."

GOVERNMENT OWES $45M IN EMPLOYMENT TAXESWASHINGTON, D.C. - The federal government is itself a tax delinquent, owing approximately $45 million in employment taxes, according to a report from a Treasury Department watchdog.

The Auditing Standards Board has issued a new standard on quality control that sets new criteria for quality reviews and supercedes all existing standards applying to firm quality control.

IBC JETTISONS KPMGFinancial holding company International Bancshares Corp. said that its audit committee has dismissed KPMG as its auditor and replaced the Big Four firm with McGladrey & Pullen.

We are long-time critics of generally accepted accounting principles' historical cost tradition in financial reporting. We argue for providing market values to give users the up-to-date information they need to make rational investment and credit decisions.We have had some fun in the past describing the limitations in cost-based GAAP by offering other acronyms: PEAP (Politically Expedient Accounting Principles), WYWAP (Whatever You Want Accounting Principles) and POOP (Pitifully Old and Obsolete Principles). Despite the humorous undertone, our ultimate point is serious: The current financial reporting system needs to provide better support for the capital markets. After all, they are the foundation of our economy, and work best when market participants are quickly and fully informed.

As a young man, I was a crewmember of a 747 that crashed on takeoff in Kenya. The airline's emergency planning helped me keep cool, think rationally and help save the lives of 90 of the 149 passengers.Today, as principal of a financial advisory firm in Irvine, Calif., I regularly see people approach retirement planning like an airline flight, hoping the unthinkable won't happen. But while the chances of a crash are remote, the financial markets are considerably less predictable. Few are prepared for the transition from earnings income to portfolio income.