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The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has identified deficiencies in eight audits performed by Big Four firm Deloitte during an inspection of the firm conducted over a six-month period in 2006. The audit overseer said that in some cases, the audit deficiencies "were of such significance that it appeared to the inspection team that the firm, at the time it issued its audit report, had not obtained sufficient competent evidential matter to support its opinion on the issuer's financial statements." The audit clients are not identified in the PCAOB's inspection report. A response letter to the board by the Big Four firm raised objections to the findings in two of the audits. Deloitte said that it was committed to "the highest standards of audit quality." The firm said that it has already begun work to address the board's concerns over the remaining audit reports. The report can be accessed at: http://www.pcaobus.org/Inspections/Public_Reports/index.aspx

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board named insider C. Gregory Scates as deputy chief auditor. In that role, Scates, 53, will provide technical direction in the development of the board's standards. He will report to Tom Ray, the PCAOB's chief auditor and director of professional standards. Scates, who came aboard the PCAOB in 2003, helped develop Auditing Standards Nos. 1 and 3, which deal with reporting on audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB and audit documentation. He also has developed staff guidance on technical auditing matters, and led various current standards-setting projects. Prior to joining the PCAOB, Mr. Scates was associate chief accountant in the division of enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Center for Audit Quality, a affiliated group of the American Institute of CPAs, has signed on to the Aspen Principles, a set of guidelines focused on business practices, investment practices and the long-term competitiveness of U.S. business. Prompted by concerns about the short-term pressures on publicly traded companies and rising public sentiment against excessive executive compensation, the signing of the four-page document by 12 members of The Aspen Institute Corporate Values Strategy Group is the culmination of a two-year process. The Aspen Institute Business and Society Program spearheaded the lengthy initiative in collaboration with the Council of Institutional Investors and the Business Roundtable. Key provisions of the Aspen Principles call for: * Companies to stop providing quarterly earnings guidance to analysts and to not respond to analyst estimates. * Corporate boards to communicate with "long-term- oriented investors" on senior executive compensation. * Requiring senior executives to hold stock they are given for at least some period beyond their tenure with the company, thus tying them to the long-term growth of the company. * Banning senior executives from hedging the risk of long-term-oriented stock option compensation. * Providing for "clawbacks," which involve recouping senior executive compensation awarded based on the achievement of performance targets subsequently slashed or wiped out by corporate financial restatements. Other organizations that have signed the Aspen Principles include the AFL-CIO, PepsiCo, Pfizer and Xerox. Separately, the CAQ said that it would host a panel discussion and luncheon July 30 at the National Press Club in Washington to mark the fifth anniversary of the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley.

Write-up and payroll software provider Universal Business Computing Company said it has added a data importing/exporting feature to its applications. UBCC said that its data importing/exporting feature enables users to send reports to paper, PDF, CSV/Excel files with partial-run capability by date range, by state, labor distribution codes, and employee. For more information, call (800)-827-8610 or visit www.ubcc.com.

When Scott Cook presented his keynote speech at the end of the final day of Intuit’s QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions conference in San Diego last week, he asked the audience how many among them had ever had a boss. Of course, everyone raised their hands. But then he inquired how many of them who had ever thought their boss wasn’t doing a good job in certain areas actually sat down with those bosses to suggest ways to improve? Only a select brave few. “If you’re the boss, you’re getting a rose-colored view and not feedback on things you need to fix,” Cook says. “I’m the only person in the company who doesn’t get a formal personnel review.” Once someone establishes a position of power within his or her company, it’s that individual’s responsibility to ask for feedback in order to constantly improve, because most employees aren’t going to give that criticism unsolicited. It’s a phenomenon Cook refers to as “revolutionizing the way leaders lead,” and he’s fighting on the front lines of that internal battle. Cook participates in 360 reviews in which an independent outside party comes to Intuit and interviews employees at various levels about certain leadership qualities. Agreeing to this kind of research is one thing. Listening to the observations is quite another. “Every instinct I had was to disagree, or agree but not understand,” Cook admits of his reaction when he learned what employees felt he wasn’t doing well (He didn’t admit the specifics to the San Diego crowd, however.) In order to break old habits, Cook had to “design interventions,” posting sticky notes next to his desk and forcing himself to read those reminders prior to conducting meetings. Just like in other recovery programs, acknowledging the errors of your ways is the first step toward recovery. “I told the people who work around me what my problems are and how I’m going to change,” Cook says. “I told them ‘I need your help.’” It became clear through this honest discourse that the company he founded 24 years ago continues to enjoy success not solely because of his team’s ability to drive sales, but because of a constant drive for self-improvement, which trickles down from the top. Effective leaders shape great companies. Cook chose to check his ego at the door and give his subordinates permission to critique him in order for him to improve himself and his company. In doing so, he set an atmosphere for his entire staff to continuously strive for self-improvement, thereby always raising the bar as to what truly defines greatness.

The just-released spring 2007 issue of the Statistics of Income Bulletin includes the first article on farm proprietorship returns by the Internal Revenue Service in more than 20 years, as well as articles on high-income individual income tax returns, taxpayers reporting noncash contributions, qualified zone academy bonds, international boycott reports and S corporations. In addition, this issue of the bulletin presents selected tax year 1990-2004 individual income tax return data that have been indexed for inflation, and tax year 2005 individual income tax return statistics classified by state and size of adjusted gross income. For tax year 2004, there were 3,021,435 individual income tax returns filed with adjusted gross income of $200,000 or more and 3,067,602 returns with expanded income of $200,000 or more. The Bulletin highlights the following: * For tax year 2004, there were 25.3 million individual taxpayers who itemized deductions and reported a deduction for noncash charitable contributions. Those taxpayers reported $43.4 billion in deductions for these noncash contributions. Individuals whose total noncash charitable deductions on Schedule A, Itemized Deductions, exceed $500 are required to report these donations in detail on Form 8283, Noncash Charitable Contributions. For 2004, a total of 6.6 million individuals, representing a little more than a quarter of those who reported noncash charitable contributions, filed Form 8283. These individuals reported noncash contributions valued at almost $37.2 billion, or nearly 86 percent of all noncash contributions. * The number of farm proprietorship returns declined between tax years 1998 and 2004, with the majority of farm proprietorship returns showing a farm net loss. For tax year 2004, some 1.4 million farm proprietorship returns, or 70 percent of the total, had a farm net loss. Gross farm income reported on sole proprietorship returns totaled $93.3 billion for tax year 1998 and increased 8.3 percent to $101 billion in 2004. Total farm expenses grew even more during this period, by 12.9 percent, from $101.2 billion in 1998 to $114.3 billion in 2004. * For tax year 2003, some 1,268 taxpayers filed Form 5713, International Boycott Report; of these, 124 reported receiving boycott requests, and 36 agreed to participate in a boycott. There were 41 taxpayers who lost a portion of their tax benefits as a result of their participation in a boycott or because they had operations in a boycotting country and claimed the extraterritorial income exclusion. Similarly, 1,343 Forms 5713 were filed for tax year 2004; of these, 131 taxpayers reported boycott requests, 45 agreed to participate, and 46 taxpayers reported tax consequences. For both years, the percentage of filers who lost tax benefits was approximately 3 percent. * The final bulletin article takes a look at the dominance of the wholesale and retail trade division among S corporations since 1959. For tax year 2004, some 45 years after the creation of S corporations, wholesale and retail represented the largest portion of total receipts, total deductions, portfolio income, total net income (less deficit) and total assets.

Attending the AICPA Tech+ Conference was an eye opener in terms of how much now goes into a firm’s decision whether to continue as or purchase new hardware or applications, and the related security issues. It also taught me how much of an impact technology can have in unexpected ways. For example, when I got to the conference I discovered the attendees only had access to the sessions online and on a memory stick. No paper was given out and those without a laptop were at a tremendous disadvantage. Many of the PowerPoint slides shown were hard to read or changed before you could complete taking notes. Of course, I lost the memory stick an hour after it was given to me. There was also, at least initially, difficulty getting wireless access at the conference, and making a connection to the Internet in your room was an effort. But my favorite experience with technology had to do with food. At the deli at the hotel, I ordered a takeout order of two hot dogs with mustard and sauerkraut. The clerk entered my order in the computer and said the order would be out shortly. After waiting a long time, the clerk finally walked the 10 feet to the open kitchen only to find the printer there was jammed so the order was never received. The next night a reservation was made for my party of four, but when we got to the restaurant it couldn’t be found in the computer, even though a hostess remembered typing it in. These technology hiccups still bother me, but I discovered at the conference that these blips don’t bother the techies at all. A number described the initial difficulties that they had in working with Vista and Office 2007. They talked of their difficulties fondly, and with an acknowledgement that they’re even expected. All of us should adopt the techies’ philosophical view, as they fully understand that the difficulties discovered will be cured in the next version of the application or product. They don’t see it as a problem, but rather as a path to the solution. Of course, I’m a little slow, because my solution, even if a new printer is used, is to have the deli clerk yell out “Two with everything on it” when he types in my order of hot dogs at AICPA Tech+ 2008. PS:ENTRY PERIOD CLOSING SOON FOR PRACTICE INNOVATION AWARDS Practical Accountant's Practice Innovation Award is given annually to public accounting firms that take the lead in developing a new service area, improving services to their clients, or promoting efficiency in the practice of public accounting. Firms submit a brief but detailed description of the innovation (or innovations) that they believe fits the above criteria. They should detail the resulting benefits, especially any associated increase in revenue or cost savings. Most submissions are about 300 words. Winners will receive a plaque and be profiled in our September issue. Prior years' winners can participate as long as the submission is on a different basis from their award-winning innovation. Judging is by Practical Accountant's editorial staff. Submissions, with the name of the firm's contact person, must be received no later than June 29, 2007, preferably by e-mail. Regular mail should be addressed to Howard Wolosky, Practical Accountant, SourceMedia, One State Street Plaza, 27th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10004. The e-mail address is Howard.Wolosky@sourcemedia.com

Elaine Weiss has served as president and chief executive of the Illinois CPA Society, Illinois CPA Foundation and CPAs for the Public Interest since 2002. Prior to coming aboard the ICPAS, she served as associate executive director of the American Bar Association.

In a three-year-old legal fray that resulted in a mistrial in March, a jury here has found global audit firm BDO Seidman guilty for its failure to detect audit fraud that prompted a Florida financial services company to declare bankruptcy. The verdict stems from a suit filed in 2004 by Banco Espirito Santo SA, a Portuguese bank that charged BDO with failing to uncover some $170 million of fraud at financial services firm E.S. Bankest, a former partner of the bank.

The Treasury is seeking nominations for its previously announced strategy to establish an Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession -- a committee charged with studying the accounting profession and ways to keep the auditing profession vibrant and the U.S. capital markets competitive. Last month, Treasury selected former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt and former SEC chief accountant Donald Nicholaisen to help lead the effort. The committee is expected to take about a year to study topics such as the concentration of the Big Four and their exposure to potentially crippling shareholder lawsuits. The panel is scheduled to begin its work in the fall. Nominations should be sent to ACAPmembership@do.treas.gov or Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession Membership, Office of Financial Institutions Policy, Department of the Treasury, Main Treasury Building, Room 1418, 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, D.C. 20220. Nominations must be received on or before July 11, 2007.