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The Institute of Certified Management Accountants, the certification division of the Institute of Management Accountants, said beginning July 2 it will offer its Certified Management Accountant exam in simplified Chinese. It marks the first time the CMA exam has been available in a language other than English. The IMA said that the English version of the exam had been available in the People's Republic of China for several years. The IMA said that the translation process took roughly one year to complete.

Thomas R. Smith, one of the country's leading attorneys in the area of mutual funds, has joined the Investment Management Division of the Securities and Exchange Commission as a senior advisor to Andrew Donohue, the division's director. Prior to joining the SEC, Smith was a partner with the New York office of Sidley Austin LLP, and also served as managing partner at Brown & Wood LLP from 1996 until the firm's merger with Sidley Austin five years later.

Payroll and benefits outsourcing provider Paychex, Inc. has unveiled Tax Credit Services, a product that provides small and mid-sized businesses with help in identifying and applying for eligible wage-based tax credits they may be eligible to receive. Wage-based tax credits were designed to stimulate economic development and create job growth in targeted areas throughout the country by reducing income tax liability at the state and federal levels. They can be used in the current year or can be carried forward to reduce future tax bills. The Paychex Tax Credit Services target two types of business tax credits: location-based and job-creation tax credits. Paychex veteran executive Cliff Gibson has been tapped to head the company's new Tax Credit Services sales division. For more information go to www.paychex.com

The Internal Revenue Service revealed plans to launch a new National Research Program reporting compliance study for individual taxpayers that would provide updated and more accurate audit selection tools and support efforts to reduce the nation's $300 billion-plus tax gap. The latest NRP study will be the first of an ongoing series of annual individual studies using an innovative multi-year rolling methodology. The study is scheduled to start in October 2007 and examine about 13,000 randomly selected 2006 individual returns. Similar sample sizes will be used in subsequent tax years. The IRS said that the advantage of combining results over rolling three-year periods is that it would be able to make annual updates to compliance estimates and develop more efficient workload plans on an annual basis. Previous studies started from scratch, drew tax returns from a single tax year and involved examinations of more than 45,000 taxpayers. The initial group of taxpayers whose returns are selected for audit under the new NRP study will start receiving official letters in October informing them that they are part of the research study.

Sage Software has launched Act! by Sage for Financial Professionals 9.0, a contact and customer management system targeted at financial advisors, brokerage firms and financial services teams. This is the second Act! industry-specific system released by Sage in as many months. In May, the financial software conglomerate introduced its Act! by Sage Premium for Real Estate 9.0. Though Act! is touted as contact management product, Sage described the application as being part of its customer relationship management suite of products. The new offering features data management, activity tracking, reporting and sales tools. It centralizes prospect and client data in a single database and enables users to capture and access key contacts, accounts, investment and financial information and assists with regulatory compliance tracking. Available in two versions, Act! by Sage for Financial Professionals is designed to work with up to 10 users, while Act! by Sage Premium for Financial Professionals is targeted at those who intend to share a database with more than 10 users. The Premium version also includes advanced security features at the user and contact levels, automatic database synchronization and backup, and centralized administration. For more information, go to www.sage.com.

A few years ago, someone suggested that vendors who wanted to market against Intuit’s Quick Books should adopt a phrase like “Do you want it Quick? Or do you want it right?

In testimony on Capitol Hill, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox said that the costs of complying with Sarbanes-Oxley's Section 404 will go down, but reiterated his position that there was no need for another delay in 404 compliance for smaller filers. Testifying before the House Committee on Small Business, Cox said, "The focus of this hearing is on whether the SEC's new guidance for management, and the PCAOB's new standard for auditors, will lower compliance costs for small companies. The answer is yes." Cox said he did not support further delays in the current deadline for small companies -- generally defined as those with less than $75 million market cap -- to file their first management report on internal control. The chairman said the costs of SOX will go down under the SEC's new guidance because companies "will be able to focus on the areas that present the greatest risk of material misstatements in the financials," and will be able to "exercise significant judgment in designing an evaluation tailored to its individual circumstances."

The multi-billion-dollar-gap between what publicly traded companies book as expenses for executive stock options and what they report cost the U.S. Treasury roughly $43 billion between 2004 and 2005, charged Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. Levin, who chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said at a hearing earlier this week that companies are reporting higher deductions for stock options to the Internal Revenue Service than what they are reporting to their shareholders. Levin said when company directors who approve executive compensation learn that the options, while an expense, also produce a huge tax break, it "becomes a tempting proposition for them to pay their executives with stock options instead of cash." Levin proposed that the massive gap be closed via legislation that requires a uniform reporting standards for options.

Sometimes the best way to get in the door of a business is by befriending the secretary. They have the power to create a bridge—or a barrier—to the Big Kahuna. But they also possess the ability to frustrate and potentially turn off clients and associates if they are unresponsive, unknowledgeable or downright indifferent. Journalists also rely on secretaries and PR types to connect us to executives working for the vendors we cover as well as busy CPAs and value-added resellers. Especially in the world of accounting software, it is a rare joy to encounter a person at that level who not only understands the questions we are posing, but also provides us with the answers we need. One of these talented people recently stopped working in his role, leaving some of us demanding reporters stomping our feet. We’ve grown accustomed to a certain level of service with this individual and established a friendship in the process. It’s easy to just shrug our shoulders and acknowledge most people who work to connect us to executives aren’t as advanced as he is. But why should we settle for sub-par, or even average, service from a company with which we’ve been doing business for years? Vendors, resellers and accountants should all take a look at their client-facing staff and see what tools they can arm them with to better serve the people who call or visit their offices. Many of these employees are fresh out of school and eager to learn and help. Can you teach them some basic industry jargon so they aren’t scratching their heads when a client asks a question? Can you put a rule in place requiring them to respond to inquiries within a certain period of time? Simply telling clients that their issues are being worked on can sometimes ease their anxiety, as opposed to waiting until those problems are solved to touch base with them and risk them thinking they are being ignored. Most people who conduct business with firms don’t expect administrative assistants to be experts in their fields. But they do expect to be treated with the same level of respect and professionalism as they would by a managing partner or CEO. These individuals serve as the front door to your organization. It’s up to you to make sure they are open and welcoming.

Northeast super-regional CPA and business advisory firm J.H. Cohn has merged with Glastonbury, Conn.-based Haggett Longobardi, effective June 1. Terms were not disclosed. Going forward, the Glastonbury office will now do business as Haggett Longobardi, a Division of J.H. Cohn LLP. The move will add 85 staffers to J.H. Cohn, including 66 professionals and 12 partners. Haggett Longobardi has specialties in the manufacturing and distribution, real estate and health-care sectors, as well as international client experience. Frank Longobardi, one of the firm's founding partners, will continue to run the Glastonbury office. The union with Haggett is the second merger within a month for J.H. Cohn. In May the firm added New York City-based Berenson LLP, which has an established apparel industry niche. Ranked No. 16 on Accounting Today's 2007 Top 100 Firms, J.H. Cohn generated revenues of $175 million.