Our dream job
Phony Invoices
If we are ever released from our sentence here at New Products, we intend to apply immediately for a job at Phony Invoices, because people actually pay them to send out phony invoices. As we see it, it's the closest we can come to being fraudsters without running the risk of going to prison. The goal, of course, is to help clients identify weaknesses in the accounts payable systems, and Phony Invoices also offers anti-fraud training for AP staff, checks of vendors lists and more -- all of which your clients could well benefit from - but for us, it's basically a chance to perpetrate scams risk-free.
Aspirational literature
Faces of Fraud: Cases and Lessons from a Life Fighting Fraudsters and Detecting Fraud in Organizations: Techniques, Tools, and Resources
Wiley; $49.95 and $90
Look, it doesn't matter if you read Faces of Fraud because you want to stop them or because you want your face in a future edition -- the fact is that it's a fascinating anecdotal look at frauds, cons, swindles and scams of all sizes and types. If nothing else, it'll make sure that you never, ever trust anyone else again. Detecting Fraud goes a little lighter on the stories of actual frauds, but is a little more practical on methods for actually preventing and detecting them within a business, from developing more tamper-proof processes to training staff to recognize the tell-tale signs.
Actually about firms
Leading Firms: How Great Professional Service Firms Succeed & How Your Firm Can Too
SelectBooks; $16.95
Many of the books that cross our desks about building successful companies are fairly generic: Be nimble. Value your people. Encourage innovation. Avoid doing stupid things. And so on. Leading Firms, on the other hand, actually includes specific advice that's actually relevant to actual professional service firms. It covers everything from developing a firm strategy to creating a high-performing culture, dealing with clients and more. Well worth a look for any partners who want to take their firm to the next level.
We need info -- stat!
ACACalculators.com
Drake Software
It's already started: The incredibly complex tax and business ramifications of 2010's Affordable Care Act have begun to kick in, and businesses and individuals are only just starting to realize both how much it's going to affect them, and how little they know about it. Drake Software aims to help with its new ACACalculators.com, a Web site that offers a layman's overview of the act's tax implications, with FAQs and free penalty and credit calculators.
For as long as they last
SmartCompliance
ADP
The thing with most rules these days is that they don't stay rules for long, and yet they're also multiplying rapidly. As a result, businesses find themselves complying with a wide array of regulations that change far too frequently. To help them stay abreast of things, ADP has launched the new cloud-based SmartCompliance platform so users can access a number of compliance tools and services in one place. Among them are solutions for employment tax, wage garnishments, employment verification, W-2 management and more, as well as a solution that helps companies identify and claim all the tax credits they can.
No more lottery
Financial Independence (Getting to Point X): An Advisor's Guide to Comprehensive Wealth Management
Wiley; $40
As goals go, financial independence (the "Point X" of the title, as well as, well, the actual title) is pretty common -- but also not very frequently achieved, most likely because the usual approach involves lottery tickets and crossed fingers. CPA John Vento, a veteran financial advisor, lays out a more likely roadmap for reaching Point X in this book, by discussing "10 Key Wealth Management Issues" that individuals (and their financial advisors) need to account for in aiming for fiscal freedom.
No one's dream
AMA Business Boot Camp: Management and Leadership Fundamentals That Will See You Successfully Through Your Career
Amacom; $25
No one dreams all their life of becoming a manager -- it's something that happens incidentally to some other pursuit, an unlooked-for side effect of pursuing more money or more control or more success. And yet it's crucial to all of those, and the people who unexpectedly find themselves managers will need to develop serious managerial skills if they hope to get anywhere. Business Boot Camp is a handy guide to those skills, laid out in the order growing managers are most likely to encounter the need for them. No tips on how to succeed without ever having to be a manager, though ... .
New and improved!
The Auditing Standards Board, the Financial Reporting Executive Committee and the Not-for-Profit Guide Task Force have released a new revision of the Audit and Accounting Guide for Not-for-Profit Entities as an e-book. ... The Financial Accounting Foundation has released an updated print edition of the Financial Accounting Standards Board's Accounting Standards Codification. ... The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has launched an online platform for the Governmental Accounting Research System. The new GARS Online will be available in four different service plans. ... CCH's Sales Tax Office sales and use tax calculation solution has been certified for integration with Microsoft Dynamics AX. ... Billtrust has released the latest version of its Invoice Gateway, which offers bill recipients greater control over how incoming invoices are organized, viewed and paid.
