Audit & Accounting

Microsoft has launched Microsoft Money Plus, an update to its personal financial software targeted at consumers, entrepreneurs and small businesses.

The future of the accounting profession will be largely determined by its response to escalating talent shortages and other challenges of the post-regulatory-reform era, says a distinguished group of leaders in this field. The Robert Half International Financial Leadership Council recently met and recommended a number of strategies for addressing these issues. It’s all set forth in a new report, Charting the Future of Accounting, Finance and Audit Professions. The Council, which represents a diverse range of leaders from the corporate world, public accounting firms, industry associations, and top accounting universities in the U.S. and Canada, discussed the impact of changing workforce demographics on today’s accounting landscape and the recruitment and retention challenges associated with these shifts. Some of the key findings and recommended solutions are:

Albridge Solutions has added mutual fund and exchange-traded fund research to its Albridge Wealth Reporting software.

BDO Seidman was ordered to pay $170 million in compensation and $350 million in punitive damages by a Florida jury that blamed the accounting firm for negligence in failing to uncover fraud in its audits of a financial services company.

Grant Thornton said that its Business Optimism Index has hit an all-time low, the lowest point since the accounting firm introduced the semiannual confidence measure in May 2002.

Just recently, I was reading an online article in the East Bay Business Times, a California business-to-business newspaper, and I noticed a very effective ad for the San Ramon Valley Conference Center. It linked me to www.sanramonvalleyconferencecenter.com, the Web site for the conference site, where I was able to take a virtual tour of the facilities.

Accounting irregularities caused Beazer Homes to delay its third-quarter financial report after the company said in a financial filing that it had encountered accounting problems.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department's Office of Tax Policy have released a "priority guidance plan" for 2007-2008, outlining the 303 projects they plan to complete through June 2008.

Linden Lab, creator of the online virtual world Second Life, has begun outsourcing its finance and accounting work to Consero Global Solutions.

Board directors and general counsel are spending more time on enterprise risk management as a result of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, but they would prefer not to, according to a newly released study.