Cheshire Software has released a new version of its financial planning software program, Cheshire Wealth Manager, with a new feature for analyzing insurance-planning needs.

An international accounting standard-setter has issued a revised set of proposals designed to strengthen the independence requirements for accountants.

I am constantly amazed and intrigued by what is being done via the Internet. In Practical Accountant, we report on how creative some firms are incorporating the Internet into their operations and going way beyond the proverbial virtual firm brochure. My guess is that creativity is stimulated by how others are using the Internet.

Adaptive Planning has added team collaboration and the sharing of best practices to the latest version of its business performance management software.

A new accounting standard is giving executives second thoughts about plans for mergers and acquisitions.

The number of financial restatements finally began to decline last year after a decade-long increase and will probably continue to fall as the Securities and Exchange Commission makes it easier for companies to avoid restatements that aren't likely to greatly affect investors.

Nonprofit accounting software vendor Blackbaud has struck a deal to acquire rival Kintera for $1.12 per share, or approximately $46 million.

Payroll processor ADP has launched an online portal aimed at accountants who service small businesses, giving them free access to some information from BNA and CCH.

The Internal Revenue Service said that economic stimulus payments directly deposited to individual retirement accounts and other tax-favored accounts may be withdrawn tax- and penalty-free.The relief is designed to help taxpayers who may have been unaware that by choosing direct deposit for their entire regular tax refund, they were also choosing to have their stimulus payment directly deposited as well. The tax relief is available for amounts withdrawn from tax-favored accounts that are less than or equal to a taxpayer’s directly deposited stimulus payment.

KPMG SETS UP IFRS INSTITUTENew York — KPMG has established the IFRS Institute to address the needs of companies, investors and academics affected by the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards.

There are some classes of software that simply don’t change much from year to year, and retirement planning software is one of them.In any given year, you may see tax tables updated or compatibility with new operating systems and hardware slip in, but these are, by definition, very stable applications whose core strength is that they offer reliability and a strong set of features. Nor do they need to compete with consumer applications for the beauty of their interface or use of colors. Most of the work of a good retirement planner is done in the background, with little or no reason to bother with aesthetics anywhere other than in the final client presentation.

PLANNING NICHE GROWS FOR CPASFinancial planning has helped fuel an increase in revenues at CPA firms, according to a new study by the American Institute of CPAs and CPA firm Moss Adams. The survey found an average financial planning practice size of $460,000 among the 431 CPA firms that responded, with an average yearly growth rate of 34.9 percent between 2004 and 2006. Respondents anticipated a 20.6 percent increase in assets under management in 2007.

The Institute of International Finance, a global association of financial institutions, has moved to clarify its position on fair value accounting after word leaked out that it wanted to loosen the standards, provoking an outcry.

While late-year legislative changes again delayed filing for some taxpayers, the season proceeded relatively smoothly, according to veteran practitioners.“It was one of the smoothest ones I’ve had, and my colleagues say the same. In part it’s because the software is getting better,” said Holliston, Mass.-based preparer Larry Novick. “I did notice that a lot fewer of my clients claimed non-cash contributions, and the amount of collection plate contributions decreased substantially. Most of them had heard of the stricter substantiation rules.”

For those CPAs performing business valuations, January brought a new standard into their sphere, a long-awaited pronouncement that has garnered both praise and some mixed reviews.Despite the critique, most business valuation appraisers said that the American Institute of CPAs’ Statement on Standards for Valuation Services No. 1 was a long time coming, though it hasn’t drastically affected their day-to-day practices.

The American Institute of CPAs has begun publicizing the revised set of peer review standards that it quietly issued earlier this year.The new standards are designed to be more principles-based and less of a checklist-based process than older peer review standards. A key difference is the elimination of letters of comment and the old three-tier system of unmodified, modified and adverse grades given to firms by reviewers. The new standards require a simple grade of “pass,” “pass with deficiencies” or “fail.”

In a good news/bad news scenario for many publicly traded companies, a recent poll of financial executives showed that while the costs of audit fees rose in year-over-year comparisons, there was a marked decline in Sarbanes-Oxley 404 compliance expenses.According to a recent survey of 185 companies conducted by Financial Executives International, larger companies, or accelerated public filers — which comprised about 90 percent of the respondents — spent an average of $3.6 million on total audit fees last year, up nearly 2 percent from 2006.

With governmental accounting changing fast in a fast-changing financial environment, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board has added projects to its agenda to deal with the increasing variety of public/private partnerships, the common presentation of financial statements for reporting units that do not qualify as reporting entities, and for developments in pension accounting.The decision to review existing standards on post-employment benefits was based on an extensive research project that began in early 2006.

The May 2008 issue of The Journal of Accountancy ran opinion pieces on the role of accounting in the subprime crisis and subsequent bursting of the credit market bubble. Paul Miller was invited to comment on a controversial claim that mark-to-market practices made things worse. The critics claim that GAAP practices weakened institutions that invested in collateralized debt obligations by revealing large losses when the CDOs’ market values evaporated.They assert that financial statements would better serve the public interest if managers can keep unrealized losses (which they consider to be unreal) out of their financial statements. By a huge leap of ego, they conclude that they and everyone else would be better off if nobody is aware that those losses had occurred. After all, everyone knows they aren’t real because they are always followed by gains. Except when they aren’t, of course.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board may change some accounting rules to make it more difficult for banks to get subprime loans off their books.At an accounting conference held last month in New York, FASB Chairman Robert Herz said that the rules might require banks to keep loans on their books that they previously have been able to package and sell off or securitize.