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Early Registration
Deadline for NLC Approaching
Register by Friday, Jan. 14 for the Third Annual Naitonal Leadership
Conference and save $100 off standard registration rates. The
conference, worth 14 CPE hours, is set for Feb. 7 – 8 in the
Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C. With the theme
“Improving Government Performance: Financial Managers Take Center
Stage,” the NLC will bring together the top leaders in federal,
state and local government financial management. Click
here to register online.
Computer-Based Auditing Tools & Techniques—A
Special Supplement to the Summer 2005
Journal
Auditors everywhere rely on a
variety of computer-based tools and techniques to get their jobs done.
The supplement will be bagged and mailed along with the Summer 2005
Annual Technology issue of the Journal of Government Financial
Management.
Click here for more information.
CGFM Exam 3 Study Guide
Now Available!
Be sure
to order the new Study Guide for CGFM Exam 3: Governmental
Financial Management and Control to help in your preparation for
the examination. Click here to learn
more.
 ORDER NOW!
A Primer on Internal Controls and Auditing: Crucial to Government and
the Economy
By: Wanda A. Wallace, Ph.D., CPA, CMA,
CIA
Internal control has never been optional, and now an easy-to-read
resource directed to a wide audience is available to understand both
what is meant by "internal control" and how an
“audit” is conducted. Click
here to order your copy.
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January 10, 2005
• News from the Profession
EPA’s IG Nikki Tinsley Looks Beyond
Enforcement
The sofa in Nikki Tinsley's
office in the Environmental Protection Agency sports one of those
fluffy little pillows with needlepoint lettering that you expect to say
"Home Sweet Home." A closer look reveals something much
saucier: "If You Obey All the Rules, You Miss All the Fun."
This is not the watchword one expects from an inspector general, whose
job it is to make sure her agency follows federal rules, laws,
regulations, ethical codes and budgets. So is this a joke of some kind?
"No, it's not a joke. It's really me. We are not just about
following rules," said Tinsley, the EPA's inspector general since
1999. "We want to know if the rules make sense." — Dale
Russakoff, The Washington Post.
Click here to read the entire
article.
Keeping New Year’s
Resolutions at Work Takes More Word Power than Willpower
According to a recent VitalSmarts survey, 69 percent of people
are setting New Year's resolutions relating to things they want to
change at work. Almost 86 percent said their path to success was
currently blocked by a conversation they were either avoiding or not
handling well. And while most want to make some significant changes, 95
percent have no idea how to speak up to get what they want. Some common
problems include: unrealistic expectations, an unpleasant boss, an
unreasonable workload, not knowing how to ask for a raise and a lack of
opportunity. "The right skills make all the difference. The people
who routinely solve touchy problems at work know what to say and how to
say it—they are masters at crucial conversations," says
Joseph Grenny, co-author of Crucial Conversations: Tools for
Talking When the Stakes are High. "When you learn how to talk
through tough issues with your boss, peers and senior management, you
can resolve almost anything that has you bothered at work."
Surprisingly, even though an overwhelming number of those surveyed
thought they would fail in dealing with tough issues at work, 69
percent said they were going to try anyway. "Don't take a cue from
the desperate," says Grenny. "Before you step into a
high-stakes conversation, you need to prepare."
—AccountingWEB.
Cli
ck here to read the entire article.
Financial Execs Call SOX
a Good Investment
A majority of financial executives (57 percent) say
Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance was a good investment for stockholders,
according to a report released this month by Oversight Systems, the
2004 Oversight Systems Financial Executive Report On Sarbanes-Oxley
Compliance, a nationwide survey of 222 financial executives. Of those
surveyed, 79 percent report having stronger internal controls as a
result of SOX compliance. Nearly three quarters (74 percent) say their
companies realized a benefit from SOX compliance, with 46 percent
saying SOX compliance ensures the accountability of individuals
involved in financial reports and operations. However, when asked about
the impact of SOX compliance on shareholder value, the view was mixed.
Although a clear majority (81 percent) think Congress needs to revisit
SOX legislation, most would still include the sections that require the
CEO and CFO to sign off on financial reports (Section 302); increased
documentation and monitoring of internal controls (Section 404); and
the timely disclosure of material changes (Section 409). Click here
for more information about the survey. —SmartPros.
CFO Council Launches
Public Website for Financial Metrics
The U.S. Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Council has unveiled a
Metric Tracking System, a website designed to provide federal financial
managers, taxpayers and others information on federal agencies’
financial operations. The website is intended to
assist in improving federal financial operations by giving information
on agency performance using a series of key financial management
indicators. The system has gone through an extensive testing process to
prepare for its public rollout. Users will now find an easy-to-navigate
system that contains key information about how various government
agencies score on financial indicators including reconciling cash
balances, clearing suspense accounting, collecting delinquent accounts
receivable, paying vendors electronically, paying vendors on time,
reducing interest penalties paid, and reducing travel and purchase card
delinquencies. —CFO Council.
Click here for more information.
GASB Approves Technical
Agenda
The Governmental Accounting Standards Board approved
its January-April technical plan at its December meeting. The board
plans to issue for comment a Preliminary Views document on pollution
remediation obligations and a final Concepts Statement related to
communication methods. The board also plans to continue to deliberate
issues related to its conceptual framework project addressing elements
of financial statements, as well as projects on derivatives and
hedging, fund balance reporting, and securitizations. The board also
issued Statement No. 46, Net Assets Restricted by Enabling
Legislation. Copies of Statement 46, along with a Technical
Bulletin, Recognition of Pension and Other Postemployment Benefit
Expenditures/Expense and Liabilities by Cost-Sharing Employers,
can be ordered on the GASB
website or by calling 800.748.0659. The board also released an
Exposure Draft, Accounting for Termination Benefits, which can be found
on the GASB website. The comment period ends March 11. The GASB also
honored the work of Barbara A. Henderson, a former GASB member, who
died on Nov. 28. Henderson was the first woman appointed to the GASB,
serving from 1991 until her retirement in 1999, following completion of
the new financial reporting model for state and local governments.
FASAB Publishes
Statement on Identifying and Reporting Earmarked Funds
The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) has
issued Statement of Federal Financial Accounting Standards 27,
Identifying and Reporting Earmarked Funds. A primary objective of
the project is to clarify the meaning of the term “trust
fund.” According to FASAB Chairman David Mosso, “Trust
funds included in the federal budget normally are not of a fiduciary
nature. Most of the assets held by such ‘trust funds’
represent government-owned assets earmarked to finance or help to
finance specific federal programs. This proposal distinguishes
earmarked funds from traditional trust or fiduciary activities and
requires that financial statements present the cumulative amount
earmarked for specific programs.” —FASAB. The standards in
SFFAS 27 are effective for periods beginning after Sept. 30, 2005. The
statement is available on the FASAB
website.
Federal Accounting Corner
When are an accounting system's pro
forma transactions compliant with the Standard General Ledger (SGL)?
The SGL Board defines SGL transactions to tell accountants and
programmerwhat a federal accounting system must be capable of
recording. The SGL Board has also stated, on numerous occasions, that
accounting systems do not have to post transactions identically to the
way they appear in the guidance, so long as the end result is the same.
—Simcha Kuritzky, CGFM, CPA.
Click here to read the entire
column.
Survey: Professionals
with Certifications Earn 30% More
Data from more than 2,800 survey respondents in the U.S.
accounting, finance and banking professions shows that workers with a
professional credential of some type earned 30 percent more in 2004
than those working without any kind of credential. The average annual
salary for CPAs participating in the survey increased just over 2
percent from 2003 to $73,295. CPA salaries were not broken down by
career longevity, but three-quarters of all respondents had been
working in their current position for less than five years.
Professionals with a credential of some kind (about half of the
respondents) were earning $70,096 compared to those without any kind of
credential who are earning only $53,748. The survey also showed men are
25 percent more likely than women to hold a professional credential but
women with a credential are earning 31 percent more ($60,942), than
their female counterparts. —AccountingWEB. Click
here to read the entire article.
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