Accounting and Financial News Stories

Deloitte Leverages AI and Analytics for Audits
Accounting Today
Deloitte CEO Cathy Engelbert discussed how auditing firms can use advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, data analytics and even drones to make audits more efficient. Speaking at Financial Executives International’s Current Financial Reporting Issues conference in New York on Monday, Engelbert discussed technology and other matters facing accountants. “Clearly all the audit firms are investing heavily in innovation, transforming their audit businesses,” she said.

Most U.S. Workers Enjoy Their Jobs
CPA Practice Advisor
Everyone wants to be happy at work, but it varies by an employee's job and field, among other factors, according to a new study of more than 12,000 workers by the Robert Half staffing agency. Among the key findings of the study, entitled "It's Time We All Work Happy: The Secrets of the Happiest Companies and Employees" Most professional employees are generally happy. On a happiness scale of 0 -- 100, those surveyed scored a 71. Senior executives have the highest happiness levels, while people working in sales and customer service are on the lower end of the spectrum.

SEC Staff Cautions Companies, Auditors on Revenue Rules
Bloomberg BNA
Auditors shouldn’t manage company efforts to apply new revenue recognition rules, a senior staff accountant at the Securities and Exchange Commission said Nov. 15. Securities regulators cautioned auditors and companies that such actions may risk violating auditor-independence rules. Auditors and companies, therefore, should guard against outside accountants aiding companies in shifting to the new standard.

Expect Medicaid to Change, but Not Shrivel, Under Donald Trump
New York Times
The expansion of Medicaid, a central pillar of the Affordable Care Act, faces immense uncertainty next year, with President-elect Donald J. Trump and top Republicans in Congress embracing proposals that could leave millions of poorer Americans without health insurance and jeopardize a major element of President Obama’s legacy. But influential figures in surprising quarters of the new administration might balk at a broad rollback of Medicaid’s reach, favoring new conditions for access to the government insurance program for the poor but not wholesale cutbacks.

Financial Accounting Foundation Restructures Committees
Accounting Today
The Financial Accounting Foundation's Board of Trustees has voted to restructure several of its own committees, along with oversight of the Private Company Council, disbanding the Private Company Review Committee that has been overseeing it. The restructuring will take effect in January 1 of next year. It aims to improve their overall effectiveness and efficiency, based on recommendations from a FAF Trustee working group along with the management of the foundation, which oversees the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board and the Private Company Council.

Cuomo and REBNY already disagree about last week's 421-a agreement
Crain’s New York Business
Days after Gov. Andrew Cuomo brokered an agreement between the Real Estate Board of New York and the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York to revive a property-tax break called 421-a, there is already disagreement about how the pact will be implemented, setting up a bizarre twist for the state legislature to unravel in the coming weeks. The 421-a tax break is designed to encourage the development of rental housing in the city and ensure that up to 30% of the apartments in those buildings are enrolled in the city's affordable-housing program. It works by letting developers pay zero property taxes for several decades.

5 Tips on How to Market an Accounting Firm
CPA Practice Advisor
If your accounting firm maintains a website and sends email blasts to clients from time to time, you may think you’re on top of your game when it comes to digital marketing. However, the truth is most firms are missing out on major opportunities to target and attract clients using tools that are right at their fingertips. Today, a digital strategy is especially important. While estimates vary, studies have shown that more than 60% of a purchase decision (in our profession, landing a client) is made prior to a prospect calling your office. This means potential clients are primarily basing their decisions to work with you on your overall digital footprint.

Rudolph Giuliani’s Business Ties Viewed as Red Flag for Secretary of State Job
New York Times
Rudolph W. Giuliani, facing a flood of questions about whether his business dealings should disqualify him from being named President-elect Donald J. Trump’s secretary of state, on Tuesday defended his lucrative 15 years in the private sector as a credential for the job. “I have friends all over the world,” Mr. Giuliani, the former New York mayor, said in an interview. “This is not a new thing for me. When you become the mayor, you become interested in foreign policy. When I left, my major work was legal and security around the world.”