By Bruce H. Nearon

A September 1997 article in the Daily Yomiuri reported that the “latest fashion craze” among high school girls in Tokyo was temporary tattoos in the shape of a bar code. Little did they know that as of January 2005, a new bar code standard will take effect worldwide.

With the exception of the United States and Canada, where 12-digit codes are used, retail products worldwide are marked with either 8- or 13-digit symbols. To sell those products in the U.S. or Canada, manufacturers have had to relabel them with a 12-digit UPC (Universal Product Code) symbol. To meet the need for increased global commerce, the Uniform Code Council (UCC) announced that effective Jan. 1, 2005, all U.S. and Canadian companies must be capable of scanning and processing 8- and 13-digit codes as well as 12-digit codes. This initiative is called the 2005 Sunrise.

Learn what it takes to be sunrise compliant by attending the Aug. 5 continuing professional education morning presentation organized by the New York State Society of CPAs’ Technology Assurance Committee. The presentation will address a number of items, including the issues that companies using bar codes should consider, and, perhaps more importantly, ways in which those Japanese girls can ensure their bar code tattoos are compliant with the new standard.

Date: Tuesday, Aug. 5
Time: 8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.: registration, networking, free continental breakfast; 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.: CPE session
Presenter: Ford Levy, BSEE, CPA, MBA
Location: NYSSCPA headquarters, 530 Fifth Ave. (between 44th and 45th streets), fifth floor, New York City

About the Presenter

Ford Levy is a partner in the firm of Maxwell Shmerler & Co., located in White Plains, N.Y. Mr. Levy provides a variety of technical and business solutions to his clients, including network design and administration, website design, and computer software consulting and installation.

Before becoming a CPA, Mr. Levy worked as an electrical engineer on a number of high-profile defense projects, including the electronic design for the F-16 aircraft and software development for the Seawolf submarine. He is a graduate of the Moore School of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania and of Fordham University. Mr. Levy can be reached at flevy@msco-cpa.com.

Additional Information

This NYSSCPA/Foundation for Accounting Education (FAE) CPE morning presentation is free to NYSSCPA members and $15.00 for nonmembers to qualify for one hour of CPE credit.

At the session you will get the chance to network with the profession’s and the industry’s IT leaders.

Advance registration is encouraged, because seating is limited.

For additional information, contact Gary E. Carpenter at 315-487-4567 or gcarpenter-cit@worldnet.att.net or Bruce H. Nearon at 973-403-6955 or bnearon@jhcohn.com.

For more information on the Technology Assurance Committee, visit www.nysscpa.org, click on the Find Committees tab on the left-hand side of the page and then scroll down to the Technology Assurance Committee link.

Registration

To register: contact FAE at 212-719-8383 or 800-537-3635 or visit the Society’s website at www.nysscpa.org (you will need your Society member number to register). Go to the Technology Assurance Committee homepage and select “8/5/03-2005 Sunrise Date for Barcodes” located under the Free IT CPE banner.

Acknowledgments

J.H. Cohn LLP and Carpenter Information Technologies, Inc., helped provide the funding and resources for the continental breakfast, marketing and publicity, and administration of this event.