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Not in the unclaimed property game. There it's return it or else. Certificate of Merit Do you operate a business? Longer than one year? Have you ever had a payroll [...]

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA) and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Amendments Act of 1988 (FCPAA) have motivated public corporations to document their accounting control systems, address weaknesses in the systems, establish or expand internal auditing functions, and increase the number of independent board members. The FCPAA contained the first significant changes to the FCPA since passage of the latter. Congress enacted the FCPA to prevent bribery of foreign officials by US business representatives by instituting new accounting requirements and making bribery a crime. The accounting provisions, enforced by the Securities and Exchange Commission, directed companies to maintain accurate records and controls, and the Department of Justice enforced the foreign bribery prohibitions. The FCPAA attempted to clarify ambiguous accounting and bribery terms and increased criminal penalties.

Many companies have internal reports that are unique and peculiar to their circumstance, situations, and prejudices. Too frequently, internal reports are the result of an evolutionary process where bells and [...]

While there is controversy among practitioners about whether advertising is effective or desirable, this author feels that CPAs should be aware of what kind of advertising the competitors are doing. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Whether accountant-client communications should be considered privileged and confidential is discussed. The obligation of accountants to divulge or withhold information gained through communications to third parties (such as the Internal Revenue Service), even under subpoena, is covered for each of the three recognized practice areas of accounting: auditing, tax accounting, and management consulting. The four criteria for communications to be considered privileged are: that the communication originate in a confidence not to be disclosed, that the confidentiality of the communication be essential to the client-advisor relationship, that the relationship between the parties be one that the community would approve of, and that the benefits of confidentiality outweigh the benefits of disclosure. Eighteen states have passed laws that make accountant-client communications privileged and confidential.

Accountants require new and enhanced training for the always-changing profession. The American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the main accrediting group of business schools, wants to eliminate possible business inexperience in accounting disciplines via the accreditation of accounting programs. For the school to become accredited, roughly 60 percent of the department of accounting's faculty must have had two months of training at an outside source.

The Practice Fellows Program may help bridge the gap between the practical and theoretical sides of the accounting profession at colleges and universities. For a sponsoring university department, the Practice Fellows Program will: be used to help prepare curricula, bring business realities to accounting courses, introduce the thoughts, concepts, and experiences of the practitioner to both faculty and student, help students and faculty with the design of research programs, and furnish career advice to students. The practice fellows should be chosen from wide segments of the accounting profession, not just CPAs from public accounting firms.