National Trusted Advisor Workshop

Attend the AICPA's National Trusted Advisor Workshop, where you'll learn practical tools, techniques and skills for strategic client planning, so you can return to the office with a concrete action plan to enhance your practice. Through solution-driven sessions, you'll learn how to translate the issues clients face into opportunities for consulting with them — by hearing first-hand why some clients switch firms and what they're looking for from a CPA.

Designed to help you:
·  Transform your clients’ problems into opportunities
·   Conduct more successful client planning meetings 
·   Collaborate with clients more insightfully 
·   Keep clients from switching CPA firms

Sandestin Conference

Looking to get CPE hours and a great tan? Earn 16 hours in an oil-free, easy-to-apply, four-hour format. Topics include Tax, Tech, and A&A with some of the nation's best instructors. Register today before your spot is booked!

Online Registration Now Available!

http://www.ascpa.org/Content/ContinuingEducation/Conferences.aspx#sand

ASCPA has arranged for discounts on hotel reservations so you can stay and play.

Huntsville Clusters

Rocket City here we come! Chose from 2 days and 8 courses including A&A and Tax. We'll be in the Huntsville area June 17 - 18.

ASCPA Interview Skills Workshops

ASCPA Interview Skills Workshops

In order to provide some practical help to accounting students as they approach graduation, the ASCPA will partner with Birmingham staffing firm ITAC Solutions to conduct mock interviews.  Additional partners are Becker Professional Review, who will offer two $50 gift cards for business clothing and volunteers from the Young CPAs.  The idea came from ITAC’s Charles Baughman and took flight at a meeting of the Auburn Montgomery Accounting Club in April.  Young CPA Board member Amanda Scott Freeman was making a presentation and the discussion turned to business etiquette and interviewing.

“I guess we don’t think about these tips when talking to an accounting class, but they make such a huge difference.  Since making a good impression and standing out from the crowd create a competitive edge, we’re looking forward to giving students some concrete help.   After all, technical information can be learned on the job, but getting the job is a tough hurdle”, noted Ms. Freeman.

The workshop will consist of a two-hour session divided into resume tips, business and professional dress, ten-minute interviews with as many different interviewers as possible, and a closing critique.

“As soon as we heard about the program [at Annual Meeting] we signed up”, said Dr. Kay Sheridan of Troy University.  “Troy accounting students have a busy recruiting season beginning in September and we’re excited about having them practice interviewing to gain experience and confidence.”

Contact Communications Director Diane Christy to volunteer as an interviewer, to sign up your school or for more information, dchristy@ascpa.org.

IRS to Ensure Tax Preparers' Adhere to High Standards

IRS Seeks to Enhance Compliance, Ensure

Tax Preparers' Adhere to High Ethical Standards

IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman announced June 4 in Washington, D.C. that the IRS plans to make regulatory recommendations to the Treasury Secretary by the end of the year to enhance compliance and improve tax preparers’ adherence to high ethical standards.  We want to share with you what we know about the IRS’s plans and the AICPA position on the subject of regulating tax preparers.

Commissioner Shulman appeared before the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee and said the IRS was undertaking this new initiative because it wants to ensure “all preparers are ethical, provide good service and are qualified.” Shulman’s announcement follows recommendations by IRS Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson in her annual reports to Congress that a registration program be created for unlicensed tax return preparers. The AICPA has been in discussion with IRS and congressional officials on this matter. The IRS is reacting to several related legislative proposals in the U.S. Congress.

Read more on our website

Signs of Optimism in Recent Economic Survey

Signs of Optimism in Recent Economic Survey

Respondents to the Second Quarter AICPA/UNC Kenan-Flagler Business and Industry Economic Outlook Survey expressed slightly greater optimism for the upcoming year than was reported during the first quarter of 2009. The survey of CPAs in business and industry is sponsored by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Although 53 percent of CPA executives expressed pessimism about the U.S. economy over the next 12 months, this represents a 30 percent decline from the 83 percent of respondents who were pessimistic or very pessimistic during the first quarter, a record high. Optimistic and very optimistic views increased this quarter to 20 percent. In addition, respondents with a neutral view of the economy increased to 28 percent, a 16 percent change from last quarter.

Read more on our website

FASB's GAAP Codification

CPAs in Business & Industry:

Are you prepared for FASB's GAAP Codification?

The Financial Accounting Standards Board on July 1 is expected to formally release the FASB Accounting Standards Codification and announce its effective date. Once effective, the codification will be authoritative and supersede all existing non-SEC accounting and reporting standards for nongovernmental entities. The FASB ASC will significantly change the structure of accounting standards, and CPAs and their businesses need to be ready to use and reference it. This business brief, FASB Accounting Standards Codification: What It Means For the CFO, the Organization and the Financial Reporting Process, was prepared specially for members in business and industry.

Read more at SmartBrief

The Alabama Society of Certified Public Accountants [ASCPA] is the statewide, professional membership organization representing over 6,500 Alabama CPAs in public practice, industry, government and education. Eleven chapters, various committees and task force groups made up of CPA volunteers develop programs and address issues to help all members be successful professionals. Visit www.ascpa.org

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