pass the cpa exam – GUaRaNteeD! * GUaRaNteeD sUccess the First time You take the exam choose YoUR FoRmat, eNsURe YoUR sUccess Online, Software and Books With Thousands of Review Questions and More Case-Based Simulations Than Any Other Provider FreePass” to “How , Just DVD lling for Cr isasubject Of fe hange to c *Money-Back Guarantee – Call for details Payment Plans are aVailable! Call 800-671-5953 or Visit CPaexam.com/namGrass ©2010 Bisk Education, Inc. All rights reserved. SC 191409zbn1 | MCID 10947 Since 1985 Contents FEATURES business OUTLOOK By Drs. Ken Abramowicz, Michael DeCelles, and H. Charles Sparks global OUTLOOK Coming Together of GAAP and IFRS 6 IFRS – Only an Illusion of Uniform Financial Reporting? Page 6 10 “Condorsement” is in Your Future: The By Rebekah Heath, PhD, CPA, CIA; Becky Casey, MBA, CPA; Mary Polfer, MBA, CPA; and Gail Yarick, MBA, CPA; all of Pittsburg State University. cover story 14 From Debt to Career: Accounting Majors Burst Student Loan Bubble By Susan Cockrell, PhD, CPA, Niesha Wolfe, CPA, MA and Pamela Sharp Meyer, JD, CPA, all of Austin Peay State University College of Business Sustainability OUTLOOK 20 Abstractions in Accounting: (The Accounting Problem) By William Violet, Professor of Law and Accounting and James D. Hansen, Professor of Accounting, both of the School of Business, Minnesota State University Moorhead DIRECTORY Accounting Firms Page 14 24 New Accountant 2012 Directory of REVIEW COURSE OUTLOOK 4 How I Aced the CPA Exam: Watt Sells Winners’ Tips for Success By Tom Rogowski, CPA, Program Director, Accounting, Becker Professional Education 9 Set Your Sights Beyond Graduation: Make Sitting for the CPA Exam Your Top Priority By Bisk CPA Review Team Page 20 Review Course Outlook How I Aced the CPA Exam Watt Sells Winners’ Tips for Success As diverse as they are in backgrounds, employment, and life goals, the nineteen 2012 Elijah Watts Sells Award winners share a few important things in common. By Tom Rogowski, CPA, Program Director, Accounting, Becker Professional Education T hey all passed all four parts of the CPA Exam on the first attempt within one year; they logged the year’s highest cumulative scores, and they all prepared for the exam with Becker’s CPA Exam Review. Says award-winner Eric Hartel, “It’s very exciting just to pass the exam. Then winning the award is like, ‘Wow! It’s especially exciting when you think about how hard you had to work to get there.” Co-winner Chris Tkach concurs, “It made me feel that all the time spent was well worth it, that I had achieved something a bit greater than myself.” Bryan Avery agrees and adds a pragmatic note, “It’s also an excellent way to start off my career.” A Significant Achievement on the Road to Success While passing the CPA Exam marks a major career milestone, all of the winners interviewed confirmed the long-term value of CPA credential. “I view earning the CPA designation as an investment in my future,” says Zhi Liu, “a credential that will pay off over time.” Jenna Mehalic shares her view, “If you’re interested in a career in business, the CPA credential sets you up for success just about anywhere you want to go in the business world.” Other winners emphasize how a solid accounting background broadens your business perspective. “When you study accounting,” says Chris Schoell, “you understand business and get a high level view of how companies generate revenue and make a profit. Heather Saleeby adds, “ . . .when working as a CPA, you really learn the nuts and bolts of business.” Although most of the year’s award winners sat for the exam shortly after graduation, Seth Albin diverged slightly on his path to the CPA credential, first earning an MBA and then spending a few years in commercial banking. 4 New Accountant How I Did It. Tips from the Winners. “Start with the section where you feel most comfortable. That way you can get a feel for the testing environment, focus on managing your time, and feel more confident when you go into the next part of the exam.” - Mike Berryman “If at all possible, I recommend knocking out the entire exam process before you start working full time. Once you’re working, finding the time and energy to do all the required study can be a struggle.” - Kristen Brands “Learn the concepts, not just the formulas. Take notes and distill them into your own language. The only sure way you’ll be prepared for any question they might ask is to understand the material.” - Shane Drake “Realize that the exam entails a significant investment of time. Hit it hard from the beginning, it will pay off.” - William Jachym “Read the materials and do the practice questions, then step back and look at the big picture concepts. Stepping back is huge. You see how things fit together, which is very important to working through the exam.” - Emily Kiser “I realized that accounting was where I could really create the most value,” he commented. “I knew the CPA credential would increase the value I could bring to the table.” Learn from the Winners For good advice on how to succeed on the exam, ask a Watt Sells winner. Some, like Continued on Page 23 Editor & Publisher Steven N. Polydoris Associate Publisher Marie Centenail Graphic Design Michael Skuras Contributing Editor Cathy Demetropoulos Contact Us Advertising Advertising@NewAccountantUSA.com 773-866-9900 ext. 11 Editorial Editor@NewAccountantUSA.com Subscriptions Subscriptions@NewAccountantUSA.com Editorial Advisors William Aiken Douglas K. Barney - Chairman Peer Review Process William A. Broadus, Jr. Barry C. Broden John F. Chironna D. Larry Crumbley Roger H. Hermanson Nitham Hindi Robert L. Israeloff Roland L. Madison Frank M. Messina - Chmn. Henry Montero Marshall Romney Doyle Williams Editorial, Advertising, and Circulation Offices: 3500 W. Peterson Ave. Chicago, IL 60659 Phone: 773.866.9900 Fax: 773.866.9907 www.NewAccountantUSA.com Issue #751 Copyright © 2012 by Real Estate News Corp. All rights reserved. 3500 W. Peterson Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60659 Phone (773) 866-9900 Fax (773) 866-9881 Business Outlook New Accountants’ 11 Rules For Living... Here is a list of 11 things that many high school and college graduates did not learn in school. Rule #1 Life is not fair; get used to it. Rule #2 The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself. Rule #3 You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice president with a cell phone, until you earn both. Rule #4 If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure. Rule #5 Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping; they called it opportunity. Rule #8 Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades; they’ll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life. Rule #6 If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them. Rule #9 Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time. Rule #7 Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes, and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rainforest from the parasites of your parents’ generation, try “delousing” the closet in your own room. Excerpted from “Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can’t Read, Write or Add” by Charles J. Sykes. Rule #10 Television is NOT real life. In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs. Rule #11 Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one. NewAccountantUSA.com 5 Business Outlook IFRS – Only an Illusion of Uniform Financial Reporting? We question the implementation of IFRS and argue that it may exacerbate the problems of consistency and comparability which have been promoted as one of IFRS’ primary benefits. By Drs. Ken Abramowicz, Michael DeCelles, and H. Charles Sparks O ur paper presents and argues against the implementation of IFRS based on recent events surrounding both the inconsistent reporting of Greek debt and disclosures about the inability of at least one international accounting firm to adhere to professional audit standards. Recent developments illustrate that significant issues remain unresolved with respect to whether International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) should be universally adopted as global accounting standards. In this article we argue that the reliance on the auditor to ensure consistency in the application of IFRS may not be justified, leading to a situation of even less comparability across financial reports. Generally accepted accounting standards (GAAP) as promulgated in the U.S. over the past half century, were intended under the FASB conceptual framework approach as principles-based accounting standards. Significant questions exist, however, as to how well domestic U.S. standards have met that goal. Due in good measure to the relatively litigious nature of the U.S. economy, domestic standards have often been promulgated in such a way so as to lay out definitive rules for professional accountants to follow in the hope of avoiding legal ramifications of making accounting judgments. International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), in contrast, have evolved for the most part in a less litigious European environment. Perhaps for that reason, IFR standards tend to permit considerably more 6 New Accountant judgment when it comes to standards interpretations than do U.S. standards. Given the complexities inherent in the modern business world, permitting accounting professionals such discretion does seem to offer obvious potential advantages in tailoring specific accounting to specific circumstances for individual companies. Such potential advantages, however, must be weighed against concomitant potential disadvantages. No guarantees exist, for instance, that auditors in an IFRS based accounting system will be immune from the sorts of pressures from which U.S. standards have tried to immunize accountants. At the very least, nationalistic overtones stemming from recent economic strife in Europe and elsewhere suggest that that possibility merits close scrutiny. While IFRS require a modified his- torical cost approach to preparing financial statements, recent changes to IFRSs continue to place increased emphasis on fair value reporting. As a result, IFRSs often provides management with more opportunities to manage earnings than are currently available under U.S. GAAP. For example, while U.S. GAAP prohibits firms from revaluing property, plant, and equipment (PP&E), IFRS allows, but does not require firms to revalue PP&E to fair market value. In the case of inventory, U.S. GAAP requires firms to write-down inventory to the lower of cost or market, but prohibits the reversal of such write-downs in future periods. IFRS, however, requires the reversal of inventory write-downs in most cases when the replacement cost rises again. Likewise, in the case of intangible assets, while impairments under U.S. GAAP are permanent, IFRS generally allows firms to reverse impairments in later years. Given the many assumptions and subjective estimates inherent in the process of determining fair market values and impairments, IFRS appears to provide much more latitude for earnings management by firms striving to meet earnings targets. Combined with the highly publicized difficulty auditors have had enforcing U.S. GAAP against firms that write their paycheck (e.g., Enron, Waste Management, WorldCom, Sunbeam), adoption of IFRS, potentially magnifies the difficulty auditors have had controlling earnings management. Thus, adoption of IFRS, while being adopted on the promise of promoting uniformity in worldwide financial reporting, may actually result in more volatile earnings that are easier for management to manage and provide less useful information to investors and creditors. Much has been written about the merits of IFRS and why they should be adopted by the U.S. For more than a decade, globalization has been the strongest argument for IFRS adoption. It has been pointed out by many authors that when countries develop their own accounting standards they are enviably influenced by many factors (business, tax, rules based…) and “ Much has been written about the merits of IFRS and why they should be adopted by the U.S. For more than a decade, globalization has been the strongest argument for IFRS adoption. these factors have led to inconsistencies that impair comparability of financial reports for similar entities that operate in different countries. IFRS, it was argued, resolved these inconsistencies for most of the world’s economies except for the U.S. Financial reporting under IFRS relies much more heavily on the professional judgment of auditors instead of tightly worded enforceable standards. Thus, uniform enforcement standards and uniform professional judgment (including expectations of ethical reporting behavior) are vital if the adoption of IFRS can be expected to achieve the goal of uniform financial reporting. While much has been written about the benefits of IFRS adoption, ensuring their consistent application across countries and governments has yet to be addressed. Recent events provide insight into the efficacy of this assumption. The Greek debt crisis that emerged into the public spotlight last spring has done much to illustrate a serious problem with moving to principles-based financial reporting standards. Over the period following the initial news regarding the Greek government’s fiscal situation, many European banks began releasing their annual financial reports. A very disconcerting issue emerged from these reports. While these Greek government bonds were held by numerous banks in their investment portfolios, many different values were assigned to virtually identical debt securities. Interestingly, these valuations varied largely by country. A story by Floyd Norris (New York Times; September 8, 2011) “Many Views ” on a Greek Bond’s Value” focused more closely on this the Greek debt valuation differences. In the story Norris points out that banks in various countries were recognizing impairments based on significantly different estimates of default and yet different offices of the same international accounting firms were apparently approving of this behavior. French banks reported the lowest level of write-down on these investments. He noted that the apparent attempt to help troubled French banks even caused Hans Hoogervoorst, the chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board, to write a letter of protest to European securities regulators. This experience provides a unique situation in which to view the problems associated with principles or values based accounting standards in practice. The fact that Hoogervoorst’s letter only became public after it was leaked to the media begs the question: How much more is being hidden from the public? One inherent challenge of accounting standards that allow considerable discretion in their application is the fact that, despite the best intentions, there will commonly be pressure to bias their application by internal and external forces. In the case of Greek debt securities, the pressure likely came from the banking communities in countries where the economies have particularly suffered under the current global recession. There is considerable pressure to present optimistic financial reports by both individual banks and the government to avoid both domestic and international credit rating downgrades. These downgrades would impose additional NewAccountantUSA.com 7 Business Outlook economic costs, possibly leading to sanctions on these economies. The auditors of these banks were not able to resist the political pressures that were brought to bear in order to cast recent economic events in the best possible light. This, we argue, is an inherent problem with the global adoption of IFRS. As we stated at the beginning, it was always assumed that the auditors would ensure the correct application of IFRS. The Greek debt crisis poses a serious challenge to this assumption. But there are more concerns than just political pressure being brought to bear on the auditors. Recent reports by the PCAOB concerning Deloitte & Touche, one the largest international audit firms, and their internal quality control procedures, also questions the assumption that the auditing community can handle the task of IFRS compliance even in the absence of overwhelming political pressures. The findings that were recently made public, the PCAOB noted with some frustration, is that the auditors in many instances did not even bother to see if their client’s accounting was consistent with accounting rules. The PCAOB chairman stated “…the root of the problem is auditor skepticism, coming to ground in the bedrock of independence. The loss of independence destroys skepticism”. The fact that the level of and attitudes toward tax evasion vary significantly across countries should provide a hint about the level Do you crave adventure? :LWKZRUOGFODVVVNLLQJKXQWLQJDQGILVKLQJ$ODVNDKDVWKLV DQGPRUHIRUWKRVHZLWKDWKULOOVHHNLQJVSLULW Experience what you’ve been missing! /DUJHVWPRVWGLYHUVLILHG&3$ILUPLQ$ODVND $PHPEHURIWKH0F*ODGUH\$OOLDQFH &RPSHWLWLYH3D\%HQHILWV Begin Your Career Adventure Today )RUPRUHLQIRUPDWLRQYLVLWZZZPFFFSDFRP RUHPDLOMREV#PFFFSDFRP 8 New Accountant of uniformity we should expect with respect to enforcement of IFRS standards. An article in The Economist (August 12, 2010) started out, “TELL a Greek or an Italian that the only certainties in life are death and taxes and they will laugh—and not because they believe in immortality. Southern European countries have long struggled to collect taxes. By their nature, of course, the data are difficult to collect but Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain are thought to have some of the largest unofficial economies in the OECD”. It is clear while tax evasion is generally frowned upon in the U.S., people in some European countries view it as no worse than going 40 MPH in a 35 MPH zone and would jeer at the wisdom of those who choose not to evade taxes. With such evident differences in worldwide views toward tax evasion, is it reasonable to expect uniform enforcement of IFRS when the financial future of corporations that play a significant role in national economies are at stake? Conclusion Adoption of IFRS in the United States is often promoted as a method of increasing global uniformity of financial reporting standards. It is quite possible that adoption of IFRS may ultimately result in uniform financial accounting standards with only an illusion of uniform financial reporting. Unless uniform enforcement standards and uniform professional judgment are given equal importance in the process leading toward U.S. adoption of IFRS, it may be unlikely to generate the global uniformity in financial reporting that many have promised. One must also question the wisdom of increasing reliance on professional judgment at a time in history when ethical values and professional judgment appears to be in the midst of a multidecade decline. It is very likely that while laudable, the goal of uniform international financial reporting will end up being only an Article By illusion. One may Dr. Ken Abramowicz also wonder whether Associate Professor of Accounting the adoption of IFRS & Information Systems, University without uniform enof Alaska Fairbanks forcement standards and uniform profesDr. Michael DeCelles sional judgment will Associate Professor of Accounting, Angelo State University resemble the adoption of the Euro without any uniform taxing authority–which Dr. H. Charles Sparks Professor of Accounting & generated the initial Information Systems, University of appearance of success Alaska Fairbanks while concealing many substantive underlying problems. NA Review Course Outlook Set Your Sights Beyond Graduation: Make Sitting for the CPA Exam Your Top Priority For prospective accounting graduates, the optimal time to begin preparing to take the exam is well before completing a degree. By Bisk CPA Review Team Y ou’re almost finished with your accounting degree, and will soon have a hard-earned diploma in your hand. That credential is unquestionably an invaluable addition to your resume, but it is also a stepping stone; by becoming a CPA you will make yourself more marketable and be able to compete for higher-level positions with greater compensation potential. Don’t risk losing focus or momentum after graduation – get ready for the CPA exam now so you can: • Use the knowledge you gained in college while it’s still fresh and relevant. • Start enjoying rewarding career opportunities that are reserved only for CPAs. If your graduation day is fast approaching, don’t procrastinate – begin preparing for the CPA exam immediately. Make passing the exam your main commitment. If you truly desire to pass every section on the first sitting, you will devote the necessary time. Plan Ahead for CPA Success Before taking the exam, you need to formulate a rock-solid preparation plan. Following these essential tips can get you one step closer to becoming a CPA: Practice, practice, practice. Answer questions and take practice exams, so you can determine any weak areas you may have and concentrate your study efforts on those topics. Create a study plan. If you examine your daily routine, you will see that there are many opportunities to study for the exam. First, identify times you know that you won’t be able to study – work, sleep, eating, exercise or other commitments. Then set aside an hour a day of relaxation time. With the remaining time you should be able to find 10 to 14 hours of study time per week. Stick to your plan. You cannot expect to accomplish a thorough review without adhering to your study plan. Increase your study time if possible during the final four weeks of training, continuing right up until the exam. Tackle one section at a time. You can increase your retention of the material by concentrating on individual sections. You may become overwhelmed by trying to learn too much at once. Form an exam strategy. You should be familiar with the format of the CPA exam and know exactly what you will do when you enter the testing room. Planning in advance how you will spend your exam time will save you time and confusion on exam day. Choose first-rate study materials. When you pick your study materials, look for those that best match your learning style. Do you like to work alone or do you prefer instructor guidance? Do you learn best through watching, listening, reading or a combination of all three? Flexible study formats – including textbook, online, CD-ROM, DVD and more – make this possible. Many offer the ability to study virtually anywhere, anytime, allowing even the busiest candidate ample time to study. Take the exam! There are over 300 CPA test centers across the United States, and four testing windows per year, so you should have plenty of options to sit for the exam. Bisk Education offers a flexible CPA review product line, which consists of review materials in a variety of convenient formats: video, audio, online, textbooks and live sessions. Bisk CPA Review guarantees that you’ll pass the exam the first time you take it. NA For complete information on Bisk Education’s Bisk CPA Review products, visit www.cpaexam. com or call 800-671-5953. NewAccountantUSA.com 9 Global Outlook “Condorsement” is in Your Future: The Coming Together of GAAP and IFRS Companies in nearly 100 countries around the world have adopted the use of IFRS and there is currently a push for the U.S. to join that number. By Rebekah Heath, PhD, CPA, CIA; Becky Casey, MBA, CPA; Mary Polfer, MBA, CPA; and Gail Yarick, MBA, CPA; all of Pittsburg State University. T he transition to one set of high quality accounting standards has been going on for the past forty years with very little progress having been made until recently. The terms “harmonization” and “convergence” have been used over the years to describe the efforts of the IASB and FASB to bring IFRS and GAAP closer together. The SEC’s roadmap with a proposed mandatory adoption date of 2014 has recently been pushed aside in order to focus on “condorsement”. Condorsement, a combination of convergence and endorsement, will allow FASB to retain control over U.S. GAAP, as opposed to handing over responsibility for standard setting to the IASB. Although the SEC still has no proposed timeline for a U.S. transition to IFRS, the authors believe that students should be made aware of the current differences between the two reporting systems. International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are the current hot topic at professional seminars and conferences and have been for the past several years. The rapid growth in international capital markets and increased cross-border financing has created a demand for one set of highquality accounting standards. Many, inside and outside the United States, would like to see IFRS be that one set of accounting standards. Outside the U.S., more than 12,000 public companies in nearly 100 countries have adopted the use of IFRS, and public companies in the U.S. are now beginning to grapple with the transition to IFRS. This transition is an extremely 10 New Accountant difficult process that has been discussed for the past forty years with very little real progress having been made. There is an increased push to make this happen now. Varying philosophies and terms have been used over the years to describe the coming together of GAAP and IFRS. These include harmonization, convergence, and – most recently – condorsement. The Political Nature of Standard Setting: The International Community first sought to harmonize standards in 1973; these efforts continued until 2001. Harmonization is defined as the process of reducing differences in financial reporting practices across countries. Harmonization does not require the elimination of alternatives in accounting but rather seeks to reduce the number of alternatives while retaining a high degree of flexibility in accounting practices. Harmonization allows countries to have different standards providing the standards do not conflict. The harmonization efforts involved several international organizations at both the regional and worldwide levels. The Existing Differences between U.S. GAAP and IFRS US GAAP IFRS FINANCIAL STATEMENT PRESENTATION Financial Periods Required Comparative statements are not required by GAAP but are a requirement of the SEC. Comparative information for the previous period is required. Layout of balance sheet and income statement No specific items are required nor is a specific layout required. A list of minimum items must be included, per IAS1. Extraordinary Items Items that are both unusual and infrequent can be reported as extraordinary items (i.e., not part of operating income) IFRS prohibits companies from reporting extraordinary items. Percentage of completion is the preferred method. When it can’t be used, the completed contract method is to be used. Percentage of completion is the preferred method. When it can’t be used, the cost recovery method is to be used. The completed contract method is not allowed. Costing methods LIFO is allowed as well as other cost flow assumptions for inventories similar in nature. LIFO is prohibited. Companies must use the same cost flow assumptions for inventories similar in nature or use. Measurement Inventory is carried at the lower of cost or market where market is defined as replacement cost as long as replacement cost does not exceed net realizable value and is not less than net realizable value less a normal profit margin. Inventory is carried at the lower of cost or market where market is defined as net realizable value. These items are required to be classified as an operating activity on the cash flow statement. Interest received may be classified as either operating or investing and interest paid as operating or financing. EPS for basic and diluted income from continuing operations, discontinued operations, extraordinary items, cumulative effect of a change in accounting policy, and net profit or loss per share are all required to be reported. EPS for basic and diluted income from continuing operations per share and net profit or loss per share are the only calculations required for disclosure. Expensed as incurred unless specifically addressed otherwise Capitalized when technical and economic feasibility can be demonstrated. Dates for consideration Companies must evaluate subsequent events up to the date of issuance. To be evaluated through the date the financial statements are “authorized for issue”. Stock dividend declared after balance sheet date Financial statements are required to be adjusted. No adjustment. REVENUE RECOGNITION Construction contracts INVENTORY CASH FLOW STATEMENT Interest Received and Interest Paid DISCLOSURES Earnings per share (EPS) INTANGIBLE ASSETS Development costs SUBSEQUENT EVENTS two most important players in this effort were the European Union (regionally) and the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) – the predecessor to the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). Very little practical harmonization occurred, however. On April 1, 2001, the IASC passed the torch to the newly created IASB as the creator of international accounting standards. This marked the beginning of a new era in financial reporting and a change in focus from harmonization to convergence. Under the “convergence” approach, jurisdictions do not adopt IFRS as issued by the IASB or incorporate IFRS into their accounting standards directly. Instead these jurisdictions maintain their local standards but make efforts to converge those standards with IFRS over time. Convergence means that financial statements prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP simultaneously comply with IFRS. In September 2002, at a meeting in Norwalk, Connecticut, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and IASB pledged to use their best efforts to (1) make their existing financial standards fully compatible as soon as practicable and (2) to coordinate their work program to ensure that once achieved, compatibility would be maintained. This has become known as the Norwalk Agreement. In November of 2008, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a proposed “roadmap” as to how and when implementation of IFRS would take place. The roadmap gave 2014 as the target date for mandatory adoption of IFRS for U.S. registrants. The roadmap also indicated that the SEC would reconvene in 2011 to decide whether a mandatory conversion date should be set. From all appearances it seems the SEC has finally conceded that its efforts to adopt IFRS have failed and the roadmap has been tossed aside. When someone in authority is in a quandary and doesn’t know where to turn, the typical activity that follows is Continued on Page 18 NewAccountantUSA.com 11 C h i c a g o , I L | E d i s o n , N J | F o r t Wa s h i n g t o n , P A | N e w Yo r k C i t y, N Y | Wo o d b u r y, N Y F I N D Y O U R I N N E R S U P E R A C C O U N TA N T. W E I S E R M A Z A R S . E X A C T LY R I G H T. Get ready for take off with a multi-faceted career experience that provides exposure to an array of services, market segments, and so much more. At WeiserMazars, our extraordinary team of professionals, 5 offices and vast global network, provide a platform that is exactly right to launch your successful career in accounting. For more information please contact Heather Cohen, Director of Human Resources, New York Heather.Cohen@WeiserMazars.com | www.WeiserMazars.com Exactly Right. WeiserMazars LLP is an independent member firm of Mazars Group. A C C O U N T I N G | T A X | A D V I S O R Y Cover Story 14 New Accountant From Debt to Career: Accounting Majors Burst Student Loan Bubble Susan Cockrell, PhD, CPA, Assistant Professor, Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics, Niesha Wolfe, CPA, MA, Instructor, Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics, Pamela Sharp Meyer, JD, CPA Assistant Professor, Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics, all of Austin Peay State University College of Business. T uition and fees at colleges and universities and, consequently, student loan debt have been increasing dramatically each year. What does this mean to you, the student? How much is your education going to cost? How will this affect your accounting career choice? How will that additional CPA-required year impact the amount of student loan debt? Will you be able to get a job in your career choice? Will your investment in your accounting major pay off? Will you be able to pay off the debt? Is it worth it? This paper will examine and discuss these questions. We offer some thoughtprovoking insight, debt management and career suggestions for students to deliberate. This process should empower students with the knowledge needed to successfully manage their journey from debt to career. Unless you have had your head under a rock for the last few years, tuition and fees at colleges and universities and, consequently, student loan debt have been increasing dramatically each year. For the 2011-2012 academic year, the average bill for tuition and fees at public, four-year schools increased by 8.3% over the previous year. These increases, as well as other economic factors, have resulted in the student loan debt increasing by 8% annually. According to the Department of Education, two-thirds of you will graduate with student loan debt; 25% of you will have more than $30,000 and 10% of you will owe more than $44,500. What does this mean to you, the student? How much is your education going to cost? How will this affect your accounting career choice? How will that additional CPA-required year impact the amount of student loan debt? Will you be able to get a job in your career choice? Will your investment in your accounting major pay off? Will you be able to pay off the debt? Is it worth it? NewAccountantUSA.com 15 Student Outlook Student Loan Debt: How Much Is This Going to Cost? The average student loan debt for the May 2011 college graduates was $27,3002. For those of you graduating in three to five years (2014 to 2016), if you project a 7% increase per year then that average student loan debt will be $33,444 and $38,290, respectively. If you use the 150 hour requirement (a fifth year) in order to qualify to sit for the CPA exam, student loan debt would be approximately $34,125 in 2011, $41,805 in 2014, and in 2016, $47,862. Table 1 shows an approximation of the increase in student loan debt through 2021 for both 4-year and 5-year degrees. The table also shows the average debt if both you and your parents have taken out loans. Accounting Salaries: How Much Can I Make When I Graduate? According to the Robert Half 2012 Salary Guide (roberthalf.com), companies have increased their hiring of accounting and finance professionals, with the certified public accountant (CPA) being the most requested certification. The recession did have an impact in recent years; however both large and regional public accounting firms are expanding their ranks again. Salaries have also increased, up approximately 3.5% in all positions. The accounting major opens the door to many professions, with various skills, interests, commitment, and, therefore, salaries. The array of possibilities has, at the top, chief financial officer with average starting salaries of $275,000 to $411,000 and, at the base, accounting clerks with average starting salaries of $27,750 to $36,500. For public accounting, average starting salaries range from small firms at $41,500 to $50,000 to large firms at 50,000 to $60,500. Table 2 shows a sample of salaries for various accounting career choices. All of the accounting and finance positions, with the salary ranges at up to one year 16 New Accountant Table 1 - Estimated Average Student Loan Debt (in U.S. Dollars using a 7% annual increase) Student Loans Student and Parent Loans 4-years 5-years 4-years 5-years 2011 $27,300 $34,125 $34,400 $43,000 2012 29,211 36,514 36,808 46,010 2013 31,256 39,070 39,385 49,231 2014 33,444 41,805 42,141 52,677 2015 35,785 44,731 45,091 56,364 2016 38,290 47,862 48,248 60,310 2017 40,970 51,212 51,625 64,531 2018 43,838 54,797 55,239 69,049 2019 46,906 58,633 59,106 73,882 2020 50,190 62,737 63,243 79,054 2021 53,703 67,129 67,670 84,588 Table 2 - Salary Highlights - Medium-sized Companies Up to One Year Manager $44,000 - $55,750 $78,750 - $106,250 Compliance 56,250 - 74,750 128,500 - 174,250 General Accountant 37,500 - 47,000 65,500 - 87,000 Cost Accountant 40,000 - 49,000 67,750 - 89,750 Tax Accountant 41,500 - 51,000 71,750 - 96,750 Bookkeeper 45,250 - 56,750 42,250 - 57,250 Audit/Assurance 45,250 - 56,750 98,500 - 147,000 Tax Services 45,250 - 56,750 99,000 - 149,000 Corporate Accounting Internal Auditor Public Accounting Table 3 - New Accounting Graduates Hired by CPA Firms Year Bachelor’s Master’s Total Demand 2003 $13,270 $3,555 $16,825 2004 14,985 4,720 19,705 2007 28,025 8,087 36,112 2008 19,110 6,378 25,488 2010 19,870 13,451 33,321 through manager, are detailed in the Robert Half 2012 Salary Guide. Accounting Demand: But, Will I Get A Job? As your professors have probably told you, accounting firms are increasing their hiring and demand is almost at an all-time high. Graduates with degrees in accounting are entering a field projected to see employment growth of 22% for the decade ending in 2018 (Department of Education). The 2011 AICPA report shows that hiring of accounting graduates by public accounting firms increased in 2011 to the second highest point since 1971. Hiring increased by 6% over 2008 for students with a Masters of Accountancy, with 37% of new MA graduates being hired by public accounting firms. Public accounting firms are seeking students with the 150-hour requirement satisfied, so the hiring of new graduates with a Bachelor’s degree only slightly increased. And the great news is that 90% of firms predict the same or more hiring of new accounting graduates, with 71% anticipate increases in hiring. What This Means for You So, is the investment in your accounting degree going to pay off? In other words, will the salary you can expect from your choice of accounting career pay off the student loan debt that you are accumulating? The figures (Table 4) are based on the lowend of the range for starting salaries of large public accounting firms through the corporate small companies. Then assume an average salary increase of 7% per year5. If you take 10% of your gross pay each year to pay off your student loans—and you are lucky enough to get a job for a Big Four firm—you will have about $69,082 to pay off your loans. And when you get a CPA, you will have approximately $77,718. But, What About ME? Now, take your individual situation. Table 4 Estimate of Pay-Off Year 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Year 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Public--Large Salary 10% $50,000 5,000 53,500 5,350 57,245 5,725 61,252 6,125 65,540 6,554 70,128 7,013 75,037 7,504 80,289 8,029 85,909 8,591 91,923 9,192 $ 69,082 Public--Medium Salary 10% $44,250 4,425 47,348 4,735 50,662 5,066 54,208 5,421 58,003 5,800 62,063 6,206 66,407 6,641 71,056 7,106 76,030 7,603 81,352 8,135 $ 61,138 Public--Small Salary 10% $41,500 4,150 44,405 4,441 47,513 4,751 50,839 5,084 54,398 5,440 58,206 5,821 62,280 6,228 66,640 6,664 71,305 7,130 76,296 7,630 $ 57,338 Corporate--Large Salary 10% $38,500 3,850 41,195 4,120 44,079 4,408 47,164 4,716 50,466 5,047 53,998 5,400 57,778 5,778 61,823 6,182 66,150 6,615 70,781 7,078 Corporate--Medium Salary 10% $36,500 3,650 39,055 3,906 41,789 4,179 44,714 4,471 47,844 4,784 51,193 5,119 54,777 5,478 58,611 5,861 62,714 6,271 67,104 6,710 Corporate--Small Salary 10% $34,000 3,400 36,380 3,638 38,927 3,893 41,651 4,165 44,567 4,457 47,687 4,769 51,025 5,102 54,597 5,460 58,418 5,842 62,508 6,251 $ 53,193 $ 50,430 $ 46,976 But, What About ME? Total amount of student How do individual you have situation. in studentHow loans? Now, much take your much do•you have in student loans? loans What has do What do you project your total student topped $1 trillion. you project your total student loan debt will be when you graduate? Now, compare to loan debt will be when you graduate? and To aid inenough this maze ofthat calculations, the potential salary. you be salary. motivated enough workyou hard to get job Now, compare to theWill potential Will facts, estimates, and approximations, here you be motivated enough and work hard with a Big Four firm? Do you prefer a job with a small business? If you manage your are some very helpful sites: enough to get that job with a Big Four debt, the will work for with you. a small • FinAid.org firm? Donumbers you prefer a job business? If you manage your debt, the • FastWeb.com numbers will work for you. • Cnnmoney.com/collegecosts As you are doing you calculations, here • StartHereGoPlaces.com are a few more facts to consider: • ThisWayToCPA.com • AICPA.org • Starting in the 2012 borrowing year the interest rate on subsidized Stafford loans will increase from 3.4% to 6.8%. • National unemployment rate in accounting remains at 3.5%. The national unemployment rate has been hovering around 9%. • Default rate on student loans has increased to 8.8%. Final Exam! Here is your accounting take-home final. Take your university’s tuition estimates— including projected increases, your estimated future total student loan debt, and your projected salary, and compute the net present value for your personal situation. Does your investment in education result in a positive net present value for your accounting career choice? NewAccountantUSA.com 17 Global Outlook Continued from Page 11 to divert attention to something new and that’s exactly what was done in December, 2010, with the coining of a new term, condorsement, by SEC Deputy Chief Accountant Paul Beswick. Beswick explained that under condorsement, U.S. GAAP would continue to exist. FASB and IASB would work to finish their joint convergence projects. After completing their joint projects, FASB would work to converge U.S. GAAP to IFRS over a period of time for standards that are not on the IASB’s work plan. At the same time, FASB would have a process to consider new standards issued by the IASB for incorporation into U.S. GAAP with or without U.S. modifications; this process is known as endorsement. The condorsement approach – a combination of convergence and endorsement - would allow FASB to retain control over U.S. GAAP and would leave open the possibility for FASB to carve out differences but only in unusual circumstances. The SEC still has no proposed timeline for a U.S. transition to IFRS. However, we believe that students must be aware of IFRS as it almost certainly will impact U.S. reporting in some fashion. How Do IFRS differ from GAAP? Although IFRS and U.S. GAAP have many similarities, there are several differences. As a student learning both U.S. GAAP and IFRS, there are some principle differences that you should be aware of. The table outlines those differences. The primary difference is that U.S. GAAP is “rules-based” while IFRS is “principlesbased”. GAAP, many years ago, was principles-based. However, as a result of abuse, fraud, and the resulting lawsuits, GAAP morphed into a rules-based system. The rest of the world has not shared in that history lesson and, thus, has a hard time understanding U.S. resistance to another principles-based system. In an editorial in the June 27, 2002 edition of Financial Times titled “the World after 18 New Accountant WorldCom,” U.S. regulators were urged to move to principles-based standards. The following is an extract from this editorial: It is time for U.S. accounting standards to move away from prescriptive rulemaking towards the alternative used in many other countries, which focuses on “substance over form”. U.S. regulators have been suspicious of principles-based standards drafted by the IASB arguing that the U.S. approach is superior. As the list of U.S. accounting scandals mounts, it is hard to maintain such a position [i.e. that U.S. rules-based GAAP is superior]. To be precise neither GAAP nor IFRS is completely rules- or principles-based, but U.S. GAAP tends to rely more on rules. Preparers following U.S. GAAP strive to identify the rule that directs how to correctly record a transaction or make a disclosure. IFRS, on the other hand, is principles-based and places more emphasis on professional judgment, thus allowing preparers to exercise their wisdom and interpretation to determine how to correctly report an economic event. The Future of U.S. Financial Reporting: A recent survey of Certified Public Accountants (CPAs), conducted by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), shows that approval of U.S adoption of IFRS is strong: 53% support an SEC mandate requiring use of IFRS in the U.S and another 23% think IFRS should be offered as a financial reporting option for public companies. While auditors strongly support the move towards IFRS, preparers have a very different opinion. When asked what “keeps them up at night”, CFOs ranked IFRS convergence higher than any other accounting issue, according to the latest Duke University/ CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey. Yet when asked to describe their companies’ “readiness to comply with global accounting standards,” 44% said they hadn’t begun to address convergence while 39% said they had begun to prepare but were far from ready. Corporations are still several years away from having to implement a plan to comply with a converged set of standards, says an industry expert. “As alarming as the state of awareness without preparedness sounds, it just about fits the current state of the regulatory outlook. It’s important to monitor [regulatory developments] and develop a plan, but not get out in front of the standards until they’re finalized,” says James Kaiser, the U.S. Convergence IFRS leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers. Like death and taxes, standards with an international flavor are certain to be a part of the U.S.’s future. The best advice we can give students is to learn as much U.S. GAAP as you can, understand the types of differences between GAAP and IFRS that currently exist, and listen for updates regarding the condorsement efforts of the SEC. It’s going to be a long, bumpy ride. Article By Rebekah Heath, PhD, CPA, CIA Pittsburg State University Becky Casey, MBA, CPA Pittsburg State University Mary Polfer, MBA, CPA Pittsburg State University Gail Yarick, MBA, CPA Pittsburg State University Mark Cynova Becker Alum View my testimonial at YouTube.com/BeckerProfessionalEd YOU’RE TAKING THE CPA EXAM BECAUSE YOU KNOW WHAT PASSING WILL MEAN NOT JUST TO YOUR CAREER BUT YOUR LIFE. Becker Professional Education knows too. Everything we do is done to prepare you, to equip you, to empower you. Becker-prepared students have double the pass rate of non-Becker students. For more than 50 years, we have been the leader in CPA prep, with more than 400,000 passing students. In fact, 14 of 15 of the most recent Watt Sells Award winners are Becker students. So go with the leader. Go with Becker. Then go conquer that world out there – like you know you can. ® NewAccountantUSA.com 19 ©2012 DeVry/Becker Educational Development Corp. All rights reserved. Sustainability Outlook Abstractions in Accounting (The Accounting Problem) This article explains development of the four significant cognitive abstractions that lead to major changes in the evolution of accounting systems. By William Violet, Professor of Law and Accounting and James D. Hansen, Professor of Accounting, both of the School of Business, Minnesota State University Moorhead T hroughout history various cultures have created accounting systems for measuring and controlling economic resources and obligations. Pragmatic development and evolution of accounting occurred as societies made certain cognitive abstractions. These abstractions attempted to “best represent” or measure an economic transaction through an accounting system. For generations, accurate measurement of an economic event and how to best represent it with accounting data has been the Accounting Problem. The First Abstraction The first significant cognitive accounting abstraction was made thousands of years ago by Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon people. Current archaeological evidence demonstrates that early people kept notation and tally systems for measuring and controlling resources. Early people utilized systems such as making notches or marks on various materials from antlers to parietal (cave) paintings. These notations could represent tallies of animals harvested, clan resources such as spears or the passage of time. Notation and tally systems are evidence of the first significant abstraction, that is, one mark equals one unit of resource. Early people created a one-to-one relationship to measure their resources. This one-to-one abstraction reached its zenith in Sumeria. One of the first civilizations, Sumeria developed a clay token accounting system. The purpose of this system was to control 20 New Accountant famine and food shortages with grain redistribution. For example, a farmer was required to submit a certain amount of grain to the government. In turn, the authorities would store collected grain in a temple grainery. When food shortages occurred, grain would be distributed. To account for grain transactions in this redistributive economy, government officials developed clay tokens of various geometric shapes and patterns with one token equaling one measure of grain. Thus, Sumeria created an entire redistributive economy and civilization based on geometric tokens representing a variety of commodities. Tokens were controlled by securing them in a clay envelope called a bulla. The bulla could be opened to account for economic transactions involving farmers and the government. Eventually, government officials realized it would be more efficient to place a geometric (pictographic) mark on a piece of clay rather than laboriously making clay tokens. Marks on clay tablets evolved into cuneiform writing. As trade began to flourish, clay tablets replaced clay tokens, and the effort which went into making them. A symbol on a clay tablet could represent a good; however, one mark on a clay tablet still represented one unit of a good. The Second Abstraction Around 3000 B.C., Sumerian scribes made the second significant cognitive abstraction. They realized that if a mark on a clay tablet could represent a specific good, for example a sphere equals a wine vessel, then a second mark could represent a quantity of wine vessels. That is, instead of marking down ten spherical shapes on a clay tablet, a scribe would express the number ten next to a sphere, which could represent a vessel of wine. As the esteemed British Philosopher Bertrand Russel said: It must have required many ages to discover that a brace of pheasants and a couple of days were both instances of the number 2. 1 This was the great abstraction, that is, a number could represent numerous units of a good or even different goods. Goods could now be measured and represented by a numerical system of abstract notations. 21 New Accountant “ One of the first civilizations, Sumeria developed a clay token accounting system. The purpose of this system was to control famine and food shortages with grain redistribution. Accounting would never be the same because of efficiencies created through implementing this system. Sumeria had not only utilized a one-to-one relationship in a highly efficient manner, this civilization had revolutionized accounting in creating the second abstraction. The Third Abstraction For several centuries, civilizations and individuals were content utilizing the first and second abstractions to record goods and measure wealth. Goods were recorded in accounts as species. For example, units of wheat would be recorded as units of wheat in a wheat account. Currencies were not standardized and therefore not employed to measure the cost of a unit of wheat. Between 1400 and 1500 A.D., a third significant abstraction occurred. By this time standard coinage had appeared throughout Europe. European countries minted coinage and recognized currency values of different nations; thus goods could be assigned a monetary value. Instead of an account being recorded in units of wheat, the cost of wheat, expressed in a currency, was now recorded. No longer were five bushels of wheat recorded in an account, rather the wheat purchase price of say $15 was recorded into the account. This abstraction permitted comparability of values recorded into a various accounts, that is, $25 of wheat equals $25 of gold, which equals $25 silk. Because of systemic efficiencies created by this abstraction related to the stability of a currency, complexities and difficulties in measuring assets, liabilities and overall wealth began to arise. ” Measurement and the Fourth Abstraction The third abstraction solved a valuation or comparability argument and allowed resources and obligations to be expressed in a homogenous manner based on currency representations. However, currencies are subject to a multitude of external and internal environmental factors that affect extrinsic value and overall homogeneity. These factors relate to physical and cultural variables. The simple passage of time combined with inflationary pressures alters purchasing power of currencies and assumed homogenous properties. For example, currently 5 francs may equal 1 dollar, but will 5 francs equal 1 dollar several years from now? Even in accounts of an entity within a specific culture, would a dollar today equal a future dollar? Thus, the third abstraction of currency representation creates a variety of measuring complexities. As Herbert Taggart points out, the concept of measurement employing the stable homogenous dollar as a measuring unit is troubling: Accountants are as aware as anyone that it is absurdity to deduct peaches from apples and expect to get an intelligible answer. It is most uncomfortable for the accountant to be told that he is performing equally futile arithmetic when he adds or subtracts dollars spent at different times and representing differing purchasing power. It is no wonder that accountants have by tradition stubbornly ignored changes in the magnitude of their measuring unit. To give in on this point cuts the very foundations of their beliefs from under them... Therefore, a dollar in the cash account NewAccountantUSA.com 21 Sustainability Outlook today is not equal to a dollar in an inventory account acquired throughout the year or in any other account when currency is subject to periodic price changes. For example, inventory prices which rise during the year because of inflation, results in units being recorded in dollars having different purchasing power. In other words, the assumed homogeneity of a dollar doesn’t exist because of rising prices. Nor does a building, expressed in yuan, in North Korea equal a building expressed in dollars in downtown New York even though both buildings are identical. The currencies are not homogenous because of cultural, economic and geographical variables that exist in these nations. One may ask, what kind of dollars are we mathematically employing with financial statement analysis? Under current accounting standards, financial statements are expressed in a currency with multiple purchasing powers that arise at various historical intervals. As Cohen and Nagel demonstrate, measurement is not a simple concept: Are You CPA Ready? Get ready with Temple University’s Master of Accountancy (MAcc) Degree MAcc students will: • Meet the new 150 hour CPA license education requirement Comparisons based upon counting...depend on our ability to distinguish clearly between different groups or different characters. Frequently, however, characters cannot be sharply distinguished because they form a continuous series with one another. Thus we may wish to distinguish different knives on the basis of their “sharpness.”...What principles must we observe in using numbers to denote such differences in qualities? It is often believed that because we can assign numbers to different degrees of a quality, the different degrees always bear to each other the same ration as do the numbers we have assigned to them... We must note that numbers may have at least three distinct uses: (1) as tags, or identification marks; (2) as signs to indicate the position of the degree of a quality in a series of degrees; and (3) as signs indicating the quantitative relations between qualities... We must make sure that we do not allow different numbers to be assigned to the same object. Thus suppose the weight of object A is regarded as the unit or 1, and that we can assign weights to other objects by this process so that A2 will have weight 2, A4 weight 4, and A6 weight 6. Can we be sure that A2 and A4 placed together in one pan will just balance A6 placed in the other? It is very important to note that we cannot be certain of this until we perform the experiment. The proposition that 2 + 4 = 6 can be demonstrated in pure arithmetic without experiment. But until we perform the proper experiments we cannot be certain that the physical operation of addition of weights does conform to the familiar properties of pure arithmetical addition. The development or creation of a fourth abstraction may likely improve resolution of the Accounting Problem, that is, measurement. Only time will conclusively establish what might be the fourth abstraction for enhancing and improving the utility of accounting in measuring wealth. Speculation leads the authors to believe that implementation of a global currency, such as the International Monetary Fund’s special drawing rights (SDR), may improve measurement. Universal harmonization of accounting principles might be another possibility. Current, complex international problems coupled with intricate internal wealth measurements may create an environment that spawns development of a fourth abstraction. What that pragmatic abstraction is and how it will improve the accounting measurement processes to resolve the Accounting Problem remains to be seen. • Receive a customized CPA exam review course to facilitate passing the exam • Participate in colloquia with industry experts Article By We are currently accepting applications for Fall 2012! William Violet, JD, CPA, CMA, CIA, Professor of Law and Accounting at Minnesota State University Moorhead Visit www.fox.temple.edu/MAcc or contact Sheri Risler, CPA, at 215-204-6482. • Develop communication and leadership skills 22 New Accountant James D. Hansen, PhD, CPA Professor of Accounting at Minnesota State University Moorhead. Review Course Outlook How I Aced the CPA Exam: Watt Sells Winners’ Tips for Success Jaymie Farr, team up with a study partner for the exam. Jaymie took it a step further, however. She married hers. “My husband took the exam at the same time I did,” she explains. “We helped keep each other on track. He studied with Becker too. In fact we got the same scores on the first three parts of the exam.” If matrimony seems like too much of a commitment, the accompanying sidebar offers a wealth of other tips from this year’s winners. Keeping it in the family For 2010 winner Mike Dean, the award has special meaning. His brother Bryan won the award in 2007. Mike recalls, “At dinner the night before the exam, my brother laughed and joked that I was on my way to the Watt Sells award. I shook my head and said no way that would happen. I guess it wasn’t a joke after all, but it’s definitely a great honor.” The American Institute of Certified Continued from Page 4 Public Accountants presents the Watt Sells Awards for the ten highest cumulative scores. In 2010, the number of award winners was unique because multiple candidates received identical cumulative scores, resulting in a tie, and therefore increasing the total number of winners to 19. More than 103,000 candidates sat for the exam that year. Visit www.becker.com/cpa for more information about Becker Professional Education. 2012 Watt Sells Winners Shane C. Drake - Florida Gulf Coast University – Wiltshire, Whitley, Richardson and English Emily Kiser - University of Texas at Austin PricewaterhouseCoopers Seth D. Albin - Fort Hays State Univ. - Exacta Aerospace, Inc. Jaymie A. Farr - Brigham Young University - Deloitte Zhi P. Liu - Michigan State University - Plante Moran Bryan T. Avery - Grand Valley State Univ. - Bader Martin Trevor Steven Goss - Univ. of Arizona - Ernst & Young Jenna K. Mehalic - Univ. of Illinois - State Farm Insurance Michael Berryman - Univ. of Maryland - Ernst & Young Eric Emil Hartel - Liberty University / Lakeland College CCH Small Firm Services Heather Brilyn Saleeby - University of Georgia PricewaterhouseCoopers William Thomas Jachym - University of Connecticut McGladrey and Pullen Christopher Joseph Schoell - Lehigh University PricewaterhouseCoopers David E. Johnson - University of Richmond / Loyola University / DePaul University - KPMG Christopher David Tkach - Saint Louis Univ. - RubinBrown Kristen Adele Brands - Dordt College - Ernst & Young Michael Robert Dean - University of Washington PricewaterhouseCoopers Jeffrey D. Downs - University of Connecticut PricewaterhouseCoopers Paul Zimbardo - Lehigh University - Grant Thornton Why hunt for the latest accounting resources? Now you can access up-to-date industry analysis, webcasts, and learning tools, thanks to KPMG LLP’s new website for students and faculty. KPMGUniversityConnection.com covers topics like professional judgment, ethics, IFRS, and more. And here’s the best part—it’s free. So spend less time looking and more time learning. 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RSM McGladrey, Inc www.kolbco.com www.mcgladrey.jobs Joining a winning team. Now that’s something worth talking about. J.H. Cohn has created an environment that empowers employees to succeed. Here, career building is supported with the resources and opportunities that inspire growth. Capabilities are expanded through innovative learning and development initiatives including the Professional Women’s Program. Our employee recognition program rewards achievements in the workplace as well as contributions to the community. Challenging work, exceptional training, and a corporate climate geared to each employee’s success—all in a leading U.S. accounting and consulting firm. If that’s what you’re looking for in a career, talk to J.H. Cohn. We tur n expertise into results. jhcohn.com NY Joe Torre 25 New Accountant . NJ 877.704.3500 . CT . M A . CA J.H. 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