AS QUOTED
“The laws say that a thing is worth as much as it can be sold for, that is, according to how purchasers can be got to buy when at liberty and by free choice, and assuming that the purchasers are not fools, pinched, or deceived. … Hence, everyone who sells, since he is moved toward his own profit, must rightly in some degree be morally suspect to himself.”

—Johannes Nider, in On the Contracts of Merchants. First published about 1468.

SURVEY SAVVY
Retirement Expectations Changing
ore than three-quarters (77%) of American workers expect to keep doing some kind of work for pay after they retire, a new Pew Research study found—and most of them (60%) are more interested in keeping busy than in the pay. As for those already retired, they are less enamored of the workaday life; only 12% said they now have a paying job.The disparity highlights the fact that attitudes about retirement are in transition, the authors noted. The demographic of older Americans is changing as well: Retirees will comprise 21% of the population in 2050, up from 12% in 2000.

Source: Pew Research Center, “Working After Retirement: The Gap Between Expectations and Reality,” www.pewresearch.org.

NUMEROLOGY
Online Banking Drops Off
Forty-three percent of Internet users, or about 63 million American adults, did their banking online in December 2005—about the same as in 2004, after several years of steady increases. Researchers at the Pew Internet & American Life Project suggest the flat growth of online banking, even as overall Internet use climbed, is likely the result of public distrust of online financial sites.

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project, www.pewinternet.org.

BUSINESS TRENDS
What’s on Your PCs?
ow solid are your clients’ document retention policies? Most businesses have formal guidelines, but those rules often are loosely enforced, especially when it comes to individual users’ desktop computers, according to a survey of IT professionals commissioned by NextPage (www.nextpage.com).

While 62% of the companies surveyed said they had document retention policies, only 31% of those companies said they actively enforced the policies.

When it came to monitoring computer hard drives for compliance, 69% of the respondents said they checked shared network drives, while only 45% monitored individual users’ hard drives. That raises liability and compliance concerns, the survey summary said, citing an earlier Gartner Group estimate that 80% of a company’s documents resided on users’ desktops.

SIGN OF THE TIMES
A Sarbanes-Oxley Meditation

Lately the world has seen many a catastrophe,
Terrorist war, tsunami, flood and financial impropriety,
Ingenious accounting manipulations,
Debt hidden in trading positions,
Expenses booked as acquisitions.

Congress knew what it must do, so
Sarbanes and Oxley took the cue.
To shore up corporate responsibility
They made law to test internal control sufficiency.

To prove fiduciaries diligent,
SOX required tests to document
And make every internal control evident,
A nightmare compliance requirement.

What ensued was…
Paper proving every debit,
Paper proving every credit,
Paper proof of calculations,
Paper proof of estimations,
Copier breakdown lamentations,
Alas, a paper whirlwind.

But criminals still await their fate,
Legislatures promulgate,
Audit fees did escalate, and
Accountants toil very late,
Reaping a paper whirlwind.

—Dan Habbart, CPA

BUSINESS TRENDS
Time Pressures Rise
Nearly half (46%) of CFOs said time management was the greatest challenge for financial executives today, up from 36% five years ago, according to a survey by Robert Half Management Resources. Keeping pace with technology was second, with 22% of the response, vs. 27% in 2001. Keeping current with accounting regulations came in third, at 17%, up from 13% in 2001.

ON THE RECORD
Help for Small Companies
“Too many small companies don’t have the resources or expertise to make the necessary structural changes on their own, and we need to make sure they compete on a level playing field.”

—U.S. Sen. John Kerry, who introduced legislation
aimed at making it easier for small companies to comply
with section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

TOP 10

States With Favorable Business Tax Climates
1. Wyoming
2. South Dakota
3. Alaska
4. Nevada
5. Florida
6. Texas
7. New Hampshire
8. Montana
9. Delaware
10. Oregon

Source: Tax Foundation, www.taxfoundation.org.

ON THE RECORD
No ‘Irrational Exuberance’ for Sarbox
“One good thing: Sarbox requires the CEO to certify the financial statement. That’s new and that’s helpful. Having said that, the rest we could do without. Section 404 is a nightmare.”

—Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, during a
Massachusetts Technology Council meeting September 25, 2006.

ALL IN A DAY’S WORK
Taking Things Literally
I was working on an audit of a local school system and needed to visit several area schools. When I arrived at one particular elementary school, I walked into the office, introduced myself and explained that I was working on the school’s audit.

Not sure where to go, I asked the woman behind the desk if she could please direct me to the school bookkeeper.

She very pleasantly asked, “You mean the librarian?”

—P. Jenice Saint, CPA

BUSINESS TRENDS
Directors’ Pay Up 14%
Median total pay for independent directors at the 500 largest U.S. companies rose 14% last year, according to a survey by compensation consulting firm Steven Hall & Partners. The new figures bring median compensation totals from $162,363 to $185,000.

Higher cash retainers for board service (up 11%) and committee chairmanship (up 25% to 80% depending on the committee) contributed to the increase. Total board pay for companies in the bottom half of the top 500 grew a surprising 19%. About a third (34%) of the top 1,000 companies have dropped board-meeting fees, which are generally $1,500 per meeting.

Source: Steven Hall & Partners, www.shallpartners.com.