Bookshelf Review

Recommended Reading From the JofA

Accounting Best Practices (Fifth Edition)
by Steven M. Bragg, CPA
John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2007, 490 pp.

Steven M. Bragg is back with new and enhanced tips designed to improve the efficiency of business accounting departments. Bragg, a prolific author and former CFO and controller, has penned the fifth edition of his accounting best practices guide.

New features include a chapter on accounting management, revisions to sections on payroll and financial statements and tips on how to avoid missed billing. Still present are exhibits included in each chapter that rate best practices in two key categories: how much money and how much time it will take to implement each best practice. Bragg also flags his favorites for closer review. Offerings range from financial statement best practices to suggestions on internal auditing and credit and collections tips.

Bragg frames the book as a practical, do-it-yourself resource for the manager “who likes to tinker with the accounting department.” He highlights four opportunities that offer the most fertile ground for “installing” best practices:

If benchmarking shows a problem.

If management has a change orientation.

If the company is experiencing poor financial results.

If a business is under new management.

The book closes with a checklist detailing policies and procedures to consider incorporating into a policy manual to support many of the best practices offered in earlier chapters.

—by Kim Nilsen

Computer Forensics: An Essential Guide for Accountants, Lawyers, and Managers
by Michael Sheetz, J.D.
John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2007, 152 pp.

For novices and experts alike, Michael Sheetz traces the evolution of computer forensics from computer crime investigators, who focused on securing a system, into entities dedicated to the preservation and recovery of digital evidence for admissibility and use in court.

Understanding the fundamentals of how computers process information (input, storage, processing and output) is inherent to the computer forensics process, which is broken into five main steps:

Preservation—the crucial stage in ensuring evidence remains unchanged.

Collection—the process of collecting evidence will mean that it does change; extremely thorough and careful documentation and planning are essential.

Analysis—a starting point for the broad area of analyzing information discovered in the preservation and collection phase.

Re-creation—reporting and documentation requirements to ensure the “evidentiary admissibility” of evidence collected.

Reporting—presentation process.

As the author explains, this book is not meant to be a comprehensive guide on computer forensic evidence, but it does provide a strong foundation for CPAs and other professionals who are getting into this growing field.

—by Loanna Overcash

Small Business, Big Life: Five Steps to Creating a Great Life With Your Own Small Business
by Louis Barajas, MBA, CFP
Thomas Nelson Inc., 2007, 199 pp.

As a 13-year-old, Louis Barajas was an integral part of his father’s small business, doing the taxes and bookkeeping and translating for his Spanish-speaking father. He understands the hard work, dedication and courage required to start and maintain a business. The first part of his book is dedicated to helping those who want to start a small business overcome their fears. The approach is to objectively break “courage” into four categories: knowledge, action, perseverance and faith. Combining these facets of courage with a strong foundation in truth, responsibility and awareness can help someone find the inner strength to start a business, according to Barajas.

Beyond that self-help, the book defines the ideal values of a small business venture:

Your Life Blueprint—defining the values, life focus areas and essential roles that are most important to you.

Your Vision—the source and purpose of leadership.

Your Business Blueprint—the functions required to operate your business.

Your Business Systems—the systems required to maintain your business.

Your Team—recruiting and building your team of employees.

This is a helpful guide for CPAs thinking of venturing out on their own.

—by Loanna Overcash

Buy-Sell Agreements: Ticking Time Bombs or Reasonable Resolutions?
by Z. Christopher Mercer, ASA, CFA
Peabody Publishing LP, 2007, 324 pp.

Predicting the future is practically impossible. For businesses, that uncertainty makes planning crucial. Z. Christopher Mercer offers a granular look at one method of applying present tense solutions to future decisions and transitions. Mercer examines the world of buy-sell agreements, which establish a mechanism for the purchase of equity interests following the death of one of the owners of an entity or some other major or adverse change in a business environment.

Mercer writes from the perspective of a businessman and business appraiser. He is the founder and CEO of Mercer Capital, a business valuation and investment banking firm based in Memphis, Tenn.

He advises readers not to expect a how-to guide to drafting buy-sell agreements. But readers will find plenty of detail on the finer points of the appropriate use of valuation expertise when weighing such agreements from both business and valuation perspectives.

The book’s intended audience includes CPAs, attorneys, business owners, CFOs, fiduciaries of business owners, insurance professionals and corporate directors.

Mercer rounds out the book with a chapter showcasing war stories and potential pitfalls. He also shares his firm’s checklist for a forward-looking buy-sell audit.

—by Kim Nilsen

Life Is Short, Art Is Long: Maximizing Estate Planning Strategies for Collectors of Art, Antiques, and Collectibles
by Michael Mendelsohn
Wealth Management Press, 2006, 421 pp.

Accountant, financial planner and outsider art collector Michael Mendelsohn has composed a pleasant read with a purpose. His premise: Most people collect something, and over time many of those collections come to represent important client wealth that should be included in the estate planning process. While capable financial advisers will dot every i and cross every t, many overlook how best to handle the transfer of collectibles. The problem is exacerbated when heirs—to evade taxes—quietly whisk art out of collector clients’ homes.

Mendelsohn weaves together serious tips and engaging anecdotes about how wooing his wife led to their shared obsession with collecting. Practical estate planning details include instruction about inventorying a collection, having it properly appraised, planning for its disposition and information about how a client can:

Avoid losing 70% of the value of a collection.

Work with an advisory team.

Fulfill philanthropic intentions.

Use a collection to create liquidity.

Employ sophisticated planning techniques.

Never assume, he says: Ask your clients what they collect, and then take it from there.