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Practice Development
SMALL FIRMS: THINK BIG!
Anita Dennis
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has generated increased demand for services and has created a host of engagements auditors can no longer or may choose not to provide. That adds up to a tremendous opportunity for small firms to seek these assignments, thus placing themselves firmly in a new genre called “second CPA firms.”

Practice Management
MARKETING MATERIALS AND MALPRACTICE EXPOSURE
Steven Platau and Joseph Wolfe
Prospective clients aren’t the only people who read your CPA firm’s brochures and Web site. Lawyers preparing a malpractice lawsuit examine your advertising, too. What they look for can be instructive. This article gives examples of language to avoid and policies to follow to keep problems at bay.

TIPS FOR THE SARBANES-OXLEY LEARNING CURVE
Ed McCarthy
For small and midsize firms that audit public companies—and for some that don’t—adjusting to Sarbanes-Oxley has brought changes to their relations with clients and prospects as well as to their internal operations. The new landscape has brought CPAs challenges but also has provided opportunities. This article shares some practice management tips for successfully adapting.

Technology
SHOULD YOU UPGRADE TO MICROSOFT OFFICE 2003?
John D. McCall
Whether you should move up to Microsoft Office 2003 depends on whether you want to use some of the new functions, such as its ability to work with extensible markup language (XML).

Risk Management/Technology
ADVISE BUSINESSES ON EXTERNAL IT RESOURCES
Joel Lanz and Robert Tie
Because information technology (IT) evolves so quickly, companies often are impatient with the limitations of their current internal systems and employees’ skills. That’s why CPAs must keep their employers’ or clients’ expectations realistic and ensure they outsource IT only for the right reasons and on the right terms.

Risk Management/Business and Industry
ENTERPRISING VIEWS OF RISK MANAGEMENT
Russ Banham
Many companies are abandoning the silo approach to risk management and adopting instead an entity-wide system called enterprise risk management (ERM). With it companies identify, quantify and monitor exposures confronting the entity as a whole. CPAs can use this article to help determine whether ERM is right for their organizations.

News Digest
Accounting…Auditing…Banking…Employee Benefits…Financial Reporting…Government Auditing…International…Money Laundering…FYI.

The Internet
Smart stops on the Web.

At a Glance: Charts and Graphics
Good relations breed contentment.
Not-for-profits say not for us.
Rise in the number of female executives.
No light matter.

Checklist
Help companies assess their internal audit needs.

Technology Q&A
Activate Microsoft’s firewall to protect against hackers…Transmit oversize files via the Internet…Customize Excel’s gridline color…Add an easily accessible check mark…Should you buy a new computer or not? That is the question.

Tax Matters
Tax Case: Acquiring contingent liabilities.
Tax notes.

From the Tax Adviser
Time to distribute corporate earnings?

Six-Month Index
Journal of Accountancy articles by author and subject.

Golden Business Ideas
Practical ideas for improving your business.

In This Issue