Technology
TOP TOOLS FOR CPAs
Stanley Zarowin
The article evaluates a collection of some of the most useful technology products for accountants, including computers, printers, scanners, personal digital assistants, data backup and security software, data storage devices, Internet telephones, presentation projectors and flexible battery chargers.

Technology/Financial Reporting
TAP INTO XBRL’s POWER THE EASY WAY
Jeffrey W. Naumann
A free new product from Microsoft makes it simple for financial report users to automatically and precisely feed data and descriptions into Excel worksheets and Word documents for swift, efficient sharing of information.

Practice Management/Disaster Preparedness
THE BEST-LAID PLANS
Ed McCarthy
To be truly prepared for a crisis, a firm should test its disaster recovery plan for weak spots so it can remedy them and refine the plan before documenting and distributing it. Thereafter it should test quarterly or whenever something changes. Here’s how to go about it.

Practice Development/Financial Reporting
SECTION 404 OPENS A DOOR
Maureen Nevin Duffy
To comply with Sarbanes-Oxley guidance, public companies will have to upgrade their internal control systems. One result is that CPAs have a new professional opportunity: They can become consultants to document and test companies’ internal controls for entities they do not audit. Here’s how some practitioners are responding to the call.

Sarbanes-Oxley 404 Compliance
EVALUATE THE CONTROL ENVIRONMENT
Michael Ramos
Management and independent auditors working to fulfill the internal control reporting requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley cannot focus exclusively on transaction-based, activity-level controls. The control environment is an important component of the internal control structure that must be considered. Finding ways to test and evaluate its subjective elements is quickly proving to be a complex and challenging task.

The Fraud Beat
THE CASE OF THE PILFERING PURCHASING MANAGER
Joseph T. Wells
Small businesses sometimes unwittingly grease the skids that allow an employee to steal from them. Here is a typical case in which it took only two internal control deficiencies in a small office to enable a thief.

Glimpse of the Past
TAKING ACCOUNT OF HISTORY
Anita Dennis
The first world Congress of Accountants, held in 1904, set the stage for important developments that are as meaningful to the profession today as they were 100 years ago.

Business Taxation
INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR OR NOT?
Mitchell L. Stump and Hans Sprohge
Businesses must be careful to classify workers properly as independent contractors or employees. If the IRS reclassifies a worker as an employee, a company faces liability for back payroll taxes, plus penalties and interest and possible criminal sanctions.

NEWS

AICPA Alert
Institute Launches Employee Benefit Plan Audit Quality Center
The AICPA has created a CPA firm community and resource center to provide auditors of employee benefit plans with the tools to perform the highest quality audits. CPA firms will find guidance, current issues and frequently asked questions—and they will have a unique opportunity to share information with each other in the online forum.