Only 15% of respondents were very satisfied with their committee’s IT risk oversight, and 90% said they should devote more agenda time to it.

“The ACI findings demonstrate a huge gap between the importance that audit committees place on IT risk and how much time they spend focused on it during their already busy meetings,” said ACI Executive Director Ed Smith. “Since audit committees generally have only basic IT experience, there may be a reluctance to invite chief information officers and chief technology officers to their meetings, in part, because there is a lack of common vocabulary.”

But as schedules are stretched by other emerging priorities—including risk management, legal and regulatory compliance, business strategy, taxes and fraud risk—how can committees accommodate the demand?

In the words of your third-grade teacher, learn to share—and in this case—the audit committee should share its oversight with other members of the board. For tips on setting agendas, refer to “ Eight Habits of Highly Effective Audit Committees,” page 46.

Source: KPMG’s Audit Committee Institute and the National Association of Corporate Directors’ 2006-2007 Public Company Audit Committee Member Survey , www.kpmg.com/aci.

Among the tax activities performed by businesses with less than $10 million in assets—including recordkeeping, working with a paid professional, completion and submission of forms, making estimated tax payments and tax planning—the most time was spent keeping records.

The survey also found that C corporations spent more time on compliance than S corporations and partnerships.

Source: Measuring the Tax Compliance Burden of Small Businesses , by Donald DeLuca, et al., 2005, and Tax Analysts, www.taxanalysts.com.

Nearly two-thirds (63%) of employees and 57% of executives polled said that office productivity improves when co-workers are friends outside of the workplace.

How much does it help? Almost one-quarter (22%) of employees said befriending colleagues had a “very positive” impact on their productivity, but only 2% of executives agreed.

Source: Accountemps, www.accountemps.com.

Practice continuation plans are essential for CPAs. They ensure clients are taken care of and preserve the value of a practice, especially for small to medium-size firms, if an owner or sole practitioner falls ill. Here are some tips on how to get a plan started:

Create a list of resources and phone numbers , including your professional liability insurance carrier, state and local CPA societies and their member crisis hotlines, utility providers and facility managers.

Assemble a set of operating documents , divided into sections including client lists, profile of proprietorship (executives, location of accounting records, contracts and bank accounts), procedures to monitor ongoing work, and the location of workpapers, personnel files and billing schedules.

Decide on the type of continuation arrangement: one-on-one (usually a buy-sell agreement); group (several CPAs act as successors/partners to each other’s firms); or state society plan (local societies or MPA committees assist in finding a successor).

Identify and partner with a suitable firm by receiving referrals from CPA societies, bankers, attorneys or community groups.

Implement the plan by writing instructions for all involved parties with your attorney and setting dates for annual plan reviews.

For additional resources or detailed guidance, refer to the AICPA Management of an Accounting Practice Handbook or “ Have a Fallback Plan,” JofA , Sept. 03, page 57.

Source: CAMICO Mutual Insurance Co., www.camico.com .

— Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus,
D-Mont., during the committee’s hearing
on carried interest, July 11 .

More than half said they are currently tapping overseas markets for talent, and 55% say they plan to go offshore in the next five years. Jeff Alderton, a principal of Deloitte Consulting, says, “When it comes to talent, supply and demand are out of balance, making employees more like consumers.”

Source: Deloitte & Touche LLP’s 2007 Technology Fast 500 CEO Survey, www.fast500.com.

Number of individual tax returns for 2006 that will be randomly selected for review in the IRS National Research Program reporting compliance study. 

Source: IRS, www.irs.gov .

NACE’s Graduating Student Survey found that students who tended to use college career center resources—including career fairs and affiliated Web sites—were more likely to secure full-time jobs than those who applied via an employer’s Web site.

Of students with full-time positions, 52% applied at campus career center fairs and 41% posted resumes on a career center Web site. However, among the 12,300 students surveyed, only 44% and 34% used these methods, respectively. The most popular methods were sending applications directly to a potential employer, either via their Web site (71%) or through the mail (47%).

Source: National Association of Colleges and Employers’ 2007 Graduating Student Survey , www.naceweb.org .

According to reimbursement records, Stanley Cannella, his wife and their two sons had undergone nine brain surgeries in three years at a cost in excess of $142,000, with Cannella receiving reimbursement three separate times for the same procedure. As the auditors dug deeper, it was discovered that two more individuals and their families had received multiple reimbursements for the same procedure, none of which were actually performed. The payout for 20 different operations totaled more than $300,000.

The scam was traced to a billing technician, who police suspect had changed the names of legitimate patients to those of the three other defendants on insurance claim forms and post-operative reports so they could collect the reimbursements. The alleged perpetrators were indicted on multiple counts of mail and health care fraud.

— Joseph T. Wells, CPA, CFE, founder and chairman
of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners

According to the Business Software Alliance, small businesses paid more than $11.4 million in fines to settle software piracy claims in 2006, and they face the greatest risk for software piracy, not only due to their lack of established software management practices, but also because they’re less likely to recognize the benefits of software policies.The organization recently partnered with the U.S. Small Business Administration to produce a range of educational materials that communicate proper software strategies to small businesses. Coined “Software Strategies for Small Businesses,” the program resources include best practices publications, free software audit tools, e-newsletters and Web seminars.

Visit www.smartaboutsoftware.org for a calendar of online events or for more information on the program.

Source: Small Business Administration, www.sba.gov.

The tensest leaders were found in countries with emerging economies, including mainland China (84%), Taiwan (82%), India (79%) and Russia (76%).

The least stressed over the past year included Sweden (27%), Ireland (35%) and the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France (all 37%).

When it comes to time spent working, the worldwide average was 53 hours per week, and the U.S. average was 55 hours. Europeans had the shortest work week at 50 hours, while business leaders in India and Argentina worked the longest, both at 57 hours.

Source: Grant Thornton International Business Report , www.internationalbusinessreport.com .