Archive for the ‘President's Message’ CategoryThe Voice of CPAsNovember 3rd, 2008
I don’t know about you, but I am glad this process is finally done. We now have our new leaders and regardless of whether or not we voted for them, they are our representatives and they work for us. It is our responsibility to make sure that they are informed and know how we feel about the issues that affect our country, state, community and profession. I hope you didn’t think that all you had to do was vote, and that once elected, our politicians would automatically make everything better. I believe our elected representatives have good hearts and want what is best for their constituents. But like any of us, they can become misinformed and make bad decisions based on bad information. What can we do? I suggest that you communicate with your representatives and keep them informed about the issues that affect you and the profession. As CPAs, we need to make sure our representatives support initiatives that will enhance our ability to serve our clients or employers. This communication can be done in many ways, but the most effective way is to meet your representative face to face. Take advantage of a tremendous opportunity to do so Jan. 21, by joining other CalCPA members for CalCPA Day at the Capitol when you can meet with local representatives to discuss current issues. You also can get involved with our Financial Literacy program. CalCPA’s Dollars & Sense workshops provide the opportunity to partner with local legislators and community leaders to improve financial literacy by educating the public on how to better manage money, improve savings and investment strategies, and save on taxes. Recent economic events should have driven home the importance of proper money management, and, as CPAs, we are best fit to provide that education. Lastly, encourage your colleagues and staff to take these actions as well. It is much easier to effect change when we work together. — David F. Veyna, CPA
Providing Clients With the Best—Not All—ServicesSeptember 30th, 2008
Not surprisingly, one of the biggest things on our clients’ minds right now is the economy and security over their financial investments. Many of my clients ask for financial advice. I can give them the basics, but I also recommend that they sit down with a certified personal financial planner and make sure that they have a proper financial plan in place. For example, when my parents passed away, certain realities were driven home that reinforced to me the importance of financial planning. The most significant of those realities was the difference between a nursing home versus 24-hour home care. There is no comparison as far as quality of life when considering the ability for someone to continue living in the dignity and comfort of their own home. But this benefit comes at a large cost and requires that you plan properly. As I explain to my clients, this planning is for their own piece of mind and for their children and others who care about them. As CPAs and our clients’ trusted advisers, we have a responsibility to provide the best service possible. If we are not proficient in a certain type of service, then we have the responsibility to refer our clients to someone who is proficient. I don’t think our clients want or expect us to know everything. What they do want and expect from us is someone who cares about them as individuals and, if the situation arises, someone who feels their pain and will help guide them through tough times. — David F. Veyna, CPA
Here’s a Question for You–and the AnswerSeptember 4th, 2008
The best help I receive is not necessarily when someone comes out and tells me the answer, but instead it comes when someone shows me how to come up with my own answer or points me to the appropriate resource where I can find it myself. This usually helps me solve the problem at hand and provides me with a way to solve future problems. I would like to point you to a resource that you may not have thought of lately—CalCPA. CalCPA provides much more than just a nice looking membership certificate on the wall, reasonably priced continuing education or representation in Sacramento. CalCPA also is a resource to get answers to many different types of business questions. The CalCPA website is one of my better online resources, and the “Your Business/Resources” link is one of my favorite areas on the site. This page links to the “Business Management Tools” section, which is a repository of useful forms and sample letters. It also refers me to a number of listserves—online discussion forums concentrating on specific interests. If those resources still don’t provide me with the answers I need, the next step is to go to the CalCPA answerlines, where I can choose from a list of names and numbers of CPAs throughout the state who have volunteered to take calls from members and assist them with practice management, auditing, tax and other needs. If you haven’t checked it out lately, CalCPA’s website has been updated to make it easier to find relevant information. As it has merged with the California CPA Education Foundation’s site, it is now also much easier to find and sign up for continuing education courses. Another great new feature is the ability to make comments and provide feedback to items written in our chapter Bulletin. For example, my article titled, “The Mystery of Our Chapter’s History“, talked about a gavel being passed from chapter president to chapter president and how we had lost the history of how that gavel came to be. Two members left comments, and from those comments, I was able to find a binder that outlines the first 25 years of our chapter’s history. You can follow my search to track down more information on this gavel by referring back to that article from time to time, or, better yet, add a comment and check the box to be notified of follow-up comments via e-mail. I encourage you to go to the CalCPA site and see what’s new. Also, add a comment below and tell us what features you like or would like to see improved. — David F. Veyna, CPA
Embracing Change in Financial ReportingJuly 30th, 2008
The majority of the world’s financial reporting is not based on U.S. GAAP, but is based on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Many of the major countries that are not using IFRS are in the process of converting. Canadian, Indian and Japanese companies are slated to begin using IFRS in 2011. There has been an increasing push to adopt a global standard of reporting, and it is now evident that the United States also will be adopting IFRS. Of course it will be some time before IFRS goes into effect, and initially it will just be public companies that convert, but I suspect that over time all U.S. companies will be reporting on IFRS. I also suspect that some of our small, private clients, which initially may not be required to report using IFRS, will be requesting early adoption of the standard to appease their foreign investors. Along a similar line, and in the interest of adopting another global standard for obtaining comparability, eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is quickly catching on. The SEC has already proposed to mandate the use of XBRL by all public companies. XBRL is a language used for electronic communication of business and financial data. Instead of treating financial information as a block of text, XBRL provides an identifying tag for each individual item of data. The computer-readable XBRL tags enable automated processing of business information by computer software. Computers can treat XBRL data “intelligently”” and can recognize the information in an XBRL document. They can select it, analyze it, store it, exchange it with other computers and present it automatically in a variety of user-friendly ways . These tags don’t have language barriers and can even be used to analyze and compare statements written in different languages. The adoption of IFRS and XBRL represents a move in the right direction toward facilitating comparability between different types of financial statements. I believe we need to embrace these changes and begin to prepare for them. While the adoption of these standards is already in progress, they will take time to fully implement, which gives us time to get up to speed. I encourage those of you who are involved in financial statement preparation or are users of financial data to start becoming familiar with these standards if you haven’t already. More information can be found at the websites IFRS.com and at XBRL.org. The CalCPA Education Foundation also is offering a class on “Understanding International Financial Reporting Standards” and “Introduction to XBRL and New Opportunities for CPAs.” Lastly, if you have a chance, go to Youtube.com and watch the presentation by Mike Willis, trustee of XBRL International and PWC partner, at CalCPA’s State Council meeting regarding XBRL convergence. CalCPA also has posted excerpts from the 2008 YEP Conference on Youtube.com, including Julie Bauke who spoke on networking and Vintage Foster who spoke on CPAs as trusted advisers. I hope everyone is having a great summer and taking some time to spend with family and friends. —David F. Veyna, CPA
The Mystery of Our Chapter’s HistoryJune 27th, 2008
By David F. Veyna, CPA
During the installation presentation there is a time when a gavel is passed to the incoming president. On this gavel there is an inscription that reads: In Memory of: Emmet W. Gottenberg, CPA Upon noticing this inscription, I became curious as to how long we had been passing this gavel from president to president, who exactly were Mr. Gottenberg and Mr. Bean and what role did they play in our chapter. After several inquiries, I realized that our chapter has lost some of its history. No one I asked could answer my questions. Thanks to the internet and some help from an amateur history buff, Loui Tucker, I was able to find out a bit about Gottenberg and Bean. I learned that both were CPAs and attorneys, but neither of them was a past president nor appears to have been an officer of our chapter. Mr. Gottenberg was born around 1890, was admitted to the bar in November 1933 and in that same month and year played a small role in a very dark moment in San Jose’s history. The story is that in November 1933, two men were captured and charged with the kidnapping and murder of Brooke Hart who was a young Santa Clara University student and heir to the Hart’s Department Store fortune. Hart’s Department Store was the largest department store in San Jose at the time. This occurred during the height of the depression and just following the famous Lindbergh baby kidnapping and murder. Before the men could ever come to trial, an angry mob broke into the county jail, hauled the two men out of their cells and lynched them across the street at St. James Park in downtown San Jose. Mr. Gottenberg’s connection in this was that two sisters of one of the accused worked for Mr. Gottenberg and his partner. The sisters must have convinced them to help defend their brother, even though they were only tax attorneys and, in at least Mr. Gottenberg’s case, a just-recently-admitted-to-the-bar attorney. A more detailed account of the event can be found in Harry Farrell’s book Swift Justice. One of my goals this year is to find out more about the history of the gavel and the two individuals named on it, Emmet W. Gottenberg, CPA, and J.E. Bean, Jr., CPA. To do this, I need your help. If you know anything about these men, have ideas on how we can track down their history or would like join me researching this, please contact me. —David F. Veyna, CPA
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