Archive for the ‘Writing for Others’ Category

@Going Concern “Accountants In The Modern World”

By Francine • Mar 10th, 2010

My new column is up @Going Concern.com
“…I don’t envy today’s professors trying to teach the old-fashioned accounting skills in the electronic environment – closing checklists, regular balance sheet reconciliations, journal entry sign-offs, backup documentation requirements, managerial review of financial statements, and proper reviews and approvals of estimates and analytics. These are the Sarbanes-Oxley and the [...]


@Going Concern “Whistleblowers Are Not Pretty”

By Francine • Mar 3rd, 2010

My new column is up @Going Concern.
Most don’t wear stilettos, although Cynthia Cooper is fairly attractive for a blond. Harry Markopolos, the Madoff “hero” whose new book is out is being called a whistleblower. I do not see him really warming up to that label or really warming up at all. He did admit that, [...]


@Going Concern: “You’re Hired. You’re Fired. Beware The Big 4 Boomerang”

By Francine • Feb 24th, 2010

My new column is posted @Going Concern.
There’s no profession more conflicted about employee retention versus alumni relations than the auditors. On the one hand, the largest audit firms have well-oiled recruiting machines.
Their uncanny ability to identify and sway candidates early is rivaled only by professional baseball’s success at finding talented Dominicans still swinging stalks of [...]


@Going Concern “It’s Hard Out There For An Auditor”

By Francine • Feb 17th, 2010

My latest column is posted @Going Concern:
It’s tough to be the “good guy,” however you define “goodness” within your moral framework. It’s even tougher if you were never taught your duty to the public as a licensed CPA and if the firm or company punishes you, de-incentivizes you to do the right thing. Retired Trinity [...]


@Going Concern “The Big 4 Pro-IFRS Campaign Has Some Flaws”

By Francine • Feb 10th, 2010

“IFRS For Everyone” is not just another well-crafted campaign for a government-sanctioned “next big thing” to sustain the Big 4’s untenable, unsustainable, obsolete business model that produces a, purported by some, worthless product. The Big 4 are bringing their best and brightest minds, from all over the world, to the US to evangelize their colleagues and transform their clients. Deloitte has partner Nick Difazio on the job.


@Going Concern “At Davos, Big 4 CEOs Get Their Close-Ups”

By Francine • Feb 4th, 2010

My new post is up @Going Concern.
Davos is a big deal for the media and they’re hungry for content. Any content. The prepped and pre-scripted interviews are full of softball questions and carefully restrained probing. Whether giving air time to KPMG’s Flynn, Quigley from Deloitte, E&Y’s Turley or PwC’s Nally, everyone sticks strictly to their assigned [...]


@Going Concern “The Big 4 and Shameless Self-Promotion”

By Francine • Jan 27th, 2010

My new post is up @Going Concern.
“I chafe at the cheekiness of some of the announcements. The firms’ communications teams are blithely unaware of how such shameless self-promotion looks to those who are watching closely. For example, all of the Big 4 firms were named to the Fortune 100 Best Places To Work list, even [...]


@Going Concern “It’s Busy Season And You’re My B***h”

By Francine • Jan 20th, 2010

My new post is up @Going Concern.
“It’s that time of year for audit and tax professionals – busy season. Do you know where your backbone is?Picture the scene so many have you have described to me in delicious detail. A manager, or a senior associate toadie, cracks the whip until late in the evening on [...]


@Going Concern “Love Me, Love Me… Say That You Love Me: Critiquing The Positive Intern Hiring Trend”

By Francine • Jan 6th, 2010

There’s nothing wrong with hiring more of your interns for full time positions. But, hiring more interns instead has big pitfalls, for both the employee and the firm.


@Going Concern “Satyam’s Internal Auditor: All Roar, No Bite”

By Francine • Dec 17th, 2009

India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) recently arrested Mahindra Satyam’s internal audit head V S Prabhakar Gupta for his alleged involvement in the Satyam fraud.


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