Consider Lifetime Client Value, Cost of Client Acquisition, and Retention Rate Is your CPA firm making the most of current relationships and doing all it can to expand into new ones?   While there are many metrics CPA firms use to evaluate quantitative performance, AICPA Insights suggests 12 metrics than can provide more qualitative feedback. These metrics can help CPA firms measure their reach with clients ...

U.S.-Based Multinationals Reporting Under IFRS Struggle With Classification of Equities, Liabilities The International Accounting Standards Board agreed with respondents from its public consultation (a study that reached out to industry professionals at all levels in more than 80 countries in 2011) that it needs to better clarify definitions of assets and liabilities for debt instruments, CFO.com reports. T ...

An Interview with Jeremy Levine, a Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners As the new year begins, the Wall Street Journal's Venture Capital Dispatch — which focuses largely on high-tech start-ups and their investors — has asked several venture capital investors to reflect on the past year and give us their outlook for 2013.  Recently, it spoke with Jeremy Levine, a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. Levine ...

IFRS Foundation Trustee: Don’t Wave White Flag on Cooperation Global accounting standard setters acknowledge that completion of the convergence projects is unlikely to happen in the near term, but progress can still be made to closely align International Financial Reporting Standards and U.S. GAAP, the Journal of Accountancy reports.   Here's more: ...

A Dozen Categories.  Some Categories Alone Encompassing Up to 20 New Taxes.  Here's the Detail.  The American Taxpayer Relief Act, passed by Congress on Jan. 1, permanently extends a large number of tax items from the 2001 and 2003 tax acts and extends many expired tax provisions. Here is a comprehensive look at the many changes contained in the bill, as well as other new taxes that took effect Jan. 1. Paul ...

Intent:  Not to Constrain Economic Growth Which Could Lead to Future Revenues David Lawder and Kim Dixon report that The Congressional Budget Office on Tuesday said Senate-passed legislation to avert the "fiscal cliff" would add nearly $4 trillion to federal deficits over a decade, largely because it would extend low tax rates for almost all Americans. ...

Economic Recovery, Intensified Competition, Squeezed Profit Margins, Upward Pressure on Salaries, Downward Pressure on Rates, and a Rush to the Cloud   Rick Telberg counts up the list of the top 20 most-clicked articles at CPA Trendlines provides a roadmap to the profession’s anxieties, aspirations and, just maybe, a glimpse into what 2013 holds: ...

There's good news and bad news.  Here's the low-down.   Dean Zerbe offers his take at Forbes on how the current deal will affect small-business owners: ...

Ambitious plans to overhaul the individual tax code, tackle corporate rates, revamp the Medicare program and consider changes in Social Security appear to have given way mainly to a tax increases for big earners Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times reports that "doing business in pieces" seems to be :the nature of what constitutes progress in such a sharply divided political world."  More: ...

Health Costs on His Mind, Small Factory Owner Looks for Ways to Cope With New Law Emily Maltby and Sarah E. Needleman at The Wall Street Journal talk with a small business owner outside of Chicago who's considering ways to manage growth, preserve profit, and comply with the new healthcare law. Automation Systems, with with sales of about $1.6 million for 2012, currently employs 40 full-time workers, mostly ...

Spotlight On Payment Reform, Alternative Care Models, and Physician Employment Agreements Debra Beaulieu at Fierce Practice Management  weighs in with Top 10 Physician Practice Trends to watch in 2013, a year that will not only be a watershed for the U.S. healthcare system, but, for many physician practices, a pivotal one professionally—where the' ability to adapt and evolve may make the difference for many ...

Find Fulfillment, Get Productive, And Create Healthy Habits  Drake Baer at Fast Company weighs in with his choice of Top 2012 titles, asserting that "these 12 books have shaped not only the way we work this year, but how we think and the conversations we're having. Authored by luminaries like Nate Silver, Clay Christensen, and Susan Cain, these delightful-to-read tomes offer insight into the power of vulner ...

Barnes & Noble’s Missing $500 Million; A Discrepancy Between Physical and Digital Property Values Tom Gara reports at The Wall Street Journal Corporate Intelligence blog that "UK-based publisher Pearson bought into Barnes & Noble's Nook Media digital business today [12/28/12], buying a 5% stake in the e-book company for $89.5 million and valuing the whole business at just under $1.8 billion. ...

Compensation and Growth Opportunities are Key to Employee Retention;  Other Factors—and How to Differentiate Jennifer Wilson at CPA Insider writes that firm leaders should be prepared to provide clear answers to the most pressing questions young high performers have about what to expect on the path to partner.    ...

Is Brand Value Best Calculated by Deducting and Capitalizing Franchise and Management Fees?  Or by Weighing Brand Value as a Factor of Revenue?   A debate is swirling in the appraisal community regarding the value of intangibles, most notably brand affiliation, reports Patrick Maycock at HotelNewsNow.com.  While one party holds to a more traditional viewpoint that calculates such intangibles by deducting an ...

Small Business Owners Hiring Intentions for the Next 12 Months Dropped to -4 in November, Down from +10 in July Jeffrey Sparshott at the Wall Street Journal Real-Time Economy Blog reports the news:   ...

Federal Government, Which Makes an ROI of $7.20 for Every Dollar it Invest in Detection and Enforcement of Fraud, Is Increasingly Monitoring Compliance Plans  Lucien W. Roberts at Physicians Practice notes that physician practices are increasingly being monitored by federal agencies sensitive to compliance plan violations: ...

One in 26 American Families Reports Raising a Child with a Disability The Wills, Trusts, & Estates prof blog notes new detail available on this sort of trust: ...

Bay State Charges Two Firms with Fraudulent Security Sales  Investment News, the daily online publication of the financial advisory industry, reports that Massachusetts took aim Thursday at two players in the small but potentially vast arena of crowdfunding, which lets small private companies sell equity directly to investors: ...

A Premium Multiple is Hard to Come By and Harder to Keep;  Owners Should Worry More About Improving Performance  Susan Nolen Foushee, Tim Koller, and Anand Mehta make the case in McKinsey Quarterly that executives considering company value often worry too much about their company's multiple (e.g., a P/E ratio, or EV/EBIDTA, etc.) instead of focusing on company growth.   It isn't that multiples aren't legiti ...