Relationship-Based Persuasion: A Guide for the CPA

An issue faced by a CPA on a regular basis is how to persuade a client to take a recommended action. Maybe your client is unprepared financially for the future and needs to establish a retirement account. As much as your client understands the importance of planning for retirement, the allure of a new car or a kitchen renovation may be too great, and that sensible alternative you are recommending may be ignored until some uncertain future date. Or, maybe the client’s internal controls are inadequate. For many small businesses, where trust in employees is paramount, internal controls may be weak or lacking. You would like to persuade your client to consider implementing some critical controls over petty cash. How do you best communicate this need to your client? How can you persuade him/her to accept your recommendation? There are many approaches to persuasion. This paper outlines an effective method of persuasion that CPAs may apply

Pregnancy and neonatal outcomes of COVID-19: The PAN-COVID study

Objective To assess perinatal outcomes for pregnancies affected by suspected or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods Prospective, web-based registry. Pregnant women were invited to participate if they had suspected or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection between 1st January 2020 and 31st March 2021 to assess the impact of infection on maternal and perinatal outcomes including miscarriage, stillbirth, fetal growth restriction, pre-term birth and transmission to the infant. Results Between April 2020 and March 2021, the study recruited 8239 participants who had suspected or confirmed SARs-CoV-2 infection episodes in pregnancy between January 2020 and March 2021. Maternal death affected 14/8197 (0.2%) participants, 176/8187 (2.2%) of participants required ventilatory support. Pre-eclampsia affected 389/8189 (4.8%) participants, eclampsia was reported in 40/ 8024 (0.5%) of all participants. Stillbirth affected 35/8187 (0.4 %) participants. In participants delivering within 2 weeks of delivery 21/2686 (0.8 %) were affected by stillbirth compared with 8/4596 (0.2 %) delivering ≥ 2 weeks after infection (95 % CI 0.3–1.0). SGA affected 744/7696 (9.3 %) of livebirths, FGR affected 360/8175 (4.4 %) of all pregnancies. Pre-term birth occurred in 922/8066 (11.5%), the majority of these were indicated pre-term births, 220/7987 (2.8%) participants experienced spontaneous pre-term births. Early neonatal deaths affected 11/8050 livebirths. Of all neonates, 80/7993 (1.0%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Conclusions Infection was associated with indicated pre-term birth, most commonly for fetal compromise. The overall proportions of women affected by SGA and FGR were not higher than expected, however there was the proportion affected by stillbirth in participants delivering within 2 weeks of infection was significantly higher than those delivering ≥ 2 weeks after infection. We suggest that clinicians’ threshold for delivery should be low if there are concerns with fetal movements or fetal heart rate monitoring in the time around infection

IS/IT Certifications: Which Is the Right Choice?

The accounting profession has a variety of licenses and certificates that attest to an individual\u27s ability to conduct financial statement audits. perform management accounting functions, conduct internal audits, and offer financial management services. The variety reflects the wide array of skills that accountants can possess and services they can provide. In the information technology (IT) and information systems (IS) area, three vendor-neutral certifications are available: Certified Information Technology Professional (CITP), Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), and Certified lnformation Systems Security Professional (CISSP) Determining an individual\u27s level of technical expertise, however, presents a dilemma for potential users and providers of technology services. The nature of the IT field allows many individuals with no training or experience to call themselves IT consultants or security specialists. In addition. because of legal liability concerns, it is vital that IT consultants have proper training and sufficient knowledge for the services they provide. Certifications are a way to identify qualified consultants

Brainstorming, Fraud Consideration and SAS 99: Best Practices

Statement on Auditing Standards #99 expanded the auditor’s responsibilities with respect to fraud in financial statement audits. It includes the requirement that the audit team brainstorm ways in which fraud could be perpetrated in the client’s accounting process and specific audit procedures that would provide relevant information. This paper reports on current best practices in brainstorming from practice and research

Agile Development Methods: An Introduction for AIS Educators

Agile development is a relatively new term for a not so new concept. The process involves development - of software or information systems - by small teams, in a short time frame, and involving system users as well as developers. This research paper provides an introduction to agile development concepts and an overview of three approaches to its implementation. While the discussion here focuses on information system development, the ideas can be usefully applied to many kinds of relatively large-scale projects

The Challenge to Balance Energy Independence with Environmental Sustainability: An Examination of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

During the week of this article\u27s writing, crude oil prices set five straight world records and ended the week at $117 per barrel. Five years ago, oil was selling for about$30 per barrel. Some people think that the solution to the energy crisis is to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling while others consider that area to be permanently off-limits to oil drilling so that ecosystems will be protected. The purpose of this article is to simply present both sides of the issues related to the United States\u27 need for oil and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge\u27s need for protection

Using Documentary-Type Films to Discuss Ethical Business Issues

Myers (October, 2005) offers suggestions for changing course in Accounting education. Two very specific suggestions included emphasis of communication skills and real-world cases to broaden students’ educational experience. Morris (August, 2006) asserts that students often learn valuable ethics lessons by watching films such as “The Firm”, “Broiler Room”, and “Wall Street”. While lessons from these fictional movies are excellent ways to build discussion of ethical issues and peak students’ interest, our assertion is that documentary-type videos may provide more reality and current event interest for the students. The purpose of our research presentation is to offer suggestions of ethical issues that can be discussed in three recent documentary-type videos:”A Day without a Mexican” (immigration issues and costs of products), “Wal-mart: The High Cost of Low Prices” (employee quality of life issues and costs of products), and “Iraq for Sale” (the war and effects of private companies providing so many services). The goal is to enhance critical thinking skills, ethical reasoning skills, and communication skills among Business students

A Multi-criteria Approach to CPA Firm Selection: A Case Study

The choice of a professional certified public accountant (CPA) firm is vital to organisational success. The appropriate selection of a CPA firm, and thus the ability to obtain relevant and useful professional advice, can either make or break a business. Evaluation and selection of a CPA firm represents a multi-criteria decision-making problem that entails both qualitative and quantitative criteria. This study proposes the use of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) as a tool for assisting companies to evaluate various CPA firms. Data for our research project were collected from a non-profit organisation based in a large Western Washington city. Sensitivity analysis was also conducted to test the robustness of the decision. We are hoping that our findings will be valuable to companies in their CPA firm selection decisions

Grounds for Dismissal

This article discusses the fraud case of Mary Doe, application manager in the Information Technology department of The Coffee Co. in King County, Washington. The article includes details about the violation committed by Doe in approving invoices for Fictitious Consulting Co

Individual characteristics associated with World Wide Web use: An empirical study of playfulness and motivation

This study examines the influence of the individual characteristic of playfulness on the use of the World Wide Web (WWW). Previous research suggests that microcomputer playfulness has an effect on computer usage in general, and we found support for a similar relationship in WWW use. Two samples of students were surveyed in this study; one consisting of undergraduate students and the other comprised of graduate students. Our findings also suggest that both intrinsic and extrinsic factors affect WWW use differentially for entertainment purposes and for course work purposes. Our study confirms previous research in that we found that ability to use the computer has a positive effect on WWW usage