Accounting
Art of Accounting: Complaint about the price of my memoirs
Enjoy complimentary access to top ideas and insights — selected by our editors.
I received a complaint recently that my Memoirs of a CPA book is priced too high. The paperback edition is $24.95, the Kindle version is $5.99 and, if you have Kindle Unlimited, it’s free. Actually, I do not think the Kindle version or Kindle Unlimited is priced too high. As for the paperback version, I wonder how low it would need to be priced for that person to buy it.
I buy a lot of books. My purchases are split between Kindle e-books and hard copies. I just bought a book titled Artemisia Gentileschi and the Business of Art for $65. Maybe that’s a lot to pay for a book about a woman who lived from about 1593 to 1654. A brief bio is that she was raped when she was 18 by a friend of her father and then at the trial underwent torture to prove that she was a virgin before she was raped. Anyway, she became very successful with her paintings, charged higher than standard prices and was a great marketer of her skills and her brand. This book is about how she ran the business of her art, an offbeat topic especially from a 17th century artist. I figure that if I get one idea from this book, it will be well worth the price.
At the same time, I know the value of my Memoirs book and cannot imagine any reader not getting a bunch of immediately usable ideas on how to make more money, run their practice better, provide clients with greater value, keep staff a little longer or have more fun. Perhaps I should have given the book away for free, only asking the reader to send me a check for what they think the value was to them. I think I’d then make way over a million bucks from this book!
The following are two short chapters from my book:
Being a sounding board to your clients
Entrepreneurs are the brightest, most focused, and most determined people I know. But it is also lonely for many of them.
There are few people they can trust, and sometimes they just need a sounding board of someone who won’t pass judgment but might point out inconsistencies or illogical conclusions. That is a role for CPAs and part of their trusted advisor position, and occasionally great things come out of it.
I have been in many meetings where the client did not want an opinion but needed to hear him or herself speak out loud to someone. CPAs are there for that. We listen, consider, sometimes prod, don’t pass judgment, and keep it confidential. We seem to know when clients want our advice — which is often — but we also know when to nod occasionally and be that sounding board. And sometimes opportunities arise!
One Friday morning, a client asked to see me. He owned a very large piece of land on an island in the Caribbean that his newly married fourth wife decided she wanted to develop. He wanted to see me so he could vent, rant and beg for a solution out of it.
In the course of his tirade, I latched onto something he said and suggested a plan that might make a lot of sense. I told him that upscale houses could be built just inside the perimeter, while the entire remaining inside portion of the property, which comprised over 75% of the area, could be donated to a wildlife preserve charity on that island. The tax deduction would be enormous because it would be based on the value created by the property sales and not his cost, plus he could add an easement restriction to the donation that prohibited any additional development on the property. The houses he built would have extended gigantic private beautiful “back yards,” increasing his selling price and allowing the client to get paid “twice” for his property — and become a philanthropist as well. It was a short meeting, about a half hour.
When I got back to my office, the client’s secretary called me. In the short time it took me to walk to my office, she arranged for me to fly to the island Monday morning, have a look around the property that afternoon, meet with an attorney, real estate agent and developer on Tuesday, have some follow-up and unrelated meetings Wednesday (that led to the client getting involved in more businesses on the island) and a return flight home early Thursday morning. That was the first of a number of visits by me to that island for the client.
The takeaway is that many times, CPAs help clients make lemonade out of lemons. But we have to be trusted, knowledgeable listeners and creative thinkers.
My boss hated the client
Early on, my boss took me to a client that I was to work on. He started to explain what needed to be done and what the client did, but then he said, “I hate this client — everything is always messed up, and nothing ever makes sense!” He also told me my work area would be in the factory. I would probably have to move a chair next to a carton that would serve as a desk, and he warned me the lighting wasn’t too good.
His remarks were like a kiss of death. For the next three or four months, I dreaded going to that client, always thinking how “messed up they were, and nothing ever made sense.” Then, it dawned on me that I was the person doing the work, and things were in order. The carton I worked on was a few feet from where the client packed his shipments. When he did, he always chatted with me about his business, customers, employees and pricing strategies.
He also told me things he liked to do, such as going to the opera (which I did too) and vacations he took or would like to take. The client also would buy me a sandwich to have lunch with him, and I became very friendly with him. And then I asked myself why I dreaded going there? I loved working there! It became my favorite client, that I eagerly looked forward to going to.
My boss’s idle remark prejudiced me against the client, and it took me months to get over it.
The takeaway for me was that when I would become a boss, I would only say great things about a client, influencing the staff to like the client and look forward to working with them. Negative remarks about a client never left my lips! Actually, negative remarks were never applicable — my clients were all great! My boss ingrained a negative perception about that client into me before I ever had a chance to form my opinion.
My book has 100 more chapters with similar ideas you could adopt.
Do not hesitate to contact me at
The Financial Accounting Standards Board issued a
U.S. GAAP currently doesn’t provide specific authoritative guidance about the recognition, measurement, and presentation of a grant received by a business entity from a government. Instead, many businesses currently apply the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation’s International Accounting Standard 20, Accounting for Government Grants and Disclosure of Government Assistance, by analogy, at least in part, to account for government grants.
In 2022 FASB issued an Invitation to Comment, Accounting for Government Grants by Business Entities—Potential Incorporation of IAS 20, Accounting for Government Grants and Disclosure of Government Assistance, into GAAP. In response, most of FASB’s stakeholders supported leveraging the guidance in IAS 20 to develop accounting guidance for government grants in GAAP, believing it would reduce diversity in practice because entities would apply the guidance instead of analogizing to it or other guidance, thus narrowing the variability in accounting for government grants.
Patrick Dorsman/Financial Accounting Foundation
The proposed ASU would leverage the guidance in IAS 20 with targeted improvements to establish guidance on how to recognize, measure, and present a government grant including (1) a grant related to an asset and (2) a grant related to income. It also would require, consistent with current disclosure requirements, disclosure about the nature of the government grant received, the accounting policies used to account for the grant, and significant terms and conditions of the grant, among others.
FASB is asking for comments on the
“It will not be a cut and paste of IAS 20,” said FASB technical director Jackson Day during a session at Financial Executives International’s Current Financial Reporting Insights conference last week. “First of all, the scope is going to be a little bit different, probably a little bit more narrow. Second of all, the threshold of recognizing a government grant will be based on ‘probable,’ and ‘probable’ as we think of it in U.S. GAAP terms. We’re also going to do some work to make clarifications, etc. There is a little bit different thinking around the government grants for assets. There will be a deferred income approach or a cost accumulation approach that you can pick. And finally, there will be different disclosures because the disclosures will be based on what the board had previously issued, but it does leverage IAS 20. A few other things it does as far as reducing diversity. Most people analogized IAS 20. That was our anecdotal findings. But what does that mean? How exactly do they do that? This will set forth the specifics. It will also eliminate from the population those that were analogizing to ASC 450 or 958, because there were a few of those too. So it will go a long way in reducing diversity. It will also head down a model that will be generally internationally converged, which we still think about. We still collaborate with the staff [of the International Accounting Standards Board]. We don’t have any joint projects, but we still do our best when it makes sense to align on projects.”
PwC made a $1.5 million investment to Bryant University, in Smithfield, Rhode Island, to fund the launch of the PwC AI in Accounting Fellowship.
The experiential learning program allows undergraduate students to explore AI’s impact in accounting by way of engaging in research with faculty, corporate-sponsored projects and professional development that blends traditional accounting principles with AI-driven tools and platforms.
The first cohort of PwC AI in Accounting Fellows will be awarded to members of the Bryant Honors Program planning to study accounting. The fellowship funds can be applied to various educational resources, including conference fees, specialized data sheets, software and travel.
Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg
“Aligned with our Vision 2030 strategic plan and our commitment to experiential learning and academic excellence, the fellowship also builds upon PwC’s longstanding relationship with Bryant University,” Bryant University president Ross Gittell said in a statement. “This strong partnership supports institutional objectives and includes the annual PwC Accounting Careers Leadership Institute for rising high school seniors, the PwC Endowed Scholarship Fund, the PwC Book Fund, and the PwC Center for Diversity and Inclusion.”
Bob Calabro, a PwC US partner and 1988 Bryant University alumnus and trustee, helped lead the development of the program.
“We are excited to introduce students to the many opportunities available to them in the accounting field and to prepare them to make the most of those opportunities, This program further illustrates the strong relationship between PwC and Bryant University, where so many of our partners and staff began their career journey in accounting” Calabro said in a statement.
“Bryant’s Accounting faculty are excited to work with our PwC AI in Accounting Fellows to help them develop impactful research projects and create important experiential learning opportunities,” professor Daniel Ames, chair of Bryant’s accounting department, said in a statement. “This program provides an invaluable opportunity for students to apply AI concepts to real-world accounting, shaping their educational journey in significant ways.”
U.S. ‘industrial renaissance’ is driving a rebound in fundraising
Netflix’s stock hits record high after news that Tyson-Paul fight drew 108 million viewers
I’m a Democrat who drives a Tesla. A guy shouted abuse at me for driving a car made by Elon Musk. Am I a hypocrite? Should I sell my car?
Are American progressives making themselves sad?
U.S. Beneficial Ownership Information Registry Now Accepting Reports
New 2023 K-1 instructions stir the CAMT pot for partnerships and corporations
-
Technology1 week agoAI Use Cases: Retail, Finance & Healthcare Solutions
-
Accounting4 days agoHow to Create an Effective Invoice Process for Small Businesses
-
Personal Finance5 days agoOlder voters prioritized personal economic issues on Election Day: AARP
-
Technology1 week agoThe Rise of Superapps: How AI is Powering the Next Generation of Mobile Apps
-
Economics6 days agoClimate change and the next administration
-
Economics6 days agoWholesale prices rose 0.2% in October, in line with expectations
-
Economics6 days agoSenate Republicans flex their independence
-
Economics5 days agoWhat would Robert F. Kennedy junior mean for American health?