Accounting Educator Helpers

Bob Jensen is in the Department of Business Administration at TrinityUniversity.
Email: rjensen@trinity.edu

Click here to search this web site if you have key words to enter --- Search Site.
This search engine may get you some hits from other professors at Trinity University included with Bob Jensen's documents, but this may be to your benefit.  Another search engine that covers Trinity and other universities is at http://www.searchedu.com/.

Acceptance Speech for the August 15, 2002 American Accounting Association's Outstanding Educator Award --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/AAAaward_files/AAAaward02.htm

FREE access to ANNUAL REPORTS in XBRL --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/XBRLandOLAP.htm#TimelineXBRL
From EDGAR Online --- http://www.tryxbrl.org/

Accountancy Discussion ListServs:
For an elaboration on the reasons you should join a ListServ (usually for free) go to   http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListServRoles.htm
AECM (Educators)  http://pacioli.loyola.edu/aecm/ 
AECM is an email Listserv list which provides a forum for discussions of all hardware and software which can be useful in any way for accounting education at the college/university level. Hardware includes all platforms and peripherals. Software includes spreadsheets, practice sets, multimedia authoring and presentation packages, data base programs, tax packages, World Wide Web applications, etc

Roles of a ListServ --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListServRoles.htm
 
CPAS-L (Practitioners) http://pacioli.loyola.edu/cpas-l/ 
CPAS-L provides a forum for discussions of all aspects of the practice of accounting. It provides an unmoderated environment where issues, questions, comments, ideas, etc. related to accounting can be freely discussed. Members are welcome to take an active role by posting to CPAS-L or an inactive role by just monitoring the list. You qualify for a free subscription if you are either a CPA or a professional accountant in public accounting, private industry, government or education. Others will be denied access.
Yahoo (Practitioners)  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xyztalk
This forum is for CPAs to discuss the activities of the AICPA. This can be anything  from the CPA2BIZ portal to the XYZ initiative or anything else that relates to the AICPA.
AccountantsWorld  http://accountantsworld.com/forums/default.asp?scope=1 
This site hosts various discussion groups on such topics as accounting software, consulting, financial planning, fixed assets, payroll, human resources, profit on the Internet, and taxation.
Business Valuation Group BusValGroup-subscribe@topica.com 
This discussion group is headed by Randy Schostag [RSchostag@BUSVALGROUP.COM] 

EI's Financial Reporting Blog
Smart Stops on the Web, Journal of Accountancy, March 2008 --- http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/mar2008/smart_stops.htm

FINANCIAL REPORTING PORTAL
www.financialexecutives.org/blog
Find news highlights from the SEC, FASB and the International Accounting Standards Board on this financial reporting blog from Financial Executives International. The site, updated daily, compiles regulatory news, rulings and statements, comment letters on standards, and hot topics from the Web’s largest business and accounting publications and organizations. Look for continuing coverage of SOX requirements, fair value reporting and the Alternative Minimum Tax, plus emerging issues such as the subprime mortgage crisis, international convergence, and rules for tax return preparers.

History of the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and earlier accounting standard setting in the United States --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#AccountingHistory

History of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) ---  http://www.iasb.org/About+Us/About+the+Foundation/History.htm
A more complete commentary on the history of the IASC and IASB by Paul Pacter --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5341/speakers/pacter.htm#001
Also see http://static.managementboek.nl/pdf/9780471726883.pdf

A timeline of accounting scandals and standards development can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm

Some of the many, many lawsuits settled by auditing firms can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm

Question
How can you best publish books, including multimedia and user interactive books, on the Web?
Note that interactive books may have quizzes and examinations where answers are sent back for grading.

My Answers --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm

Bob Jensen's advice to new faculty --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/newfaculty.htm

Large International Accounting Firm History --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Four_auditors

Free online textbooks and tutorials (including video tutorials) in accounting, economics, statistics, and other disciplines --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks

For Example Here Are Some Free Video Tutorials
Free Accounting Video (YouTube) Tutorials
May 27, 2008 message from Crosson, Susan [susan.crosson@SFCC.EDU]

I have done both Financial and Managerial Accounting videos for my students and posted them on YouTube. They are free to anyone. In fact, they have been viewed by over 70,000 folks worldwide.

Here are the easy links organized by topic and chapter:

Financial:         http://inst.sfcc.edu/~SCrosson/Fall 2007/Flip Videos Fall 2007/FA Videos.htm

Managerial:      http://inst.sfcc.edu/~SCrosson/Fall%202007/YouTube.htm 

or go to YouTube.com directly and input my account SusanCrosson or http://www.youtube.com/SusanCrosson 

If you have any other questions, glad to answer...
Susan Crosson

Other free accounting tutorials and textbooks --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks 

FASB's Accounting Standards Codification --- http://asc.fasb.org/home

FASB Master Glossary --- http://asc.fasb.org/glossary&letter=D

The FASB's Derivatives and Hedging Glossary (in the Accounting Standards Codification Database) ---
http://asc.fasb.org/subtopic&trid=2229141&nav_type=left_nav

I'm sharing some old (well relatively old) accounting theory quiz and exam material that I added to a folder at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/Calgary/CD/

Wikipedia has a rather nice summary of accounting software at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting_software
Bob Jensen’s accounting software bookmarks are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#AccountingSoftware

I do not forward advertising requests form commercial vendors unless I feel that my "audience" would appreciate hearing about particular new products and services. This one is very important to some accounting researchers.

April 30, 2008 message from Tom Hardy [thardy@ivesinc.com]

Dear Professor Jensen,

I am writing to let you know about two new research modules available with the AuditAnalytics.com SEC research database. Specifically, our Litigation Module now tracks all material federal litigation involving Russell 3000 companies and all federal litigation involving the top 100 audit firms. This module contains over 12,500 cases in the database. It includes all securities class actions and SEC litigation filed since the year 2000.

In the next few months we also will be making available as an add-on our Advanced Restatement Data to include:

Net Income Effect*

Net Effect on Stockholders Equity*

First Announcement Date*

First Magnitude Announcement Date* All related filings to each restatement*

*Data analysis for these fields restricted to NYSE, Nasdaq and AMEX public companies and is currently populated from 2003 to present.

FIN 48 Revisions (All SEC registrants for fiscal years beginning after Dec 15th, 2006) SAB 108 Revisions (All SEC registrants for fiscal year ends after Nov 15th, 2006)

As the leader in Audit Industry Research, AuditAnalytics.com provides detailed information on over 20,000 publicly registered companies and over 1,500 accounting firms. Our database enables you, your students and faculty to quickly search and analyze reported:

- SOX 404 Internal Controls and SOX 302 Disclosure Controls

- Restatements

- Directory and Officer Changes

- Late filers (Form NT)

- Auditor fees, changes, and opinions

- Governance information (Non-historical)

I sincerely believe that you would find our online service to be a valuable resource for your academic research. We are currently offering special academic and educational subscription pricing for the service and I would be happy to discuss this further at your convenience. Please let me know if there is a good time for us to speak and if you would like any additional information or an online demonstration of the AuditAnalytics.com service.

Best Regards,

Tom

PS. Please feel free to ask me about AuditAnalytics.com availability via the WRDS Database http://wrds.wharton.upenn.edu/

Tom Hardy
IVES Group, Inc.
9 Main Street, Suite 2F
Sutton, MA 01590
Phone: (508) 476-7007 ext. 228
e-mail: thardy@ivesinc.com
www.auditanalytics.com - Independent Research Provider to the Accounting, Insurance, Research and Investment Communities

April 30, 2008 reply from Todd Pullen [btpull@COMCAST.NET]

Does anyone have a recommendation on a good site for financial reports?

I have found that some of the free sites such a Google Finance and Marketwatch are not that accurate or their data is outdated.

April 30, 2008 reply from Edith Orenstein [eorenstein@FINANCIALEXECUTIVES.ORG]

I recently had demo of CCH Accounting Research Manager (ARM) and it seemed to have a pretty good search capability for recent filings.

April 30, 2008 reply from W. O. Mills, III C.P.A., C.A., P.F.S [wom@WOMILLS.COM]

I am not sure of what you might be looking for exactly...but perhaps Edgars would be of some benefit to you.

http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml 

April 30, 2008 reply from David Albrecht [albrecht@PROFALBRECHT.COM]

I use several. Usually I go directly to a company's web site.

If I'm simply shopping for something to use in class I go to
http://www.annualreportservice.com/

April 30, 2008 reply from Bob Jensen

And don't forget to try the wonderful new TryXBRL service (free for now) and the new Financial Explorer service from the SEC

"TryXBRL.org Launched," SmartPros, March 28, 2008 ---  http://accounting.smartpros.com/x61325.xml

A new Web site, TryXBRL.com, allows free access to view and analyze complete XBRL-tagged financial statements for over 12,000 publicly traded corporations.

After registering on the portal, TryXBRL.org, corporate finance professionals can educate themselves about the XBRL tagging process and view their own historical financial information in XBRL format. Investors and analysts can experience how XBRL reduces the complexity and costs associated with analyzing performance data.

The site is a collaboration of EDGAR Online Inc., a business and financial information provider, and R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company, a print services company.

"Our goal has been to deliver solutions that do not require technical expertise or excessive time commitments by corporations wishing to take part in the SEC Voluntary Program or to familiarize themselves with XBRL," said Philip Moyer, President and CEO of EDGAR Online, Inc. "We are providing open access to our vast XBRL database through a solution that enables corporations to begin filing XBRL content with the SEC in as little as a few hours."

RR Donnelley and EDGAR Online have collaborated to deliver XBRL filing solutions to corporations since 2005.

Once again that site is at http://www.tryxbrl.org/

April 1, 2008 reply from Amy Dunbar [Amy.Dunbar@BUSINESS.UCONN.EDU]

I just tried the site. Wow. Very powerful. I confirmed the numbers for one company to make sure I knew what I was seeing. It pulled the 2007 four quarter numbers for my selected company and then the 4th qtr numbers for the three peer companies and my selected company. I'm not sure where that 12,000 publicly traded corporations is coming from. They must mean filings, not corporations. I found the following table for March/June 2005 in Appendix F. http://www.sec.gov/info/smallbus/acspc/acspc-finalreport.pdf  If you include pink sheet companies, the data for which are not publicly available (at least to my knowledge), the total climbs to 13,094. Does anyone have a source for more recent numbers of publicly traded corporations?

Listing Venue Number of Companies Listed NYSE 2,553 AMEX 747 NASDAQ National Market 2,580 NASDAQ Capital Market1 593 OTC Bulletin Board 2,955 Total 9,428

The table (I only show part of it) has the following footnote explanation: Source: Public data includes 13,094 companies from the Center for Research in Securities Prices at the University of Chicago for NYSE and AMEX companies as of March 31, 2005 and from NASDAQ for NASDAQ and OTC Bulletin Board companies and from Datastream Advance for Pink Sheets companies as of June 10, 2005. This table was compiled by members of the staff of the SEC's Office of Economic Analysis and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Commission, the Commissioners, or other members of the Commission staff.

Amy Dunbar UConn

 Bob Jensen's threads on XBRL are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/XBRLandOLAP.htm

"SEC unveils 'Financial Explorer' investor tool using XBRL," AccountingWeb, February 20, 2008 ---
http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=104665

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox has announced the launch of the "Financial Explorer" on the SEC Web site to help investors quickly and easily analyze the financial results of public companies. Financial Explorer paints the picture of corporate financial performance with diagrams and charts, using financial information provided to the SEC as "interactive data" in eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL).

At the click of a mouse, Financial Explorer lets investors automatically generate financial ratios,

graphs, and charts depicting important information from financial statements. Information including earnings, expenses, cash flows, assets, and liabilities can be analyzed and compared across competing public companies. The software takes the work out of manipulating the data by entirely eliminating tasks such as copying and pasting rows of revenues and expenses into a spreadsheet. That frees investors to focus on their investments' financial results through visual representations that make the numbers easier to understand. Investors can use Financial Explorer by visiting www.sec.gov/xbrl .

"XBRL is fast becoming the universal language for the exchange of business information and it is the future of financial reporting," said Cox. "With Financial Explorer or another XBRL viewer, investors will be able to quickly make sense of financial statements. In the near future, potentially millions of people will be able to analyze and compare financial statements and make better-informed investment decisions. That's a big benefit to ordinary investors."

David Blaszkowsky, Director of the SEC's Office of Interactive Disclosure, encouraged investors to try out the new software. "Financial Explorer will help investors analyze investment choices much quicker. I encourage both companies and investors to visit the SEC Web site, try the software, and get a first-hand glimpse of the future of financial analysis, especially for the retail investor."

Financial Explorer is open source, meaning that its source code is free to the public, and technology and financial experts can update and enhance the software. As interactive data becomes more commonplace, investors, analysts, and others working in the financial industry may develop hundreds of Web-based applications that help investors garner insights about financial results through creative ways of analyzing and presenting the information.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
The Financial Explorer link --- http://209.234.225.154/viewer/home/
Note the "Take a Tour" option.

Bob Jensen's videos (created before the SEC created the Financial Explorer) are at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/Tutorials/
When I can find some time, I'll create a Financial Explorer update video.

Bob Jensen's threads on XBRL are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/XBRLandOLAP.htm

Accounting Educators should pay more attention to the following blog that seeks out weaknesses in company filings of 10Q (and other reports) with the SEC

10Q Detective blog by David Phillips --- http://10qdetective.blogspot.com/

Investors often overlook SEC filings, and it is the job of the 10Q Detective to dig through businesses’ 8-K and 10-Q SEC filings, looking for financial statement ‘soft spots,' (depreciation policies, warranty reserves, and restructuring charges, etc.) that may materially impact Quality of Earnings

Bob Jensen's threads on creative accounting are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/AccountingTricks.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on accounting theory are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on the roles of listservs and blogs --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm

Global Perspectives on Accounting Education --- http://gpae.bryant.edu/%7Egpae/content.htm

David Pogue is one of my technology heroes --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Pogue
Vidya Ananthanarayanan called my attention to his recent keynote speech at the Pennsylvania Educational Technology Expo and Conference
"Five ways to improve technology in education," by Todd Ritter, DownloadSquad, February 12, 2008 --- Click Here

Stay informed
Use Really Simple Syndication (RSS) to keep up with technology news and events. To use RSS you'll need an RSS reader like Google Reader, NetNewsWire (Mac), or FeedDemon (Windows) to read RSS feeds. An RSS feed is basically a dynamic link that updates your RSS reader when new content is posted to a website (click the "RSS Feeds" button under our search bar to see examples).

You can also subscribe to technology newsletters, and talk to students about websites and web services they use on their own. A majority of teachers do not know what Stickam or Meebo are, yet these sites are used daily by many of their students.

Focus on the learning process, not the end product
When little Susie uses iMovie to create a video of her class field trip to Cape Canaveral, she should be evaluated on what she's learned through the creative process, not how many wipes and sound effects she used in her final movie file. The quality and relativity of the still pictures she took by learning how to use a digital camera, or video footage from a well-designed storyboard are better barometers of a successful project.

Work with IT professionals who understand education
I work on the IT side of education daily, and I know it's important to unfetter technology at a school to stimulate the learning process. IT staff must be willing to bend on certain security measures and trust students with equipment so that they can be creative and not boxed in. We let students take laptops home to work on approved projects, which ultimately motivates their peers to do the same. We also have a dedicated instructional adviser who helps teachers integrate technology into their lesson plans. This often helps ease the teachers' modification of antiquated lessons.

Become a user
Make a Facebook account so you can understand the allure of social-networking sites. Add some information about yourself. Locate former school pals. Join some groups. This will let you see sites like Faceook from a student's perspective.

To collaborate and share course materials, you can create a Moodle site for your class, or start a class blog. Students benefit more from teachers who collaborate and less from teachers who force-feed lectures. Also, it's much easier to teach about something that you've actually used in depth. It's time to break the stigma of "those that can, do; those that can't, teach."

Don't be afraid of change
Some teachers think that upgrading from Office 2003 to 2007 is using the latest technology. However, a Word document is still words and formatting meant for someone to read. Instead of being satisfied with word processing in a new version of software, why not let students create a school "newspaper" on something like Joomla. The news could be updated in seconds, it could be interactive (comments, updates, etc.), and it could be include user-submitted media. Google Earth could be used to give an elementary student global perspective by flying in from a world view down to the roof of his home.
 

Jensen Comment
There are other things that I would recommend. I think joining listserv of other educators is important, especially educators in your discipline --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm

It is exceedingly important to know what knowledge is being freely shared by professors and universities --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
I hope that you will one day share your own knowledge with us.

I think becoming a user of important technologies is important, especially video recording using Camtasia --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm
Also see the 50Camtasia.ppt file at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/EdTech/PowerPoint/

Following the tools of technology in education in general is important --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on education technology are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm

 

Sources for Teaching Cases --- http://aib.msu.edu/resources/casedepositories.asp

David Albrecht (at Bowling Green) raised a question about what might constitute an Advanced Managerial Accounting Course and the bias of college accounting curricula for financial accounting rather than managerial accounting.

March 21, 2008 reply from Bob Jensen

Hi David,

This is an age-old issue about which I have mixed feelings.

The most important thing on the minds of our soon-to-be-graduating accounting majors is finding a job (except for the small percentage that go on to law school.) Virtually all accounting graduates get some full-time professional experience before applying for doctoral programs.

The corporations and the IMA have long railed against the CPA exam dominance of accounting curricula and the bias of curricula in financial as opposed to managerial accounting.

When issued was raised in conferences my old friend and accounting historian Dick Vangermeersh (always blunt almost to a fault) would a loud outburst of one of the following two questions:

“Then why don’t corporations offer more entry-level jobs?” or

“Why don’t corporations offer more career-expanding jobs with training programs comparable to training programs comparable to training opportunities in CPA firms?”

Dick made good points, although I think corporations are doing a bit better today at the entry level and at the internship level.

There’s still little doubt in my mind in colleges that do offer either a financial accounting or a managerial accounting track, the overwhelming majority of top students choose the financial accounting track.

Fortunately there are some curriculum topics that go both ways so to speak. In the past decade, my students who really go turned on by studying derivative financial instruments in both finance and my accounting courses found great career opportunities in large corporations and the large CPA firms. But they had a skill set beyond what is normally considered “managerial accounting.”

I’ve always been impressed by the evolving topics in the first Managerial/Cost accounting textbooks. At the same time I’ve been almost completely turned off by the mish-mash of topics in the so-called Advanced Managerial Accounting textbooks.

There are several routes to follow for advanced managerial accounting:

One is a course that covers basic material but does it in a more advanced pedagogy using great cases such as those from the top case writing schools such as Harvard (especially the Kaplan-Cooper cases) and the other case sources such as those listed at http://aib.msu.edu/resources/casedepositories.asp  The advantages of great cases is that they're no “optimal solutions” in great cases nicely based on the real world. This is evident in the sometimes poorly written teaching notes that accompany the cases. I used cases for years when teaching managerial and cost accounting. Some of these cases are quite challenging.

Another route is a practicum.project course where students make field visits to corporate accounting departments. Perhaps make them write their own cases and teaching notes.

Another route is a simulation/game course such as Mike’s Bikes ---
http://www.amazon.com/Mikes-Bikes-Advanced-SmartSims/dp/0072504471  
The author, Pete Mazany, is a cool guy, although he’s not an accountant, and the accounting content of this simulation is a bit limited. Students could well expand upon accounting issues.

Still another tack is to combine managerial topics with AIS topics with special focus on internal controls and custom report generation from relational database models. It would be great in this course to have some illustrations of custom reports actually generated by the managerial accountants at real-world corporations.

Another tack is to teach the accountics models of advanced accounting, limited as they may be to the real world. Kaplan’s original Advanced Managerial Textbook covered some of the older mathematical models.

Since you use the Parker Bros. Monopoly Game in your basic course David, you might extend this game to where students have to manage housing rentals and make decisions regarding setting rent levels, cash flow analysis, maintenance costs, insurance costs, taxes, and maybe even some clever ABC costs.

You might note that I summarize your use of the Monopoly Game at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Monopoly
Also see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment

Bob Jensen

March 22, 2008 reply from Priscilla Reis [reispris@ISU.EDU]

We've chosen to teach "Management Control Systems" as our advanced managerial course and use Simons' Performance Measurement & Control Systems for Implementing Strategy: Text and Cases. (Yes, it's long overdue for a revision and Simons' has revised his "Levers of Control" model but the text still works well, particularly with supplemental cases.) This makes a wonderful capstone course as it combines management accounting with strategy, organizational behavior and structure, marketing, information systems, and finance.

Priscilla

Priscilla R. Reis, Ph.D., CMA
Department of Accounting College of Business
Idaho State University
Box 8020 Pocatello, ID 83209
reispris@isu.edu 

March 24, 2008 reply from David Fordham, James Madison University [fordhadr@JMU.EDU]

Quote: "Accounting professors might be expected to disagree with the general premise of an article CFO.com published yesterday on Wednesday ­ namely that colleges prepare students more to work at public accounting firms than in corporate finance and accounting departments. But actually they agree, at least in part." -----

As a famous actor once said, "Yeah, so what's the problem?"

I'm surprised that no one has pointed out that this is a vivid illustration of simple theoretical economics working at its very best. This is the epitome of the stereotypical "golden rule" -- whoever gives out gold gets to make the rules.

My guess would be that the Big Four, *individually*, not only hire more students, but give more money, than all the corporate constituents of accounting schools combined. They are on campus more, let students see them more, and participate in education more, than all the corporate constituents combined. So why shouldn't they be more influential?

When I started in academe, the list of companies recruiting our accounting majors included industries like insurance (State Farm, Geico, Allstate), publishing (Gannett, ), Hospitality (Marriott), entertainment (Disney), manufacturing (Merck, Reynolds, Xerox, Seimens) I could go on and on. But compared to the accounting firms, they gave no scholarships, no fellowships, did not sponsor refreshments after Beta Alpha Psi and IMA student chapter meetings, endowed no professorships, would not allow alums to come back to campus for either recruiting purposes or guest speaker positions, did not accept invitations to serve on advisory boards, when they did accept they were always too busy to attend or participate, and otherwise they did not seem to care whether we existed or not. To be sure, our IMA chapter won national awards (we placed or won the case competition four years in a row), and we had numerous professors (including myself) who came from industry accounting backgrounds and touted the virtues of corporate accounting careers. But it became a hard sell to students because the industry people never made it seem like education was a priority for them. They came to campus to interview, and that was it. Period, End of Story.

In contrast, the public accounting firms, even the tiny ones, treat education like the incubator for their talent. They invest time, effort, attention, and money into the programs, devote effort to supporting education, and in general act like "partners" in the education process.

It's hard to push corporate accounting to an advisory board (and generous donor base) when it is made up 95% of public accountants who want more students, more "training" for students, and more public accounting emphasis for students. And it's hard to push corporate accounting to students when the salaries are lower, the perks aren't sold well, and the enthusiasm is lacking from the recruiters. Given the "we can't afford time off to come to campus" excuses they give our student organization leaders, it appears to the students that industry accountants have a tougher life with less flexibility. The dean listens to the donors, and industry donors are noticeably absent from accounting school foundation funding compared to public firms. (Although we don't hesitate to buck the dean, we do choose our battles, and it's hard to go to battle for someone who doesn't give you any support.)

Most public accounting firms send reps to campus that are all smiles, all happy, and overall excellent marketers, and stand in stark contrast to the industry accountants' somber expressions. I can see where accounting students might tend to value public accounting over industry as an entry-level job.

Over time, the industry recruiters have disappeared, for many reasons.

Even the government (DoD, FBI, DoJ, Secret Service, Treasury, GAO, etc.) spends a lot of time on campus and sponsors a lot of student events and does a great job schmoozing students, compared to industry.

I agree that not all students want public accounting, but I also agree that industry is doing a poor job of selling the industry-accounting positions, compared to the CPA firms. If industry/corporate recruiters want more students, they should let students see them more, see them in an attractive light, and support education closer to the level of the public firms. IF our executive advisory board were to call for more cost accounting, more industry-oriented managerial topics, etc., we would indeed listen. But no one is asking for those things, because they aren't here. Instead, the people who are here are calling for forensic accounting, assurance services, risk management, more auditing, more systems, and more tax. Like I said, we listen.

It's almost as though corporate accounting recruiters had never heard the phrase, "the squeaky wheel gets the grease."

Again, this is just a case of good old-fashioned freshman economics are work. That, plus marketing, publicity, and rational decisionmaking on the part of students.

One penny this time.

David Fordham
PBGH Faculty Fellow (yes PBGH is a public accounting firm... we couldn't find any industry willing to sponsor fellowships, whereas eight local firms have stepped up to the plate)
James Madison University

AccountingWeb invites professors to submit questions for a Weekly AccountingWeb Quiz ---
http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=104117

AccountingWEB is pleased to announce its weekly accounting quiz, now appearing in the Student Zone area of the AccountingWEB site. Just click Student Zone at the left of any AccountingWEB page (or click the Student Zone link at the bottom of this story) to access the weekly quiz and to be eligible for great prizes!

Accounting professors from across the country are participating in Test Your Knowledge, submitting their favorite quiz questions to see if they can stump the AccountingWEB audience. Each Monday, a new quiz will appear. The winners from the previous week will be announced in each Tuesday's Weekly Business Bite, a free news wire to which you can subscribe.

The top ten winners each week will receive AccountingWEB t-shirts. In the event that more than 10 participants get all the questions correct, a drawing will be held among the winners to select the 10 t-shirt recipients.

Only one entry is allowed per person, per quiz, however you can enter the new quiz each week, even if you are a winner of a previous quiz.

So dust off your accounting rules and enter this week's quiz TODAY!

Note that AccountingWeb now has a "Student Zone" at http://www.accountingweb.com/news/student_channel.html
There's also a "Lecture Hall" at http://www.accountingweb.com/lecture_hall/index.html
A useful set of accounting links is provided at http://www.accountingweb.com/links/index.html
I added these to my bookmarks at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm

Jensen Comment
Accounting instructors may want to add some of these questions to their test banks. Or they may want their students to take these weekly quizzes as part of a course (possibly only for non-credit practice and fun).

Recently I added some of my old theory exam questions and problems (heavy on FAS 133 and IAS 39) under "Exam Material" at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/Calgary/CD/
Most of my questions and problems are probably too specialized for an AccountingWeb Quiz. But they may help advanced students learn more about theory.

Scribd Wants to Become the YouTube for Documents --- http://www.scribd.com/categories
It has a long way to go, although it now has over 350,000 archived documents --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scribd
There are many tutorials such as those in basic accounting.

Borrowing a page from the popular video-sharing site YouTube, a new online service lets people upload and share their papers or entire books via a social-network interface. But will a format that works for videos translate to documents?

It’s called iPaper, and it uses a Flash-based document reader that can be embedded into a Web page. The experience of reading neatly formatted text inside a fixed box feels a bit like using an old microfilm reader, except that you can search the documents or e-mail them to friends.

The company behind the technology, Scribd, also offers a library of iPaper documents and invites users to set up an account to post their own written works. And, just like on YouTube, users can comment about each document, give it a rating, and view related works.

Also like on YouTube, some of the most popular items in the collection are on the lighter side. One document that is in the top 10 “most viewed” is called “It seems this essay was written while the guy was high, hilarious!” It is a seven-page paper that appears to have been written for a college course but is full of salty language. The document includes the written comments of the professor who graded it, and it ends with a handwritten note: “please see after class to discuss your paper.”

There’s plenty of serious material on the site, too — like the Iraq Study Group Report and an Educause report about the future of technology at colleges.

Bob Jensen's threads on free online documents are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on general education tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#EducationResearch

The Fall 2007 Edition of Accounting Education News (AEN from the American Accounting Association) --- 
http://aaahq.org/pubs/AEN/2007/Fall2007.pdf

Two important things to note:

In his first President's Message, Gary Previts mentions the Plumlee report on the dire shortage of accountancy doctoral students and provides a link to the AAA's new site providing resources for research and experimentation on "Future Accounting Faculty and Programs Projects" --- http://aaahq.org/temp/phd/index.cfm
Note especially the Accounting PhD Program Info link with a picture) and the PhD Project link (at the bottom):

Welcome to the preliminary posting of a new resource for the community participating in and supporting accounting programs, students, faculty, and by that connection practitioners of accounting. We plan to build this collection of resources for the broad community committed to a vital future for accounting education. This page is an initial step to creating a place where we can come together to gather resources and share data and ideas.
Making A Difference: Careers in Academia
Powerpoint slides created by Nancy Bagranoff and Stephanie Bryant for the 2007 Beta Alpha Psi Annual Meeting. Permission granted for use and adaptation with attribution.		 GradSchools.com
Accounting PhD Program Info

New Research Projects by the AAA on the Trends and Characteristics of Accounting Faculty, Students, Curriculum, and Programs

Part I: Future of Accounting Faculty Project (Report December, 2007)
Part II: Future of Accounting Programs Project

Part I will describe today's accounting academic workforce, via demographics, work patterns, productivity, and career progression of accounting faculty, as well as of faculty in selected peer disciplines using data from the national survey of postsecondary faculty (NSOPF) to establish trends, and a set of measures will be combined to benchmark the overall status of accounting against (approximately) 150 fields. This project will provide context and data to identify factors affecting the pipeline and workplace.

Part II will focus on expanding understanding of the characteristics of accounting faculty, students, and accounting programs, and implications of their evolving environment. The need for the Part I project illustrates how essential it is for the discipline and profession of accounting that we establish a more standard and comprehensive process for collecting, analyzing, and reporting data about accounting students, doctoral students, faculty, curriculum, and programs.

More Resources on the Changing Environment for Faculty:

The Reshaping of America's Academic Workforce
David W. Leslie, TIAA-CREF Institute Fellow
The College of William and Mary
TIAA Institute Research Dialogue Series, 2007

Jim Hasselback's* 2007 Analysis of Accounting Faculty Birthdates
*Copyrighted – requests for use to J. R. Hasselback

  • Among U.S. Accounting Academics -- 53.4% are 55 or older

From the Integrated Postsecondary Education System (IPEDS)

  • 34.8% of all full-time faculty in the U.S. are non-tenure-track -- nearly 2 in 5 of all full-time appointments
  • Between 1993 and 2003 the proportion of all new full-time hires into "off-track" appointments increased each year from 50% to nearly 3 in 5 (58.6%)
  • Reported in J. Schuster & M. Finkelstein (Fall, 2006). "On the Brink: Assessing the Status of the American Faculty," Thought & Action 51-62.

Supply and Demand for Accounting PhDs

American Accounting Association PhD Supply/Demand Resource Page
A collection of resources, links, and reports related to the pipeline of future Accounting faculty. Highlights include:

  • Report of the AAA/APLG Committee to Assess the Supply and Demand of Accounting PhDs
  • Link to the Doctoral Education Resource Center of AACSB International (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business)
  • AICPA's Journal of Accountancy's article "Teaching for the Love of It"

Deloitte Foundation Accounting Doctoral Student Survey

Survey Results (Summer, 2007)
Data collected by survey of attendees of the 2007 AAA/Deloitte J. Michael Cook Doctoral Consortium

The PhD Project and Accounting Doctoral Students Association

The PhD Project is an information clearinghouse created to increase the diversity of business school faculty by attracting African Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans to business doctoral programs and by providing a network of peer support. In just 12 short years, the PhD Project has been the catalyst for a dramatic increase in the number of minority business school faculty—from 294 to 842, with approximately 380 more candidates currently immersed in doctoral studies.

The PhD Project Accounting Doctoral Students Association is a voluntary association offering moral support and encouragement to African-American, Hispanic-American, and Native American Accounting Doctoral Students as their pursue their degrees and take their places in the teaching and research profession, and serve as mentors to new doctoral students.

PhD Project Surveys of Students, Professors, and Deans
Results of a survey among students to understand the impact of minority professors on minority and non-minority students.

Accounting Firms Supporting the AAA and Accounting Programs, Faculty, and Students

Related Organizations Sharing Interest in Accounting Faculty and Programs

 

Professor Dan Deines at Kansas State University has a handful of Outstanding Educator Awards, including one from the AICPA. Beginning on Page 5 of the Fall 2007 edition of AEN, Dan discusses the Taylor Research and Consulting Group study of accounting education commissioned by the AICPA in 2002. The study identifies barriers to students that prevent many top students from majoring in accounting. Dan then describes a pilot program initiated by KSU in reaction to the Taylor Report. I think accounting educators outside KSU may attend some of the pilot program events.

Bob Jensen's threads on the shortage of doctoral students in accountancy can be found at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is making freely available to high-school students and teachers a collection of material in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The material is available on a new Web site, an offshoot of its popular OpenCourseWare effort to put lecture notes and other information about every course online.
The Chronicle of Higher Education --- http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/2573/mit-offers-learning-materials-to-high-schools
Jensen Comment
It's a shame that the Sloan School at MIT has not yet made accounting and business materials available for high schools. The bookkeeping, clerical, and boring-drudge portrayal of accountants in the nation's high schools is viewed as one of the most serious problems of the accountancy profession. In this MIT offshoot of OCW, the Sloan School could do a lot to help Dan Deines, the AICPA, and the AAA --- See the Taylor Report summary on Page 5 of
http://aaahq.org/pubs/AEN/2007/Fall2007.pdf

Bob Jensen's threads on accountancy careers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#careers

Bob Jensen's threads on the MIT OCW/OKI project making course materials available for over 1,500 college-level courses are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

International Accounting

International Standards from the IASB (formerly IASC) --- http://www.iasb.org/Home.htm

U.S. Standards from the FASB (Free Downloads) --- http://www.fasb.org/public/ 
FASB homepage --- http://www.fasb.org/

Management Accounting Standards from the IMA (Free Downloads) --- http://www.imanet.org/publications_statements.asp#C
IMA homepage --- http://www.imanet.org/

For international accounting  material, I would begin with the Deloitte international accounting blog (Paul Pacter Webmaster) called IAS Plus at http://www.iasplus.com/index.htm

In particular note the Publications and Resources links.
Note the checklists at http://www.iasplus.com/fs/fs.htm
Compare IFRS with US and other nation GAAP rules --- http://www.iasplus.com/country/compare.htm

Search for “International Accounting ” in the Exact phrase search box and “Syllabus” in the upper All the words search box at http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
Alternately you may enter “International Accounting” AND “Syllabus” in one of the boxes.
Examine the many syllabi that are linked.

Search for “International Accounting ” in the Exact phrase search box and “PowerPoint” in the upper All the words search box at http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
Alternately you may enter “International Accounting” AND “PowerPoint” in one of the boxes.
Examine the many PowerPoint files that are available online.

International Accounting News (including the U.S.)

AccountingEducation.com and Double Entries --- http://www.accountingeducation.com/  

Upcoming international accounting conferences --- http://www.accountingeducation.com/events/index.cfm  

Thousands of journal abstracts --- http://www.accountingeducation.com/journals/index.cfm  

Deloitte's International Accounting News --- http://www.iasplus.com/

  Association of International Accountants --- http://www.aia.org.uk/  

Bob Jensen's summary of accounting theory and controversies --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/theory01.htm

Tom Selling's blog The Accounting Onion (great on theory and practice) --- http://accountingonion.typepad.com/

Advice to students planning to take standardized tests such as the SAT, GRE, GMAT, LSAT, TOEFL, etc.
See Test Magic at http://www.testmagic.com/
There is a forum here where students interested in doctoral programs in business (e.g., accounting and finance) and economics discuss the ins and outs of doctoral programs.

Bob Jensen's letter to Kate http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/2007NotableLiteratureAward.htm

An Analysis of the Contributions of The Accounting Review Across 80 Years: 1926-2005 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm
Co-authored with Jean Heck and forthcoming in the December 2007 edition of the Accounting Historians Journal.

I sent out an "Appeal" for accounting educators, researchers, and practitioners to actively support what I call The Accounting Review (TAR) Diversity Initiative as initiated by last year's American Accounting Association President Judy Rayburn --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR.htm

Privatization, Commercialization, Media Rankings, and Other Problems of Higher Education,
Including Selling Out Education Quality to Athletic Spectaculars ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm

PwC's Website for College and University Faculty --- Click Here

Accounting Professional Site Links 
The CPA Team http://www.cpateam.com/  

An E-ssential Site --- http://www.el.com/
CPAs, financial analysts, small business owners, and tax professionals not only can find links to many Web sites in their fields here, but also can use Essential Link’s home page to access online calculators, clocks, e-mail services, encyclopedias and dictionaries. Users can find links to online news, newspaper and television network Web sites in the Headlines area, as well as links to Internet search engines..

Bob Jensen's bookmarks for accounting educators --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm

Bob Jensen's Archives of New Bookmarks --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookurl.htm

Bob Jensen's Tidbits Blog --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm

Bob Jensen's Updates on Fraud --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

Links to Documents on Fraud --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud.htm

Bob Jensen's search helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm

Bob Jensen's Bookmarks --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob.htm

Bob Jensen's Bookmarks --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob.htm

Bob Jensen's links to free electronic literature, including free online textbooks --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm

Bob Jensen's links to free online video, music, and other audio --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Music.htm

Bob Jensen's documents on accounting theory are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory.htm 

Bob Jensen's links to free course materials from major universities --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

Bob Jensen's links to online education and training alternatives around the world --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm

Bob Jensen's links to electronic business, including computing and networking security, are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce.htm

Bob Jensen's links to education technology and controversies --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm

 

Links to Bob Jensen's Workshop Documents on Education and Learning
Bob Jensen's Education and Learning Bookmarks

Bookmarks

The Shocking Future of Education 

First File

Second File
E-Learning and Distance Education's Top 
(Award-Winning) Illustrations

Detail File

Bob Jensen's Threads on Cross-Border (Transnational) Training and Education
 (Includes helpers for finding online training and education courses, certificate programs, and degree Programs)		 Detail File

Alternatives and Tricks/Tools of the Trade
     (Including Edutainment and Learning Games)
     (Includes aids for the handicapped, disabled, and learning challenged)

 First File

Second File
The Dark Side of the 21st Century: Concerns About Technologies in Education

 Detail File
Assessment Issues, Case Studies, and Research Detail File
History and Future of Course Authoring Technologies Detail File
Knowledge Portals and Vortals Detail File
Bob Jensen's Advice to New Faculty (and Resources) Detail File
Bob Jensen's Threads on Electronic Books Detail File
Threads of Online Program Costs and Faculty Compensation Detail File
Bob Jensen's Helper Videos and Tutorials Detail File
Jensen and Sandlin Book entitled Electronic Teaching and Learning: Trends in Adapting to Hypertext, Hypermedia, and Networks in Higher Education
(both the 1994 and 1997 Updated Versions)		 Old Book

Some Earlier Papers

 

  
Additional Links and Threads Threads

 

Great Minds in Management:  The Process of Theory Development --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/GreatMinds.htm

Corporate Reports Now Searchable Via EDGAR --- http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/webusers.htm

Bob Jensen's search helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm

Bob Jensen's video, Excel, and related tutorials are linked at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm

Bob Jensen's tutorials, cases, and other helpers on accounting for derivative financial instruments and hedging activities are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/caseans/000index.htm 

Click here for commercialization corruption of higher education --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book05q3.htm#EducationCommercialization

Click here for business school ranking controversies --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book05q3.htm#BusinessSchoolRankings

Bob Jensen's threads on assurance services are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/assurance.htm 

Some years back Professor Sharon Lightner (UC at San Diego) put together a really interesting online course for students, practitioners, and accounting standard setters in six different countries where the classes met synchronously.
"An Innovative Online International Accounting Course on Six Campuses Around the World" --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/255light.htm

You can order back issues or relevant links management and accounting books and journals from MAAW --- http://maaw.info/

Back Issues of The Accounting Review --- http://maaw.info/TheAccountingReview.htm 

International Accounting News (including the U.S.)

AccountingEducation.com and Double Entries --- http://www.accountingeducation.com/
      Upcoming international accounting conferences --- http://www.accountingeducation.com/events/index.cfm
        Thousands of journal abstracts --- http://www.accountingeducation.com/journals/index.cfm
Deloitte's International Accounting News --- http://www.iasplus.com/index.htm
Association of International Accountants --- http://www.aia.org.uk/ 

I highly recommend TheFinanceProfessor (an absolutely fabulous and totally free newsletter from a very smart finance professor, Jim Mahar from St. Bonaventure University) --- http://www.financeprofessor.com/ 
Jim's great blog is at http://financeprofessorblog.blogspot.com/

David Stout is not only a good friend, he is a highly respected former editor of Issues in Accounting Education.  He not only produced some of the best editions of that journal, he took a stand (albeit a futile stand) that I think is essential for respect in accounting research.  He actually stood for publication of replications of accounting research, which runs counter to virtually all top research journals in accounting.  You can read a December 5, 2002 message from David Stout on this important issue at  http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book02q4.htm#truth 

Bob Jensen's threads on Academics Versus the Accounting Profession (including the first tee shot by Denny Beresford) are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/theory01.htm#AcademicsVersusProfession 

Threads on the American Accounting Executive Committee Ill-Fated Decision to Cease Publication
of Accounting Horizons and Issues in Accounting Education  --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/AAAjournals.htm

"Converting Quicken Files to a Mac," by Walter S. Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal,  March 9, 2006; Page B3 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114185773296892994.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace

Q: I am thinking of converting to an Apple machine, to replace my ancient Dell. However, all my financial records are in the Windows version of Quicken, and I need to keep using Quicken to have access to many years of records. I recall you writing earlier that Quicken was one of the products that didn't convert well to a Macintosh environment. Do you still feel that would be the case?

A: There is a Macintosh version of Quicken. However, unlike most other software publishers, Intuit, the maker of Quicken, chose to create a Macintosh edition that is very different from its Windows product and uses a different file format. It is possible to convert Windows Quicken files to work on the Mac version, and some readers have reported it went well. But many more have reported problems with the process, which is very time-consuming and can be error-prone. Therefore, I regard Quicken on the Mac as best for somebody who is starting fresh with financial software, and can't recommend it for somebody like you, who is converting from the Windows version.

As an alternative, you could keep around your old Windows PC for using Quicken. Or, you could try a program called Moneydance (www.moneydance.com), which has compatible versions for both Windows and Mac, claims to be completely portable between platforms and claims to import Quicken data with ease. I haven't tested Moneydance and can't verify these claims, or say how it compares with Quicken. But there's a free trial available.

Q: You suggested running anti-spyware and anti-virus scans nightly. Is there some way to arrange these to run automatically?

A: Yes. Most such programs have a built-in scheduler where you can specify a frequency and a time of day -- say, every day at 4 a.m.

Q: I transfer my home videos from a camcorder and burn them into CDs in the VCD format. My problem is that the video quality deteriorates significantly. The movie looks like an old home video. How do I improve the quality?

A: It's difficult because of the format you are using. The VCD format was designed to squeeze large video files, which would normally require the capacity of a DVD disk, into the much smaller space available on a CD. To accomplish this, the format encodes the video at much lower quality than DVDs typically use. As a result, home videos on VCDs can look much worse than they do on camcorder tapes, or than they would if you burned them to DVD, in the format common on DVDs. So, if video quality is important to you, the best suggestion I have is to buy a DVD burner.

Those Daring Professors and Their Technology Machines (This is history from the very early days)

Bob Jensen's threads on ethics and accounting education are at 
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudProposedReforms.htm#AccountingEducation

The Saga of Auditor Professionalism and Independence ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud001.htm#Professionalism 

Incompetent and Corrupt Audits are Routine ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm#IncompetentAudits

Bob Jensen's threads on accounting theory are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory.htm 

Future of Auditing --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm#FutureOfAuditing

Accountancy Online Discussion Forums:

AECM (Educators)  http://pacioli.loyola.edu/aecm/ 
AECM is an email, Listserv list which provides a forum for discussions of all hardware and software which can be useful in any way for accounting education at the college/university level. Hardware includes all platforms and peripherals. Software includes spreadsheets, practice sets, multimedia authoring and presentation packages, data base programs, tax packages, World Wide Web applications, etc
CPAS-L (Practitioners) http://pacioli.loyola.edu/cpas-l/
CPAS-L provides a forum for discussions of all aspects of the practice of accounting. It provides an unmoderated environment where issues, questions, comments, ideas, etc. related to accounting can be freely discussed. Members are welcome to take an active role by posting to CPAS-L or an inactive role by just monitoring the list. You qualify for a free subscription if you are either a CPA or a professional accountant in public accounting, private industry, government or education. Others will be denied access.
Yahoo (Practitioners)  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xyztalk
This forum is for CPAs to discuss the activities of the AICPA. This can be anything  from the CPA2BIZ portal to the XYZ initiative or anything else that relates to the AICPA.
AccountantsWorld  http://accountantsworld.com/forums/default.asp?scope=1
This site hosts various discussion groups on such topics as accounting software, consulting, financial planning, fixed assets, payroll, human resources, profit on the Internet, and taxation.
Business Valuation Group BusValGroup-subscribe@topica.com 
This discussion group is headed by Randy Schostag [RSchostag@BUSVALGROUP.COM]
Documents on Fraud and the Accounting Scandals

Issues in the accounting, finance, and business scandals --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on professionalism and independence are at  http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud.htm#Professionalism 

Bob Jensen's threads on pro forma frauds are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/theory01.htm#ProForma 

Bob Jensen's threads on accounting theory are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory.htm 

 

 

Bob Jensen's helpers on accounting for derivative financial instruments and hedging activities --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/caseans/000index.htm 

Comparisons of International IAS Versus FASB Standards --- http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/cda/doc/content/pocketiasus.pdf

Video Tutorials on Accounting for Derivative Financial Instruments and Hedging Activities per FAS 133 in the U.S. and IAS 39 internationally --- http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/acct5341/fas133/WindowsMedia/ 

Basic accounting students At BYU have great success learning accounting from special videos --- http://www.accountingcds.com/index.html

Contact Information: 
Cameron Earl 801-836-5649 cameronearl@byu.edu
Norm Nemrow 801-422-3029 nemrow@byu.edu 

Also see David Cottrell's approach at BYU --- http://www.business.uconn.edu/users/adunbar/AAA-CPE/AAA2003Cottrell.pdf 

I'm sharing some old (well relatively old) accounting theory quiz and exam material that I added to a folder at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/Calgary/CD/

Bob Jensen's Education Technology PowerPoint Files (in development) and Video Samplings --- http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/EdTech/

Update message on November 3, 2005

Bob has posted our new website in an earlier post, but the new URL to our new website describing our accounting tools is www.accountingcds.com

We have a demo of VSP (the technology that speeds up the video and audio) technology here: http://www.accountingcds.com/learn/links/vspdemo.htm 

Cameron Earl

BYU

Advanced Video Technology
Amy Dunbar developed the following links for all participants in her workshop in Hawaii .  She also gave me permission to share it with readers of New Bookmarks.  Thanks to Amy and her other team members for sharing their presentation materials.
Using Technology to Distribute Course Content On and Off Campus AAA Annual Meeting - 2003
Continuing Education Workshop --- http://www.business.uconn.edu/users/adunbar/AAA-CPE/agenda.htm  

Bob Jensen's threads and videos, including a video on how to develop your own course materials using the cheap and easy Camtasia Studio software can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm 

Audit Analytics --- http://www.auditanalytics.com/0002/
 

A Premium Audit Industry Market Intelligence Service Audit Analytics has information on over 20,000 public registrants and over 1,500 audit firms. It is the most comprehensive market intelligence tool for the audit industry available today. AuditAnalytics.com currently offers over 60 data fields to its users. Access to this data is available as on-line user subscriptions, as enterprise data feed subscriptions, and in custom reports.

Huron is the main source of restatement statistics --- http://www.huronconsultinggroup.com/

September 25, 2003 message from editor jda [editor.jda@gmx.de] 

Dear Professor Bob Jensen,

The Journal of Deivatives Accounting (JDA) is preparing to publish its first issue and I would be grateful if you could post the following announcement on your web site.

Regards

Mamouda

Dear Colleagues,

There is a new addition to accounting research Journals. The Journal of Derivatives Accounting (JDA) is an international quarterly publication which provides authoritative accounting and finance literature on issues of financial innovations such as derivatives and their implications to accounting, finance, tax, standards setting, and corporate practices. This refereed journal disseminates research results and serves as a means of communication among academics, standard setters, practitioners, and market participants.

The first and special issue of the JDA, to appear in the Winter of 2003, will be dedicated to:

"Stock Options: Developments in Share-Based Compensation (Accounting, Standards, Tax and Corporate Practice)"

This special issue will consider papers dealing with:

* Analysis of applicable national and international accounting standards * Convergence between IASB and FASB * Accounting treatment (Expensing) * Valuation * Corporate and market practice * Design of stock options * Analysis of the structure of stock options contracts * Executives pay incentives and performance * Taxation * Management and Corporate Governance

For more details on how to submit your work to the journal, please visit http://www.worldscinet.com/jda.html

Sincerely, 
The Editorial Board Journal of Derivatives Accounting (JDA)

Ernst & Young educational Webcasts --- http://webcast.ey.com/thoughtcenter/interfaces/ey2/pages/description.asp?action=help 

Message from FERF on February 24, 2004

Auditor Fees

An FEI member recently asked research as to whether a database exists of how much audit firms charge in audit fees relative to size of clients and billable rates per hour.

FERF researchers found information broken down by company size in the recent FEI Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 survey results issued earlier in February http://www.fei.org/news/404_survey.cfm. Although billable rates are not given, an excel table details incremental audit fees for the Section 404 attestation and the % increase this fee represents of their current audit fee. Various groupings of responses are given by size of company based on revenue.

In April 2003, FEI's Committee on Corporate Reporting (CCR) surveyed its members on 2002 audit fees. Twenty-five companies with total US assets of between $0.4 billion and $1,097 billion responded. Findings and an excel table are available under Finance Tools at http://www.fei.org/financetools/audit_fee.cfm

Aspen Publishing recently released the 5th edition of "Professionals Guide to Value Pricing." The book discusse related value pricing vs. audit firm hourly rates. A description of the book can be found at: http://www.aspenpublishers.com/Product.asp?catalog%5Fname=Aspen&category%5Fname=&product%5Fid=0735543178&Mode=SEARCH&ProductType=M.

 

Bob Jensen's guides to fees and related matters are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fees.htm 

Bob Jensen's helpers for small businesses and small accounting firms (including expert witness links) --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm#SmallBusiness

Message from FERF on February 24, 2004

Fraud Checklists

Another FEI member responsible for a Sarbanes-Oxley 404 engagement recently inquired about a "checklist that can be used at the process level to help identify the types of fraud concerns related to a specific process."

FERF researchers found the following references:

An Appendix to Statement on Auditing Standards No. 99, Consideration of Fraud in a Financial Statement Audit (SAS 99), provides examples of fraud risk factors. The appendix is available at the AICPA website at: http://www.aicpa.org/antifraud/business_industry_govt/assessing_organization_vulnerability/identify_assess_risk/38.htm

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners provides a fraud prevention checkup that can be used to assist in determining an "entity's vulnerability to fraud." http://www.cfenet.com/pdfs/FrdPrevCheckUp.pdf