The finer print
Accounting for Business Combinations,
Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets
CCH; $199
Some might think that the tricky part of mergers and acquisitions comes in working out
the fine print — all the little details that can
determine the success
of a deal. In fact, the
trickiest part is the fine
print that comes after
the deal, in figuring out
the accounting treatment.
CCH’s new Accounting for
Business Combinations,
Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets tackles this head
on, with practical resources
to help accountants make
the best choices for the entities involved, while still remaining compliant. It covers
a wide variety of transactions, from
plain vanilla to leveraged buyouts, reverse
acquisitions and more, with details from the
appropriate sections of the new FASB Codification, as well as relevant sections of International Financial Reporting Standards, which
are crucial in this age of convergence.
Zombie patrol
PPC’s Guide to Going Concern
PPC; available in print and on DVD; $175
Identifying a zombie is easy: You look for the
rotting corpse feasting on your neighbor’s
brains, and say, “Hey! That’s a zombie!”
Identifying a zombie company, on the other
hand, is not so easy, and the consequences
to investors and your firm of issuing an incorrect “going concern” notice can be just
as serious, up to and including malpractice
lawyers feasting on your firm. PPC’s Guide
to Going Concern takes you through the process of evaluating a company step by step,
with practical guidance on applying the go-ing-concern standards, case studies, practice
aids, and samples of financial statement note
disclosures. One warning: Should you identify a zombie company, at no point should
you attempt to behead it yourself. Leave that
to the professional liquidators.
Grading your learning
Positioning and Measuring Learning in
an Organization
PublishAmerica; $14.95
You learn something new everyday, but is it
worth it? In the time it took you to learn that
new thing, you could have made money do-
ing one of the old things you already know.
The fact is, while many firms have embraced
the need for learning, they may not be get-
ting much from it. Positioning and Measuring
Learning in an Organization makes the case
that the traditional focus on return on invest-
ment (for instance, did
staff learn what they were
supposed to?) should give
way to a broader focus on
“return on strategy.” In
other words, did all that
learning actually lower
staff turnover, improve cus-
tomer retention, and, ulti-
mately, make you money?
The book lays out a detailed
methodology for applying
the “ROS” approach to grad-
ing your learning programs;
once you learn it, you can use
it to determine whether it was
worth learning.
Wealth isn’t for fun
Stop Acting Rich … and Start Living Like
a Real Millionaire
Wiley; $39.95
We all know what millionaires are supposed
to look like: driving their Bentleys to their
mansions in the Hamptons, wearing their top
hats and furs, drinking Dom Perignon mixed
with the blood of the working man. Turns out,
though, that most millionaires don’t live up
to this stereotype, and that when the rest of
us aspire to it, we’re actually endangering our
chances of truly being wealthy. Stop Acting
Rich explains why the real millionaires are the
ones who drive Toyotas, don’t have second
homes, and rarely, if ever, exsanguinate the
proletariat, and is a valuable corrective for the
clients who blow holes in your carefully constructed wealth management plans because
they mistakenly believe that they’re allowed
to enjoy their money.
Now twice as complex!
Accounting for Equity and Other
Comprehensive Income: Dual Reporting
Under U.S. GAAP and IFRS
Sapienza Rome State University Press
Issues that are complicated enough under
a single set of accounting standards aren’t
going to get any simpler when you throw
another set of standards into the mix. Ac-
counting for Equity and Other Comprehen-
sive Income tackles the differences between
GAAP and International Financial Reporting
Standards in reporting stockholders’ equity,
explaining the rules and alternatives, and the
pros and cons of the different approaches. It
also proposes an overall approach to equity
to help managers and accountants deal with
this difficult area.
The Funding Fathers
American Entrepreneur: The Fascinating Stories of the People Who Defined
Business in the United States
Amacom; $29.95
The evolution of business as a framing narrative for American history is not new, but it has
tended to focus on the growth of the corporation as an entity, and on the financial and
regulatory systems that underpin our form of
capitalism. American Entrepreneur takes as its
narrative thread the impact of the individual
risk-takers and businessmen who, it claims,
have done more to shape our country than
almost any else. It makes a good case, taking
the activities of entrepreneurs whose stories
are usually considered singly and showing
them as parts of a continuous, if unacknowledged, process of development, and making
explicit the underlying philosophy of American entrepreneurial-ism. The individual stories are, as
the book’s subtitle
claims, fascinating,
but their connection into the broader
tapestry is what really
makes the book worth
reading.
Nonprofit
ABCs
Guide to Non-profits — From
the Trenches — An Overview for Con-
trollers, Treasurers, CPAs and CFOs
CreateAmerica; $99.50
Knowing regular accounting will only get you
so far when it comes to nonprofit accounting,
but if you’re interested in jumping in, Guide
to Non-profits — From the Trenches is a good
place to start. Written by a CPA with extensive
experience in the field, it gives financial pro-
fessionals an insider’s view of what they must
know about nonprofits. Starting with what,
exactly, nonprofits are, the book then covers
the basics of nonprofit accounting, dealing
with revenue and government grants, non-
profit financial statements, tax and internal
control issues, and more.
Ours to reason WHY
Start with Why: How Great Leaders
Inspire Everyone to Take Action
Portfolio (Penguin Putnam); $24.95
On looking into Start with Why, our first question was, “WHY does WHY have to be capitalized every time it appears? And WHY are
WHAT and HOW capitalized, too? Doesn’t
the author realize it makes him look crazy?”
He’s not actually crazy, just caught up with
his main idea, which is that most businesses
and leaders focus on WHAT they’re doing,
but the most successful and inspirational
ones focus on WHY they’re doing it. It seems
a little simplistic (and overcapitalized) at first,
but as the author’s real-world examples accumulate, and he takes you through all the
ramifications of starting with WHY and how
to apply it to a business, you’ll find yourself
wondering, “WH Y didn’t I think of that?
Management in a minute
Oops! I’m the Manager! Getting Past
‘What Do I Do Now?!’ in 5 Easy Steps
BookSurge Publishing; $14.99
Some are born to management; others have
management thrust upon them. For
the latter, who may find themselves
bewildered by their sudden assent
to the middle of the heap, Oops! I’m
the Manager will come in handy.
With a calming dose of humor, it offers accidental managers plenty of
helpful ideas, hints and tips for getting control of their new role quickly
— in particular, the “Playground
Personalities,” a set of personality
descriptions that managers can easily
apply both to themselves and to those
they’re suppose to manage, and use to
make their team play nice.
Trust-worthy
Funding Trusts in Estate Planning
Lorman Education Services; $159.20 (with
WebCPA discount code S6094425)
Having clients set up a trust is only half the
battle; they also have to fund it properly to
get the full benefit. This course, on CD with an
accompanying manual, offers an introduction to the mechanics of contributing property to revocable trusts, and the timing and
tax consequences of funding testamentary
and irrevocable trusts.
