BOOKS
Baby candy
Managing the Risk of Fraud and
Misconduct: Meeting the Challenges
of a Global, Regulated, and Digital
Environment
McGraw Hill; $50
Here’s a statistic that should have all our
fraudulent friends drooling: A recent survey
found that the compliance functions at over
90 percent of companies were less than 10
years old — and at over
80 percent of companies, they were under
five years old. This makes
them practically infants,
and we all know that the
candy taken from infants is
the sweetest and most delicious of all candies, as well as
the easiest to steal.
With compliance thus relatively immature, it’s easy to
see that businesses need help
strengthening their candy defense
systems. Managing the Risk of Fraud and Misconduct offers both a history of recent developments in the field, including the many
regulatory requirements, and a comprehensive plan for developing a robust approach
to deterring, detecting and preventing fraud,
and to assessing both a company’s vulner-abilities and the success of its anti-fraud measures. Written by two partners from KPMG, it
stresses the need to build a culture of ethics
and integrity, and offers valuable and up-to-the-minute advice on protecting your sweets.
Until its lessons kick in, though, we and our
fellow criminals will continue to find rich
pickings in the baby carriage.
The way we steal now
A Guide to Forensic Accounting
Investigation, 2nd Ed.
Wiley; $140 (with Accounting Today.com
discount)
Speaking of fraud — as we almost always are
— it’s important for those on both sides of
the law to stay current with the latest devel-
opments in the field. But while fraudsters
have to troll unpleasant places like boiler
rooms, country-club prisons and corporate
boardrooms to learn the latest scams, the
white hats get to stay comfortably at home
and read books like the second edition of A
Guide to Forensic Accounting Investigation
and learn how to detect and prevent them.
With new coverage on the latest auditing
standards, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
rules, options fraud, and fraud in China, it’s
a handy refresher course for those dedicated
to uncovering and defeating the innovative
and hard-won strategies of the ever-inventive
corporate thief.
The Roth report
Roth Revolution: Pay Taxes Once
and Never Again
Morgan James Publishing; $19.95
There’s an old story that English newspapers around the turn of the
last century kept the headline
“Trouble in the Balkans” typeset and ready to go at all times,
as wars in the region were so
common. Our version of that is
to keep “Uncertainty abounds
over tax legislation” permanently
ready to go. One story that it applies to is the current confusion
over recent changes regarding
Roth IRA conversions and rechar-acterizations, and whether they’re
worth it. Roth Revolution aims to
clear up all the misconceptions and answer
the important questions on the subject.
While the author is clearly a fan of Roth conversions, he also presents a lucid explanation
of the rules, and sets them in the context of
a larger tax-minimizing retirement strategy.
All in all, a useful reference for planners and
their clients.
Value for investors
Accounting for Value
Columbia Business School Publishing; $44.95
Don’t make the mistake of assuming, as we
did, that Accounting for Value is about fair
value accounting (though it does touch on
it). Rather, it’s about accounting for value
in investments: teach-
ing the investor how to
use accounting to de-
termine if a company’s
stock is worth buying. It
is, of course, a useful ap-
proach, but one that has
eluded the investor on
Main Street, for whom even
the basics of accounting are
either frightening or yawn-
inducing. With a philosophy
firmly based in Benjamin
Graham’s school of value investing,
the book breaks through the fear and bore-
dom to equip investors with the accounting
tools they need to support smarter investing
decisions, and along the way makes some in-
teresting suggestions for improving account-
ing standards.
More value for investors
The Triumph of Value Investing: Smart
Money Tactics for the Postrecession Era
Portfolio (Penguin); $25.95
For those who read the previous item and
thought, “I already know about accounting,
but I could use
a refresher on
value investing,”
look no further:
The Triumph of
Value Investing is
a concise re-exami-nation of the investing philosophy that
animates, among
other, uber-investor
Warren Buffett (who
is interviewed in the
book). It goes beyond
just explaining value
investing, though, to
show not just how it has
weathered the recent
storms in the market, but to show
how it can be applied to the new challenges
and opportunities that face investors, in areas such as globalization, new industries and
investment vehicles, increased volatility, and
the post-recession environment.
Status: Owing
Getting Paid Using Social Media:
Using Social Media in Collections
Never Dunn Publishing; $16.95
Sure, social media are a way to build and
maintain friendships and create vibrant, life-
affirming communities, but they
also do useful things, like help
you get paid. Getting Paid Using
Social Media, the latest in expert
Michelle Dunn’s ever-growing li-
brary of collections advice, goes
into all the different ways you can
use Facebook, Twitter and the like
to track down deadbeats, improve
your due diligence on potential cli-
ents, and facilitate payment from
debtors. Perhaps as important, the
book goes into all the different ways
you can’t (or shouldn’t) use social me-
dia: Never tweet about a client’s debt,
for instance, or reveal financial details on-
line to shame them, and be extremely careful
about contacting them using the communi-
cations functions built into the various social
media. Next up: how to find your creditors’
virtual kneecaps.
Don’t forget globalization
IRS Form 5471: Information Return for
U.S. Persons with Respect to Certain
Foreign Corporations
Lorman Education Services; $175.20 (with
Accounting Today.com dis-
count)
We haven’t mentioned it
in the last five minutes, so
we thought we’d remind
you that more and more
companies are operating
internationally. It offers
them new markets and
new sources of profit, and
you a chance to remind
them that if they own a
foreign subsidiary, they’ll
need to file a Form 5471
with the IRS (which has,
apparently, forgotten that it’s
the Internal Revenue Service,
not the International Revenue
Service). Properly preparing the
form is crucial, as the IRS often
uses them as a starting point for audits, and
this recorded audio conference and accompanying manual show you how to get it right,
and also how to document your planning to
make it audit-proof.
Soft skills
Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit:
The Secrets of Building a Five-Star
Customer Service Organization
Amacom Books; $21.95
Up until very recently, those who offer professional services have focused too much on
the “professional,” and not enough on the
“service.” Technical proficiency, of course,
is a must, but more and more these days accounting firms are realizing that client service is about much more than just knowing
your regs. While many books about client
service end up focused on the retail experience, Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit
offers lessons that are immediately applicable to any business, and can help you both
attract and retain clients. It’s all about the
soft skills that firms are looking to inculcate
in their staff: the importance of language,
listening skills, anticipating client needs, and
accountability.
