A new survey of CFOs suggests that staffing levels in corporate accounting and finance departments will remain essentially unchanged in the third quarter.

Private sector employment grew modestly last month by 40,000 jobs, according to a report by payroll giant ADP.

Payroll processor ADP has launched an online portal aimed at accountants who service small businesses, giving them free access to some information from BNA and CCH.

Kaplan CPA Review has been rebranded as Kaplan Schweser, carrying the name of its parent division at the Washington Post Co.

UCLA Extension has teamed up with Dalton Education to offer an online certificate program in personal financial planning.

Steinberg Advisors has set up an unusual bonus program, giving its full-time employees a one-time bonus of $1,200 to help them cope with rising energy costs.

A new initiative aims to create more diversity among corporate tax professionals.

Entry-level job site CollegeGrad.com has ranked accounting as the college major most sought after by employers for filling entry-level jobs.

With accounting standards moving toward convergence around the world, some accounting firms are beginning to worry that the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards could lead to litigation.

CPAs spend many hours studying accounting and tax rules and become very knowledgeable, with CPE insuring that they are fully conversant with any changes. In the very large firms, the training and education offered has a very interesting mix, as a good deal of it doesn’t deal with technical knowledge but on the softer skills that can actually contribute more to the success of the individual and the firm. This is readily apparent in the structured way mentoring is conducted in these larger firms. Mentors are trained, mentoring processes and procedures are established, the details of the mentoring program are communicated, and staff members participate in a prescribed manner. And why do larger firms spend so much time and money on mentoring? They see the success in the performance of those who complete the program, and are very happy with the ROI. Because of the limited resources of small firms, ROI on spending is extremely important and gets very close scrutiny. The problem is, in new areas like mentoring small firms, because of their lack of familiarity, often overspend and don’t get a good ROI. Small firms therefore need to be creative. I recently came across Mentoring Process for CPA/CAs--Third Edition, by Rex Gatto, that can be helpful in that regard. There is a roadmap to creating structured processes quickly, tools and tips for mentors, and advice for mentees on getting the most from mentoring. The book doesn’t pull any punches, such as when it is pointed out that the mentees’ best role is that of the listener, and warns mentors not to be sidetracked by the mentee who is an analyzer (overanalyzes facts), a whiner (complainer), a rejecter (not me!), a victim (poor me!) or a controller (talks too much). Equally important, the book tells mentees what they should look for when selecting a mentor. “When choosing a mentor, a mentor should be someone:

The American Institute of CPAs has approved the creation of the forensic accounting credential.

While the number of women partners and those in similar leadership positions has risen over the past several years, they still trail significantly when compared to their male counterparts, according to a survey compiled by the Illinois CPA Society Women’s Executive Committee.

The new fingerprinting requirement for the Uniform CPA Exam sparked debate at the American Institute of CPAs’ Spring Council meeting.

KPMG is donating $250,000 to the nonprofit organization First Book to distribute more than 200,000 books this year to needy children.

The Internal Revenue Service is facing a troublesome manpower drain, as a whopping average of 16 percent of its total workforce is now leaving the agency each year.The soaring employee turnover rate has raised eyebrows and concerns among members of the IRS Oversight Board, which warned that the tax service is losing a distressingly large number of talented workers who “possess skills and institutional knowledge that are extremely difficult to replace.”

Senior-level executive CPAs have low expectations of the economy over the coming year, according to a new survey.

The New York State Society of CPAs installed Sharon Sabba Fierstein as its new president.

DeVry University, its Keller School of Management and Becker CPA Review have teamed up on an accelerated program to give accounting students their bachelor's and master's degrees and CPA designations in as little as five years.

Deloitte has formed an International Financial Reporting Standards University Consortium to help bring IFRS into more college classrooms.

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