The Price is Right: Defending Your Price

Over the last few months, I have had to draft several requests for proposals for our accounting and audit services for prospective clients and it got me thinking, what is the right price? I’m certain that many of you have been faced with the same dilemma in this highly competitive market or have had to defend your price quote and explain why it’s higher than the competition…

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Sales Tax on Digital Items – No Easy Solutions

Sales tax is one of the most controversial and challenging tax issues. Businesses, regardless of their size, are struggling to determine their sales tax exposure in particular jurisdictions, and ever changing rules could result in an outdated determination that may, in turn, cost thousands of dollars to the unwary taxpayer…

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Are You Managing Your Sales Margins?

Whether your business is just starting or you have a more seasoned company, a critical metric to keep your eye on is your sales margins. Doing so helps you better understand the financial position of your company and puts you in the driver’s seat to push for growth. Margins are generally…

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Mergers & Acquisitions: Your Price & Your People

Last week, I moderated a panel we hosted on mergers and acquisitions with two speakers that have been in the trenches of M&A transactions: Sid Faulkner as a CFO for Ciranova, Inc. and Jim Chapman as a Partner with Foley & Lardner LLP. They offered a lot of advice from both technical and practical standpoints, but here are three points that stood out to me…

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Revenue Recognition for Software in the Cloud: When Is VSOE Applicable?

Special revenue recognition rules exist for companies that offer software to customers through hosting arrangements, such as cloud computing solutions where the customer merely has the right to use the software. The good news is recognizing revenue for hosting arrangements is a simpler process than the normal software revenue recognition rules. However, as always, there are some catches…

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Lessons from Groupon: Does Gross vs. Net Really Matter?

In the midst of the buzz around the Groupon IPO in the last half of 2011, Groupon was forced to restate its pre-IPO revenues to nearly half of what was previously reported at the request of the SEC. Why? The SEC required Groupon to report its revenues at net proceeds (the amount a merchant actually pays Groupon to run an ad) instead of gross proceeds (the total out of pocket amount a customer actually pays to Groupon for an online coupon, which includes the merchant’s share). As we reflect on the lessons learned from this, it begs the question: What should you think about when reporting your revenues at gross vs. net?…

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Cloudy Business

I saw a really funny video the other day where a former government official was decrying the concept behind cloud computing, arguing that the whole set up could be a total waste of time – what if it started raining and you lost the connection to the cloud? I am certain that he was dead serious and while I know his fears to be unfounded, I realized…

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3 Intangible Assets You Might Overlook During a Merger or Acquisition

I recently received a phone call from a CFO asking for a crash course in accounting for business combinations. Merger and acquisition activity is increasing as corporations look to grow, so the need for info on business combinations is great. In fact, a couple of my more successful clients underwent acquisitions in 2011 to larger corporations. In addition, clients are also interested in acquiring companies that will strategically benefit their growth. As I was putting materials together for this CFO, a couple things jumped out at me regarding intangible assets that I feel are not often thought about during the merger and acquisition process…

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Making Better Estimates

Estimates are the ultimate grey area in accounting – you can make the numbers say what you want with the least amount of hard evidence to support your assessments. Therefore, it’s important that these estimates are grounded in the reality of what’s already known or what you anticipate happening in the future in order to accurately reflect your company’s financial results. Here are 4 significant estimates you should consider taking a second look at before you close a quarter…

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Got Visa? Will Work

Having moved to the United States nearly a decade ago, the issue of work visas and immigration is still a hot topic of discussion among my circle of friends and family. My story is better than most - I only had to stop working for a couple months and switch to a dependent visa until my work visa came through. This was thanks to the fact that I had an advanced degree from an American university as a result of which my petition fell into a different category for the purposes of the annual cap imposed on work visas. As the 2012 elections approach, the issues of immigration and job creation are getting lots of publicity once again, so…

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