The Ins and Outs of Earnouts

There’s plenty of equity money in the marketplace seeking operating companies to buy.  Such buyers are the usual suspects — wealthy individuals, established companies, and private equity funds. Some may be very motivated because the time period for them to draw upon their investors’ capital commi...

By Gary Q. Michel • July 12, 2011

Wrong Version The Ins and Outs of Earnouts

There’s plenty of equity money in the marketplace seeking operating companies to buy.  Such buyers are the usual suspects — wealthy individuals, established companies, and private equity funds. Some may be very motivated because the time period for them to draw upon their investors’ capital commi...

By Gary Q. Michel • July 12, 2011

Explore the Trendline➔

Tax policy shifts: What CFOs need to know to stay ahead

Discover how evolving tax policies are creating new opportunities and challenges for CFOs.

By CFO.com staff

Alive and Kicking

Women’s soccer is in the spotlight this month as the World Cup concludes in Germany. Closely watching is the U.S. Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) league, which hopes to benefit from the buzz. But with only six weeks left in the WPS season, the league will have to hustle to capture audience atte...

By Marielle Segarra • July 12, 2011

Pushing Back on Proxy Firms

When the votes started coming in, Lakeland Industries CFO Gary Pokrassa was taken aback. After all, the ballot for his company’s annual meeting was tiny and routine. It didn’t contain any questions about executive compensation, since Lakeland is a smaller company, not yet subject to the say-on-pa...

By Sarah Johnson • July 12, 2011

The Check May or May Not Be in the Mail

If you’re wondering why your customers aren’t paying you, you’re not alone. According to a new Dun & Bradstreet report covering data through the end of the first quarter, business delinquency rates are actually up compared with last year, when the economic outlook was a bit rosier. In fact, b...

By Alix Stuart • July 11, 2011

The Check May or May Not Be in the Mail

If you’re wondering why your customers aren’t paying you, you’re not alone. According to a new Dun & Bradstreet report covering data through the end of the first quarter, business delinquency rates are actually up compared with last year, when the economic outlook was a bit rosier. In fact, b...

By Alix Stuart • July 11, 2011

Investors Defend FASB Role on IFRS

Representatives of large institutional investors told the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday that they had serious qualms about the London-based International Accounting Standards Board replacing the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board as the primary arbiter of accounting rules ...

By David Katz • July 8, 2011

Are You Wasting Time on Poor Performers?

It is common for executives to devote more managerial attention, and in many cases more financial capital, to fixing poor-performing businesses while they often assume, as a CFO recently said, that “the stronger business units will take care of themselves.”Often, this behavior is driven by invest...

By Gregory V. Milano • July 8, 2011

Are You Wasting Time on Poor Performers?

It is common for executives to devote more managerial attention, and in many cases more financial capital, to fixing poor-performing businesses while they often assume, as a CFO recently said, that “the stronger business units will take care of themselves.”Often, this behavior is driven by invest...

By Gregory V. Milano • July 8, 2011

Investors Defend FASB Role on IFRS

Representatives of large institutional investors told the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday that they had serious qualms about the London-based International Accounting Standards Board replacing the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board as the primary arbiter of accounting rules ...

By David Katz • July 8, 2011

U.S., China to Meet Next Week on Auditor Inspections

Seeking to reach a bilateral agreement enabling the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to inspect audit firms in China, a joint PCAOB and Securities and Exchange Commission delegation will meet on July 11 and 12 in Beijing with representatives of China’s Ministry of Finance and the China S...

By David Katz • July 7, 2011

Spreadsheets: Suppressing Cells in a Pivot Table

Editor’s Note: To read more about spreadsheets, share a tip with other readers, or suggest a topic for Bill Jelen to cover in an upcoming column, click here to visit CFO.com’s Spreadsheet Tips Page.Victoria C. wins a copy of Pivot Table Data Crunching for her question, “In pivot tables, how do I ...

By Bill Jelen • July 7, 2011

U.S., China to Meet Next Week on Auditor Inspections

Seeking to reach a bilateral agreement enabling the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to inspect audit firms in China, a joint PCAOB and Securities and Exchange Commission delegation will meet on July 11 and 12 in Beijing with representatives of China’s Ministry of Finance and the China S...

By David Katz • July 7, 2011

You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Hedge

The costs, compliance burdens, and restatement risks of hedge accounting are spurring many companies to report naturally occurring foreign-currency hedges under a less-onerous standard, a forthcoming research report suggests.Such “natural hedges” are gaining in significance in the financial manag...

By David Katz • July 5, 2011

How to Acquire a Loss

In an Internal Revenue Service ruling released last year, the IRS took a suprisingly liberal stance on a question in which toughness might have been expected: At what point can an acquirer deduct a loss on business that the acquired company continued to conduct both before and after the acquisiti...

By Robert Willens • July 5, 2011

You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Hedge

The costs, compliance burdens, and restatement risks of hedge accounting are spurring many companies to report naturally occurring foreign-currency hedges under a less-onerous standard, a forthcoming research report suggests.Such “natural hedges” are gaining in significance in the financial manag...

By David Katz • July 5, 2011

How to Acquire a Loss

In an Internal Revenue Service ruling released last year, the IRS took a suprisingly liberal stance on a question in which toughness might have been expected: At what point can an acquirer deduct a loss on business that the acquired company continued to conduct both before and after the acquisiti...

By Robert Willens • July 5, 2011

Accountants Have a Pay Party

After two straight years when average pay increases for corporate accountants trailed the inflation rate, a healthy gain was recorded in 2010, according to the annual salary survey by the Institute of Management Accountants.The IMA’s membership is diverse: 20% senior executives, 37% directors or ...

By David McCann • July 5, 2011

Turf War over Private-Company GAAP

The debate over who will tell private-company finance executives how to do their accounting is exploding, showing up even in such obscure areas as Website design.The Financial Accounting Standards Board announced Wednesday that it has set up a new section on its Website dedicated to the issues mo...

By Alix Stuart • July 1, 2011

Want to Cut Gross Income? Pay a Rebate

It’s always good to know whether something is a reduction of gross income or a separate expense. If it’s the former, it will affect a company’s gross-profit ratio, an important metric that shows how much of a company’s revenues remain after paying for the goods sold as well as suggesting how much...

By Robert Willens • June 30, 2011

Want to Cut Gross Income? Pay a Rebate

It’s always good to know whether something is a reduction of gross income or a separate expense. If it’s the former, it will affect a company’s gross-profit ratio, an important metric that shows how much of a company’s revenues remain after paying for the goods sold as well as suggesting how much...

By Robert Willens • June 30, 2011

Excel – Forecasting Seasonal Data

Editor’s Note: To read more about spreadsheets, share a tip with other readers, or suggest a topic for Bill Jelen to cover in an upcoming column, click here to visit CFO.com’s Spreadsheet Tips Page.During my Forecasting and Planning Webcast on June 24, I was demonstrating how to use straight-line...

By Bill Jelen • June 29, 2011

My Auditor, My Whistle-blower

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s new whistle-blower rules, issued late last month, received much attention for providing cash rewards to securities-fraud informants. CFOs should be aware of a potential outcome of the rules that was not well publicized: auditors can blow the whistle on the...

By Steven S. Scholes • June 28, 2011

My Auditor, My Whistle-blower

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s new whistle-blower rules, issued late last month, received much attention for providing cash rewards to securities-fraud informants. CFOs should be aware of a potential outcome of the rules that was not well publicized: auditors can blow the whistle on the...

By Steven S. Scholes • June 28, 2011

PCAOB Members Question Auditor “Narratives”

Public Company Accounting Oversight Board members Jay Hanson and Daniel Goelzer are warning constituents about the possible negative consequences of a PCAOB proposal that would require auditors to spin a “narrative” about their clients in addition to giving their usual pass/fail opinions on compa...

By David Katz • June 22, 2011