Dude, Where’s My Printer?

Simon Ellis can see the future. Indeed, that’s a large part of his job description. As the inventory and logistics guru at Dutch consumer-products giant Unilever, Ellis carries the peculiar title of Supply-chain Futurist. Thus, he spends a whole lot of time thinking about things like ERP (enterpr...

By John Goff • Sept. 7, 2004

How RFID Improves Product Tracking

Simon Ellis can see the future. Indeed, that’s a large part of his job description. As the inventory and logistics guru at Dutch consumer-products giant Unilever, Ellis carries the peculiar title of Supply-chain Futurist. Thus, he spends a whole lot of time thinking about things like ERP (enterpr...

By John Goff • Sept. 7, 2004

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

Does Fraud Equal Loss?

It’s as predictable as anything about the stock market: when a company’s share price plunges, shareholders sue. But launching a successful shareholder suit — that is, one that gets settled — may soon become harder.The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review a decision in a case that pits sharehol...

By Don Durfee • Sept. 3, 2004

IRS Raises Interest on Underpayments

The Federal Reserve isn’t the only government entity hiking rates these days.The Internal Revenue Service announced that in the fourth quarter, corporations and individuals will pay 5 percent interest for underpayments on taxes, a boost of 1 percentage point from the present quarterly level. For ...

By Ed Zwirn • Sept. 2, 2004

FASB Allows Options-Valuation Choice

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is getting out of the business of recommending options-valuation models.On Wednesday, FASB decided not to express its preference for a particular model for estimating the fair value of employee stock options when it writes its final standard on the issue. ...

By Craig Schneider • Sept. 2, 2004

Off the Shelf: The 2004 Working Capital Survey

For those who rejoiced when the New York Yankees faltered at the start of this season or thought 2003 surely had to be Lance Armstrong’s last Tour de France win, here’s some exciting news: Dell Computer’s working capital performance has slipped.Well, sort of. The undisputed champion saw its overa...

By Tim Reason • Sept. 1, 2004

FASB Scraps Options Tax Proposal

The Financial Accounting Standards Board decided last week to step back from a proposed rule for how companies should account for the income-tax effects of share-based compensation. In its place, FASB retained earlier guidance that allows for a simpler, portfolio-type accounting approach.The deci...

By Craig Schneider • Aug. 31, 2004

Cutter & Buck Ex-Controller Pleads Out

A former controller for Seattle-based clothing retailer Cutter & Buck has pleaded guilty in federal court to a felony charge regarding the company’s reporting of inflated revenue figures, reported the Associated Press. Athena Diaz pleaded guilty to knowingly circumventing a system of internal...

By Lisa Yoon • Aug. 26, 2004

El Paso to Write Down $2.7 Billion

El Paso Corp.’s drastic cut in its proven reserves of natural gas, announced earlier this year, will cause El Paso to reduce the pretax value of its oil and gas reserves by $2.7 billion, the company announced Monday.Further, El Paso’s practices of hedge accounting for natural-gas transactions wil...

By Ed Zwirn • Aug. 24, 2004

SEC Questions Auditor Turnover

The Securities and Exchange Commission reportedly wants companies to make greater voluntary disclosure about why they part ways with their external auditors.The commission’s interest in auditor turnover comes in the wake of a recent report that shows an increased number of companies splitting wit...

By Craig Schneider • Aug. 23, 2004

The Food Chain

In late 2001, Levi Strauss & Company, custodian of one of the world’s most iconic brands, won a landmark case in the European Court of Justice to force Britain’s dominant food retailer, Tesco, to stop selling its 501 brand of jeans at £30, well below Levi’s £45 recommended retail price. The d...

By Tony McAuley • Aug. 23, 2004

More on Nortel: New Layoffs, Poor Results

Nortel Networks Corp., the focus of criminal and regulatory accounting probes as it prepares to restate several years of financial results, issued a long statement Thursday in which it released results for the first half of the year; announced that it had cut 3,500 jobs, or 10 percent of its work...

By Ed Zwirn • Aug. 20, 2004

FASB Reverses Options-Cost Decision

Spurred by criticism for corporate executives and public accountants, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) on Wednesday decided to change its guidance on how companies should attribute the cost for employee stock option awards with graded vesting. After it had eliminated a straight-lin...

By Craig Schneider • Aug. 20, 2004

Deloitte Probe On Nortel Financials Seen

A Big Four accounting firm is feeling the further bite of the Nortel accounting scandal.New York-based Deloitte & Touche LLP, Canada’s biggest accounting firm, is being investigated by the governing body for Ontario’s accounting industry over Nortel Networks Corp.’s financial statements, Toro...

By Ed Zwirn • Aug. 19, 2004

FASB To Discuss Options Costs Today

On Wednesday, the Financial Accounting Standards Board will hold a public meeting to discuss cost-attribution and classification issues raised by its exposure draft calling for companies to expense employee stock options.The proposal has inspired nearly 14,000 responses that the board members wil...

By Craig Schneider • Aug. 18, 2004

FASB Proposes Merger Restructuring Costs Makeover

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has proposed a new rule requiring companies to treat merger-restructuring costs as an expense as they occur, curbing the tendency for managers to book reserve liabilities upfront and save for a bad earnings day, according to a Dow Jones Newswire article.Th...

By Craig Schneider • Aug. 16, 2004

Internet-College Company Roils Investors

Online-education company ECollege.com frightened its investors last week when it announced that it will need to restate its financial statements and a lowered earnings forecast because of an accounting error in its company stock plan.In a regulatory filing, the company said that it failed to repo...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 16, 2004

KPMG Sued Over Tax Shelters

KPMG is under fire again for its tax-shelter business. Investors and officers of a Florida-based Internet company filed a lawsuit alleging that the Big Four accounting firm and a Chicago law firm tricked them into dumping millions into phony tax shelters during the 1990s dot-com craze, according ...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 13, 2004

Motorola Faces Possible $500 Million Tax Bill

Motorola Inc. may owe Uncle Sam an added $500 million in taxes now that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has completed an audit of its returns for 1996 to 2000. The adjustments are primarily related to transfer pricing, which could result in $1.4 billion more income for the $34-billion manufact...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 12, 2004

Bank Removes Two Finance Execs Amid Accounting Probe

Officials at Huntington Bancshares Inc., which has been the subject of a Securities and Exchange Commission probe since last year, report that CFO Michael McMennamin and controller John Van Fleet, resigned from their respective posts.Both executives will remain with the company. Donald Kimble, wh...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 12, 2004

El Paso to Restate Because of Hedging

El Paso will probably restate its financials for five years to eliminate hedge accounting for a number of transactions.The company stated that it would increase and decrease quarterly earnings within the merchant energy and production segments from 1999 through 2003 as a result of the elimination...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 11, 2004

IRS Agent Reports Corrupt Tech-Company Audit

The independence and integrity of the Internal Revenue Service is being questioned after one of the agency’s own reportedly found a corrupt audit tied to a technology company.Remy Welling, a senior auditor for the IRS with 22 years’ experience, claims a technology company’s tax case was settled w...

By Craig Schneider • Aug. 11, 2004

Does Microsoft Need China?

If you looked in the mirror one morning and discovered you were Bill Gates, how would you regard China? With a hard-won sense of balance, tempered by infinite patience, perhaps. But more likely with the frustration of a champion player cut from the title match.Microsoft, the US$36 billion softwar...

By Tom Leander • Aug. 10, 2004

Groundhog Day: Tenet Faces New Probe

Tenet Healthcare Corp. said the Federal government is seeking information about physician-relocation agreements entered into by current Tenet hospitals in the St. Louis area and a hospital formerly owned by Tenet in Kennett, Mo.The company said the latest inquiry is consistent with previously dis...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 10, 2004

Suit Charges Halliburton with Accounting Fraud

A number of top Halliburton managers, including several finance executives, engaged in illegal accounting activities from 1998 to 2002, a shareholder class-action lawsuit reportedly alleges. The 101-page suit charges that the company and the executives engaged in “serial accounting fraud,” includ...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 9, 2004