Steve Gold, the hero/villain of the 1980s Prestel hack will draw on his experiences to advise AccountingWEB members about IT security at the 'Ebusiness for accountants' seminar in Birmingham on 15 July.
]]> http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/item/185574/1025/1022/1026 1-07-2008 ]]> http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/item/184454/1025/1022/1026 30-06-2008 "Appallingly dull. Unimaginative. Timid. Lacking initiative. No sense of humour. Tedious company. Easily dominated. Spineless. Irrepressibly drab and awful. In most professions these would be considered drawbacks, but in accountancy they’re a positive boon." So says John Cleese, the Monty Python Vocational Guidance Counsellor to Michael Palin’s "Mr Anchovy", the accountant.

Ex-auditor and director of resources Carol McLachlan worked for Ernst & Young for 18 years before becoming a professionally qualified coach. Why, she asks, must accountants endorse their sterotype when in reality they're nothing like it? ]]> http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/item/185458/1025/1022/1026 27-06-2008 What is on offer?
TAX UK are offering a UK based small accountancy practice the opportunity to win six months of practice development consultancy worth around £10K as part of a unique competition with Accounting Web.

Who are TAX UK?
TAX ... ]]> http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/item/185001/1025/1022/1026 17-06-2008 Either way, stick it in here John, cheers. If you want it in ITZone (and presumably you do) unflag practice and tick yer box, for I have claimed this as mine own. ... ]]> http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/item/184930/1025/1022/1026 16-06-2008 You’ve just been invited to present for partnership. A partner - it’s what all your years of hard work have been gearing towards. There is one key obstacle that is exercising your attention... the presentation. However, this is a great opportunity to present yourself at your best. To achieve this, it helps to think of your selection panel as a client and it is down to you to influence them. In terms of gauging your approach, treat presenting as a conversation with the board, even though the dialogue is of course one-way: talk to them and not at them. ]]> http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/item/184928/1025/1022/1026 16-06-2008 http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/item/184758/1025/1022/1026 12-06-2008 Reading various press releases/articles in the accounting media it seems that QAD visits are highlighting that firms of accountants are still having problems in complying with the International Standards on Auditing (ISAs). Unsurprisingly, the ISA that is causing the main headache for firms is ISA 315 ‘Understanding the entity and its environment’.
]]> http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/item/184577/1025/1022/1026 9-06-2008 It is seven o’clock in the evening and your local Chamber of Commerce's annual party is in full swing. Wherever you turn, everyone seems to be animated in conversation as the champagne flows and canapés are being served. Everyone, apart from you that is.
]]> http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/item/184481/1025/1022/1026 5-06-2008 Recent statistics show that accountants may be the fastest professionals on the road. Daytona, a leading member of the National Karting Association, has examined seven years’ worth of race data from its Manchester track and found that by vocation, accountants hold the fastest average lap time. ]]> http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/item/184343/1025/1022/1026 3-06-2008 The offices of two of Britain’s biggest banks – Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS; which owns Natwest)- have been raided by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). The Mirror broke the story on Sunday, reporting that investigators descended on the banks’ headquarters 12 days ago in “secret, synchronised raids”. Paperwork, electronic records, and phone logs are believed to have been seized. ]]> http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/item/184272/1025/1022/1026 2-06-2008 http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/item/183176/1025/1022/1026 31-05-2008 Historically, very few finance professionals have considered Greece when looking at an overseas assignment. No doubt this is because the vast majority still consider Greece to be a holiday destination and have never taken the time to consider it as anything else, or heard from others about the opportunities it can offer.
]]> http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/item/184166/1025/1022/1026 29-05-2008 Richard Sergeant is client relationship manager for AccountingWeb’s sister company PracticeWEB, which provides accountants with bespoke websites. Richard’s client meetings give him a sense of what marketing issues are currently affecting the profession, and this article is the second of a series in which he will be reporting on topical marketing matters - often from some of Britain’s most boring hotels. ]]> http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/item/184022/1025/1022/1026 27-05-2008 According to independent research, the service clients’ value most from their accountant is tax planning. And the thing clients want most from their accountant is “proactivity”. So, taken together, this suggests that proactive tax planning is one thing that every single practice must be extremely good at. ]]> http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/item/183921/1025/1022/1026 22-05-2008 http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/item/183886/1025/1022/1026 22-05-2008