By Marjorie Heap, CPA Financial statements are meant to identify, measure, and communicate information about an organization to interested parties. They can be prepared by your organization’s management, an outside vendor, or a CPA. Depending on the needs of your organization, you may be required to provide them to a creditor, regulatory agency, your owners and stockholders, or others that do business with you. Financial statements also come … [Read more...]
New Revenue Recognition Standards Could Put Private Club Initiation Fees in a Hazard
By Bryan A. Ekern, CPA Nearly every private club in the U.S. has an established process for admitting new members. Some of these processes have been in place for decades. But now, thanks to the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB’s) new revenue recognition guidance, known officially as Accounting Standards Update No. 2014-19, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606), private clubs may have to change their member-admitting … [Read more...]
Employers: Avoid These Mistakes on Your Form 5500 Filing
By Bryan A. Ekern, CPA For most Minnesotans, summer is the season of cabin weekends, meals enjoyed al fresco, and garden harvests. For employee benefit plan auditors like myself, it’s also the season of IRS Form 5500 filings. … [Read more...]
What Do the New Revenue Recognition Rules Mean for Franchisors?
By Bryan A. Ekern, CPA As usual, there's much to think about at the start of a new year. If you're a franchisor, revenue recognition should be top of mind as you plan for 2019. That's because on January 1, 2019, the Financial Accounting Standards Board's new revenue recognition rules went into effect for private companies (the rules went into effect for public companies on January 1, 2018). Technically known as "FASB ASC Topic 606, Revenue … [Read more...]
New Study Reveals Costs, Means and Ways to Stop Fraud
Would you leave the front door unlocked to your business or not-for-profit organization? Of course not. That would give thieves easy access to your assets. Yet a surprising number of organizations don't have strong antifraud controls in place to protect against dishonest people inside their organizations. And theft from insiders — also referred to as "occupational fraud" — can be costly. … [Read more...]
