Larry’s Laws of Larceny- Law 3: Double Entry Bookkeeping Doesn’t Produce a Double set of Books

Larry Beebe, CPA

This statement is a play on words. Double entry bookkeeping is the type of accounting used in the business world by everyone.

A double set of books has nothing to do with double entry bookkeeping. An entity would have two sets of books to avoid paying taxes or for some other criminal purpose. In an employee benefit plan, the second set of books might be used to avoid the obligations called for by the collective bargaining agreement signed […]

September 8, 2015 Accounting, Audit, Forensic Accounting Read more...

Hiring a Payroll Audit Firm, Question 11: Will we Receive Progress Reports?

Posting by Larry Beebe, CPA

An audit firm should provide monthly progress reports. At a minimum, this report should have columns indicating the companies being audited, the dates the audits were assigned, the dates the field work began, the completion dates for the field work, report delivery dates, audit findings and audit costs. There should also be a space specific comments the auditor wants to convey to the plan. This report can be used to compare statistics from year to […]

September 3, 2015 Uncategorized Read more...

Do you Carefully Check Your 401(k) Plan Statement?

John Merchant, CPA, CFE

Many individuals who participate in 401(k) plans sponsored by their employer do not carefully check their accounts on a regular basis.  A recent report from the United States Department of Labor (DOL) shows that participants should regularly check their statements, and check them carefully.  The DOL launched an investigation of the administration of a plan in California as a result of complaints from participants.  As a result, the former owner of the sponsor company was convicted […]

September 1, 2015 Accounting, Benefit Plan Accounting Read more...

Hiring a Payroll Auditing Firm, Question 10: Do you Charge a Flat-Rate Fee Per Audit or an Hourly Rate?

Posting by Larry Beebe, CPA

A major problem with a flat-rate audit is that it encourages audits with no findings.

If the auditor receives the same fee regardless of findings, the auditor is unlikely to spend time looking for deficiencies. Instead, a plan may want to put a cap or ceiling on its audit costs. One way to do this is to agree on an hourly rate with a cap on the number of hours for each audit. If the auditor […]

August 27, 2015 Accounting, Payroll Audit Read more...

INHERITED IRA’S NOT PROTECTED FROM BANKRUPTCY

Jobe Dupre’, CPA

It is now official that inherited IRAs are not considered “retirement funds” within the meaning of federal bankruptcy law and therefore are not exempt from a bankruptcy estate. This ruling was handed down by the Supreme Court in the case of Clark, et ux v. Rameker on June 12, 2014.

Typically, retirement funds (IRAs and Roth IRAs) are exempt from a bankruptcy estate and therefore shielded from creditors in bankruptcy. This was done to help debtors to provide […]

August 25, 2015 Accounting, Tax Read more...

Larry’s laws of Larceny- Law 2: The Auditor Can’t Find What Isn’t on the Books

Larry Beebe, CPA

I often read stories in the newspaper about funds being stolen or misused. Often there is an outcry from the newspapers or a politician stating, “Why didn’t the auditors catch the fraud?” Sometimes the answer to the question is the auditor has no way of detecting the fraud because the fraudulent transactions were not on the books.

A large pension plan hired a new investment manager. In order to get the account the investment manager hired a relative […]

August 25, 2015 Accounting, Audit, Forensic Accounting Read more...

Court Denies Payroll Audit Request

The U.S. court of Appeals for the First Circuit recently ruled that a company was not required to submit a payroll audit by a group of Multiemployer Funds after it notified the Funds in writing that it no longer would bid on union jobs.

The company sent the written notification to the Fund’ ‘collection agent in April, 2007. The Funds requested the payroll audit for the years 2007-2009 claiming that the employer was still subject to the collective bargaining agreement.

The […]

August 20, 2015 Payroll Audit Read more...

Bond Beebe Named in Top 200 Accounting Firms by Inside Public Accounting

INSIDE Public Accounting (IPA) is pleased to present its sixth annual ranking of the IPA 200 public accounting firms.

“With more than 500 firms participating in the IPA annual Survey and Analysis of Firms this year, along with many CPA firm associations contributing to the search to identify the IPA 200, this prestigious group joins the IPA 100 as the definitive ranking of the nation’s largest public accounting firms,” says Kelly Platt, principal of The Platt Group, the publisher of […]

August 20, 2015 Firm News & Events Read more...

Larry’s Laws of Larceny- Law 1: If Often Starts with Credit Card Charges

Larry Beebe, CPA

As auditor’s, we have found that most theft or embezzlement (defined as the misappropriations of funds placed in one’s trust or belonging to one’s employer) starts with small amounts. The thief steals a small amount, is successful, and that often leads to larger amounts being stolen.

A place that many thieves start is with credit card charges. They turn in phoney bills or receipts and get away with it. With success their confidence grows and they look for […]

August 18, 2015 Accounting, Audit, Forensic Accounting Read more...

OPM DATA BREACH VICTIMS VS. TAX-RELATED IDENTITY THEFT: WHAT TO DO?

Posting by Billy Thomas

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to read a headline on a routine basis highlighting a private data hack (see OPM, Target, Home Depot, IRS, etc.) impacting thousands, if not millions of individuals, with each instance. More and more personal and financial data is stored electronically and this identity theft epidemic is only growing. Perhaps this is an unintended consequence to the speed and accessibility of your digital record-keeping. Although words can barely express the sense of […]

August 10, 2015 Tax Read more...