By Lucie BensonThe recent publications of the "Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For" lists have included several accounting firms, from small companies up to The Big Four. Lucie Benson takes a closer look to see what they are doing for their staff to make their practice such a good place to work. This month saw the publication of the fourth “Sunday Times 100 Best Small Companies to Work For” list.

Are you a small-business owner who is finding it more and more difficult to motivate your troops? SmartMoney.com offers five easy tips for kick-starting your crew without busting your budgets.While large corporations with deep pockets can easily dangle bonuses, perks and an array of fancy reward programs (often created by outside consultants) to encourage employees to outperform, you company isn't quite there yet.

A new study shows that your company’s bad apples have a tendency to spoil your entire corporate culture. KEYGroup founder and president Dr. Joanne G. Sujansky, Ph.D, CSP, offers solutions for managers who don’t know what to do with these problematic employees.Every organization has at least one: that employee, who for whatever reason, behaves as though coming to work is a fate worse than death.

A Santa Rosa tax accounting firm is alerting thousands of clients that their private financial records may be in jeopardy after a key computer was stolen from the office, the Santa Rosa (Calif.) Press-Democrat reported.Terry Brown, owner of Tax Service Plus, said a computer containing the records of his firm's 3,000 to 4,000 clients was missing when he arrived at work March 7 and found a back door broken open.He said he's notifying clients by letter what actions they should take to protect themselves against anyone who tries to use the stolen information to open a fraudulen

Kevin McGrath, CPA, has been appointed as the next chief operating officer for Crowe Group LLP and Crowe Chizek and Company LLC. McGrath is currently executive in charge of the firm’s Financial Institutions Group. He will succeed Frank Arford, who has been named chief executive officer of Horwath International. McGrath begins his new role on April 1, 2007. McGrath’s new responsibilities will include oversight of the firm’s specialized industry groups and the marketing, sales and communications functions.

Recently we received the following email:Dear Allan:How can we know if people are doing personal marketing? We know that the economy is booming, our firm revenues are up over last year, but that has to be temporary -- it just can't go on forever! So how can we ensure that everyone is doing their job in keeping the momentum going? It's so hard to stay focused on marketing individually when there is more work to do. Why is it that some people and some firms are so much better at this than we are?

The Internal Revenue Service reminds certain corporations with assets of $10 million or more and whose tax year is the calendar year to e-file their returns or file for an extension by the March 15 filing deadline.

About a month after a woman was hired to help with receptionist duties, accounting, invoicing and filing at a small Midwest shipping company, she started calling in sick.When she was out, packages started arriving that were addressed to unknown recipients. Her boss sent them back. But on another day when the receptionist was out, a delivery person told the owner that one of the reclaimed packages was part of a potential fraud investigation.

As the world becomes more and more a global village, organizations are having a greater presence in countries worldwide and where there are people there will always be a need to pay them and the systems to support this. And as we move to this global village state organizations are looking for global solutions and so are looking for global payroll and HR systems. But does such a thing as a global payroll system truly exist or is it all smoke and mirrors? Would such a system be appropriate or even truly necessary?