By Sheri Jacobs, Director of Association Marketing and Business Development for SurePayroll.com

If you were not among the several hundred attendees at the recent AICPA/ITA Tech2000 conference in Atlanta, but are still interested in the presentations, today is your lucky day!With the kind permission of AICPA's Andrea Carella, who did a terrific job as coordinator of the conference, AccountingWEB members can now access all the available PowerPoint presentations from the conference on-line.Simply point your browser to www.aicpa.org/tech2000 and when prompted use the Username "Tech2000" and the password "AICPA" (both are case-se

New legislation signed by President Clinton now allows all workers to receive stock options from employers. The new law ensures that hourly workers can now receive similar stock option benefits that salaried employees have enjoyed for years.Earlier this year, an advisory letter released by the Labor Department threatened to force employers to count stock options toward the overtime compensation levels of hourly employees.

Who could have foreseen what a revolution email would be?A new survey from Accountemps found that an overwhelming 73 percent of CFOs prefer to communicate with accountants by email. Telephone as a preferred media came in at 10 percent, while fax totaled nine percent.Accountemps surveyed 1,400 CFOs from companies with 20 or more employees.

If you think it’s hard trying to find a good accountant, consider what it takes to find people to fill jobs that most only see in movies. That’s the situation that prompted the Pentagon to team up with Yahoo! to boost recruitment.Five winners of the fantasy career contest will have a chance to fly a fighter jet, steer a 90,000-ton aircraft carrier, or fly off for four, expense-paid days at Marine basic training camp. The contest runs from Saturday, May 20, the 50th anniversary or Armed Forces Day, through July 4, 2000.

A new survey from the Financial Executives Institute (FEI) finds that an overwhelming 85 percent of respondents say their auditors also provide 'non-attest consulting services.'Respondents claim the reason why this is so high is that they want the freedom to choose consultants, and rely on firms that already provide value to their company through services like audit.More than 60 percent also said that their auditors prepare or review tax returns apart from any tax accrual audit work.The survey was released to coincide with SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt's

Following the Securities and Exchange Commission's investigation last year of independence issues at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the SEC vowed to investigate other Big 5 firms to ensure independence is not sacrificed.Now, however, lack of funding of the Public Oversight Board (POB) by the AICPA may jeopardize that investigation, and the SEC is not pleased.

Stuff happens. Networks crash. But what is the cost to your organization when that happens? The REAL answer might surprise you. A good disaster recovery planning website www.drplanning.org offers a link to a Network Downtime Cost Calculator where you can calculate both direct and indirect costs of a network failure. IT specialists - you may want to run this calculator to help justify increases in the technology budget for the firm.

Sallie Mae, the nation's largest provider of student loans, and Kaplan, the leader in test preparation for graduate and professional schools, have announced the Kaplan Student Loan Program providing low-interest loans to eligible students wishing to take a test-prep course.The program allows any Kaplan student who is a US citizen or a permanent resident with a social security number to be eligible for the program."This program opens doors to students who might not otherwise be able to afford test prep," said John Polstein, president of Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions.