In Canada, starting salaries in accounting and finance are projected to rise an average of 2.5 percent in 2006, according to the 2006 Salary Guide from Robert Half International, Incorporated. The 2006 Salary Guide is based on an analysis of the thousands of job placements managed by the company’s Canadian offices.“Business expansion and corporate governance initiatives are driving recruitment in the accounting and finance industries,” says Jeff Holloway, a vice-president with Robert Half International.

“The best way to accelerate global leadership development is to have a sound framework,” Robert Kramer, Principal Researcher, The Conference Board and author of the report Developing Global Leaders: Enhancing Competencies and Accelerating the Expatriate Experience, says.

Environmental Management Accounting (EMA) is a cover title used to describe different aspects of this burgeoning field of accounting. The focus of EMA is as a management accounting tool used to make internal business decisions, especially for proactive environmental management activities.EMA was developed to recognize some limitations of conventional management accounting approaches to environmental costs, consequences, and impacts. For example, overhead accounts were the destination of many environmental costs in the past.

Accounting and finance workers confidence fell nearly five points in December, according to the Hudson Employment Index. Despite reporting the lowest figure of the year for job satisfaction, at 68 percent, and declining confidence in hiring expectations and job security, they still remained more positive than other workers.

Work can be a main topic of conversation at holiday celebrations especially in family businesses. Frustrations and shop talk can dominate times that would be better spent creating fonder memories. Family get-togethers can be more pleasan even for those spending innumerable hours working in a family business. Business-focused conversations don't have to turn into business meetings, as long as you remember that there are other important things in life. Family holiday gatherings should ideally be free of business disputes or serious discussions about hanging issues about the business.

William Parrett, chief executive of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, the firm’s global umbrella organization, said that he expected “both from a business standpoint and a regulatory standpoint, [that the] larger firms will evolve to a global partnership over the next decade,” The Australian reports. The existing structures consist of networks of member partnerships established in the countries in which they operate. Mr. Parrett said that although it would constitute a huge change, regulators were likely to push accounting firms to become single global partnerships.

High startup costs, long hours, and hitching your fortunes to a find-it-anywhere chain; these are the dilemmas that keep many entrepreneurs from starting a franchise. But some see advantages instead of obstacles and leap in with both feet. Some franchise owners see great value in services the franchisor provides, such as use of the brand name, and the company's help in administration, finding a good location, training, store leasing, construction, and more.

A study has found that the Certified Information Systems Auditor® (CISA®) and Certified Information Systems Manager® (CISM®) are notable certifications sought out by companies and hiring individuals.

Christine Crosby, who teaches accounting at York Technical College, was named the 2005 Governor’s Professor of the Year for South Carolina’s two-year colleges in a ceremony last Thursday at the state Capitol Rotunda. The formal citation is accompanied by a $5,000 check.Ms. Crosby served as Accounting Program Manager, the equivalent of department chair, at York Tech for 10 years but left that position in 2005 to return to full-time classroom teaching and academic advising, according to a biography on the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education (CHE) web site.