Accounting professionals who attend conferences this summer will be signing up as usual for courses that bring them up to date with the latest technical developments in tax and audit and for courses that meet state ethics requirements, but they will also be able to choose courses at conferences that are devoted to major changes on the immediate horizon of the profession or identify opportunities for practice development.

By Paul A. Sharman, ACMA president & CEO, Institute of Management Accountants (IMA)With today's uncertain economy and recent massive employee layoffs at large corporations such as Yahoo! and Ford, it's important now more than ever that job seekers do as much as possible to stand out from other applicants in this increasingly competitive marketplace. It is especially important for accounting and finance professionals to be equipped to comply with the new regulations imposed by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, following the corporate fallouts at places such as Enron and WorldCom.

Three and half years after the introduction of the uniform CPA exam administered by the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA), accounting students are still reporting technical problems with the exam.

A new online governmental accounting certificate program was developed collaboratively by the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education and the Carl Vinson Institute of Government. The program was created to address the growing demand and shortage of financial workers.The "demand for accountants has exploded," according to Charles Ingersoll, principal at Korn/Ferry International, a recruiting and staffing firm, in a recent Washington Post article.

On May 31, 2007, the Board of Directors of Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (CFP Board) announced the adoption of an updated Standards of Professional Conduct, which sets forth the ethical standards for CFP professionals. CFP professionals found in violation of CFP Board's ethical standards may be subject to public discipline, up to a permanent revocation of the right to use the CFP® marks.The updated Standards will become effective July 1, 2008.

Tax Analysts, a non-profit pubic service organization that provides in-depth tax information resources for tax professionals, has announced it is making its news and research products available at no charge to accounting, law, and economics professors and their students.The purpose of Tax Analysts Campus (Tax Analysts’ complimentary educational Web access program) is to provide professors an opportunity to teach with, and students to learn with, Tax Analysts’ news and research products.

By Rob Nance, PublisherNotes from this morning's session of the California Accounting & Business Conference:Virtual workforces, clients' kidsThe Future of Small Business & What it Means for Your Practice was presented by Brad Smith, SVP and GM, Small Business Division, Intuit and Steve Blundell, CPA Accountant Strategy Consultant, Intuit.Blundell raised eyebrows in the packed session when he declared that firms should seriously consider hiring a virtual workforce.Blundell also suggested that firms "do a free class on financial responsibility for the children of cl

KPMG selected a team of four students from the University of Virginia as winners of an inaugural six-week national audit case competition. The accounting department of the University of Virginia received a cash prize of $25,000. Cash prizes of $15,000 and $10,000 were also awarded to the accounting departments from the University of Georgia and the University of Wisconsin for their respective teams' second and third place finishes.

California legislative staff members recently received briefings on how to improve their money management abilities.Conducted by the California Society of CPAs (CalCPA) and CalCPA Institute, the program covered debt and credit management, retirement planning, home mortgages and saving for college.Assembly members Fiona Ma and Roger Niello, themselves CPAs, sponsored the program, which was held at the Capitol.The program was part of a CalCPA community outreach effort designed to improve Californians' financial literacy.