On shore shared-service centers have taken the lead in performing finance and accounting processes, according to a recent study published by the Hackett Group, a strategic advisory firm, with 58 percent of the companies surveyed using the shared services model, globalservicesmedia.com reports. Only seven percent of companies relied on offshore shared-services centers. Twenty-seven percent of financial processes are still performed in-house or in some decentralized manner, according to the study.

Small businesses, whether public companies gearing up for Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) compliance, or privately held companies responding to customers’ demands for secure storage of personal data, are hiring internal Information Technology (IT) auditors in record numbers, according to networkworld.com. Also, internal and external auditors and IT personnel focused on security are working together to meet their goals.

Alabama, South Carolina and New Mexico have joined the list of states offering accountants the option of renewing their CPA licenses online. New Mexico provided CPAs with registration codes in their license renewal letters that they will need to access the state’s database.

Chief financial officers (CFOs) anticipate increased hiring activity in accounting and finance in the third quarter, according to the most recent Robert Half International Hiring Index.

Small business owners, leading supporters of the drive to repeal the federal estate tax, are debating the next step for the proposal since the defeat of the repeal measure in the Senate last Thursday, by a vote of 57 to 41. Ending debate on outright repeal requires 60 votes and compromise measures face opposition from both Democrats and Republicans. Four Democrats joined the Republicans to open debate on repealing the tax. Some small business owners suggest keeping the tax but raising the exempt amounts, USAToday reports.

Successful transitions from the first to the second or third generations in family-owned businesses come from identifying the family member who is capable of running the business and then structuring the transition as a business transaction, says Christopher Hirschfeld, Vice President and Managing Director, Goelzer Investment Banking, according to insideindianbusiness.com.The business owner may assume that a child wants to run the business and is capable, but “this assumption needs to be validated well before the owner steps aside,” Hirschfeld says.

A case-by-case analysis released by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a nonpartisan research organization, shows that prosecution of white collar crime cases by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in U.S. District Courts has declined by 31.3 percent from levels reported in 2001.

Individuals familiar with the rapidly expanding investigation into executive stock options grants have told Reuters that the practice of spring-loading, or setting a grant date and exercise price to occur shortly before the release of positive corporate news, is being scrutinized along with the practice of backdating.Advertisement

Public and private companies of all sizes expect to face a heavier burden in reporting their tax liabilities, both to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and to their shareholders, according to a Grant Thornton LLP survey of senior financial executives.