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Articles from NeilMcIntyre.ca

When will I be a CA? 2007-06-23 22:05:57 I recently passed the 2-year mark working in public accounting since graduating without doing any co-op terms. I started work at the beginning of May 2005, so through the end of June I will have 26 months experience, less the approximately 2 months I took off last summer to attend the SOA and study and write the UFE. To fully earn the CA designation in Canada, you need 30 months of practical experience, along with satisfying some more specific hours requirements in certain areas (i.e. audit, tax, review). I chose a mid-tier firm because the experience is very well-rounded, so the hours requirement is almost certainly satisfied. (Along with the experience requirement, there is of course the education and examination requirements.) Therefore, at the end of December this year I could be Neil McIntyre, CA. ...

Weekend reading 2007-06-16 15:22:10 Small Is Essential At 37signals, a company with just eight employees whose Web-based collaboration software is used by thousands of small businesses, there isn’t time to sit around a conference room sipping latte and deconstructing memos. Come to think of it, there isn’t even a company conference room. There are just a couple of cubicles, loads of brainpower and three simple goals: make useful business software, make it easy to run, make money selling it. Repeat. Fraud too pervasive to roll back SarbOx In a new examination of 374 companies accused of securities fraud between 1997 and 2002, an average of seven people were implicated in each case… CEOs were implicated in nearly 90% of the cases examined. Next came CFOs, 78%. Then board directors, 40%; vice presidents, 36%; COOs, 20%; controllers, 19%; and general counsels, 7%. Big accounting firms were implicated in 18% of the cases. The End of Independent Advice & Counsel When a consultancy offers solutions, it h ...

Are you an employee or independent contractor? 2007-06-13 20:19:28 In Canada, there are no hard and fast rules in the Tax Act that help an individual determine whether they are an employee or an independent contractor. There are three tests, which have evolved through court decisions, that are used to assess the relationship between an individual and his/her employer. They are: Economic reality or entrepreneur test Specific result test Organization or integration test Why is this important? Well, if you’re a contractor, or self-employed, you can deduct any reasonable expense incurred to earn income. There is a distinction in the Tax Act between the type of income earned depending on whether you’re self-employed or not. If you’re self-employed, you earn business income as a sole proprietor. If you’re employed, you (of course) earn employment income and are restricted in the types of expenses you can deduct for tax purposes. An employer is also required to withhold income tax, Canada Pension Plan contributions and Employm ...

re: A new auditing and accounting blog 2007-06-13 07:46:48 re: The Auditors is a relatively new blog that covers the auditing profession and is written by Francine McKenna, who has some impressive work history which she details on her LinkedIn profile. I’ve added her to my Links. Some posts I’ve found particularly interesting: The Top Ten Reasons Audit Fees Will Not Go Down Heard at Cocktails… Partnership - An Interesting New Twist I think I found her via JobsintheMoney’s CareerWire blog, which links to the both of us. ...

8 quick facts about the principal residence exemption 2007-06-12 16:59:54 Continuing the series of “quick facts” posts (see prior ones about the capital gains exemption and the new financial instruments standards), today is all about the principal residence exemption in Canada. Any residence may be designated a principal residence as long as you “ordinarily inhabit” the home. Ordinary inhabitation includes seasonal living such as your cottage and mobile homes such as a trailer or even a boat, as long as you lived on it! The designation of principal residence occurs in the year you dispose of it, and of course only one residence can be designated as principal for each specific year of ownership. The capital gain, if it cannot be entirely exempted, is prorated for the number of years you owned it and have designated it your principal residence over the total number of years you owned it. Deciding which residence to designate as principal depends on the capital gains on all owned residences on a per year basis, and then allocating each ...

BDO Dunwoody merges with Goodman Rosen 2007-06-08 11:28:38 Hot on the heels of their announcement that the merger discussions with Grant Thornton were called off, BDO Dunwoody’s insolvency practice BDO Dunwoody Ltd. has joined forces in Nova Scotia with Goodman Rosen Inc. Expanding one of Canada’s most comprehensive financial recovery practices, BDO Dunwoody Limited, Trustee in Bankruptcy and Goodman Rosen Inc., Trustee in Bankruptcy have agreed to merge their professional practices effective July 1, 2007. In Halifax and Sydney, the merged firm will operate as BDO Dunwoody Goodman Rosen Inc. Goodman Rosen Inc. is a boutique firm specializing in financial recovery services in Halifax and Sydney. The merger heralds a bold move by BDO to grow their full-service practice organically throughout Atlantic Canada. In an ironic twist, Goodman Rosen currently offer (according to their website) appointments in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia at Grant Thornton’s offices. What do you think? Is this a better growth option for BDO in Canada versus ...

Canadian CA logo gets updated 2007-06-07 18:38:13 At the end of May the CICA announced an updated logo to be used in all professional branding both on the national and provincial level. The new logo uses a simpler font (Gotham) than the last, but also introduces the colour element whereas the prior logo was not dependent on this: I’m not so sure the colours are going to hold up well over time, but it seems BC’s Institute has already implemented the new logo in its monochromatic form. Ontario is using the colour logo in its provincial “signature” format which includes the local institute’s name. According to the CICA (emphasis mine): It is multi-coloured, which is intended to suggest the multi-dimensional nature of the CA designation. The colours are bright, bold and contemporary. The wordmark itself is in uppercase black type – authoritative, bold, sober and strong, which is designed to balance with the bright colours in the symbol. A short while ago the profession dropped the slogan “Strength ...

FreeAgent simplifies small business accounting like no other 2007-06-07 02:12:49 Dennis Howlett recently announced a new accounting web app called FreeAgent, which looks pretty cool and seems to be approaching an age-old problem in a new way: All the well known products and services are geared towards people who already understand the fundamentals of book-keeping. Sage, Intuit and others will argue they’ve simplified the user interface and that much of the grind of double entry has been removed. I agree. But the basic design problem remains. From the FreeAgent Central website: FreeAgent is an online money management tool intended for small, UK-based service businesses of 1-3 employees. This will include most kinds of freelancers, contractors and consultants. … FreeAgent will probably not be for you if you tend to sell lots of products rather than services, hold materials and stock, or handle cash as part of your business. Sounds promising. I took the tour to learn more, and a few things stood out. First, the software allows users to upload their bank dat ...