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IT E-News
In This Issue:
Berkeley Succeeds Melancon as Chair of XBRL US
SEC Presents Interactive Data in New Tools
Federal Agencies Lack ID Theft Protection Measures
Will Office Live Workspace Make the CPA Truly Mobile?
“Tab” Relocates to Keyboard’s Number Pad
Member News & Reminders
New IT Section and CITP Members for February
Reader Feedback
In the News
Berkeley Succeeds Melancon as Chair of XBRL US
XBRL US recently named Alfred R. Berkeley, chairman of Pipeline Financial Systems, as its new chairman. He succeeds AICPA President and CEO Barry Melancon, who served as chairman in 2007 and will serve as vice chair in 2008. According to the article in WEBCPA.com, Berkeley was formerly the president and then vice chair of Nasdaq.
"Al's expertise in the financial markets will be a significant factor in helping to move XBRL adoption forward," says Melancon. "The consortium is poised to complete the XBRL US GAAP taxonomies now in public review, and will continue to focus on the capital markets and building support for public company use of XBRL."
Recently, XBRL US issued a second draft release of the taxonomies for GAAP and common reporting practices. Developed under a contract with the SEC, the taxonomies were first published for public review on Dec. 5, 2007.
The second release incorporates comments received through Jan. 18, 2008. A second draft of the Preparers Guide incorporating comments received through Jan. 21, 2008 is also posted, and one more working draft of the guide will be posted during the last month of the public review. The taxonomies and Preparers Guide are currently available for ongoing public comment at http://usgaap.xbrl.us .
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SEC Presents Interactive Data Through New Tools
Sometimes, a picture is worth a 1,000 words. In other XBRL-related news, the SEC recently introduced Financial Explorer, a tool that shows corporate financial performance using interactive data in XBRL.
Through Financial Explorer, a mouse click generates financial ratios, graphs and charts based on company earnings, expenses, cash flows and assets. This information enables investors to analyze company performance through diagrams and charts, and is part of the SEC's push to establish XBRL as the standard method for companies to submit their financial filings – thereby allowing investors to more easily make comparisons.
The SEC also offers two other online tools that leverage XBRL: the Executive Compensation viewer and the Interactive Financial Report. The Executive Compensation viewer lets investors compare what 500 of the largest U.S. companies are paying their top executives, while the Interactive Financial Report helps investors gather, analyze and compare financial disclosures filed by companies using XBRL .
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Federal Agencies Lack ID Theft Protection Measures
According to a GAO Report, federal agencies are not doing enough to protect citizens from identity theft.
The report, "Information Security: Protecting Personally Identifiable Information," was spurred on by the major security breach in 2006 at the Department of Veterans Affairs when a laptop containing the names, Social Security numbers and other personal information of millions of veterans was stolen.
According to the report, only two agencies – Treasury and Transportation – met all the recommendations for compliance, while two others – the Small Business Administration and National Science Foundation – met none. The other 20 agencies comply to some, but not all of the GAO report's recommendations for better security and privacy.
These recommendations included encrypting data on mobile computers and other devices that carry agency data, and using a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) checklist to properly categorize any data deemed personally identifiable information accessed remotely or physically transported outside the agency.
Read the full story at SC Magazine .
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Will Office Live Workspace Make the CPA Truly Mobile?
Working in clients’ offices and/or working with clients may have just gotten easier. According to a story on AccountingWeb.com, Microsoft Office Live Workspace beta, the new Web-based extension of Microsoft Office that lets people access their documents online and share work with others, is now available.
Microsoft will soon unveil several other Office Live Workspace features, such as an activity panel, notifications, direct links, and multifile upload.
Through Office Live Workspace, users can save more than 1,000 Microsoft Office documents to one place online, and access and share them over the Web. Users can view and comment on documents in a browser, as well as create simple Web lists and Web notes .
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“Tab” Relocates to Keyboard’s Number Pad
Perhaps it is possible to build a better mousetrap. According to a story on Accounting.SmartPros.com, accountants – and anyone else crunching numbers on a keyboard – are in luck. CPA Wayne Wilson recently invented a new keyboard where the tab key is located to the right of the number pad rather than across the keyboard.
"When you're entering data, you type all the numbers with your right hand and then have to stop and use your left to hit the tab key," says Wilson. "It's completely inefficient."
Wilson's R-Tab keyboard has the tab key on the right of the number pad, making it easier and more efficient for accountants to use. "Instead of having to interrupt the left hand and hit the tab key, you don't even have to break the typing stride of your right hand," he says. "The tab key is right there."
Wilson's not the only one who's had the idea of altering a keyboard to help accountants. Microsoft built a keyboard that had the tab key where the num lock key typically is, but Wilson found that it was actually slower than a regular keyboard.
"I built one of those Microsoft keyboards, and it tested slower than normal," he says. "No point in using a keyboard that is supposed to be more efficient when it really turns out to be less so."
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Member News & Reminders
CITP Challenge Gains Speed
The 2008 CITP Challenge is designed to increase awareness of the CITP credential at the state level by enlisting the help of CPA societies and their technology committees in “getting the word out.”
States participating this year include Arizona, Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.
Participants will compete for recognition in one of two categories:
1. Largest Increase of CITPs: The state with the largest net increase in the number of CITPs during the measurement period.
2. Largest Percentage Increase of CITPs: The state with the largest net percentage in the number of CITPs during the measurement period.
Individual states will be recognized in two phases. The top finishers in each category through April 30 will each receive two complimentary passes to TECH+ 2008, while the top finishers through July 31 will each receive $500 gift certificates. In addition, one TECH+ 2008 Conference ticket will be raffled off and awarded to an individual applicant from any of the participating states who applies and receives their CITP credential between Nov. 1, 2007 and April 30, 2008. Check our current progress on the competition or go to the CITP Challenge site for more details.
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New IT Section and CITP Members for February
22 New CITPs in February
Welcome: Amy Batson, Thomas R. Buonomo, Janice Burks, Andrew Carroll, Allan Cohen, Matthew Daniel, Kevin DeWitt, Stephen Koscik, Peggy Lusk, Kyle Martin, Jayachandran Nair, Gary Radville, Lewis Rhoden, Mark Robinson, Dennis Rodrigues, Joseph Savidge, Susan Smith, Jeffrey Stevens, Timothy Veal, Christopher Waldhof, Sam Waran, and John Wronkovich
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13 New ITMS in February
Welcome: Daniel Briano, Allen Chertoff, Dennis Cooper, Mark Friedman, Mark Happ, Michael McFadden, Gregory McLain, Bernard Mustafa, Stephen Peterson, T. Kent Sabine, Marc Spigel, James Yu and Petros Ziartis
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Reader Feedback
If you are aware of any new and interesting IT resources or you have any feedback, we would love to hear from you, E-mail us at infotech@aicpa.org.
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