Mid-busy season update

I’ve been very busy the past week at a job out of town, which continues this week. Blog posts have slowed to a trickle again.

It’s the first job I’ve been on that is away from home, but it hasn’t been too bad and the hours we’ve been working aren’t excessive for busy season. There are definite perks to traveling for work, like expensing meals and lots of socializing outside of work.

As for getting my CA, I should be hearing back soon from the ICAO that I’ve met all the requirements. I think in general they meet monthly to accept new members, so it could be pretty quick.

The two weeks after this one I’m back in town working on a new client that I lobbied hard to get scheduled on. I’m looking forward to it! Making a good impression for the firm, giving great client service, and meeting new people.

There’s also the annual CA Dinner Dance (or “CA ball” as it’s known in my circles) next weekend, which will be a good chance to catch up with some co-workers I haven’t seen in a while and celebrate with the 2007 UFE passers as it’s really their evening. Their convocation ceremony is earlier in the day.

Busy season has been going well so far, very manageable. I’m really looking forward to taking a nice vacation in May though!

Changeover to IFRS confirmed for 2011

The Accounting Standards Board of Canada has confirmed recently the changeover date to IFRS for publicly accountable for-profit organizations, set for periods beginning on or after January 1, 2011.

The announcement is available in PDF format.

It sounds like we’re going to have to know and be able to apply two sets of principles, as private companies and non-profits won’t be required to switch that early, if at all.

A proposal being looked at right now is having a Framework for Owner-Managed Enterprises, which is based on a pared-down version of current Canadian GAAP. Either know both or limit your possible clients.

At least we won’t have to learn two sets from scratch, but hopefully down the line there’s a more elegant solution to the problem.

Interview for a job, get paid

A blog I follow, JobsintheMoney’s CareerWire, has drawn my attention to a very interesting site, especially for in-demand professionals such as accountants.

The site is called NotchUp and allows employers to pay to interview job candidates who otherwise wouldn’t be looking for a new job.

Associated Press has the lowdown:

How it works: You plug in your industry, job, pay and experience into a calculator on the site to help you set your pay for an interview. (NotchUp recommends a range between $200 and $500.) Then you submit your profile to the site.

If a hiring company is interested in you, it deposits the money with NotchUp and talks to you. If you seem like a real, engaged candidate, NotchUp will transfer the money to your PayPal account once the interview is over.

Interesting twist on the usual way things are done, and potentially a great way for employers to snatch up quality candidates. No mention of course on whether accounting firms are using the service yet, but it’s probably only a matter of time.

A little help for the transition to IFRS

A while ago I received an email informing me of a newsletter available for Canadian accounting professionals detailing the transition from Canadian GAAP to international standards, IFRS.

The newsletter is provided by The Finance Group, headed up by Gordon Heard, CA, and all three issues to date are available for download (in PDF format).

The site is a solid resource for IFRS materials produced by the AcSB, Canada’s Accounting Standards Board, and the CICA as well.

Asset impairment and writedown leads to blogging abyss

I don’t often bother my readers with tidbits from my personal life unless it somehow converges with my professional life and I feel that it could be of some interest to others.

I’m a big accounting geek, and as such I have a personal balance sheet in my head, where I employ some questionable accounting policies to account for my daily life. Expenditures related to my girlfriend had been capitalized up until January 20th, as they had a future benefit to me. On January 20th, I had to write down that massive asset to zero, as its entire value was impaired utterly and completely.

In the following weeks I had no motivation to blog or do anything really, so that is why it has been so long since my last post. I’m feeling better now though, and I’ll hopefully be back regularly as per the usual routine.