FEI Weekly

April 16, 2018

KPMG re-evaluates the way it does business, why you need to automate in phases.

KPMG South Africa Will Audit Own Staff in Wake of VBS Scandal

Bloomberg

KPMG South Africa, which has faced scrutiny for its audit work on failed VBS Mutual Bank and companies linked to the politically connected Gupta family, said all staff face background checks every two years to try improve public trust in the firm. The firm will also extend a review of its past work to stretch back 18 months and set up a hotline for employees to raise concerns about the quality of KPMG’s work.

"Soup Nazi" Ex-CFO Sentenced For Tax Evasion

Reuters

The former CFO of a company that licensed the name and recipes of the chef who inspired the tyrannical “Soup Nazi” character on the TV comedy “Seinfeld” was sentenced to nine months in prison on Thursday for tax evasion, according to federal prosecutors. Robert Bertrand, who was CFO of Soupman Inc, was charged by federal prosecutors in May 2017 with depriving the IRS of roughly $594,000 of taxes by failing to report $2.85 million of cash and stock that a subsidiary of Soupman quietly awarded employees from 2010 to 2014.

How to Lower VRP Payments

CFO

It’s been three decades since the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. began assessing “variable-rate premiums” (VRPs) on pension-plan sponsors. Yet, rather bizarrely, there are sponsors that still don’t exploit aspects of pension law that would allow them to lower their VRP payments. New pension-funding rules that took effect in 2012, as well as subsequent legislation, have combined to propel VRP rates several times higher than they had been. “We’ve talked to some of these companies that aren’t doing the best practices and told them about this,” October Three partner Brian Donohue says. “As often as not, they’re stunned.”

Automate in Phases

CPA Practice Advisor

We are in a new age of financial technology, and in many companies, there’s a clean slate for automation. Today, it’s possible to automate in phases, using best-of-breed solutions. Automating the close includes AP, AR, treasury, and finance, but the impacts are still felt under the finance umbrella, so that could also be a relatively easy win. Automating invoice ingestion and workflow, on the other hand, could have a more significant positive impact and ROI, but it’s also a more complicated project.

Influential Leaders Know How to Listen

Ladders

Leadership is not telling others what to do. Leadership is inspiring others to do what needs to be done. Influence is subtle, yet incredibly powerful. You can order someone to do a task, but you cannot order them to do their best. Believe it or not, the most powerful influence you can have is often not trying to influence someone. When people believe you are open to their suggestions and believe they have been heard, they will work harder even if they disagree with the methods or goals. That is the power of listening.