There are two ways to bill for client services, and neither is perfect. The first is known as project billing, or billing-by-the-job. Under this method, the client is quoted a full price for the job based on the estimated time and costs anticipated for the job. This usually works to the advantage of the accounting firm, since no firm wants to lose money on a job and thus will quote just a little on the high side.

You can't fully appreciate the complexity of a concept until you attempt to explain it to someone else. Over the course of the past year, I had just such an opportunity while trying to explain U.S. rules for depreciating fixed assets to a very bright individual from France. When we compared notes regarding every other element of accounting, we were happy to discover more similarities than differences between the two countries.

Unless you have been living in a cave, you know that Apple recently introduced the iPhone 5. The prior releases from Apple, the iPhone 4 and 4S, have been well crafted, highly popular, and have solidified the feature set of the innovative phone series. We were all waiting to see if, with Steve Jobs no longer at the helm, Apple could continue the innovation that has been the catalyst for its recent success. Read more...