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In Business

The Future of IT 2015

Ask IT pundits where information technology will be five years from now, and chances are they will invoke Moore’s venerable law: In 2015, there will be more computers of every ilk, and they will be smaller, faster, cheaper

Aug 31, 2010

Fraud in the Workplace - Understanding the pitfalls and improving your effectiveness

Following a number of recent high profile cases of employee fraud, including cases in FÁS and Iarnrod Eireann, Joanne Hyde, Head of Employment Law at Eversheds O’Donnell Sweeney describes how more employers are trying to understand how to prevent similar occurrences in their workplaces and identify how they should deal with the unexpected discovery of a fraud.

Aug 17, 2010

Want to avoid credit union risk? Get rid of credit unions

Credit unions will disappear in the coming years thanks to regulatory changes introduced by the registrar of credit unions, writes Greg Allen

Aug 3, 2010

Using forums as a business tool

Online forums (such as the popular Boards.ie or Enterprise Ireland's own eBusiness Discussion Forum) offer a simple and cost-effective way to interact with large numbers of potential customers, clients and industry colleagues.

Aug 3, 2010

Small Firms Association Autumn Economic Statement

In its Autumn Economic Statement, the Director of the Small Firms Association, Avine McNally, has said that whilst the Irish economic future is still very challenging, sensible policy decisions and strong political leadership to create a better and sustainable enterprise and economic future are required.

Aug 3, 2010

What to do if Revenue selects your client for Revenue audit

Dealing with a Revenue audit is a stressful time for accountants who face reputation and financial risk if client issues are not correctly identified and addressed. In most cases it is possible to predict the likely outcome and with this information to manage your client’s expectations. The cardinal rule is to make sure that there are no surprises and for this a good knowledge of tax law and the audit process is essential.

Jul 20, 2010

7 Steps to PuMP Out Better Performance Measures

Performance measurement is a process, not an event. It's a series of specific activities for creating, implementing and using performance measures, and it's not just a brainstorming session on the tail-end of your business planning workshop. If you don't take each step in the process deliberately, there's little wonder your performance measures or KPIs just aren't measuring up.

Jul 20, 2010

How to improve staff communication

The latest CIPD employee outlook survey found that fewer than half of our 2,000 respondents felt either “fully” or “fairly well” informed about what was going on in their firms. There were also low levels of agreement with the statement: “I trust the directors/senior management of my organisation.” Such findings reveal just how important it is to improve communications with staff as part of an HR (and business) strategy.

Jul 20, 2010

Recovery or a Triple Dip?

Today’s QNA for Q1 2010 showed a 2.7% increase in real GDP compared with the final quarter of last year. This brings to an end eight consecutive quarters of economic contraction – the longest recession of all advanced economies to date.

Jul 6, 2010

Insolvencies increase by 27% in the first half of 2010

New statistics released by InsolvencyJournal.ie reveal that the number of insolvencies recorded in the first half of 2010 has increased by 27 per cent, this rise means that it has already surpassed the yearly total for 2008.

Jul 6, 2010

Top Ten Tips in Preventing Fraud in your Organisation

The suspicion of fraud in a company is a stressful and delicate matter. It is important to protect you and your employees from the impact of a fraud in your organisation. Processes and procedures can be put in place to help reduce the instance of fraud. Some of the key controls are:

Jul 6, 2010

Redundancy Management - Career Development Outplacement

In these challenging times a lot of companies have to let staff members go in order to secure their survival. This is both difficult for the employee and the company

Jul 6, 2010

Payment performance improves in Ireland

Businesses in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland saw their payment performance improve during the first quarter of 2010 compared to last year, according to the latest insight from Experian®, the global information services company. However, Irish businesses are still paying their overdue bills on average eight days later than companies north of the border.

Jun 22, 2010

AADB investigating events at Lehman Brothers

The Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board has begun an investigation under its Accountancy Scheme into the conduct of Members and of Ernst & Young LLP, as auditors to Lehman Brothers International Europe.

Jun 21, 2010

The Changing Shape of Accountancy Careers – HRM Survey 2010

As this survey reports, a significant number of Accountants currently feel under significant pressure and are working longer hours than in previous years. Perhaps it’s because of this and a need for change, that while a vast majority of Accountants expect to still be within the profession in five years time, an equal majority expect to change their employer within the next two years.

Jun 21, 2010

Download attachment(s): [ The_Changing_Shape_of_Accountancy_Careers-HRM_Survey_2010_from_HRM_Executive_Recruitment.9793_1.pdf ]

Ex-motors retailing continues to show signs of recovery as annual growth turns positive for the first time in over two years…

Another strong month for car sales was the main driver behind a 1.8% monthly increase in the volume of total Irish retail sales in April. Sales volumes in businesses in the Motor Trade jumped by a further 5.9% in April to take the annual rate of increase to over 35%, according to the CSO. This is a dramatic turnaround from a year earlier when sales were plunging at an annual pace in excess of 50%, helped by the stimulus provided by the Government’s scrappage scheme, as well as some underlying recovery from extremely depressed levels.

Jun 21, 2010

Small business sentiment remains unchanged as many remain under serious pressure

“Entrepreneurial businesses that are well structured and well managed will see opportunity in uncertainty; however, they need assistance from Government to provide support and create an environment that will put them on a sustainable growth path.”
Avine McNally, Director, Small Firms Association

Jun 21, 2010

IFRS in Focus Newsletter on reporting comprehensive income

Deloitte's IFRS Global Office has published an IFRS in Focus Newsletter - IASB Proposes Changes to the Presentation of Profit or Loss and other Comprehensive Income. [Prior to June 2010, these newsletters were titled IAS Plus Update.]

Jun 21, 2010

IFRS for SMEs – is this the future of Irish GAAP?

Current proposals from the Accounting Standards Board (ASB) in the UK, would see Irish and UK GAAP as we currently know it cease to exist by 2012 and be replaced by the IASB’s IFRS for SMEs for a large number of private entities.

Jun 21, 2010

Cost Optimisation: To Achieve Sustainable Cost Improvements, Focus on Enhancing Business Effectiveness

During a downturn, companies are naturally looking to maintain their bottom lines by identifying costs that they can take out of the business. Today, it is hard to name a company that has not pointed to cost reduction as a key priority for the coming year.

Jun 21, 2010

The 7 Performance Signals to Look For in Your KPIs

Your performance measures are there to give you advice about what is going on in your business so you can choose the most appropriate way to manage its performance. This means that you will choose different types of actions depending on what kind of advice your measure is giving you, or, what kind of signal it's giving off.

Jun 8, 2010

45% of businesses were victims of crime in the past two years

“Small business is spending billions of Euro on security provision and yet the incidence, extent, scope and costs associated with crime are increasing. This alone reflects the societal changes which are taking place and why it is so important that crime, its prevention and the manner in which we deal with convicted criminals must change.”

Jun 8, 2010

Tax revenues behind plan in May, but earlier than expected recovery should see improvement in the months ahead

Following a better than expected month for tax revenue in April, there was some slight slippage in May. Tax receipts totalled Eur3.112 billion in the month, some Eur141 million behind the Department of Finance’s monthly target. Income taxes were the predominant source of the tax shortfall in May. They came in some Eur133 million below the estimated monthly outturn, thus reinforcing the message from the Live Register figures earlier today, namely that the labour market conditions remain pressured. In contrast, VAT receipts continued to hold up well. May is a VAT collection month, with some Eur1.4 billion planned for (for ref: Eur205 million was collected in April). Revenues came in Eur29 million ahead in the month and were Eur52 million ahead of plan in the year to May. While this represents a minor overshoot, the key point is that receipts in this key source of tax revenue are now running ahead. This is consistent with the firmer tone to recent retail sales and consumer confidence numbers.

Jun 8, 2010

Your People Remain your Greatest Asset

Almost daily we read in the papers about redundancies, factory closures, increasing unemployment lines and liquidations all a result of organsiations scurrying to reduce operating costs and mange their businesses through the current challenging economic times. Many businesses across Ireland are now faced with the difficult dilemma of whether to let employees go and if they need to do so which ones.

May 25, 2010

A Time for Bold Moves

We are now in a time of unprecedented change in the global economy. While the current economic turmoil presents serious threats to many companies, it also creates enormous opportunities. Accenture research has demonstrated that the strategies companies choose to pursue during downturns can dramatically influence their results for the next decade. While a rising tide of economic growth “floats all boats” creating attractive returns for most players, economic downturns rapidly separate the winners from the losers.

May 11, 2010

SFA Spring Business Sentiment Survey

“Entrepreneurial businesses that are well structured and well managed will see opportunity in uncertainty; however, they need assistance from Government to provide support and create an environment that will assist them in the creation of jobs and help them become more productive, innovative and in control of their costs.” Patricia Callan, Director, Small Firms Association

Apr 27, 2010

Are You Underestimating the Performance Measurement Effort?

Models like the Balanced Scorecard, the Performance Prism, Triple Bottom Line, and so on offer various approaches for measuring different aspects of business performance. You may or may not be one of the organisations that have successfully put such frameworks to good use, ending up with a collection of useful and useable performance measures that you regularly and easily use in your decision making.

Apr 27, 2010

Retail sales rise in February, reflecting pick-up in both car and non-car retailing…

The February retail sales report had a more positive feel to it. Total retail sales volumes rose by a strong 14.9% on the month, an outcome that was buoyed by motor trades which were up 34.5% m/m. Last month, we noted the January retail sales figures did not include the selling period in the final week of the month, in which industry sources noted an improvement in car sales following the period of unseasonably cold weather conditions.

Apr 27, 2010

How much time is your team wasting on month end reporting?

Is your team one of the many who are sucked in by processes that have more in common with the Charles Dicken’s era that the 21st century? When I was an corporate accountant each period end was a disaster waiting to happen.

Apr 13, 2010
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The Essence of Human Resources

Jack Welsh, the former GE Chief Executive, stated recently that Human Resources should be every company’s ‘killer app’. What could possibly be more important than who gets hired, developed, promoted or moved out the door? After all business is a game, and as with all games, the team who puts the best people on the field and gets them playing together, wins. It’s that simple!
According to Jack, this rarely is the case, though, looking at companies

Mar 30, 2010

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