At a meeting earlier today, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reaffirmed its intention to require that U.S. publicly listed companies move to global accounting standards.

This is no surprise; the important outcome of today’s meeting was the announcement of a “Work Plan” (that is to be created).

Among other objectives, the Work Plan will “aid the [SEC] in its evaluation of the impact that the use of IFRS by U.S. companies would have on the U.S. securities market. Included in this Work Plan will be consideration of IFRS, as it exists today and after the completion of various ‘convergence projects’ currently underway between U.S. and international accounting standards-setters.”

As this release explains, the SEC expects to finally decide exactly how and when to incorporate “by 2011.” ###

As fans of TV shows like 24 know, transferring money via wire is secure and instantaneous. That means you can grab it and go – which is critical when the bad guys (or gals) are on your tail. Nonetheless, the system has some shortcomings that have frustrated companies that send or receive money via wire transfers.

Chief among these is the fact that today’s wire transfers lack much remittance information. In fact, the remit info often is limited to just several hundred characters – definitely not enough to let a vendor know, for instance, that your payment covers half a dozen invoices, minus a credit that you’re owed. If your company is like most, you end up sending faxes or emails to accompany your payments and provide directions on applying the money. Your vendor then is left with the task of making sure this information makes its way to the appropriate payments. Perhaps it’s not surprising that 94 percent of respondents to a 2006 study conducted by The Federal Reserve Banks and The Clearing House indicated that they found it valuable to include remittance information with payments. In fact, more than half said they would pay more for wires that included remittance information.

Instead, both sides are stuck with a process that is time-consuming and next to impossible to automate. more

Why do you need a physical office for finance? If you can’t provide a good answer to that question, your organization might very well benefit from a virtual finance office.

Telecommuting is the key to establishing a virtual finance department. Through telecommuting, secure online collaboration and document-sharing space, and using financial applications delivered through the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model—all issues previously discussed here—you don’t need a physical finance office at all. In fact, your organization might not need a physical office for any department—marketing, sales, IT, customer service, R&D, HR—but certainly finance could easily lead by example.

Driven by the poor economy and the need to cut expenses, companies are turning to telecommuting and virtual offices as a way to lower costs and boost productivity. As SonicWall, a virtual private network (VPN) provider, notes in a recent report, “increasingly, financial considerations such as gas prices, the credit crisis, and hard cost savings drive telecommuting programs.” Almost any business can capture these benefits. more

A $15 billion jobs-creation package may be heading to a final vote in the Senate today after gaining a measure of support from some Senate Republicans Monday. The linchpin of the bill is a provision that lifts part of the employers’ payroll tax for companies that hire unemployed workers this year, together with a $1,000 credit for keeping those employees on the books for a year.

Critics of the payroll tax deduction have claimed that it might actually slow job growth if businesses decide to lay off current workers and hire the unemployed (see, for example, this post at futureofcapitalism.com).

The Congressional Budget Office doesn’t agree. more

I recently caught up with Korn Ferry International’s Chuck Eldridge and asked him to tell me what skills CFOs are looking for in their senior finance executives. He answered immediately, noting, “The hottest position today is financial planning and analysis.”

Eldridge knows more than a thing or two about corporate finance departments. A former auditing partner with Ernst & Young, Eldridge has spent nearly two decades with Korn/Ferry. He serves as a senior client partner operating in the global executive search and talent management firm’s Financial Officers Center of Expertise, based in Atlanta. Eldridge has authored a number of white papers, including “Navigating the Uncertain Road from Controller to CFO: The Leadership Imperative.”

“Companies have invested tens of millions of dollars in their back-office controllership function,” Eldridge continued. “Now, everybody is trying to figure out the same thing: Today is the 28th of January, and I know how much we sold yesterday on the 27th. But if I can figure out what we’re going to sell in March, I can truly pound my competitors.” more