The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced on March 14th, that they had released new opinion letters on their website.  These letters address the compliance issues related to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).  Before we review the new opinion letters for the FLSA, let’s do a […]

Are your Accounts Payable Operations measuring their performance?  If not, how can progress toward goals be determined? How can issues be identified before getting calls from Vendors?  Or worse, Management and Customers?  Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Accounts Payable can cover everything from the productivity of each AP processor to whether invoices are paid on […]

Some people are afraid of their own shadow.  They have a lot of fears if they’re in sales.  They are afraid of their competitors. They’re afraid of failing.  Fear is the wrong emotion to have when you sell. I want you to be able to get past fear and sell more successfully.  I’m afraid if we share information […]

Have you ever noticed that when someone says something good about a co-worker, it tends to end at that person.  BUT, if someone says something bad about a co-worker, it gets repeated, exaggerated – and can and often does destroy another person’s reputation. I’m aware of a case of a woman being accused of not […]

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today that starting May 13th only individuals with tax identification numbers may request an Employer Identification Number, or EIN, as the “responsible party” on the application.  This change will prevent entities, such as employer, from using their own EINs to obtain additional EINs. The requirement will apply to both the paper Form […]

For decades Microsoft Excel followed a predictable pattern of a new update being released roughly every three years. Of course, Excel 2002 was an outlier, sandwiched in between Excel 2000 and Excel 2003. Then there was a four year wait for Excel 2007 while Microsoft worked to implement the new menu structure known as “the […]

Puzzled by a tricky question from a client?  Looking for hard-to-find information? Stumped by a request from a partner or referral source?   Don’t ask those closest to you – your peers, your partners, your buddies.   Instead reach out to dormant ties for help.   Why?  Professionals contacted people they hadn’t been in touch with for 3+ years.  […]

When I wrote my first book, Finance for Non-Financial Managers, it opened with then-current stories of CEOs whose companies had been caught gaming their financial reporting, while the CEOs claimed they didn’t know because they weren’t accountants, or some such excuse. I posited that CEOs could no longer afford to be non-financial, that they could […]

I’ve written about the amazing Michaela Shiffrin before.  She’s the exciting alpine skier who has achieved spectacular results. She’s won the World Cup overall title three times.  She has 56 World Cup individual victories and three Olympic medals. Two of those are gold.  She’s the best in the world. How does she make it look easy?  It’s just like […]

The Internal Revenue Service has launched the new Tax Withholding Estimator, an expanded, mobile-friendly online tool designed to make it easier for everyone to have the right amount of tax withheld during the year. The Tax Withholding Estimator replaces the Withholding Calculator, which offered workers a convenient online method for checking their withholding. The new Tax […]