Features

William L. Brower, Jr.: Management Accounting Advocate
Kathy Williams
A retired Johnson & Johnson financial executive, the new IMA Chair will work to maintain IMA's high standards for certification, expand the Institute's reach and programs internationally, continue to revitalize its educational programs, and increase the domestic membership.

Six Levels of Financial Knowledge
George E. Manners, Jr.
The management accounting function can become an organization's principal decision support platform once individuals master its full potential. The framework presented here challenges accountants to increase their knowledge of the discipline so that they have not only a greater grasp of its capabilities but are confident enough to act on that knowledge.

Who Needs Budgets? You Do.
Penelope Sue Greenberg and Ralph H. Greenberg
Budgets are a corporation's prime planning tool, and most companies use them for that purpose. In the near future, however, firms may be using them to communicate information in business-to-business (B2B) collaborative planning processes.

RFID: The Changes It Will Bring
Ariel Markelevich, CMA, and Ronald Bell
CRadio Frequency Identification (RFID) has the potential to revolutionize inventory costing and inventory management. Superior to bar code technology, it can return a multitude of data and track items much more easily. There are, however, cost and privacy issues that companies will have to resolve before it can be fully implemented.

IMA Student Case Competition
Alternative Costing Methods: Precision
Paint Shop's Dilemma
Eileen Peacock and Paul Juras
Based on a real Midwest company, this case study challenges students to analyze its ABC system and determine whether or not it provides the right information for the company to achieve its strategic goals. To accomplish the task, they must weigh the value of ABC vs. TOC vs. RCA cost information in their presentations.

Columns

PERSPECTIVES
Taking a stand.

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Blowing the whistle on bad profits.

BEST PRACTICES
Learning: your suppleness quotient.

CAREERS
Five keys to working effectively with recruiters.

TAXES
The liability of partners for partnership employment tax.

ETHICS
Consumers consider the importance of corporate social responsibility.

IMA
IMA's strategy with professional advocacy.

XBRL
Exposing enterprise data: XBRL GL, web services, and Google, part 1.

Departments

STREETWISE
Companies still struggle with enterprise risk | FASB to reconsider lease accounting standards | Senate committee chairman blesses FASB draft | Books: A resource for controllers.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE
A classic edition.

TECH FORUM
An open source summer.

END NOTE
Entertainment-then and now.