EDITORIAL CALENDAR 2008  Click Here to Download PDF
(all items subject to change)

January/ February

Salary survey: the latest compensation data for Canadian CAs
What are CAs earning now? More? Less? Has the demand for CAs gone up in the last two years, leading to an increase in their salaries? Or has the profession solved the acute shortage of accountants that led to a growth in compensation? The answers to these important questions will be revealed in this feature that will highlight the findings of the new compensation survey.

RIP for RFPs?
The Request for Proposal (RFP) process has long been touted as a way for buyers to objectively evaluate and select from multiple professional service providers while keeping a lid on costs. Unfortunately, far too many RFPs issued by private sector, non-profit or government buyers fail to achieve these goals. That’s because using the RFP process actually increases the cost of buying professional services, such as accounting, while decreasing the likelihood of selecting the right service provider. Why is this so? This article takes a look at the phenomenon, and explains why RFPs fail to accomplish the goals set for it.

March

TAX Volunteering
There are CAs who volunteer during tax season to help the poor, the handicapped and the indigent with their tax returns. Who are these CAs and what motivates them to do taxes for people who may be described as deadbeats by others? Writer Lorie Murdoch will interview a number of these CAs and tell us why they do it.

TAX software
Successfully selecting, recommending and implementing an accounting solution in today’s crowded market is not an easy task, particularly for small and medium-sized business. This article will discuss accounting and financial management software for this market segment, looking at both the packaged applications and the newer SaaS (Software as a Service) Web-based services and will include practical tips. It will also consider the issue from the perspective of practitioners wishing to assist clients, and from that of the CA in industry looking for the best financial management solution for his or her company.

April

Implementing international standards
International standards will replace GAAP and GAAS starting in 2009 (auditing) and 2011 (accounting). Canadian preparers, auditors and companies will have to learn and adjust to the new standards in a very short period of time, and little is known about how implementation will affect everyone, including investors. This article will highlight the issues likely to arise from this based on the experience of other countries that went through, or are going through, the process of moving from national to international standards.

Snafu
More hard-hitting commentary from our master of disaster? Master of the universe?? Well, maybe master of all things satiric.
Mr. Snafu will skewer the silly, silence the stupid, and shut up the scrofulous. Watch out—it will be stupendously smashing.

May

CPAB: it’s been five years
The Canadian Public Accountability Board (CPAB) was created in 2002 to increase public confidence in the financial reporting of Canadian public companies. What has happened in the intervening five years? What has CPAB accomplished? Where does it stand now, and where is it going? These and other questions will be answered in this feature.

Corporate social responsibility:
Corporate social responsibility is no longer a feel-good activity: it now contributes to the bottom line. How does it do this?
Writer John Lorinc will find out how such things as recycling packaging material can reduce shipping costs; he will also show how better recruitment and retention rates will save millions in training costs. These are all things of interest to financial executives.

June/July

Four of the most neglected ways to cut costs
CAs have shown that they can be quite creative in finding new ways to cut costs. But do they have to reinvent the wheel each time? This article will revisit four methods that have proven their worth in the past, but have been neglected over the years—it will take a fresh look at logistics, chain optimization, purchasing savings (for example by using the Web to replace hard-cost items such as catalogues, manuals, FAQs, etc.) and office space.

Work/life balance
According to a recent survey of Canadian 30 year olds, finding time to relax and time for family are top priorities. Another study of CAs under 35 also found that 69% of CAs rate work/life balance as a very important factor in their current work environment. This is evidently a very vital topic today, one that CA firms and other employers need to examine carefully. Writer Rosalind Stefanac examines the issues and reveals what are considered best practices for successful work-life strategies.

August

Just do it
Despite the fact that performance management is regarded as one of the top ten management issues, only 18% of companies reported using a performance management framework, and actually producing results. This is one of the findings of the 2007 CFO Performance Management Survey conducted for CAmagazine. The survey reveals that Canadian performance management is still at a rudimentary stage. It also shows that CFOs are committed to the concept of performance management, but are frustrated in their efforts to achieve success. It appears that many firms suffer from performance analysis-paralysis, where they spend more time analyzing the problem than they do actually implementing performance measures. This feature examines the survey results, and presents participant views on how to deal with the difficulties of implementation..

Articling in industry
New rules now make it possible for future CAs to article in non-professional firms. How is this going to happen, and what are the ramifications? This feature will examine this important change in the profession’s training curriculum. It will involve interviews aimed at uncovering the reasons for this change with articling CAs and the profession’s leaders, and also with firms’ representatives to find out why they decided to join the program.

September

CAmagazine's annual information technology issue

Top 10 IT issues to watch out for
Are you struggling to get timely data from core transactional systems? Are you overly reliant on spreadsheets to meet your needs? Are your spreadsheets becoming too complex? Do you have too much data and too little predictive information? Are you accessing outdated information? Are you duplicating and saving data multiple times? Do you rely on IT to write your reports? Does it usually take too long? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the above questions, you are ready to select an appropriate BI tool. This important feature shows how organizations can gain complete and timely insight, distribute intelligence pervasively, and drive more effective actions and processes.

Compliance tools
This article will review and compare compliance tools created to meet Sarbanes-Oxley and other rules and regulations such as controls over financial reporting, documentation, methodology, etc.

October

Protecting pension funds
Pension funds have one purpose—distributing money to its pensioners; and one obligation—making sure that there is sufficient funding to meet this purpose. It is easier said than done, considering ever-changing market conditions. That’s why this article on how to minimize risk and raise the bar in fiduciary practices will help managers and board members in their mandate.

Profile of Michael Nobrega, CA
Meet the new CEO of OMERS, one of the country’s largest pension funds.

November

CAmagazine’s annual financial planning issue

The adviser’s dos and don’ts
The regulatory landscape has changed dramatically over the last few years for financial advisers regarding what they should know and claim to know. What can they do and not do?

Valuation and divorce
What are the best policies in separating and defining personal and professional goodwill? How do you determine standards of value in a divorce context?

December

Ethics
When we talk about ethics for CAs, what do we mean? This question will be thoroughly investigated in this feature, with our writer seeking diverse views on the issue from professors in universities, CAs in small or large firms, and CAs in industry. What do university professors teach about ethics to students aspiring to be CAs? What do professional CAs think about what they learned and how it applies to the real world? These and many other questions will be answered in this story.

Marketing strategies for CA firms
Marketing a professional services firm might appear a daunting task for accountants whose training focuses on different skills. But it has to be done, and this article will demonstrate how it can be achieved successfully.

Technical articles

CAmagazine publishes in each issue a number of technically oriented articles designed to help chartered accountants and other finance professionals meet their information needs.

They cover:

• Accounting
• Assurance services
• Business valuation
• Governance and risk management
• Education
• Fraud
• Insolvency
• Law
• Human resources
• Personal financial planning
• Taxation
• Information technology