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Like most professionals who are answerable to a professional body – be it teachers, lawyers, doctors, nurses and whatnot designated accountants need to work on CPDs – continuing professional development. They are the bane of my existence, mostly because the ones offered by my association tend to be expensive. So whenever there are “chapter events”, which tend to be rather cheap, I leap on them like a leech.

So last night I attended a seminar on Sage Business Vision. The presentation itself was good, they explained how the software works, how it can easily integrate in to an office environment so that it is more than just an accounting system – but also a way to keep track of sales contacts, track potential business opportunities and so forth. I didn’t like the software itself, as I saw flaws in it.

I didn’t like that the system forces a particular inventory valuation method on the user. There are several types of inventory valuation methods and it really is up to the entity/company to determine what is the best valuation method to meet their reporting needs. Weighted-average cost is a very excellent method, but not suitable for everyone. And I thought there were some weaknesses with regards to setting up access levels. But I guess that since SAGE BV seems to be aimed towards smaller companies, it is suitable for those purposes.

What did stun me, last night, was the lack of knowledge from my fellow accountants about RITCs – Restricted Input Tax Credits. When I asked the presenters if BV is capable of assisting in the calculation of RITCs I got blank stares from most of the people in the room – the presenter and the audience. I was asked to explain what that is. One of the presenters is a CGA (Certified General Accountant) so I was shocked that he didn’t know, as part of his business is helping other companies with their bookkeeping and preparing, if necessary, yearend working papers for Financial Statement preparation.

Back in July 2010 Ontario shifted from Provincial Sales Tax + Federal Sales Tax to a single tax – HST (Harmonised Sales Tax) which is basically the same rate of VAT, but instead of filing with two separate tax authorities the payments go to one authority. I’m not about to go into how to file HST/VAT but for any entity that has revenues (not profit, revenues or as some call it Gross Margin) of $10M or more per year are subject to RITC, which means a part of the HST has to be recaptured (the provincial portion) and increase the payment to the federal authorities. RITCs are subject to car rentals, hydro, telephone/cellphones, meals & entertainment.

My fellow accountants looked stunned when I explained that. I thought “what the f*ck! how the hell can you be a fully functioning member of an organisation and not know the implications of changes to sales tax”. But I remind myself that many of them work for very small companies and therefore it does not really impact them. But really, why the hell they cannot keep up to date on issues such as this.

Even the presenter did not seem to be aware that as of January of this year Canadian GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) follows IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards).

If we are f*cking expected to keep up our skills by doing these stupid CPDs why the hell don’t the accountants look at seminars/courses that actually impact their jobs – and not some shit on the latest in barcode technology (which I did last year as a CPD).