Time Audit- Make eefecient use of time.....

How to do a Time Audit

March 24, 2010 · Print This Article

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There is often a great discrepancy between the way you spend your time and the way you think you spend your time. A time audit helps you look at exactly how your time is being used so you can better understand where your time is going. One form of a time audit is to simply keep a log of your time. This works to a certain extent, but it tends to better show how you want to spend your time instead of how your time is actually spent. For a time audit to be effective, it needs to reflect your actual work history.

Here is a simple method for doing a time audit that will help show how your time is actually spent. Get some type of timer that can be set for a specific interval of time. You want to use 60, 30 or 15 minutes. Normally an hour is what you want to use. Set the timer to go off, but make sure you start at some odd time, like 8:11. You don’t want to start at the top or bottom of the hour because that tends to go off right when you are switching contexts (going to lunch, headed to a meeting, etc.)
Each time the alarm goes off, write down what you are doing at that moment, reset the alarm, and go back to work. The process should take about 20 seconds. It will interrupt you, but the data should be well worth the inconvenience. Ideally, you should collect time audit data from several different days. It might make sense to do the time audit Monday on one week, Wednesday of the following week, and Thursday of the next. Spreading it out helps keep it from becoming a habit and lessens the distraction impact of any given week.
Once you have all the data from your time audit, go through and analyze it. You can use any method that suits your needs, but in general you want to categorize what you were doing at each interruption point by how important that task was. At the very least, you should use three levels:

1. Very important - the type of task that you should be doing all the time.
2. Not particularly important – something that may need done, but doesn’t add significant value and should be minimized as much as possible.
3. Worthless – Activities that you shouldn’t be doing at all.

If 75% of your time audit shows you working on Very Important tasks, you are doing extremely well. Many people will find that they are spending a lot of time on levels 2 and 3. Don’t be too discouraged by this. It is typical and partly a by-product of the fact that work days aren’t designed around being productive.
Once your time audit shows how you are spending your time, you need to ask yourself important questions:

1. Can you modify the order of tasks or your schedule to make better use of your time? For example, if you found you were on hold for a good percentage of the time, can you place those phone calls earlier or later or on a different day when you are less likely to be put on hold?
2. Are there distractions you can avoid? If you have a TV in your office and your time audit shows you are often watching the news, maybe you should turn it off or move it out of your office. Some people will save a lot of time by uninstalling solitaire.
3. Can you stop low-value activities? Ask yourself, “What happens if I just don’t do this at all?” Sometimes the consequences are trivial once we actually look at what will happen.
4. Can you shift to more high-value activities? This may mean delegating or automating. If you spend a lot of time running papers back and forth for signatures or faxing secure documents, perhaps getting your team to switch to Digital Signatures & Encryption would help let you focus more on your job and less on the tasks that add little value. You might be able to make use of a virtual assistant to help you focus on the more important things.

If you are a manager, you might be thinking “I should have my staff do this!” Maybe, but keep in mind the time audit is only useful if people are honest. You will probably get better results if you have them do a time audit and then discuss ways you can be more efficient as a team instead of trying to get each person to share their individual results.

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Filed Under Time Management
Tagged: audit, time audit, Time Management

Read more: http://www.productivity501.com/how-to-do-a-time-audit/7043/#ixzz0jLNobZTU

ICAI looking to bar firm whose partner found guilty of Auditing fraund or Negligence

The Indian accounting sector regulator wants the government to bring in a provision to bar tainted firms from taking up any new assignments for a specific period. The move by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is the latest in its undeclared but continuing tiff with the Big Four foreign accounting and audit firms that has escalated after the Satyam fraud. ICAI president Amarjit Chopra told FE that RBI, Sebi and the CAG should specify norms “barring such auditing firms for a particular time period whose partner has been found guilty in last three years.”

In 2009, S Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri, partners in Price Waterhouse, the statutory auditors for the scam-hit Satyam Computers, were imprisoned for alleged audit misconduct. The disciplinary committee of ICAI has also held Gopalakrishnan guilty of professional misconduct in the audit of erstwhile Global Trust Bank. Price Waterhouse is a related entity of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the global audit and accounting firm.

Chopra said, “At present, if a partner of a firm is held responsible in any fraud, the firm disassociates itself (from the partner) and later takes him as a consultant.”

This, Chopra said, “does not discourage auditors from professional misconduct.” Chopra further said the institute now has the power to take action only against the auditor and not the firm. But the institute is of the view that any of the auditors who ceases to be a partner of the firm and has been charged under disciplinary proceedings should not be allowed to undertake fresh work and therefore impose responsibility as if their status as a partner is still continuing. Chopra said they will also be discussing the concept of rotation of auditors in their next council meeting. Currently, only public sector banks are required to rotate auditors, appointed from among RBI-empaneled list of audit firms, but there is no compulsion on private banks and insurance companies to follow the practice.

ICAI has also requested the ministry of corporate affairs that the periodicity of rotation for an audit partner should be once in every three years, while for an audit firm it should be once every six years. At present, there is no such tab on the rotation of audit partner or audit firm under the Companies Act, 1956. Minister Salman Khurshid has recently told he preferred a rotation among the audit firms but without compromising on the development of domain knowledge by them.

Read more: http://www.taxguru.in/icai/icai-looking-to-bar-firm-whose-partner-found-guilty-of-audting-fraund-or-negligence.html#ixzz0imni7IVG

what is cyberwarfare?

Cyberwarfare is Internet-based conflict involving politically motivated attacks on information and information systems. Cyberwarfare attacks can disable official websites and networks, disrupt or disable essential services, steal or alter classified data, and criple financial systems -- among many other possibilities.
According to Jeffrey Carr, author of "Inside Cyber Warfare," any country can wage cyberwar on any other country, irrespective of resources, because most military forces are network-centric and connected to the Internet, which is not secure. For the same reason, non-governmental groups and individuals could also launch cyberwarfare attacks. Carr likens the Internet's enabling potential to that of the handgun, which became known as "the great equalizer."
Examples of cyberwarfare:

• In 1998, the United States hacked into Serbia's air defense system to compromise air traffic control and facilitate the bombing of Serbian targets.
• In 2007, in Estonia, a botnet of over a million computers brought down government, business and media websites across the country. The attack was suspected to have originated in Russia, motivated by political tension between the two countries.
• Also in 2007, an unknown foreign party hacked into high tech and military agencies in the United States and downloaded terabytes of information.
• In 2009, a cyber spy network called "GhostNet" accessed confidential information belonging to both governmental and private organizations in over 100 countries around the world. GhostNet was reported to originate in China, although that country denied responsibility.

The most effective protection against cyberwarfare attacks is securing information and networks. Security updates should be applied to all systems -- including those that are not considered critical -- because any vulnerable system can be co-opted and used to carry out attacks. Measures to mitigate the potential damage of an attack include comprehensive disaster recovery planning that includes provisions for extended outages...

Cisco announced CRS-3, the fastest router

On Tuesday, Cisco announced the CRS-3, its next-generation internet router for the world's largest internet service providers. 

After a two-week countdown to an announcement that it said would "forever change the internet", the company unveiled what looked like an upgrade to its existing "core" router, called the CRS-1.

The new router offers 12 times more traffic capacity than its older-generation routers offer. It's three times faster than the older CRS-1, which was introduced in 2004. And it can handle 322TB of traffic per second, or simultaneous video calls for every person in China, the company said..

safety tips for using ATM.....

1. 1. Keep your card in a safe place to avoid damage.
2. 2. Memorize your Personal Identification Number (PIN). Never write the PIN down on anything in your wallet or on the card itself.Never tell your PIN to any third person, whether to family member, office staff.
3. 3. When selecting a PIN, avoid numbers and letters that relate to your personal information. For example, don't use your initials, birthday, telephone or vehicle number ,if you have such a number, contact your bank and get a new PIN issued.In most of ATM ,you can change your ATM pin yourself.
4. 4. Immediately report a lost or stolen card to your financial institution.
5. To help guard against fraud, keep your ATM receipts until you check them against your monthly statement.

5. Observe your surroundings before using an ATM. If the machine is obstructed from view or poorly lit, visit another ATM..

1. 6. Take a friend with you - especially at night.
2. 7. Have your card out and ready to use.
3. 8. Shield the screen and keyboard so anyone waiting to use the ATM cannot see you enter your PIN or transaction amount.
4. 9. Put your cash, card and receipt away immediately. Count your money later, and always keep your receipt.
5. 10. If you see anyone or anything suspicious, cancel your transaction and leave immediately. If anyone follows you after making a transaction, go to a crowded, well-lit area and call the police.
6. When using an enclosed ATM that requires your card to open the door, avoid letting strangers follow you inside.
7. 11. Check with your financial institution to determine what the daily limit of funds that can be withdrawn from your account is.
8. 12. Use swap ATM machine ,Machine which take ATM card inside are risky and some time they ate your ATM card ,due to input of wrong ATM pin ,withdrawal amount given is more than balance and for other reason .
9. 13. Use Your own Bank machine ,where ever possible .the reason is that if there is a problem in Transaction then problem can be solved by your bank directly but if other banks ATM is used then to solve dispute you have to contact two bank branches.
10. 14. If your card jammed in ATM, report this immediately to the bank.

Read more: http://www.simpletaxindia.org/2010/03/safety-tips-for-use-of-atm-card-useful.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+simpletax+%28STI-MEDIUM%29&utm_content=Google+Reader#ixzz0hb9FHJbO 
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Govt proposes more time for appeals against ITAT orders

The government on Friday proposed to allow High Courts to admit appeals against orders of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal beyond the currently stipulated period of 120 days.
While presenting the Union budget, Pranab Mukherjee proposed to amend section 260 A of the Income Tax Act, which gives only 120 days to challenge any order of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) before any division bench of a High Court.
According to the new proposal, if High Courts are satisfied that the delay was due to some reasonable cause, then they can admit the appeal.
It has been decided to amend section 260 A and section 27 A of the Wealth Tax Act, which deals with the time period of the appeal against any ITAT order, by inserting a new sub- section.
According to the proposal, the amendment will be effective retrospectively. There has been conflict between various High Courts over the issue with the Delhi High Court stating that they can admit the appeal beyond 120 days if they are satisfied. However, the High Courts of Allahabad, Bombay, Guwahati and Chhattisgarh had differed.
The minister also proposed to enhance the period for which the Income Tax Department could approach High Court against ITAT's direction. The government proposed to increase it from the mandatory period of six months.

ICAI welcomes budget 2010

ICAI welcomes the Union Budget presented by the Hon’ble Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee, which can be termed as a relief oriented budget. The Budget skillfully balances the need to step up the economic growth on one side, check inflation on the other side and also address the socio-economic needs of the nation.
The ICAI welcomes the liberal FDI Policy, listing of PSUs, liberal licensing policy for opening of banks and license to NBFCs to act as bank. The increase of minimum personal taxation slab of 10% up to Rs. 5.00 lacs will pave the way for better tax compliances and revenue generation for the Government. The introduction of SARAL II Form will enable the small tax payers to file their return without difficulty. The relief of Rs. 20,000/- under  section 80CCE would suitably boost infrastructure sector while simultaneously providing tax relief.

• The ICAI welcomes the reiteration of timelines for implementation of the Direct Tax Code and Goods & Service Tax w.e.f. 1st April, 2011.
• The Budget has given some thrust to conversion into LLP without attracting Capital Gains Tax. However, the restrictions and preconditions may be reviewed to provide full benefit to the conversion of such entities.
• The marginal reduction of surcharge will give relief to corporates and partially offset the increase in MAT Tax from 15% to 18%.
• The thrust given on research and development by enhancing the weighted deduction is welcome since it will boost research activity.
• Relief has been given to the Real Estate Sector by extending period of the 80 I(B) benefits and rationalization of some of these conditions alongwith all other pending projects issues may be considered for the expected relief.
• Removal of genuine hardships in areas of TDS (such as S-40(a)(ia) disallowance) is welcome.
• Rationalization in areas of small charitable trusts and role of settlement commission is also a welcome move to reduce the litigation.

Indirect Tax

• The increase in Central Excise Rates by 2% would augment tax revenues while bringing convergence with GST rates.
• Procedural reforms in placing reliance on CA’s certificates for input credits, amendment in demand provision would reduce litigation and give widespread relief.
• Expansion of coverage, especially in health sector and retrospective amendment regarding renting of immovable properties and training may require reconsideration.

ICAI is glad that the Government has accepted the suggestions forwarded by the Institute in different areas.

Read more: http://www.taxguru.in/icai/icai-welcomes-union-budget-2010.html#ixzz0gq54jdhM