DISCUSSION

1. "Professional Service Organizations" Please respond to the following:

• You have been asked by the CFO of the company where you work or previously worked to evaluate the use of a professional service organization for processing the company's payroll. Identify the top-three issues that should be discussed when considering contracting the services of a payroll service provider. Evaluate the impact, both positive and negative, of each issue on the process in question. Provide specific examples to support your response.

• Using the information from the e-Activity, identify the key elements of a plan to outsource your firm's payroll function. For each element of the plan, describe the impact of each element. Be sure that the elements address the necessary controls needed to safeguard your firm's personnel data. Provide specific examples to support your rationale.

2. "General Ledger and Reporting Systems" Please respond to the following:

• Your firm is planning to move to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) reporting within the next fiscal year. Analyze the risks and rewards by moving to IFRS and the impact that technology will have on the change. Include the advantages and disadvantages of IRFS compared to the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Provide specific examples to support your analysis.

• Develop a proposal for migrating your firm to IFRS from GAAP. Discuss how you will educate your users in IFRS.