The Lipstick Index

Posted by & filed under Canadian Economy, Student life.

Description: The Lipstick Index is perhaps one of the most unusual measures of economic performance you may have encountered. Essentially, this measure says that when times are tough, consumers will still avail themselves of smaller luxuries like skin care and perfumes in the face of cut backs on larger purchases. Leonard Lauder, the former CEO… Read more »

Is Self-checkout in Trouble?

Posted by & filed under Fraud, Internal control, Student life.

Description: The self-checkout may be in a bit of trouble as some retailers are reconsidering the future of this mode. Increased losses due to shoplifting is certainly a factor for retailers to consider. Adrian Beck of the University of Leicester has studied self-checkouts for over ten years, and he notes they may account for one… Read more »

New Limits on RESPs

Posted by & filed under Accounting Careers, Student life.

Description: If you are post-secondary education student benefiting from of a Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP), you may have some good news for your finances. The federal government has upped the amount full-time students can withdraw from the education assistance payments (EAP) portion for their first 13 weeks of study from $5,000 to $8,000. The… Read more »

Canadian Tire Layoffs

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Student life.

Description: It’s hard to figure out what’s going on these days in the job market. One day, restaurants and retailers are jamming their windows with help wanted signs. Then, you turn around and find retail giant Canadian Tire is laying off three percent of its workforce, citing declines in business as prompting the move. Reports… Read more »

Giving With Impact

Posted by & filed under Accounting Careers, Student life.

Description: According to Canada Helps, Canadians make 30% of their charitable donations in December. A survey by AFP Foundation for Philanthropy found that Canadians would give more if they were better informed around the impacts that their donations help achieve. Brad Offman, CEO at an organization that provides consulting services to charities, says that “there’s… Read more »

A Costly Internal Control Lapse

Posted by & filed under Accounting Careers, Accounting Principles, Student life.

Description: The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has reached an $8 million settlement that will see it pay out this total, split among three different securities regulators. The Ontario Securities Commission Capital Markets Tribunal approved the settlement for RBC’s control weaknesses in differentiating between capital and operating expenditures in software development. RBC offered that the… Read more »

Air Canada Trying to Settle

Posted by & filed under Accounting Careers, Financial Accounting, Marketing & Strategy, Student life.

Description: Air Canada has been offering disgruntled customers cash or vouchers to settle their claims for travel interruptions. Thousands of Canadians have taken their disputes with Air Canada to the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), piling up a backlog of over 60,000 claims for compensation for disrupted travel and other matters. Air Canada maintains it pays… Read more »

Students Failing on Online Security

Posted by & filed under Data security, Internal control, Student life.

Description: If online security were a university course, many Canadian post-secondary students would have a failing grade, at least according to survey results from RBC’s Students and Fraud Poll. Eighty percent of the students admit to vulnerabilities, including 28% who had shared their passwords on debit and credit cards. With fraudsters becoming more resourceful, it’s… Read more »

Beware of “Shrinkflation”

Posted by & filed under Contemporary Business Issues, Ethics, Marketing & Strategy, Student life.

Description: Watch out for “shrinkflation,” that practice of producers shrinking package sizes to compensate for increasing costs. Instead of passing on the increasing costs to the end consumers, these companies shrink the box size. Shrinking packaging causes consumers, like Ellyn Newall of Edmonton, to feel duped. After getting her grocery order home, Ellyn realized Post’s… Read more »