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The top 10 fixes for PC problems: Read about that and more in PCWorld's August Digital Edition
PCWorld Staff @pcworld
The onslaught of tech information is relentless. Stay on top of the latest with PCWorld's Digital Edition. Available as single copies or as a yearlong subscription, it highlights the best content from PCWorld.com—the most important news, the key product reviews, and the most useful features and how-to stories—in a curated Enhanced Edition for Android, iOS, and Kindle, as well as in a Replica Edition.
The Enhanced Edition includes videos, slideshows, podcasts, and other interactive features—all designed for consuming on your tablet. The Replica Edition is a PDF-like version that's enabled for your mobile device's touchscreen.
In the August issue
Longtime Answer Line columnist Lincoln Spector has been helping readers with all manner of PC headaches, and over the years he's fielded pretty much every question you could imagine. This month we gather the best of his tips on how to solve the most common PC problems. He explains how to speed up a sluggish system, recover deleted files, safeguard your privacy while browsing, back up your data, and more.
Also in the August Digital Edition:
• Five cool ways to use business cards in Evernote: Think those business cards gathering dust in your drawer are passé? Evernote believes otherwise. Thanks to the company's recent partnership with LinkedIn, you can snap a photo of a card and then use Evernote's tagging, geolocation, and other features—along with LinkedIn's vast network of professionals—to turn the humble business card into a powerful tool.
• Microsoft's Surface Pro 3—a work PC in tablet clothing: If you're trying to decide between buying a laptop and purchasing a Windows tablet, Microsoft just made your decision a lot harder.
• Microsoft changes course: CEO Satya Nadella released a strategy memo to company employees that places a new focus on productivity and interconnectivity among people, devices, and data.
• You've fallen for a scam! Now what? If you've clicked the wrong link or mistakenly divulged sensitive personal data such as a password or credit card info, you have to move fast to contain the damage. Here are the steps you need to take.
Multimedia highlights
• Toshiba's new laptop goes 4K: The Satellite P50t is the first laptop to boast a 4K display. Senior Editor Michael Brown takes the machine for a spin to see if the 3840-by-2160-pixel display is all it's cracked up to be.
• All rise now: Recent health research suggests that sitting all day can shorten your life. Taking that news to heart, Senior Editor Michael Ansaldo tries out the Varidesk, a height-adjustable platform that sits on your existing desk. It's an affordable way to find out if standing while working suits you.
• Tablets from two eras face off: Editor in Chief Jon Phillips takes Microsoft's state-of-the-art Surface Pro 3 and compares it to a ten-year-old slate—the HP Compaq TC1100—to gauge just how far the tablet PC has come.
Take advantage of PCWorld's summer sale
With summer in full swing, we're celebrating by offering our readers great summer savings: Subscribe to our Digital All-Access Pass and get full access to every PCWorld Enhanced Digital Edition plus our Replica Editions for only $24.97 for two years—an 85 percent savings. Or, save 80 percent on a one-year subscription for $14.97.
Existing subscribers who want to take advantage of the summer savings will have the new subscriptions added to their current subscription term.
How to subscribe and start reading
Current subscribers can visit PCWorld.com/directions to learn how to access PCWorld on any device and start reading the August issue right away. Not a subscriber? With the PCWorld Digital All-Access Pass, you can get access to the digital magazine on as many devices as you'd like! Plus, you get access to both the Enhanced Editions and the Replica Editions—all for $19.97 a year. Subscribe today, or learn about other purchasing options by visiting PCWorld.com/magazines.
We created our Enhanced Editions to bring subscribers a new experience with exciting new features designed especially for mobile device platforms. Learn more about the Enhanced Editions.
Our Replica Editions are also available as part of the PCWorld Digital All-Access Pass, and are like a digital version of a print magazine in a PDF-style format. Learn more about the Replica Editions.
Am I Liable for Business Debt My Partner Hid?
By Elaine Pofeldt
Published August 05, 2014
Dear Your Business Credit,
I became a business partner with my friend, who has been running this firm for a few years. And only now I found out that he has debts from our local Internet company, registered under the company's name. They sent me a letter stating that I have inherited the debts as well. Is there any way for me to get out of it or what is the best solution to this situation? Thank you.
- Hansley
Dear Hansley,
I'd suggest making a quick call to a lawyer familiar with the laws on credit and debt in your state to find out what your responsibility is, instead of taking the bill collector's word for anything. Typically, a business owner is not personally liable for the debts of a corporation or LLC unless he has personally guaranteed them or co-signed for a loan. As you probably know, one common reason business owners form a separate entity to house a business is to shield them from business debts.
However, even if you are not personally responsible, that does not mean the business itself is not obligated to pay debts taken out in its name. Without knowing more about how your business is structured, the contract your friend signed, or the status of the debts, it is hard for me to find an attorney that can say who, if anyone, must pay them.
There's a larger matter at stake: trust. Your story is not the first I've heard of someone joining a business partnership, only to discover that the other partner had not been forthcoming about debt in the business.
Sometimes, a business owner won't mention debts like this to a potential partner because he or she is too disorganized to keep track of them. In other cases, the owner doesn't want to scare the partner away by mentioning flaws in the business.
The only way to prevent that from happening is to do thorough due diligence, even if the owner is a good friend. It can be awkward, which is why some would-be owners hire an attorney or accountant to do the digging into a firm's books for them and act as a buffer. That way they can mention to the existing owner that the attorney or accountant came across something they'd like to ask about, instead of playing the "bad cop" role themselves.
Even this scenario can feel awkward, so many people avoid it. As a result, some find themselves in situations like yours.
I'm assuming you didn't do much due diligence because you trusted your friend. Now you're understandably upset that you're being held responsible for a debt you didn't even know existed.
If we're talking about an amount of money your friend is capable of paying and you want to give your partner another chance, the simplest solution is to ask him to pay the debts ASAP. On a basic human level, it does not seem fair for you to get sucked into obligations that your partner did not mention before you joined the business. If you paid money to buy a stake in the company, the amount was based on what you knew about the status of the firm.
If you've concluded you don't want to keep working with your friend or the debt is shockingly large, it may be worthwhile to ask an attorney if you have some legal recourse. I would ask if it is possible you were victimized under common law fraud, meaning there was a knowing concealment of information relevant to the value of the business.
If you made a handshake deal, it may be hard to prove anything. However, you may have some recourse if you made a formal agreement to buy into the business and completed the legal paperwork to make you an owner. Have an attorney review the fine print and you'll know for sure.
Proposed new guidance outlines 12 principles for internal auditing
By Ken Tysiac
August 4, 2014
Proposed changes to guidance followed by internal auditors include a new mission statement and a set of 12 core principles that highlight what effective internal auditing looks like in practice.
The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) on Monday announced the proposed changes to the International Professional Practices Framework, which is promulgated by the IIA. The framework essentially is a blueprint supporting effective internal auditing.
The proposed new mission statement states that in each respective organization, internal audit strives "to enhance and protect organizational value by providing stakeholders with risk-based, objective and reliable assurance, advice and insight."
Adding the proposed principles would give the framework an element that has not existed previously. Although the IIA's standards always have been considered principles-based, those principles have not previously been articulated in the framework.
The task force that proposed the update concluded that the 12 principles, taken as a whole, articulate internal audit effectiveness. For an internal audit function to be considered effective, all 12 principles must be present and operating effectively, according to the task force.
Under the proposed core principles, an internal auditor or internal audit function would:
- Demonstrate uncompromised integrity.
- Display objectivity in mindset and approach.
- Demonstrate commitment to competence.
- Be appropriately positioned within the organization with sufficient organizational authority.
- Align strategically with the aims and goals of the enterprise.
- Have adequate resources to effectively address significant risks.
- Demonstrate quality and continuous improvement.
- Achieve efficiency and effectiveness in delivery.
- Communicate effectively.
- Provide reliable assurance to those charged with governance.
- Be insightful, proactive, and future-focused.
- Promote positive change.
"I truly believe the proposed enhancements, especially the new principles, will be of significant value to practitioners worldwide," Robert Hirth, CPA (inactive), chair of the task force that created the proposal, said in a news release.
The proposed changes would not affect the content of existing elements of the framework, such as the definition of internal auditing, the Code of Ethics, or the Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing. But the standards are constantly under evaluation and could be revised to support the proposed framework revisions.
The task force also proposes creating an emerging issues guidance category to assist practitioners to quickly address emerging trends, changing stakeholder expectations, identified regulatory or legislative concerns, and new topical issues. This guidance would be developed and issued with minimal delay.
In addition, the task force that produced the proposed update recommends restructuring guidance elements of "practice advisories" and "practice guides" to better reflect their intent. This would include renaming them, respectively, as "implementation guidance" and "supplemental guidance."
Under this new structure, the content of existing practice guides and practice advisories would not be eliminated, but the IIA envisions revising, reissuing, or replacing them over time.
The proposal is available on the IIA's website. The organization is seeking comments by Nov. 3. If approved by the IIA Executive Committee and Global Board following the exposure period, elements of the new framework could be available in the first quarter of 2015, and a new framework could be available in 2016.
—Ken Tysiac (ktysiac@aicpa.org) is a JofA editorial director.
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