Based in Maryland, Naden/Lean performs a wide range of accounting services, from audited and reviewed financial statements, to compilations of financial statements for clients around the country. Banks enjoy having us as our client's financial advocates due to the soundness of our issued statements.
A compilation is the presentation of financial statements representing management without expressing an opinion or assurance about their conformity with GAAP.
A review of financial statements is meant to express limited assurance that there are no material modifications that need to be made in order to conform to GAAP.
All financial statements are scrutinized prior to issuance, as part of the final quality control process.
Our accounting and auditing services include:
- Audit, review and compilation of financial statements of privately-held businesses
- Audit services for publicly-held businesses
- Preparation of personal financial statements
- Preparation of financial and cash flow forecasts
- Review of cost accounting and internal control systems
CONTACT
For more information about our Maryland accounting and auditing services, contact Bruce Caulk, CPA or Jeff Drake, CPA.
Want to Own the Software or Website Code That You Pay to Have Developed? Get it in Writing.
It is common for businesses to retain a software development company to design a website or write unique business software; unfortunately, it is also common that business owners learn too late that they do not own the software or code for which they paid.
Whenever a person or company is contracted to develop software, a website or some other code, the United States copyright laws consider the developer to be the “author” unless the work is a “work made for hire” – but as you will see, most works are not “made for hire” under the copyright laws. The copyright code provides that an author owns that which the author created unless the transfer of ownership is in writing. That means that a software or website developer continues to own the software or code that it develops for its clients, even after the client pays for the development work, unless the development contract expressly states in writing that the client will own the work product for which it pays. To put it bluntly, arguments that, “he said that I would own the code” or “I thought that I would own the code” are not good enough to establish ownership without a written agreement.
Often a business discovers the ownership issue when its relationship with the developer sours, either because it is dissatisfied with the developer’s work (and wants the developer to deliver all of the code that has been drafted thus far so that a different developer can pick up the job), when the software developer refuses to turn over the source code so that the software or website code can be hosted on the business’s server (or some other third party server), or when the developer begins selling or licensing the software or website code to other businesses. In those situations, a business that cannot prove ownership often seeks to establish (in court) that it has a royalty-free, perpetual license to the software or code that permits the business to use the software and make modifications. However, not all cases result in a finding that a license exists, and even when a license is established it generally is “nonexclusive” – meaning that the business cannot stop the developer from selling or licensing the software or code to other businesses, even competitors.
A brief word about the law regarding what constitutes “work made for hire,” which has the broadest application in employer/employee relationships. Under that doctrine, most work that an employee creates while on the job and within the scope of the employee’s job duties is generally deemed to be owned by the employer. That doctrine has very narrow application outside the employer/employee relationship, which includes relationships with independent contractors.
The moral of the story: business owners and executives authorized to bind the company to contracts should know the consequences of a contract before executing it, regardless if that contract pertains to software or website development or to some other aspect of the business.
What is not written on the page is often as important as what is.
For more information on this article, please contact Josh Glikin at 410.583.2400 or by email.