CPA Firm Compensation Plans and the Law of Unintended Consequences

“Unintended,” maybe. But not altogether unforeseeable.

With a new generation of CPAs taking over as managing partners comes a host of new questions and issues. Marc Rosenberg addresses some of the concerns in Compensation Issues for the New Managing Partner, which inspires Gary Zeune, Managing Director at The Pros & The Cons LLC, to weigh in on the kind of comp issues that he sees all too often as a fraud-fighter.

Zeune comments:

Gary Zeune

Gary Zeune

Don’t tell anyone but the problem with CPA firms is they’re run by accountants who don’t understand the unintended consequences of decisions.

READ MORE →

Gary Bolinger: The Uncertain Future of CPE [VIDEO]

[jwplayer mediaid="21798"]

Gary Bolinger, president and CEO of the Indiana CPA Society, says the profession’s system of continuing professional education is broken and needs to be scrapped.

“If we don’t do something,” he says an entire generation will “flatly reject” and “thumb their noses” at CPE as we know it. They will “find other ways to learn.”

In a video-phone interview with Rick Telberg for CPA Trendlines, Bolinger calls on the profession — mainly its leaders in state regulatory boards and associations — to “change the regulatory environment and delivery system… to be more responsive to the rate of change.”

If Bolinger is right, then today’s system of measuring achievement and competence in hours is already DOA and the profession needs to start embracing alternatives, such as real-time learning, independent study, peer-to-peer assessments, and snap quizzes.

Few issues could be as disruptive to the business of accountancy than what Bolinger suggests. But without dramatic change, it’s only a matter of time before the CPE system crashes and burns into a heap of cynicism and irrelevancy. If it hasn’t already.