From staff shortages to cost-effective CPE, state society volunteer leaders and staff executives are conquering a host of challenges.
by Rick Telberg
At Large
State CPA societies are developing new gambits to tackle the problems members of the profession are finding most vexing.
In “State Societies Grapple With Evolution,” we canvassed a few of the leading thinkers in the state society community. Their views are penetrating and some of their solutions worthy of replication across the nation.
[Related Report: State CPA Societies Grapple with Evolution]
The top issues can be boiled down to a handful, like this…
Issues/trends affecting members:
— Finding staff.
— Technology (keeping up with it, competing with it, and/or competing against it).
— Work-life balance for the new generation.
— Lack of succession planning.
— Increased regulatory activity.
— The rise of new non-CPA competitors, from H&R Block to local banks.
Trends affecting societies:
— Membership declines.
— CPA firm mergers (bigger firms buy less CPE).
— CPA brand competition.
— Increasing costs and prices of live CPE.
— Increasing demand for online learning.
— Membership demographics shifting toward female.
Bert Trexler, from the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA), is one of many CEOs who is working to increase “our student recruitment to include the high school level, and working with the Big 4 firms to get their CPAs to join.” He’s seeing some good signs. For instance, hits at Pennsylvania’s www.cpazone.org are steadily increasing.
In some states, non-CPAs are seeking new inroads into the profession, notes Jim Abbott of North Dakota. “There is an ongoing effort to liberalize the existing accounting statute, to allow the provision of services and use of accounting titles, by individuals who do not hold the required credential elements ? in particular, education and examination,” Abbott said. “The issue has been raised in the legislative arena, without success. At present the issue is now before the District U.S. Court.”
In Minnesota, Betsy Adrian notes a “CPE squeeze.” With firm consolidation, she says, there are simply fewer buyers, while an expanding list of certifications in the marketplace is making the CPA brand fuzzy. In addition, a decreasing supply of new instructors and consolidation of CPE vendors could all combine to raise fees and limit offerings.
The irony is that people need lifelong education more than ever, Adrian says. “The trend for people to hold 7 to 12 jobs in their lifetime is creating increased need for career-related services and increasing demand for online learning.”
But aside from the issues, and aside from some savvy solutions, big questions still loom over the profession.
The always-thoughtful Clarke Price, from Ohio, poses a few of the toughest questions:
— How are the forces at play in the marketplace today going to affect the profession over the next 5 to 10 years, e.g., the cascade from Sarbanes-Oxley, the competitive environment, two sets of standards, and continuous challenges to independence, to name just a few?
— While accounting program enrollment is up at just about every college and university in the U.S., the number of candidates sitting for the CPA exam is down. Why? And what’s the long-term impact? Will this change?
— Will the profession be able to continue its monopoly on the attest function? What’s the impact of potential change?
— How will the cascade from Sarbanes-Oxley affect private companies and not-for-profit organizations and the CPAs who serve them?
At least we know the right questions. And a lot of smart, hard-working people are working on the answers.
3 Responses to “CPA Societies Target Key Issues”
Cynthia (Burch) Ellis, CPA
I’ve been a sole practitioner for 11 years. Prior to that I served as a controller for 18 years with several large family owned businesses in our area. My clients depend on me for my business experience, financial and managerial advise, and tax planning. They need solutions in their office to make them better managers. QuickBooks has revolutionized the customers’ accounting needs. As practitioners, we must adapt to this.
I love the work and the challenge. But, the staffing issues are a real detriment to growth and profitability. Lack of experienced personnel is forcing the smaller firms to either go solo or merge into larger firms.
Linda M Muhlenhardt, CPA, CVA
If we all have too much business and not enough staff how will this affect the value of my firm when I want to sell? Is another firm going to be willing to pay for work when they already have too much work. I would think the value of the firm would decrease substantially.
Linda M Muhlenhardt, CPA, CVA
George King
CPA’s congenitally can’t discern the forest from the trees. And their individual shortcomings are compounded by the herd like mentality of the various national and state organizations. The 150 hour requirement is obviously a major deterrent preventing people from sitting for the exams or becoming CPA’s, depending on the multitudinous interpretations of the rules by the various states. The increase in the credit hour requirement is misleading in that it implies a higher degree of excellence than is the case. One could fulfill the requirement by taking college course in Golf, Ballet or Physical Therapy. I don’t understand how this increases one’s qualification for accounting work. If they had simply required that everyone take a college level English composition course, this would have done far more for the profession.
If the various requirements to be certified were rational, they could easily be uniform nationally. What we have is a hodgepodge of various less than rational pronouncements, resulting from the obsession with CPA’s to achieve compromise. It’s inherent in their personalities. This has been apparent over the years as well in the lack of consistency in establishing accounting principles.
The latest fiasco has been the implementation of CPE requirements to take ethics courses. The NJ Board provides only about 4 permissible courses with limited attendance, putting most of the membership in a situation where they are not going to be able to complete this requirement even if they want to because the courses are all filled at the end of the triennial reporting period.
These are some suggestions on articles which no one will write in these various publications because CPA’s are too polite and don’t want to deal with controversy. This is the underlying reason that the Big 8 is now the Big 4 headed for extinction and a government controlled audit profession.
George J. King
(CPA, ca 1973, New Jersey)
Chief Financial Officer
Energy Intelligence Group
New York, NY