Accounting ARC

Bootleggers, Baptists, & CPAs: Rethinking Licensure | ARC

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The accounting profession faces a reckoning as leaders debate whether CPA licensure protects the public—or stifles innovation and diversity.

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Accounting ARC

With Byron Patrick and Donny Shimamoto
Center for Accounting Transformation

Licensure is one of the bedrock features of the CPA profession. But what if that bedrock is actually quicksand? In a provocative episode of Accounting ARC, hosts Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA; and Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, CGMA,  sit down with noted author and thought leader Ron Baker to ask: Should CPAs even be licensed at all?

MORE Accounting ARC: CPA Firm Ownership Under Fire | Walking Violation: When Showing Your CPA Gets You in Trouble | Audit Bags to TikTok Tags, Gen Z Talks Success | Students Challenge Accounting’s Traditional Career Path | True Grit: Recognizing Struggles That Shape Our Successes | More Admins, Fewer Students, No Plan | What Career Advice Gets Wrong for Gen Z – And How to Fix It |Your Identity is Not a Liability | What Happens in Vegas… Gets Reported on a Tax Return | Burnout, Be Gone: Accounting Needs a Boundary Breakthrough | The Ultimate Business Hack You’re Probably Ignoring | Resilience, Real Talk, and the Road to Mental Wellness | Blockchain Could Still Reshape Accounting | What Gen Z Wants from Business | Firm Differentiation Depends Upon Client Service

Baker begins with a history lesson, tracing professions back to ancient Babylon and the code of Hammurabi. A profession, he explains, rests on three pillars: a common body of expertise, autonomy with exclusion, and a duty of service to the public. By that definition, he argues, not all licensed occupations—such as florists or interior decorators—qualify.

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CPA Firm Ownership Under Fire | ARC

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As private equity reshapes the profession, accounting leaders debate who should hold the keys to ownership.

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Accounting ARC
With Liz Mason, Byron Patrick, and Donny Shimamoto
Center for Accounting Transformation

When New York passed the first CPA licensure law in 1896, the goal was simple: protect the public by ensuring financial professionals met high standards. More than a century later, that mandate is at the heart of a heated debate about who should be allowed to own CPA firms.

MORE Accounting ARC: Walking Violation: When Showing Your CPA Gets You in Trouble | Audit Bags to TikTok Tags, Gen Z Talks Success | Students Challenge Accounting’s Traditional Career Path | True Grit: Recognizing Struggles That Shape Our Successes | More Admins, Fewer Students, No Plan | What Career Advice Gets Wrong for Gen Z – And How to Fix It |Your Identity is Not a Liability | What Happens in Vegas… Gets Reported on a Tax Return | Burnout, Be Gone: Accounting Needs a Boundary Breakthrough | The Ultimate Business Hack You’re Probably Ignoring | Resilience, Real Talk, and the Road to Mental Wellness | Blockchain Could Still Reshape Accounting | What Gen Z Wants from Business | Firm Differentiation Depends Upon Client Service

In the latest episode of Accounting ARC, hosts Liz Mason, CPA; Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, CGMA; and Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, explore the evolution of firm ownership rules and their implications for the profession.

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Audit Bags to TikTok Tags, Gen Z Talks Success | ARC

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In this episode of Student-led Conversations, accounting leaders and emerging pros share how staying open can change everything.

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Accounting ARC
With Arpan Grewal and Harshita Multani
Center for Accounting Transformation

In an era where the definition of success is increasingly personal, a recent Student-led Conversations episode of the Accounting ARC podcast brought together two Gen Z hosts and two seasoned accounting leaders to unpack a deceptively simple question: What does “freedom to be” really mean?

MORE Accounting ARC: Students Challenge Accounting’s Traditional Career Path | True Grit: Recognizing Struggles That Shape Our Successes | More Admins, Fewer Students, No Plan | What Career Advice Gets Wrong for Gen Z – And How to Fix It |Your Identity is Not a Liability | What Happens in Vegas… Gets Reported on a Tax Return | Burnout, Be Gone: Accounting Needs a Boundary Breakthrough | The Ultimate Business Hack You’re Probably Ignoring | Resilience, Real Talk, and the Road to Mental Wellness | Blockchain Could Still Reshape Accounting | What Gen Z Wants from Business | Firm Differentiation Depends Upon Client Service

For hosts Arpan Grewal and Harshita Multani, both interns with the Center for Accounting Transformation, this wasn’t about GPAs or résumés. Instead, they explored how independence, cultural influences, and resilience intersect in the personal and professional lives of accountants.

Joining them were Kristine “Tina” Caratan, CPA, CGMA, a veteran consultant to California’s nonprofit sector with 51 years in the profession, and Calvin Harris Jr., CPA, CEO of the New York State Society of CPAs. The discussion spanned immigrant family expectations, systemic barriers, generational shifts, and even the unexpected role of TikTok in modern accounting outreach.

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