AICPA, Paychex, Intuit and IFA Say Speedy Relief Required to Prevent Layoffs Due to Pandemic

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 22, 2020) – A coalition made up of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), the International Franchise Association (IFA) and two leading payroll processing companies, Paychex and Intuit, issued the following open letter to President Donald J. Trump, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Small Business Administrator Jovita Carranza and members of Congress:

About the American Institute of CPAs

The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) is the world’s largest member association representing the CPA profession, with more than 429,000 members in the United States and worldwide, and a history of serving the public interest since 1887. AICPA members represent many areas of practice, including business and industry, public practice, government, education and consulting. The AICPA sets ethical standards for its members and U.S. auditing standards for private companies, nonprofit organizations, federal, state and local governments. It develops and grades the Uniform CPA Examination, offers specialized credentials, builds the pipeline of future talent and drives professional competency development to advance the vitality, relevance and quality of the profession.

About the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants

The Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (the Association) is the most influential body of professional accountants, combining the strengths of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) to power opportunity, trust and prosperity for people, businesses and economies worldwide. It represents 657,000 members and students across 179 countries and territories in public and management accounting and advocates for the public interest and business sustainability on current and emerging issues. With broad reach, rigor and resources, the Association advances the reputation, employability and quality of CPAs, CGMAs and accounting and finance professionals globally.

Media Contacts:

Kathy King
AICPA
202.434.9210
kathy.king@aicpa-cima.com

Laura Saxby Lynch
Paychex
585.383.3074
lsaxbylynch@paychex.com

Erin Green
Intuit
650.944.3774
erin_green@intuit.com

Stephen Worley
IFA
202.662.0792
sworley@franchise.org

Four Early-Stage Companies to Receive Guidance from the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants and CPA.com

NEW YORK (Feb. 24, 2020) – Four early-stage companies pursuing various solutions involving digital assets, climate risk, automation and artificial intelligence will form the 2020 cohort for an accounting-focused startup accelerator sponsored by the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (the Association) and CPA.com.

The startup accelerator, begun in 2017, is designed to promote innovation in the accounting profession and give the Association and CPA.com more visibility into disruptive trends from emerging technologies. Finalists get a nominal funding investment and guidance from a panel of experts in the profession on marketplace needs.

“Many of these early-stage companies are offering a glimpse into the transforming capabilities of the profession,” said Erik Asgeirsson, president and CEO of CPA.com. “We have a common interest in nurturing that growth and ensuring that accountants have the best access to technological innovation.” The members of this year’s group are:

• The Climate Service - The North Carolina company has developed a cloud-based solution to help companies measure, manage and disclose climate-related financial risks
• Gilded - The New Orleans company offers seamless invoicing, payments, and accounting for global businesses-powered by blockchain
• Scanye – The European company uses intelligent algorithms to automate document processing, accounting and finance management for small to medium-sized enterprises
• Tally Street – The Boston-based startup created a “virtual analyst” to help businesses boost cash flow by using accounting data to find opportunities and anticipate problems before they happen

Each accelerator company will be able to present information about their business in June at ENGAGE 2020, a leading event for the accounting profession sponsored by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).

“We’ve heard from our previous accelerator companies what a great opportunity it has been to work with some of the leading thought leaders and influencers in the profession,” said Lawson Carmichael, chief operating officer of the Association. “And the companies have offered us great insight in return.”

For more information about the startup accelerator, please visit aicpa-cima.com/accelerator.

About CPA.com

CPA.com brings innovative solutions to the accounting profession, either in partnership with leading providers or directly through its own development. The company has established itself as a thought leader on emerging technologies and as the trusted business advisor to practitioners in the United States, with a growing global focus. Our company’s core mission is to drive the transformation of practice areas, advance the technology ecosystem for the profession, and lead technology research and innovation efforts for practitioners.

A subsidiary of the American Institute of CPAs, the company is also part of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, the world’s most influential organization representing the profession. For more information, visit CPA.com.

About the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants

The Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (the Association) is the most influential body of professional accountants, combining the strengths of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) to power opportunity, trust and prosperity for people, businesses and economies worldwide. It represents 657,000 members and students across 179 countries and territories in public and management accounting and advocates for the public interest and business sustainability on current and emerging issues. With broad reach, rigor and resources, the Association advances the reputation, employability and quality of CPAs, CGMAs and accounting and finance professionals globally.

NEW YORK (Jan. 22, 2020) —Tommye E. Barie, CPA, former chair of the American Institute of CPAs, has been named to the board of directors of CPA.com.

Barie has a proven track record of leadership with various organizations. She’s spent her career as a CPA focusing on audit and consulting services for governmental entities and not-for-profit organizations, primarily as a partner with Mauldin & Jenkins LLC, a Top 100 accounting firm based in the Southeast, where she founded the firm’s client advisory services practice.

“Tommye knows how to build an advisory services practice from the ground up and also has over 30 years of experience as an audit and assurance partner,” said Erik Asgeirsson, president and CEO of CPA.com. “Her expertise in both these practice areas brings a great breadth of experience to our board as we advance our Dynamic Audit Solution and client accounting services initiatives.”

As chair of the AICPA from 2014-15, Barie focused on continued relevance for the profession, particularly through the ability to spot trends and new opportunities for growth, such as a deeper application of data analytics and new specializations in technology consulting.

Her thought leadership on culture, strategy and innovation led to Barie being recognized as one of Accounting Today’s 100 most influential people in the accounting profession. Additionally, the Michigan Society of CPAs recognized her with their Outstanding Visionary Award.

Barie currently is executive vice president of leadership development at the Succession Institute, a consulting firm that specializes in strategy, executive development and succession planning.  She is also past chair of the Florida Institute of CPAs, and a current board member of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and Stetson University’s board of advisors.

About CPA.com

CPA.com brings innovative solutions to the accounting profession, either in partnership with leading providers or directly through its own development. The company has established itself as a thought leader on emerging technologies and as the trusted business advisor to practitioners in the United States, with a growing global focus.

Our company’s core mission is to drive the transformation of practice areas, advance the technology ecosystem for the profession, and lead technology research and innovation efforts for practitioners.

A subsidiary of the American Institute of CPAs, the company is also part of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, the world’s most influential organization representing the profession. For more information, visit CPA.com.

Client Accounting Services (CAS) is a growing, emerging, and profitable opportunity, as believed by the leaders of CPA firms across the country. Offering customized accounting for every client to meet their specific business requirements, while maximizing profit for your firm makes you a true practitioner of CAS.

By the definition of CAS, it includes providing the following services:

• Transactional Services: Bill payment, Bookkeeping, Payroll
• Strategic Services: Mergers and acquisitions, Strategic planning, Succession planning
• Compliance Services: Financial reporting, Audits and reviews, Tax preparation
• Performance Services: Business advisory, Benchmarking, Outsourced CFO, Data analytics

CPA Firms Offering CAS vs. Bookkeeping

Note that not all CPA firms offer client accounting services when you are reviewing accounting options. Many CPAs are now expanding into CAS, but most of them still do not offer management reporting services.

Previously, CPA firms offered bookkeeping services, but that was not conducted as the transaction occurs, rather it was done at the end of the month or quarter. This ensured that the books are right for the bank or tax returns. A bookkeeper usually does not have the skills required to supply key performance indicators and management accounting reports because of insufficient training. This is the information that an owner/CEO requires to grow a small business.

CPA firms have also realized that bookkeepers are being put in a position where they have to answer the questions they are not trained to answer. Also, during the spring and fall tax seasons, bookkeepers do not have time to answer the day-to-day accounting questions.

Hence, some CPA firms are partnering with CAS service providers for implementing daily client accounting so that clients can have a higher level of financial insight.

Categories of CAS

There are varying types of CAS services from which the following are the main three categories.

1. Transaction processing

Under this service, an accounting firm pays employees, processes accounts payable and cuts checks, pays payroll taxes, issues invoices for a client, and more.

1. Preparing after-the-fact financial statement – also-known-as write-up

This is done when one of the accountants of the CPA firm enters data into and maintains a general ledger, preparing a financial statement after the client issues invoices, writes checks, and takes cash receipts.

1. Outsourced CFO or financial control services

Under this, a highly qualified and experienced accountant/CPA regularly meets with the client’s management, ensuring the financial performance is reviewed, and strategies are provided for business improvement.

How to launch a CAS program?

1. Get support from the firm leaders

It is important to have a leader from the firm to lead the firm’s initial strategies to prepare CAS offerings as it is an essential factor that determines the plan’s successful effectiveness or failure. Each area of the firm needs to accept (in an enthusiastic manner) a significant change in the way they deliver services such as CAS. Leadership has the responsibility to set the tone for why a change is importantly required, and hence, the entire workforce will grow a positive attitude and work for the same goal together.

2. Find a niche

With time, accountants in a firm develop expertise by supporting clients from more than one industry. As a result, the firm possibly gets multiple clients from a particular sector or one or two clients that happen to be among the firm’s biggest clients. Thus, while you plan to launch a new service to offer, these clients are an ideal niche.

3. Completely utilize technology and the staff expert at leveraging it

The utilization of technology will vary from firm to firm, but most often, general accounting applications are widely used along with AR and AP management systems. Many firms additionally use expense management systems. Apart from making appropriate use of different software applications, make sure you get excellent people on board who are ready to understand and make use of your preferred technologies.

4. Find easy-coming opportunities

Try to impress clients from the industries you are well-versed in. Your experience and expertise in their niche will attract them toward your firm’s other services. Some might require support in core accounting operations, while some might be unaware of the advantages of outsourcing a significant part of their accounting process. Talk to them, review their accounting process, and make them realize that outsourcing helps improve operational efficiency and leads to increased profitability.

How to Strategize Your Accounting Services offerings?

Step one in developing a CAS practice is turning your interest in automation. You identify your requirements and adopt the right technologies to support your practice.

The second step to strategic CAS is when you recognize that you are ready to increase the value you offer clients, create plans toward building a robust CAS practice.

According to the 2018 AICPA PCPS & CPA.com National MAP Survey, strategically developing your practice will position your firm better to align with over 50% of firms in virtually all size categories, which are adopting CAS as a core service area. Hence, you should be accounting for two layers of business planning – your top-level business strategy and your CAS-specific plan.

Another way to get on the fast-track is by cross-selling services, which is itself a strategy to grow. Consider following the two primary keys to improving your CAS cross-selling.

1. Dedicated Leadership: You must get someone with the qualities of a champion to have your back in cross-selling activities. Someone who can allure those clients that might not see growth coming via CAS in the initial stage. A highly designated employee who can get other leaders to follow him/her would be perfect.
2. In-House Marketing: Highlighting achievements is extremely useful to promote in-house cross-selling. When success stories are shared with other departments and employees, your accountants will gain more confidence as they see proof of client satisfaction in other areas of service, which will make them cross-sell those services. All of this is likely to boost their competitive attitude, and they will look for similar opportunities.

The Benefits of Strategic CAS

There are numerous ways in which strategic CAS enhances your profitability and practice.

1. Offering strategic assistance, you build a strong relationship with your clients. Hence, reducing the chances of losing the client to some other accountant.
2. You get to add significant value to your client’s business as you can bring to the table potential opportunities that your client might have missed. You become trusted advisor and your clients turn to you for important business decisions.
3. As you gain more clients and become a trusted advisor, it gets easier for you to scale your own business from a profit perspective as the clients become more willing to pay.
4. Strategic CAS helps you create a longer-lasting business model for your firm going forward. It ensures long-term sustainability and lets you have the upper hand on market competition.

Conclusion

CAS is a powerful way to take your accounting firm to the next level. Once the CAS offering is in place, make sure to put the right marketing efforts, retain your qualified staff and, optimize your tech stack to ensure that you prove to be a long-term trusted advisor to your most valuable asset - your clients.

It’s no secret that technology is poised to bring tremendous change to auditing; the question is, will those changes be positive or negative?

To assess the state of the field, Accounting Today convened a virtual roundtable of experts and practitioners to share their thoughts on where things stand — and where they’re headed. Below, they balance the threats against the opportunities, and share what auditors need to do to make the most of the latter.

(For more of their insights, see our special report, “Ready for the revolution.”)

Do these technologies represent a threat to the auditing profession?

Mike Yates (Partner-in-charge, Auditing Competency Center, Crowe): Absolutely not. Sophisticated computer models are going to be used today and in the future. What we believe is sophisticated today will not look so sophisticated tomorrow. However, there will still be the audit questions related to, “Does the model work and how do we know it works?” Those are the same audit questions we answered in 1980 and in 2019. How do we know what management recorded is correct and did we audit for what could have gone wrong? The sophisticated models will likely not address all questions and thus there will be a need to handle matters that the model could not.

Also, in the development of such models, a diversified team will come together (including auditors) to help in the programming of such technology. The market is likely never going to stop asking the question: How do we know [if] this is correct? As long as that is a question, the audit profession is alive.

Cathy Rowe (Director of accounting and audit product management, Wolters Kluwer Tax and Accounting North America): We’ve all heard statistics similar to this: “By 2020, AI will eliminate 1.8 million jobs, but it will also create 2.3 million new ones,” so the big challenge to the auditing profession is to minimize the impact of the losses and seize the opportunity of the gains. The foundational knowledge of accounting and auditing will largely remain the same, but it will require new skills to deliver on three main pillars efficiencies, quality, and most importantly value. The audit profession must embrace this change to continue to remain relevant as the trusted advisor for stakeholders that rely on the audited financial statements to make key decisions.

Alan Anderson (President and founder, AccountabilityPlus): Yes and no. I believe that those firms that don’t embrace technology will eventually go out of business. But the firms that do embrace and leverage technologies will thrive. Many of these technologies will look at all of the data faster without missing anything because technology doesn’t get fatigued when looking at volumes of data. Leveraging technology will elevate the skills of the auditor and allow them to be better prepared for a continuous assurance world.

Susan Coffey (Executive vice president – public practice, AICPA): I actually see them as a huge opportunity! These technologies don’t diminish but rather empower auditors. The profession is showing it’s engaged in understanding and applying new innovations. And I think we see whole new areas of assurance that open up with the wider implementation of these technologies. Changes are coming, though, and CPAs must be prepared to adapt to them.

Karen Larsen (Partner, Professional Practice Group, Baker Tilly): Technology is an opportunity for our profession, not a threat. Our auditing profession is built on a foundation of trust and confidence. Technology will only enhance what we, as a profession and as auditors, can bring to the public and our clients. It is an opportunity for us to transform our profession, deliver more valuable insights to our clients, and engage our younger professionals with innovative and challenging work. Technology must still be audited, algorithms must be vetted and data inputs must have internal controls to ensure the data being used is accurate. Auditing doesn’t disappear, but it will continue to evolve.

Peter Scavuzzo (Chief information & digital officer, Marcum): For organizations that are prepared, I am adamant that these technologies will have absolutely no negative impact. I believe the exact opposite. To anyone who believes that the best days of compliance services are behind us, I say that this technology, if applied properly, can and will be a boon. New technologies will drive compliance services by making them more efficient and more valuable to the clients who are being serviced. This will allow the industry to sustain and prolong compliance service for quite some time.

The real pot of gold, though, lies in two paths. First, the expansion of accounting services into a much greater consulting and advisory capacity will bring accounting firms deeper into the trusted advisor role the industry has held for years. Firms will be able to significantly aid our clients in transformation and digital insight, and help them really expand and grow their businesses. Secondly, while these technologies are out there changing the world, they are introducing a risk well beyond the traditional risks of fraud and accounting indiscretion. The technologies will become woven into the core systems that executives will be using to make business decisions for the future. Executives will start making financially impactful decisions based on an AI confidence core. They will have account payable automated by RPA. They will have data analytics providing algorithmic business insights on how to make decisions about their numbers. Inevitably, people will find ways to tweak the AI engine with bias, to insert a command to direct a bot to alter its process or slightly modify an algorithm to produce different results. We will then see an entirely new level of auditing. Technology auditing, AI auditing, algorithmic auditing. And who better for the world to turn to for this than their trusted advisors, the accountant and auditor?

What do accountants need to do to make the most of these new audit technologies?

Coffey: At a minimum, CPAs should have a foundational understanding of these technologies. That’s a starting point. We’ve developed thought leadership, learning tools and guidance on many of these topics to help with that goal. We’re also developing the Dynamic Audit Solution to support the entire profession as it leverages these technologies for financial statement audits, and our OnPoint PCR tool, launched last year, can help firms that perform preparation, compilation and review services begin usage at a foundational level.

Rowe: Accountants must first embrace a mindset shift. They need to do things differently than before to both drive their own efficiencies but also better serve their clients. This shift requires the accountant to create a plan, with the intention of starting small. The first phase of this plan, to get the most out of the technologies, is to get access to client data — data is the prerequisite for using any of these advanced technologies to support a data-driven audit. Data can be obtained in multiple ways — reports can be requested from clients or a direct connection can be made to a client’s accounting system to capture the required data. To help facilitate this data request in a secure and timely manner, the accountant should also consider how they can enhance client collaboration directly within their audit engagement. This will result in both the auditor and the client having an aligned expectation of what is needed for the audit, and when.

Yates: The key word is diversify. The audit team of the future is not a team that looks like me. It is a team of specialists working together to take information that was dissected by sophisticated computer models and determine if management has recorded and disclosed the information appropriately. Management will also embrace sophisticated computer models as part of their control environment. This means management of companies need to be diversified as well and they are building models that the auditors will need to test / validate as part of audits. Remember, sophisticated models can be a huge asset in the financial reporting environment but if they are flawed, then controls and financial reporting may fail no differently than if we went back to manual controls.

Scavuzzo: First and foremost, all auditors — and for that matter, all professionals — need to have a much more progressive and open-minded view of their profession. The technology itself, while somewhat dense, is not the challenge. The issue is cultural and a calibration of the way individuals think. The perspective must shift from “it has been like this for years” to one that accepts change in a period of months. The rate of change in technology is far outpacing that of our ability to keep up. If you layer on humans’ natural aversion to change, especially in an industry such as accounting which has traditionally been resistant to change, the ability to start using and applying this technology will be further hindered by the enormous cultural and technological debt an organization needs to overcome.

Accountants need to immediately embrace and promote a culture of change; they must incorporate data analytics into the fabric of their practices and how they view their everyday work. Accountants need to increase their knowledge about the current and evolving state of RPA, AI, ML, blockchain and data analytics in the industry. Most importantly, accountants and accounting firms need to immediately establish a plan to prepare their organizations, their staffs, their data, their software and their processes for the day AI and ML are commercialized and ready for consumption. When that day comes, the firm that is prepared will be able to move ahead quickly, while the firm that is not will stall out, and it will take years for them to recover.

Larsen: Although technology plays a critical role in the advancement of auditing, having talented auditors committed to discovering innovative opportunities for the benefit of our profession, clients and the public at large is equally important. As seasoned professionals, we know what has worked well in the past, but we must add individuals to our ranks who will help us to become more creative and expand our skill sets. Focusing on consultative and analytical skills will be very helpful to round out the technical abilities of new recruits. Our profession must enhance the talents of our teams and embrace new skills while we develop the proficiencies of our recruits. The cleansing, transforming and modeling of data will also be a key emphasis as our profession embraces technologies that focus on audit data analytics. Individual auditors need to commit to continuous learning – and expansion of their traditional skill set into these new technologies.

Anderson: Embrace technology at all levels and become technology sponges. Make time each week to read and become aware of what advances in technology are taking place and consider how those advances could or will impact the audit.