News Articles

Firm managers are called to be leaders – by the best traditions of the accounting profession, by standards of professional responsibility, and by the expectations of the communities in which they work and live. And yet, until recently, there has been little attention given to leadership training for those responsible for the day-to-day management of CPA firms as they enter the profession and begin to develop the skills necessary for their success and the success of their firms.

In an effort to prepare emerging leaders for this calling, the CPAFMA is providing a leadership training program in cooperation with Succession Institute. The CPA Firm Management Association provides leadership training to 20 professionals through its Leadership Institute, which began with the inaugural class in 2017.

The American Institute of CPAs announced that Bill Reeb, chief executive of management consulting firm Succession Institute in Austin, Texas, is the new chair of the AICPA. Reeb was elected to a one-year, volunteer post by the AICPA Governing Council, which wrapped up its annual spring meeting in Washington, D.C., on May 21, 2019. Tracey Golden, an audit partner with Deloitte, was voted in as the AICPA vice chair. Reeb said the profession must take “leaps, not steps” in his acceptance speech, anticipating big changes across the accounting and finance professions.

If you’re a small CPA firm (think 10-50 employees), your IT scenario is probably as follows: You have a local IT consultant or MSP that you rely on and trust to help you make the right IT decisions for your firm. Perhaps you have someone in-house to help with desktop support (either a dedicated person or the employee who is stuck being the go-to for support in addition to his or her regular job), and every so often, when faced with an IT problem (outage, security breach or employee complaint) or large expense (repair, replacement, or upgrade), you find yourself wondering if there’s a better way.

For more than two decades, our singular focus has been to partner with CPA firms to identify and implement digital tools and processes so those firms can more effectively serve clients.  Busy seasons provide a respite where we “sharpen the saw” with advanced technical training, profession/peer topic exploration, reviewing new applications, and re-visiting existing solutions. This past busy season we were introduced to Atwul Gawandi’s book “The Checklist Manifesto” which piqued our interest as so much of the accounting profession has traditionally relied upon checklists.  While tax checklists and audit programs long ago were manual documents, most are now automated within applications creating an environment where we don’t even realize we are following a checklist. Unfortunately, we are seeing that most firms are not taking the time to revisit and update the critical items on their “checklists” even though their production processes and applications have evolved.  Below, we identify some thoughts to ponder as you think about your current processes and where checklists can make a difference.

CPAFMA's 2019 Nominating Committee, chaired by Bob Biddle, PAFM with Bowman & Company LLP, recently presented to the National Board the following slate of candidates for the 2019-2020 Board of Directors. All nominations were done in accordance with the bylaws in regards to eligibility requirements.

The following members of CPAFMA have been nominated by the Nominating Committee to serve as officers for a one-year term or directors for a two-year term, beginning July 1, 2019. Thank you to all of the members submitting a nomination resume. The committee felt the decision was extremely difficult, however it shows we have an Association with a dynamic and experienced leadership base.

The 2018 CPA Firm Management Association (CPAFMA.org) IT Benchmark Survey found that more than half of responding association member firms had moved the majority of their applications and IT Infrastructure to cloud/hosted application providers instead of building and maintaining networks themselves.  Read below as to why this trend is accelerating and why your firm should be considering the move before you replace your existing servers:

Traditional server farms and IT departments are being “uberized” and replaced with cloud applications and hosted service providers at an increasing rate.  Don’t let your firm get locked into expensive and possibly obsolete hardware and IT support before considering cloud options.

Save with promo code ENG19CPAFMA - Business strategy. Global economics and politics. Inspiring leadership. Every part of your day is touched by some aspect of these big-picture issues. Explore the impact during the CPAFMA National Practice Management Conference with access to AICPA ENGAGE keynote sessions - 

Monday, June 10
IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig

The Fat Tail: The Power of Political Knowledge for Strategic Investing by Ian Bremmer, President and Founder, Eurasia Group. Ian is the creator of Wall Street’s first global political risk index (GPRI), author of New York Times best-selling books, foreign affairs columnist at Time and professor at New York University. Meet Ian

HUDSON, N.H (November 2, 2018) – Accounting technology leader Roman Kepczyk, recently named to Accounting Today’s list of "Top 100 Influential People" for the 13th year, has expanded his role with Right Networks as Director of Firm Technology Strategy.

Kepczyk, a veteran of Xcentric, which was acquired by Right Networks in 2017, has spent more than 30 years helping firms throughout North America effectively use information technology and accounting applications to optimize their tax, audit and administrative production workflows. He will extend that expertise in an expanded role with Right Networks focused on both continuing to guide the firms on their journey to the cloud and providing firm input to inform the evolution of Right Networks offers.

Allan D. Koltin, CEO of Koltin Consulting Group and prior inductee into the CPA Practice Advisor’s Accounting Hall of Fame commented, “I can’t think of anyone more deserving for this honor than Jennifer Wilson. She is a visionary and thought leader that has impacted so many firms and leaders with her knowledge, creativity, and drive for excellence. She isn’t afraid to be the minority opinion in the room and stand up for what she believes is the right thing to do. Her uncompromising values and passion to help others are truly remarkable”.

One of the most effective ways to improve your firm’s tax processes and production is with the post-busy season debrief process. Whether done formally with a meeting or informally in combination with a survey, we suggest it be scheduled immediately after the tax deadline while the experience is still fresh in your personnel’s minds.  This will also allow adequate time to evaluate new processes and applications before the next busy season swings into gear.  Below we suggest a number of considerations to help you get the most out of this year’s tax season debrief: