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• January / February
• March / April
• May / June
  • Profession's future at center of meetings between MACPA, firm partners
  • Tomorrow's CPA program runs up the score with students, CPAs-to-be
  • What constitutes sufficient, competent evidential matter?
  • Recent releases of professional standards
  • Consideration of fraud in a financial statement audit
  • Short-term Enron solutions may have unintended consequences
  • McMillan's thriller writes new chapter for CPA image
  • Tort reform again tops list of MACPA's legislative victories
  • PAC protecting CPAs' interests in Maryland
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Profession's future at center of meetings between MACPA, firm partners

By Bill Sheridan
MACPA Electronic Communications Manager

The profession's future is taking precedent over nearly everything else these days.

Need proof? Look no further than a pair of groundbreaking meetings in Baltimore and Washington. Forty managing partners from 30 of Maryland's most influential CPA firms took time at the height of the "busy season" to sit down with MACPA officials and discuss the issues that are affecting the nation's CPAs.

Enron dominated the discussions, and those attending offered a variety of ideas about how Maryland CPAs should deal with the impact Enron's collapse has had on the profession. The suggestions were diverse, but many touched on a familiar theme: CPAs must communicate who they are and how the Enron debacle has impacted their profession.

"If we become vocal at a grassroots level, it will have a significant impact," said MACPA Executive Director Tom Hood. "The fact is, if our members get active, we can make a huge difference."

Communicating with Congress

Many in attendance agreed that much of the communication should take aim at Capitol Hill, where Congress has introduced nearly 50 pieces of legislation dealing with issues related to the Enron disaster. Though many of these bills do not directly affect the profession, there are several that would severely impact the services that auditors of SEC clients can perform.

There is a real danger in these bills — namely, that any of the provisions adopted for SEC auditors could cascade down to impact all CPAs. One of the bills, for instance, would prohibit an auditor from providing "any other service that is not related to the audit." If small businesses were prohibited from consulting with their CPAs for tax services or other business advice, the impact could be devastating.

One popular solution among the firm leaders is to explain to congressional leaders — either in writing or in person — the "unintended consequences" of the proposed legislation. Suggestions included:

• personalized letters that outline the effects such legislation would have on individual firms;
• letters from clients explaining how the legislation could trickle down even further, effecting not only CPAs but the people and businesses they serve;
• personal visits to Washington in which CPAs and their clients explain their positions to politicians in person.

"It seems to me the best thing we could do is to have our clients tell legislators what impact this has had on them," said Arthur E. Flach, a managing partner with Grant Thornton in Baltimore. "Legislators don't have much sympathy for CPAs right now, so I think it would help if they heard it from our clients, too."

For its part, the MACPA has been in communication with Maryland's state and federal legislators, as well as with members of the State Board of Public Accountancy. The association's message has been clear: Don't legislate until the facts are known. And if you find that you must legislate, do not increase regulation of CPAs who perform non-public audits.

"We might not be able to affect legislation in every state in the nation; that's beyond our scope," Hood said. "But we should do everything we can to make sure it doesn't impact our firms in Maryland."

Communicating with students and educators

Firm leaders were equally concerned about the way the profession is portrayed to accounting students. Negative images and misinformation, they said, could drive students into other disciplines, send enrollment into further decline and damage future recruiting efforts by firms.

In response, they suggested meeting with professors or accounting advisory boards at area colleges and universities to discuss how to ensure that students are receiving accurate information about the profession.

The MACPA has made significant progress in this arena. Public Relations Manager Richard Rabicoff, whose job focuses almost exclusively on student recruitment, spearheads the association's Career Awareness Program, which has reached more than 3,000 Maryland high school students and nearly doubled its roster of CPA volunteers since October.

In addition, Hood has spoken to accounting students at a number of area universities. Discussion at these meetings generally centered on Enron and its impact on the profession, and Hood is pleased with what he has heard.

"I get a real sense that these students love being part of a profession that is steeped in core values," he said. "Plus, they've heard about Enron's impact and they want to be part of the solution."

Communicating with the public

The public's image of CPAs also has taken a hit in Enron's wake, and firm leaders say it's important to bolster that image.

"My biggest concern is if the public no longer respects the profession," said David Reznick, a managing partner with Reznick, Fedder & Silverman in Bethesda. "Everything we do is built on trust and credibility."

Image-enhancing advertisements from the MACPA and the AICPA recently have made their way into regional newspapers, as well as TV and radio broadcasts, and more are in the works.

Still, many believe the best image CPAs can present is one of unity. Firm leaders in Baltimore and Washington identified unity as a key factor in profession's response to the Enron disaster.

"You have no idea how much clout we can have it we present a unified front," Hood told the managing partners.

The Baltimore meeting was hosted by McLean, Koehler, Sparks & Hammond. The Washington meeting was hosted by BDO Seidman-Lang Group.

Firms represented at the meetings included:

• American Express Tax & Business Services;
• Aronson & Company;
• Beers & Cutler;
• Bert Smith & Company;
• Bond Beebe Advisors & Accountants;
• Clifton Gunderson;
• Councilor, Buchanan & Mitchell;
• Deloitte & Touche;
• Ellin & Tucker;
• Freidkin, Matrone & Horn;
• Gelman, Rosenberg & Freedman;
• Grant Thornton;
• Gross, Mendelsohn & Associates;
• HeimLantz;
• KPMG;
• Peacock Condron Anderson & Company;
• PricewaterhouseCoopers;
• Reznick, Fedder & Silverman;
• Rowles & Company;
• RSM McGladrey;
• Rubino & McGeehin;
• Santos, Postal & Company;
• Scheiner, Mister & Grandizio;
• Stegman & Company;
• Tate & Tyron;
• Thomas Havey & Company;
• Weil, Akman, Baylin & Coleman;
• Weyrich, Cronin & Sorra;
• Wooden & Benson.