January 2001

Webcast Airs Concerns Over Future of CPA Profession

In an apparently one-sided view of the profession, a panel of CPAs criticized some of the American Institute of CPAs’ recent actions during a live online town meeting last month. The AICPA declined to participate.

The institutes position on the international business credential, 150 hour rule, and a lack of money and effort spent on attracting newcomers to the profession were some of the a panel of speakers during the webcast.

The panel held on Dec. 18 was the second interactive webcast aired by tvaccounting.com. The first webcast, held on Nov. 15, included a spokesperson from the AICPA and focused on the pros and cons of the international business designation.

While John Hunnicut, the AICPA’s senior vice president of public affairs, participated in the first webcast, the AICPA declined an invitation to participate in the second meeting, citing a justified belief that the second event would be used by panelists merely to voice their criticisms about the AICPA initiatives.

Other than the AICPA, no other CPAs or organizations that favored any current AICPA initiatives were apparently invited. While observing the webcast, it became apparent that the panelists were predominantly voicing criticisms of the AICPA and its initiatives. It also became clear that the only panelists to appear included members of the profession that had openly criticized the Institute in the past.

While providing no official comment on the second webcast, the AICPA has in the past defended its current initiatives.

During an interview appearing in last month’s issue of The Trusted Professional, AICPA Chair Kathy Eddy said the organizations current initiatives, like cpa2biz.com and the global credential, will help manifest the importance and contributions of the CPA to today’s businesses.

“My goal is to help members achieve the Vision we developed a couple of years ago,” said Eddy, referring to the AICPA’s Vision Project to develop current initiatives. “The Vision, in a nutshell, was to help members move up the value chain in the services they perform.”

CPA2biz, the vertical portal which is expected to be completed by winter 2001, is a Web-based resource created solely for CPAs and their clients. The portal will be of particular benefit to small firms and companies, according to Eddy. Among its many services and functions, the portal will provide members with a national database for online dues payments and continuing professional education, e-enablement between client and firm, 401(k) administrative and payroll services, and research capabilities and other resources, Eddy said.

Like the portal, the global credential, also referred to as XYZ and Cognitor, would reinforce rather than replace the CPA credential, better addressing the services already provided by many CPAs but not normally associated with the CPA, according to Eddy.

There was a general consensus, however, among last month’s panel that the AICPA is making a mistake in pursuing the international business credential. Instead, the panel members said the money spent to promote the global credential should be spent on recruiting people into the profession and in promoting the existing CPA designation.

Panelists also generally thought the 150-hour rule was a mistake and blamed it, in part, for the recent decline in college students choosing to major in accounting.

The December webcast, entitled “The Future of the CPA Profession,” included representatives from CPAdirectory.com, Aiken Carroll (a small, local firm in Fairfax County, Virginia), Acsys (an accounting recruitment company), Yaeger CPA Review, and an accounting professor from Bowie State University in Bowie City, Maryland.

Some of the panel’s objections to the proposed global credential were that the designation would be available to other professions, but that its creation will be paid for exclusively by CPAs. Some panelists said the AICPA is neglecting many of its members who would not be able to benefit from such a credential, while still supporting it with their dues money.

Of the credential, Tony Aiken of Aiken Carroll complained that, because he is a small practitioner, he will probably never be impacted by an international designation like Cognitor. “So I’m wondering why the Institute is promoting this designation,” he questioned. “It’s not going to benefit all of its members, and they’re opening it up to all these nonmembers, and we’re footing the bill for it?”

Michael Rosedale, president of CPADirectory.com, said that the AICPA “has indicated in their white paper that they intend to put about $350 million into promoting the designation.” “Our opinion,” he continued, “has always been that we should put that money into the three letters C-P-A.”

The 150 hour rule for college accounting students as a requirement to sit for the CPA exam was also a major point of contention. Panelists felt the overwhelming evidence indicated that this rule is a contributor to the decrease in college students choosing accounting majors.

What we’re hearing from students,” said Joe Lanciano, a professor at Bowie State University, “is that they, in trying to make a decision on what to major in, are looking at the 150 hour requirement [and that] has scared away some of the students. They see that there are other majors that require the regular 120 hours that would allow them to go on and get a good job….and that deters enrollment significantly, I think.”

Lanciano noted that 24 of the 150 required hours, under current curriculum regulations, would not necessarily be in a subject related to accounting, and, therefore, would not be useful in creating better CPAs in the end.

The panel also agreed that most of what a CPA does is learned through experience. They suggested increasing experience requirements while decreasing credit hours.

Causes for the recent decline in accounting students, the panel felt, are many. Besides the 150 hour rule, panelists felt that a lack of proper education as to what a CPA actually does was to blame. They suggested that the AICPA should spend more money and effort promoting the profession to high school and college students. “Let’s get the students back into accounting degrees,” said Rosedale, “The way to do that is to promote the profession. I just feel that a lot of it has to do with public relations,” he continued. “The public perception of what a CPA is about has never been marketed properly.”

The speakers agreed that the future of the CPA profession would be affected by things that are happening now, especially things the AICPA is currently involved with.