Monday, June 18, 2012

American Institute of Certified Public Accountants

I’m a member of the AICPA.  I get really useful, relevant materials that greatly assist my practice of public accounting. I also get cheap insurance. So despite what I say below, I don’t believe the AICPA is all bad.

The AICPA's mission is to provide members with the resources, information and leadership that enable them to provide valuable services in the highest professional manner to benefit the public, employers and clients. In fulfilling its mission, the AICPA works with state CPA organizations and gives priority to those areas where public reliance on CPA skills is most significant.”

The mission statement used to be to provide CPAs with resources, etc. but no more.  Since you do not have to be a licensed CPA to be a member of the AICPA it is not surprising that “CPAs” was changed to “members” in the first sentence . The last sentence of the current mission statement reads like an afterthought.

The “AICPA Values and Vision Statement” doesn’t mention CPAs at all. The first sentence reads, “The AICPA is the premier national professional association in the United States.” While that may be true, it used to read, “The AICPA is the premier national professional association in the United States of Certified Public Accountants.”

Over the past few years, a member of the AICPA could acquire another AICPA issued professional designation by claiming to have the required experience and paying a few hundred dollars. Part of the marketing campaign was to get in early so you wouldn’t have to take the exam which would become mandatory for the new designation in the near future. Examples include Certified Information Technology Professional (CITP) and Certified in Financial Forensics (CFF). With the newest “certification for dollars” (Chartered Global Management Accountant), people don’t even have to be AICPA members to get a few more letters to tack on behind their names.

Voting membership is now available to non-CPAs who have done everything (gotten the education, passed the exam, obtained the experience) but have never bothered to actually get licensed as CPAs.  This is purely an effort to gain members and to increase revenue for the AICPA.  It has nothing to do with serving what, so far, is still the core constituency of the AICPA, Certified Public Accountants.
I am not the only CPA member of the AICPA who believes the top management of the AICPA has forgotten its original mission, its primary reason for existing. The primary mission of the AICPA was and should be to help CPAs be better CPAs.  Another  important function was and should be to enhance and protect the CPA brand. I, for one, do not see "certification for dollars" sold by the major CPA professional organization as protecting the CPA brand or assisting CPAs in being better at what we do.

I'm not sure if I'm being cynical or just fatalistic when I ask when is the Institute going to put forth the idea of changing the organization's name to something like Global Institute of Accountants (GIA)?  Since you no longer have to be a CPA to be a voting member, or even an accountant, it appears to me to be a real possibility.

If the AICPA were really concerned about the profession of being a CPA we would be seeing more focus on business ethics, as one example, than on growing our membership by adding non-CPAs to the rolls. As another example, if the AICPA were really concerned with enhancing the CPA brand then, the first, iron clad requirement for all these new certifications would be possession of an active CPA license.  That latter used to be the case but the CGMA is the first exception.

So what do I recommend? First,  the Virginia State Board of Accountancy should revise its rules so that only AICPA members who are licensed CPAs are allowed to use the phrase “Member of the AICPA”  on their signage, business cards, advertising etc.  A similar rule should be put in place for membership in other organizations using CPA or Certified Public Accountant in their names.  Failure to prohibit such use could easily create the impression that those non-CPAs were licensed Certified Public Accountants.

Second, I suggest anyone seeking professional services use professional designations only as a first filter in making a choice of provider.  If the AICPA will give you a credential simply because you say you have the necessary training and experience, then what are some other designations worth?

As I said in the first paragraph above, the AICPA is not all bad. In fact, it is a good organization of high value to CPAs. It should be noted that most of the useful work is done by volunteers and by AICPA staff who are well below the policy making level in the organization.  I am concerned, however, that the Institute is heading down a path that will make it less useful to Certified Public Accountants.  Its injudicious approach to membership requirements and manner of granting other certifications will make it less credible as an organization to government, business and the investing public.

1 comment:

  1. America always make sure that they do maintain their individual accountants their CPA licenses through getting and passing their online cpa cpe courses and training.

    ReplyDelete