CPA Letter Daily

From the desk of Barry Melancon, CPA, CGMA, AICPA president and CEO


Source: AICPA

This year, the AICPA celebrated 125 years of working to advance the accounting profession and advocating on behalf of CPAs and the public. Focusing on 2012, I am struck by all that we have accomplished and the many opportunities in the profession's future.

CPAs continued to serve an important role as the trusted advisors of Main Street businesses. Enhancing the relevance and improving the cost effectiveness of private company financial reporting has been one of the profession's highest priorities. In 2012, we reached an important milestone on this initiative. The AICPA facilitated stakeholders' input on the Financial Accounting Foundation's proposal to modify U.S. GAAP for the private company environment, resulting in FAF making structural and process improvements that enabled us to support the final plan. Having received more than 10,000 letters and other feedback, FAF in May announced creation of a new Private Company Council which will hold its first meeting on Dec. 6. We now eagerly await the appropriate substantive changes the PCC is charged with producing and will continue to advocate for those changes. At the same time, the AICPA began developing a new financial reporting framework for use by privately owned, small- and medium-sized entities that are not required to issue GAAP-based financial statements. An exposure draft of the self-contained special purpose framework was released on Nov. 1 for public comment. The final framework will be issued in spring 2013. FAF supports this project, calling it "important and complementary." Together, these efforts underscore CPAs' deep commitment to serving small- and medium-sized companies and the needs of their financial statement users.

Working on behalf of the public interest has been a hallmark of the profession since our founding and will continue in the future. This year, we spearheaded significant educational efforts aimed at giving citizens and policymakers a better perspective on tax and financial issues. A very important one for the financial well-being of our country is our What's at Stake video, which offers insights into the federal government's financial statements. On another front, our new Total Tax Insights^TM calculator helps taxpayers understand the number and types of federal, state and local taxes they pay, and the estimated amount for each. We also regularly meet with regulators and legislators to encourage sound, fair and transparent fiscal policies. As part of that advocacy this past year, we ran successful campaigns to repeal both expanded 1099 reporting requirements and a 3% withholding on payments to government contractors that were to take effect. Through our work with state CPA societies, we influenced legislation to allow interstate practice privileges for CPAs in almost every state and jurisdiction in America.

We also continued to reinforce CPAs' critical roles in the marketplace. Management accounting is being elevated through the Chartered Global Management Accountant^® designation, which launched on Jan. 31. More than 37,000 CPAs have enthusiastically embraced the designation in the months since its launch, demonstrating the power of the credential and the resources it offers. The CGMA program, with more than 125,000 credential holders worldwide, provides reports and tools on topics such as business ethics, fraud risk management, business intelligence, corporate governance and more.

For members in public accounting, our Private Companies Practice Section developed practice management, benchmarking, educational and technical resources and tools. It completed important surveys on succession planning and managing an accounting practice.

Technology has transformed how our news and information can be accessed. We launched the award-winning Journal of Accountancy News App for iPad for members and the interactive CPA Exam Aid for CPA candidates in the spring.

The AICPA achieved many other goals this year, including maintaining the pipeline of future CPAs, virtually completing the SAS Clarity Project and much more. It is an exciting time for our profession, one that we can all look back on with pride. Next year, we will build on our successes. Thinking about 2013, I see numerous additional opportunities for the profession as we serve employers and clients, individuals and businesses, and governmental bodies, as well as educate the CPAs of the 21st century.