Career Development
To help accountants acquire and hone professional skills, the AICPA developed a software program called the Competency Assessment Tool. CAT was designed to help CPAs identify the skills they need to map out a learning program that will support their professional advancement in a fast-paced business environment.
Consulting
CPAs can offer invaluable assistance to clients who are trying to decide whether to buy or lease a car. Financial and nonfinancial factors must be considered in deciding which alternative best meets a particular client's needs.
Consulting
A client calls you and says she suspects an employee has his hand in the till. What do you do next? What does the law say you can do in a fraud case? And how should you work with a client's lawyer? CPAs who know the rules can play a key role on an investigative team.
Education / Practice Management
More accounting students will have to meet the 150-hour requirement to become CPAs. How will this change firm management, salaries and recruitment in public accounting? The transition in Florida, the first 150-hour state, provides some insight.
Practice Management
Many practitioners who wish to remain independent must consider entering alternative practice structures that leverage their specialties and give them a competitive edge. Case studies: One sole practitioner chooses to stay solo, another merges for security.
Technology
New technology is coming at such a fast pace that it's hard to determine what hardware and software will boost productivity and what claims are just vendor puffery. With the broad spectrum of office technology available, CPAs need guidance on the goods that will make a real difference in the professional workday.
Bankruptcy
CPAs safeguard a company's interests when a customer goes bankrupt. Here's how financial executives and accountants can help creditors pick their way through the bankruptcy minefield.
Assurance Services
As the U.S. population ages, CPAs have an opportunity to use their unique assurance skills to make sure the elderly have access to quality services that will enable them to lead independent lives.