A View from the AICPA's 2007 TECH+ Conference: Are CPAs Capable and Comfortable Assisting Clients with Technology Decisions?
By Steve Ernst

The Question
SAP was a Gold Sponsor at the AICPA's 2007 TECH+ Conference held in mid-June in Las Vegas. It was an extremely well-produced, CPE-filled event and the AICPA has done a great job of reviving one of the primary technology conferences for the profession. I took advantage of having over 450 CPAs in one location to pursue at least one topic that has been of interest to me for a long time.

As many of you who read this column on a monthly basis know, I've always contended that CPAs in public practice are optimally positioned to help their private, small and midsize business clients make and implement technology decisions. My premise has always been that a CPA should be at the forefront when it comes to advising, consulting and assisting their growing, forward-thinking clients with both technology selection and the implementation of those decisions. I've always thought that a CPA's objectivity, experience, and his or her point of view would give the CPA the background and vision to assist a client in these instances.

CPAs remain the most trusted business advisor in the SME space. Small and midsize business owners depend on their external CPAs to provide consulting and counseling on a number of business issues outside of accounting issues, financial reporting, auditing and taxation. The CPA is an objective observer and views his or her clients from the vantage point that allows them to see the whole business. Try as hard as they might, the boards of directors, owners or shareholders and senior management of an entity will, at times, be too close to their business and, most of the time, predisposed to a decision or solution. The CPA with the experience of seeing many decisions made by different clients has probably “been there and done that” when it comes to choosing and implementing technology solutions.

The Other Side of the Coin
As a result of the articles and columns I've written focused on this topic, I've received a number of email responses that took the opposite position - that CPAs are not optimally prepared to assist and advise small business clients in technology matters. Not surprisingly, the responding CPAs consistently noted a number of reasons why they thought most CPAs are not capable of being involved in this type of consulting. First and foremost was the fact that the CPA, fully focused on remaining current and up to date with the continual churning of accounting and auditing guidance and generally accepted precepts and practices, to say nothing of the ever-expanding and constantly changing tax code, could not maintain the level of knowledge and awareness necessary to render advice and counsel on technology at the level that would be expected from a CPA.

Second among the reasons noted was that CPAs are not as adept at marketing consulting services beyond that of accounting and taxation. Over time, as I read these responses to my articles, I had to acknowledge their content made sense – to a point. Because I have written a number of articles and columns advising CPAs on starting a technology consulting practice or expanding their current consulting practice to include technology, I wanted to make sure, in my own mind, that I had not been completely mistaken in my thoughts. I had to ask myself should I reconsider putting CPAs in that position if, in fact, they were not, as a general rule, capable of fulfilling the role.

I used the AICPA TECH+ Conference to do just that.

The Reassessment
During the 3 days of the TECH+ Conference, I reached out and discussed this issue with a number of CPAs that I know, most of whom has a solid small business practice which includes accounting, auditing, tax and consulting services. All but one of the CPAs I talked to had relatively small staffs and most of the CPAs on staff multi-task, except for the taxation expert who specializes. To a person, they indicated they were very comfortable with the consulting engagements that could be described as technology related.

They agreed with my perception that technology is so pervasive in today's business environment that a CPA who does not maintain a current level of knowledge about today's pressing technology topics, not necessarily an in-depth level of knowledge but at least the ability to discuss current technology topics intelligently, would be viewed as behind the curve and it would reflect, rightly or wrongly, on that CPAs level of knowledge in other areas of professional practice. They indicated that most CPE opportunities they utilized, whether it's through the AICPA or offered by their state CPA society, always included a healthy if not heavy dose of technology both in terms of a general update as well as specifics on topics ranging from hardware, servers, server software, business management software, accounting software, telecommunications, mobile computing, security, encryption, etc.

All of the CPAs I spoke with had introduced themselves to various technology vendors and resellers and had created those relationships as both a source of information on the latest and greatest in product development and roadmaps as well as a referral for their clients if the consulting engagement took them in a direction where the vendor relationship could be used to implement a recommendation. A few of the CPAs I spoke with at the TECH+ Conference had pursued the CITP designation through the AICPA, and most were members of the AICPA's Information Technology Section and used that organization and its publications as additional sources of information and direction. As a result of these discussions, I am still adamant in my view that the CPA serving private, small and midsize businesses is well-positioned to assist and consult with those clients on matters of technology. Because of the CPA's experience, holistic vantage point and relationships with various technology manufacturers and vendors, they can be an extremely useful advisor in the implementation of the client's technology decisions.

I am very interested in your views on this topic and you can reach me at steve.ernst@sap.com.

Steve Ernst, CPA, leads the SAP CPA Advisor and other influencer programs for SAP America, Inc. Prior to joining SAP, Steve provided consulting services to boards and executive staff on accounting, auditing, business processes, and internal control systems, as well as sales, marketing, and business development initiatives. He has more than 30 years of experience, including 10 years with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and more than 20 years in international finance and operations in the consumer product and technology markets. You can contact him at steve.ernst@sap.com.