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<\/p>\nthe group, which met for the first time recently, is the center for accounting transformation\u2019s audit advisory board. shimamoto, who created the center, brought together audit professionals with various backgrounds to help guide strategic direction, services, and program planning for the center, which helps professionals through the adoption and change required to step into the future of the accounting profession.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
shimamoto, the founder and managing director of intraprisetechknowlogies llc, continued. \u201cwe see a lot of this as a journey and we want to be able to identify key points along the journey to help others identify where they are on the transformation journey, where they want to be, and specific steps to take to move forward in that journey.\u201d<\/p>\n
the audit transformation advisory board includes:<\/p>\n
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- scott bailey, cpa, cgma, cisa, citp, cfe; partner; carr, riggs & ingram<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
in addition to serving as cri\u2019s north carolina audit practice leader and industry line leader of captives and alternative risk, he also leads cri\u2019s cannabis practice.<\/p>\n
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- danielle cheek, cpa, cfe, cva; vice president, strategy & industry relations; mindbridge<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
cheek is the immediate past chair of the pcps technical issues committee with the aicpa and is the us representative to the ifac small and medium practitioners committee.<\/p>\n
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- melissa galasso, cpa, cptd; ceo; galasso learning solutions<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
the founder and ceo of galasso learning solutions llc, galasso has nearly 20 years of experience in the accounting profession and serves on the fasb\u2019s not-for-profit advisory committee (nac), aicpa council, and the vscpa\u2019s board of directors.<\/p>\n
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- mark mayberry, cpa, citp, ctsa, cida; founder, mark mayberry cpa<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
mayberry is a recognized thought leader and educator in the fields of assurance, audit technology, audit innovation, and it-related risk management and assisted with the aicpa\u2019s audit data standard.<\/p>\n
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- michael ramos; managing partner; mra learning<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
ramos has been an active contributor to the advancement of the accounting profession, leveraging his initial career as a senior audit manager with kpmg into a variety of roles creating authoritative auditing guidance and later, delivering technical training.<\/p>\n
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- kevin wang, cpa, citp, cgfm; director of innovation; warren averette<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
in 2016, after being promoted to senior audit manager, wang transitioned to warren averett\u2019s headquarters and became the firm\u2019s first director of innovation.<\/p>\n
\u201cwe recognize the value and importance of engaging a variety of perspectives on the audit industry in discussing and addressing issues facing auditors. the audit advisory board brings together a collective of diverse experience, innovation, and insight that will help align the efforts of the center to complement and elevate the work being done by other industry associations, consultants, and vendors,\u201d said shimamoto. \u201cas an organization that prides itself on accelerating transformation, the center has advisory boards with innovative leaders within the profession who enable us to seize the opportunities and nurture the seeds of transformation in collaboration with the next generation of accounting, technology, and association leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n
frustration leads to attrition<\/strong><\/p>\n
a key issue for the accounting industry as a whole is staffing.<\/p>\n
\u201cfor my clients, the biggest problem that they\u2019re all dealing with now is just on the people side,\u201d ramos said. \u201cretention is obviously a big thing.\u201d he explained that many firm managers will come up with ad hoc solutions to keep the team moving and meet deadlines.<\/p>\n
\u201cthe real problem is there are structural issues,\u201d ramos said. \u201cthere are structural issues surrounding things like how decisions get made, who gets to make the decisions, lack of resources devoted to working on the business, as opposed to having billable hours and things like that\u2026as a result, if you don\u2019t have structures in place to deal with this stuff, then you\u2019re constantly just running around trying to make patches.\u201d<\/p>\n
cheek asked, \u201ccan you blame the firm where there\u2019s truly a shortage and they\u2019ll take any warm body to fill in?\u201d she continued, \u201cthey keep underperforming players longer than they should and then you get this culture of mediocrity\u2026then your [best] team\u2019s going to leave\u2026i think it goes back to firm accountability structure concepts. if they\u2019re not willing to enforce that, then you lose all your good people anyway. and then, when you lose your good people, you\u2019re recruiting again.\u201d<\/p>\n
cheek went on to identify additional people issues.<\/p>\n
\u201ci think another issue is naysayers within an organization and what kind of undermining happens within the organization, either intentional or unintentional,\u201d she said. \u201cpeople who just refuse to follow the new procedures that are being rolled out and people are trying to innovate,\u201d she said. \u201cthe problem is that there\u2019s a subset of the organization that wants to transform, and many times it\u2019s the next generation of leadership\u2026but the compensation structure usually incentivizes the status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n
ramos included continuing education and training as a staffing issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cone of the things that contributes to that mediocrity is a view of learning that\u2019s focused on compliance,\u201d he said. \u201cit\u2019s the rare firm that sees learning as being a strategic play, as being a strategic asset.\u201d stating that many firms concern themselves with only with providing their people 40 hours, ramos lamented that more firms didn\u2019t see advanced learning and innovation as solutions for improving retention.<\/p>\n
galasso agreed, saying, \u201cit\u2019s learning for compliance versus learning for professional development.\u201d<\/p>\n
she continued, \u201cif they\u2019re not looking to invest in learning and development, they\u2019re likely not willing to invest in anything else. they just want to kind of get through it.\u201d she used an example of an anonymous client who told her, \u201cwell, if we spend the time on training, then they can\u2019t do the work,\u201d to which she asked, \u201cbut if they\u2019re doing the work wrong, then [how does it help]?\u201d<\/p>\n
transformation includes analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n
while hinted at, further discussion of people and staffing issues also identified a primary concern: processes. audit advisory board members agreed that most want to be more consultative and less task-based.<\/p>\n
\u201cour business is a relationship business,\u201d bailey said. \u201cthe audit process, the client experience, the people we\u2019re bringing in to interact with our clients, which then enables us to provide more meaningful interactions with our clients\u2026that\u2019s what\u2019s going to save the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
wang added that in order to be more on the consultative side, auditing professionals would do better with more consistent processes.<\/p>\n
\u201cobviously, each client is going to use their own accounting system, but just being able to get all of that and being able to put it into a consistent format or some sort of mapping group so you can start benchmarking other clients, but right now, you\u2019ve just got data coming in and text files, pdfs, excel files, you know, just a million different file formats,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
the group discussed several observations that audit partners and team members, even within the same firm, can often all perform audit tasks differently.<\/p>\n
\u201cthat\u2019s a big problem, especially from a training standpoint,\u201d ramos said. \u201cbecause if there\u2019s no standard way of doing things, like preparing financial statements, then what do you teach people?\u201d<\/p>\n
bailey agreed, saying, \u201cthose inconsistencies eventually lead to regulatory problems, too. that\u2019s a peer review land mine you\u2019re describing.\u201d<\/p>\n
wang said it can be especially difficult for larger firms, especially when team members want to transition to advisory services.<\/p>\n
\u201cyou\u2019ve got all these different systems all geared toward completing an audit, and they\u2019re just siloed,\u201d he said, adding the importance of technology in the transformation journey. \u201cyou want to shift a lot of the work being done by staff. they\u2019re not going to be doing archaic-type processes. they\u2019re going to be doing more high-level, true auditing, true analysis work.\u201d<\/p>\n
ramos added that in an ideal setting, the culture of the firm should be that if there are changes or inconsistencies across the practice, people know to escalate that to the leaders in the audit department and try to resolve it quickly.<\/p>\n
can technology offer a magic solution?<\/strong><\/p>\n
while there have been numerous software advances in auditing, the group seemed to feel there is still a need for assistance in determining the right fit.<\/p>\n
\u201cyou\u2019re seeing all these great tools that are being developed and marketed,\u201d wang said. \u201ctrying to basically match that up with what we\u2019re doing in our audit programs, what steps in our audit programs can we eliminate or do less of if we utilize these tools?\u201d<\/p>\n
he continued, \u201cwe\u2019re utilizing teams, we\u2019ve got emails coming in, we\u2019ve got our portal\u2026 there are just so many different touchpoints and ways to get a hold of us. if there was one portal where they could do all of it, whether it\u2019s communication, grabbing their final financial statements, seeing a calendar to find out when our next meeting is, if all of that is in one place, i think it would improve the client experience and help tremendously.\u201d<\/p>\n
however, cheek pointed out that it may be more complicated.<\/p>\n
\u201chere in the u.s., there are really two main audit standards\u00ad\u00ad\u2014pcaob and aicpa concepts, but there\u2019s still a lot of other stuff in the world. as we get more global, more and more stuff is happening. even mid-size firms and small firms are having to deal with more diversity. to come up with a singular tool that can do all that?\u201d<\/p>\n
she added a story of a firm that purchased what they believed would be a solution based on brand recognition, but that the purchase did not work out as planned.<\/p>\n
\u201cthey put all their eggs in one basket when [the software] won\u2019t be ready for another three years, potentially, to be able to handle the complexities of a firm this size. and they don\u2019t want to have multiple methodologies and modes of releasing financial statements. what do you get for short-term triage while you wait for them to build it?\u201d<\/p>\n
just such an issue contributes to mistrust of technology and leads to duplicate work, cheek said, saying firms are worried about not passing inspections or peer reviews. \u201cthe whole point is that it\u2019s supposed to actually enable humans to do better, real-time work\u2026but they equate innovation transformation or anything new as double work.\u201d<\/p>\n
that view, the group said, reinforces the need for innovative thinking among auditors so that the \u201cstatus quo\u201d isn\u2019t being automated. \u201cwe don\u2019t need a better rock. we need a tire,\u201d galasso said.<\/p>\n
pros share parting thoughts. <\/strong><\/p>\n
as the meeting wound down, members of the center\u2019s audit advisory board were asked about pieces of advice they would give based on the afternoon discussion.<\/p>\n
galasso said she believes there\u2019s a disconnect between what team members and team leaders feel is problematic. \u201clisten to your own people,\u201d she said, \u201cthe people who actually do the work.\u201d she added that the quality of your future leaders depends upon the senior leader training them. \u201cthe quality of your current senior training the next generation is the most important job.\u201d bailey agreed, adding, \u201cthe quality of your seniors is the quality of your partners in 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
wang encouraged others to know and understand their clients. \u201ci don\u2019t think cpa firms, in general, take that perspective into account enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cknow thyself,\u201d bailey offered. \u201cbecause if you don\u2019t know who you are, we can talk about the roadmap and your journey, but you need to know where you are to know where you want to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
for ramos, he told the group the most important thing firms can do is to invest intentionally in their people. \u201ccompliance is just an expense item for a lot of folks, but treat it like an investment and measure outcomes as if it were an investment.\u201d<\/p>\n
in addition to creating a broad vision for the future of audit, they will also ensure that the innovative technologies and audit techniques that the center recommends are balanced by adherence to audit standards and protecting the public\u2019s trust in the profession. the audit advisory board will also help to ensure the center\u2019s efforts complement and elevate the work being done by other industry associations, advisors, and consultants.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
- kevin wang, cpa, citp, cgfm; director of innovation; warren averette<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- michael ramos; managing partner; mra learning<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- mark mayberry, cpa, citp, ctsa, cida; founder, mark mayberry cpa<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- melissa galasso, cpa, cptd; ceo; galasso learning solutions<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- danielle cheek, cpa, cfe, cva; vice president, strategy & industry relations; mindbridge<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- scott bailey, cpa, cgma, cisa, citp, cfe; partner; carr, riggs & ingram<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n