Inland Empire Chapter
A blog for and by a community of professionals
President's Message
August 26, 2010
By Johanna Sweaney Salt, CPA
September seems an especially appropriate month to review CalCPA’s strategic priorities that support our vision and mission:
- Advocate for members on issues that affect the profession.
- Enhance and promote the visibility of the profession and CalCPA.
- Attract, educate and support CPAs in their professional and personal development.
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Chapter News
By Kurihi Chargualaf, chapter board representative
One of the key initiatives that CalCPA is emphasizing this year is reaching out to students and encouraging them to become CalCPA members. There are many benefits to joining for those of us just starting out in our career. The most important benefit is gaining the perspective of CPAs who are succeeding in their careers.
My duty is to increase student awareness about CalCPA and inform them about the amazing benefits they can receive by being student members.
Throughout the upcoming year, I will speak at schools throughout the Inland Empire and recruit student liaisons to CalCPA from each school. Our goal is to give students an inside look about the benefits of joining CalCPA and provide more exposure to the resources that membership includes.
We have a lot of ideas on how best to connect with the 17 campuses in our region. We are going to use social media, on-campus presentations and invitations to various chapter events. I plan on visiting as many campus accounting groups as I can, but I need your help. I believe my visits will be more effective if a professional comes along with me for these talks with the students. This will allow for students to get a student’s perspective of CalCPA and also get the insights of a professional. If you are willing to speak to a group of eager, interesting accounting students at a campus near to you, please send me an e-mail. It won’t take a lot of work on your part, just a willingness to share your perspectives on the profession, explain the type of work you do and provide the answers to some questions. The future of the profession needs your perspectives this year! Will you take some time to share?
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By Ted Collins, CPA, chapter second vice president/Litigation Committee chair
The chapter is proud to announce that Vicenti Lloyd & Stutzman LLP of Glendora has been acknowledged in the July issue of California CPA magazine as one of the top 50 firms involved in CalCPA. VLS has participated in CalCPA for more than 50 years, with memberships starting with the firm’s founders: Dick Vicenti, Johnnie Lloyd and Royce Stutzman, each of whom served a term as CalCPA president.
Throughout its involvement, VLS has found its participation to be an extremely beneficial experience for its accounting associates. “We recognize the importance of employees’ involvement and support it by letting them have the time to be involved,” said Carl Pon, VLS co-managing partner. “I believe CalCPA membership helps our CPAs to develop their managerial and leadership skills, as they gain a better appreciation of the business aspects of our profession.”
VLS is involved in CalCPA in a variety of ways. The firm has participated in state-level committees and provided speakers for various CalCPA meetings, and has three employees who serve in local leadership positions. “We think it is important for our employees to get involved and build their network with other CPAs,” Pon said. “It helps give them a deeper understanding of what our profession is all about.”
VLS has especially enjoyed participating in financial literacy and working with young and emerging professionals, or YEPs. Accounting associates from the firm have attended previous YEP conferences, and several are participating in the first CalCPA Emerging Leaders Certificate Program. “The staff seems to really enjoy the program, and I was honored to be asked to be one of the conferences’ moderators,” Pon said.
The firm has also found its involvement in CalCPA to be a useful tool for staying up-to-date with current issues and trends, especially during this time of continuously advancing technology and economic uncertainty. “In this rapidly changing world, involvement in CalCPA is a good way to stay ahead of the changes,” Pon said.
We encourage your firm to get involved in CalCPA, so you may see for yourself the positive effects of involvement as both your professional staff and your business reap the benefits of CalCPA participation.
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By Bruce Gray, CPA, Technology Committee chair
The CalCPA Technology Committee met Aug. 13 at CalCPA’s Redwood City offices. High on the list of concerns was computer security, both physical and data-related. Part of the meeting included a presentation about data encryption by a representative from PGP—the data encryption standard used by the U.S. government. The speaker’s presentation started with “A day in the life of data,” which illustrated just how widely information is distributed over the course of a day. As CPAs, we are subject to both ethics and regulatory requirements related to the protection of our clients’ data, but we also learned that 45 states have laws and regulations governing the protection of data. If you haven’t addressed this serious issue, the time is now, before you have an incident of lost data.
We also had a presentation about LinkedIn and an update of CalCPA’s use of social networking. Using social media has become almost as important as having a website, even though the technology is relatively new (LinkedIn started in 2003, YouTube and MySpace started in 2004, Facebook started in 2005 and Twitter started in 2006).
The committee has a number of resources available to CalCPA members, including webinars, a listing of the top websites for CPAs and information and resources for members. To access the information, visit CalCPA’s website. The most recent webinar held Aug. 25 covered three topics: Using Excel for Management Reports Virtualization and Office 2010. The best part is that it was free to members.
For more technology information, plan to attend our Jan. 27 chapter meeting, which will focus on technology gadgets and computer security with guest speaker and tech guru David Cieslak.
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It’s not too late to join the Management of an Accounting Practice Interest Group as we continue our discussion of Jim Collins’ book, Good to Great. Jim Collins spent five years trying to find out what differentiates good companies from great companies. His conclusions, some of which may surprise you, are the basis of this book. Please read Chapter 2, “Level 5 Leadership,” prior to the meeting. To get a copy of the book before the meeting, please contact Johanna Sweaney Salt.
Date: Thursday, Sept. 16
Register online.
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Effective Jan. 1, 2010, renewal requirements for CPA licensees changed dramatically. These requirements can be confusing, and many licensees are unclear as to when they are required to take which CPE courses. Join us as CalCPA COO Clar Rosso provides us the lowdown on all the new requirements.
The second hour will be an overview of fraud, presented by Carroll King, CPA, of Vicenti Lloyd and Stutzman, who will discuss motives and opportunities for fraud, along with financial statement fraud detection.
Date: Thursday Sept. 9
Register online.
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Several newly issued standards and pronouncements affect firms that perform audit and attest engagements, as well as firms and sole practitioners that prepare only compilation and review engagements.
Effective Jan. 1, 2009, the AICPA issued Statement on Quality Control Standards No. 7, which superseded Quality Control Standards No. 1 through 6. Firms that are enrolled in an AICPA-approved practice-monitoring program are obligated to adhere to quality-control standards established by the AICPA, including those firms that issue only compilation or review engagements.
This relatively new standard has a significant impact and the California Board of Accountancy has implemented mandatory peer review for all CPA firms and sole practitioners that report on financial statements, including compilation and review engagements, effective Jan. 1, 2010
Finally, the AICPA has issued Statement on Standards for Accounting and Review Services 19 (SSARS 19), which supersedes all other SSARS and requires documentation of engagement acceptance, clarifies additional documentation requirements for review and compilation engagements and revises the reports to be issued for these types of engagements. SSARS 19 is effective for all financial statements engagements with years ending Dec. 15, 2010 or later.
Date: Wednesday, Sept. 29
Register online.
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Our legislative successes last year were built on the relationships that CalCPA members developed with their state senators and assembly members. To continue to effectively represent the profession going forward, we need to cement these relationships and build new ones.
If you personally know your senator or assembly member, or would like to get involved in our grassroots government relations effort, please contact Phil Waller, chair of our Grassroots Government Relations Committee, or chapter program associate Monica Thompson. We are not asking for a major time commitment—we are hoping to find members who can make an occasional visit to a district office with fellow members, take part in CPA Day in Jan. 19 and send one or two e-mails during the year.
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CalCPA News
Did you know that CalCPA administers two scholarship funds—one for fifth-year students committed to following California’s Pathway 2 to CPA licensure and the other for students pursuing a master’s degree in accountancy or taxation?
Well, we do—and the application deadline—Sept. 30—is fast approaching.
For criteria regarding both scholarships and to download the application, visit our website.
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