Tech Expo Boasts Broad CPE Component

By Allison Schiff

A highlight of the Society’s annual CPA Business Tech Expo, held May 16 and 17 at the Hilton New York in midtown Manhattan, this year’s continuing professional education (CPE) sessions provided attendees with practical and up-to-date information on a broad range of topics, from general risk management to estate planning essentials.

Running concurrently and in a new time-staggered format, the Expo featured a total of 14 sessions spanning two days, replete with information instantly applicable to real-world client situations. In total, the Expo offered a combined 28 hours of CPE, spread across both a taxation and an auditing track.

Research Like a Lawyer

In a session titled “Latest Research Tools and Resources for CPAs,” Kenneth B. Crutchfield, a 25-year information-industry veteran with experience in developing and marketing products, explained the difference between quick answers and complex research and defined the challenges that often face CPAs in this area.

“Think about complex research like a lawyer,” said Crutchfield. “Lawyers spend three years learning how to collect facts and what tactics to use so as not to miss a single salient point. They’re specifically taught how to organize their research and develop a work product from it.

“Good research is about asking the right questions to find the best angle in order to win,” said Crutchfield. “Tax research should be the same thing, but CPAs don’t get three years of law school, and that kind of structured thinking isn’t ingrained in CPAs like it is with other professionals.”

Employment Law Tips

As Crutchfield covered the value of a well-thought-out research strategy, a panel comprised of CPAs and attorneys, including Francis Candia, Charles Weinstein, Alan Koral and Pearl Zuchlewski, answered questions from the audience about the nuances of “Employment Law Do’s and Don’ts for CPAs.”

Often, said Zuchlewski, U.S. employment law can be a confusing subject to grapple with, and it is consequently very important to keep current.

“Employment law is not always the most user-friendly, and there are many intersections and considerations to keep in mind,” said Zuchlewski. “When you start having different rules like the Americans with Disabilities Act and the discrimination laws that start to overlap, you have to parse through them and break them down to make sense of it all.”

Estate Planning Best Practices

On the afternoon of the first day, Robert S. Barnett, a member of both the NYSSCPA’s Closely Held and S Corporations Committee and its Estate Planning Committee, made a point to emphasize the basic technical underpinnings of estate planning because, he said, “We often don’t spend enough time on the ‘easy’ stuff,” which is equally as important as the fancier planning maneuvers.

“A will speaks when the client has passed away, and the designations for healthcare decisions have to be given in writing beforehand,” said Barnett. “I tell families to sit down and discuss their objectives, because you don’t want a client to be in the situation where they have no clear guidance from the family member in question.

“But at the end of the day, there is no easy answer,” he said. “Modern science often evolves and technology is forever changing.”

The goal is to try and best serve the clients while saving them as much as possible in tax, and CPAs, said Barnett, are in an excellent position to do just that.

“CPAs have a distinct advantage here because their business allows them to really get to know their clients. What are their goals? What are their kids’ situations?” said Barnett. “These are all questions that become more and more important as parents and older generations are living longer and longer.”

A CFO’s Challenge

The first day of CPE concluded with a panel discussion on how CFOs and controllers can successfully handle the challenges facing them in today’s ever-globalizing world, such as how to manage expenses in a deflationary environment, the balance of profitability versus the cost of branding one’s business, and dealing with the financial reporting and GAAP differences for entities outside the U.S.

The panel, made up of NYSSCPA Vice President John J. Lauchert, Anthony Cassella, Scott Jaffee, Joel C. Quall and Scott Vogel and moderated by NYSSCPA Secretary Mark Ellis, received several questions about healthcare cost containment as well as the evaluation of healthcare quality and how to measure qualitative coverage.

“The panelists as a group agreed that evaluating the quality of healthcare is very important and that it is difficult to measure,” said Cassella, who currently serves as a member of the NYSSCPA’s CFO Committee and chair of its Apparel and Textile Committee. “Companies often try to measure it mostly through some form of employee communication, such as surveys.

“We learned that many of the audience members’ companies were trying to get as involved as they could with preventative healthcare, and some even mentioned that their companies paid for health club memberships, annual physicals and the like,” said Cassella.

Risk Management

The second day of the Expo included a comprehensive presentation called “General Risk Management: Protecting Your Practice, Clients and Company,” led by Ron Klein, vice president of claims at Camico Mutual Insurance Company.

The best risk management is good service, said Klein, who warned that claims standards, also known as “jury standards,” can significantly impact a juror’s opinion.

The public sees CPAs as the “fraud police,” and believes it is their job to “warn of risk” and “advise of opportunity,” said Klein.
CPAs must be aware that when it comes to fraud, the public often judges in hindsight and designates guilt by association.

Klein therefore advises that CPAs “stay on the side of the angels.”

Toward a Paperless Office

Toward the end of the second full day of CPE, NYSSCPA Technology Assurance Committee Chair Yigal Rechtman spoke about the paperless office and the potential risk effects of electronic document management for accounting firms.

Rechtman pointed out that going paperless is more than just saving work products on a computer hard drive or disk.

“Just because something is electronic, doesn’t mean it’s paperless,” said Rechtman. “Paperless is a framework of thought—it’s a state of mind.

“And if I can’t find it,” said Rechtman on the importance of easy retrieval, “it’s not paperless, it’s just storage.”

Other CPE Sessions

Other sessions included a “2007 Individual and Corporate Tax Update,” with speaker E. Lynn Nichols; “2007 Top Technology Trends: Key Knowledge for CPAs,” with Joel Lanz; an auditing and accounting update presented by Elliot Hendler; a session titled “Beyond Financial Measurement: Using Key Performance Indicators to Measure Operational Performance,” with Mark Ellis; “Excel 2007: What’s New and Tools You Can’t Live Without,” led by Allen Goldberg, of Microsoft; an “Accounting Software Shootout Panel” made up of representatives from Intuit, Microsoft and Sage Software; an auditing and accounting update for nonprofit organizations, led by Allan M. Blum, chair of the NYSSCPA’s Not-for-Profit Organizations Committee; and a session titled “Healthcare and Long-Term Insurance: What CPAs Need to Know for Their Company, Firm or Clients,” with Joseph Strala, of JSA Consulting, and John Kelly, of Prudential Insurance.

Allison Schiff, Associate Editor, can be reached at aschiff@nysscpa.org.