By Cheryl Sykes, AICPA Council Representative

The AICPA 2024 Spring Council meeting was held on Tuesday – Thursday, May 21-23 in Orlando, FL. Those in attendance from the MSCPA were Jerry Goolsby, Jan Lewis, Karen Moody, and myself. This meeting had a lot of information that was discussed and provided to Council and stakeholders.

The Chairman of the Board, Okorie Ramsey, opened the meeting and officiated throughout.

Barry Melancon made the opening presentation titled the Path to Leadership. Barry indicated that he felt we were in a time of economic uncertainty, which meant we as CPAs needed to be prepared to transform for the future, especially in the areas of technology and human capital. Again, our biggest challenges will be finding and retaining talent, and learning how to efficiently and effectively use AI and digital tools. The AICPA is continuing to try to provide tools for CPAs to deepen their competencies in the wide skills identified as needed to succeed in advising our clients, technical, business, leadership, people and digital skills. Currently some of the tools used in this area are CPA evolution, Experience Learn & Earn, the registered apprenticeship program, and the finance leadership program. Again, Barry reported that CAS is the fastest growing service for 36% of the top 100 firms.

The big announcement for the day was the retirement of Barry effective 12/31/24. The AICPA has begun looking for his replacement. Barry has been a great leader for the AICPA for many years and he will be missed.

As a reminder, the Private Companies Practice Section has toolkits on the AICPA website that are cutting edge to help firms today with any business model transformations that may be needed. Specifically, these toolkits are focused on governance, strategic plans, service offerings, talent issues and technology. Please utilize these toolkits as they are provided due to your membership in the AICPA! The PCPS would love to hear your feedback and where you might need tools to support you and your firm.

The big report of the day was from the National Pipeline Advisory Group, which consists of 8 members from various backgrounds selected by the AICPA board to gather information and make recommendations in the ever-pressing area of the pipeline. The group’s objective was to develop a strategic plan that was data driven and inclusive. They began by gathering information from the Council, working professionals, and accounting and business students. From this information, the group determined there were several areas that needed to be addressed in the strategic plan, specifically, to make education more engaging, expand access for underrepresented groups, grow support for CPA exam candidates, and to address the time and cost of education. From this, there are several big ideas that will be in the recommendations of the strategic plan. First there will be an intentional and coordinated approach to mitigate risk to mobility. Next, there will be an exploration of moving away from specified credit hours with a movement to measuring competency. The result of these measures would be a qualified and ready new hire. In all ideas, the CPA exam is required.

There are several interesting results from the group’s surveys, which I would expect to be incorporated in the strategic plan. First, raising starting salaries was the most agreed-upon solution among professionals and students. Another topic high on the list was having greater flexibility in work arrangements with more manageable workloads. Also, high on the list was a topic the group titled “Tell a more compelling story.” 70% of business students who didn’t major in accounting indicated no interest or lack of passion in the field, and nearly 45% of business administration majors have decided their major before enrolling in college. We need to be more positive about what this profession can offer professionals when we talk about the profession, and we certainly need to reach students before they begin to plan for college.

The National Pipeline Advisory Group (NPAG) plans to finalize the NPAG report with solutions and refinement to the solutions this summer. They will give an update at the October fall Council meeting. There is some concern that this may be moving too slow to keep up with changes that some states are already trying to make legislatively, specifically to change the requirements to take the CPA exam by reducing credit hours and giving credit for experience.

The Nominations Committee reported on the various positions
that were subsequently approved by Council. The most notable was the new AICPA Chair, Carla McCall. The Vice-Chair is Lexy Kesler.

Again, there was significant time spent on GenAI topics and adoption. There is concern surrounding the ROI on AI, but there is also heavy pressure for the use of AI from boards, customers, employees, and investors. Of course, regulators are also involved with an expectation that all organizations will have responsible GenAI use. I am not sure that we can afford to wait and see how AI use will work. It seems firms and organizations will need to develop a proactive plan on the use of GenAI, even though the ROI may not be there, certainly in the beginning. There is a GenAI toolkit, which can be a roadmap for firms in the use of AI.

There was some time allotted to tax advocacy, including satisfaction with any IRS improvements…. which according to surveys, the IRS has not made needed improvements. There is still a high percentage of courtesy disconnects, lack of ability of agents to answer questions, timely responses to written communications, and overall respect by the profession.

The AICPA has made recommendations in the BOI area including suspending BOI reporting until 1 year after conclusion of all court cases related to NSVA vs Yellen. Also, they recommend that BOI reporting should be on an annual basis instead of 30 or 90 days depending on when the entity was established or any corrections made. One big area of concern comes from the liability insurance carriers for CPA liability insurance. The biggest issue for them is if working on the BOI is considered unauthorized practice of law (UPL). No state has made any determination on whether this is considered a UPL. Stay tuned to this issue!

This has been a very active year with some very important issues in the AICPA and our profession. Thank you for letting me serve the MSCPA in this capacity. It is an honor!