IS PCPS PASSÉ?

At its fall meeting, the governing council of the AICPA unanimously approved significant changes to the membership requirements and name for the Private Companies Practice Section (PCPS). The new name is PCPS/Partnering for CPA Practice Success, the AICPA Alliance for CPA Firms.

PCPS was created 20 years ago to strengthen self-regulation (with the peer review program as the cornerstone of its activities) and to serve as an advocate for its member firms. When peer review became a mandatory AICPA requirement for all firms beginning in 1989, many people in the profession began to question the relevancy of and need for PCPS. At about that time, the section's executive committee changed its name to the Private Companies Practice Executive Committee and broadened its charge to include all local firms whether members of the section or not.

While PCPS provides its member firms with a number of additional services, it in essence has produced a two-tiered structure for local firms. Regardless of its stated intent to include all local firms, dues paying PCPS members receive the bulk of PCPS' services. A growing number of CPAs in small and medium-sized firms feel that separate dues for PCPS results in favored treatment for an "elite" class of firms.

PCPS member requirements have been eased, in a move many feel makes the PCPS distinction even less relevant. In announcing council's decision, Harold L. Monk, Jr., CPA, chair of the PCP Executive Committee, stated that the new PCPS hopes to attract other firms beyond its existing 7,000 members. Currently, there are over 40,000 CPA firms nationwide.

The big question is whether a separate PCPS continues to make sense now that the self-regulatory issues are no longer a factor. *