Education Is a Wonderful Thing—So Why Isn’t It Better?

The popular perception of CPAs is that you keep yourselves current, educating yourselves to a degree shared by few professions, and to a great extent the public is aware of that and respects you for it. But CPAs don’t seem excited about what they’re current in, and understandably so. The unspoken truth is that much of CPE is a compliance-driven ritual, increasingly so, as the profession moves through a period of accelerating change. Overall, nobody except CPE providers thinks the available educational product is sophisticated enough for what CPAs really need.

For example, 38% of the New York State Society of CPAs’ members are in industry, a segment that until recently was almost ignored by CPE providers and will probably continue to be underserved until the Uniform Accountancy Act (UAA) is passed.

A high-quality CPE program requires a great deal of consideration of what different types of CPAs need so that CPE is more than an empty ritual. For example, most CPAs need to understand the concepts and techniques of internal auditing. But for the training to be meaningful, the content and context need to be very different for practitioners in industry than for those in public practice. CPAs in industry also need training in human resources, which often is within or overlaps significantly with their division of the company. Theft is another area that matters to CPAs in both industry and public practice and contains both an internal auditing component and a human resources component. In public accounting, theft is generally an issue only when it’s major. But CPAs in industry recognize that small amounts of theft can add up and any amount is often symptomatic of deeper operational problems.

CPE providers need to recognize these differences and move beyond the one-size-fits-all solution.

Another shortcoming (also an opportunity) is that not enough education is customized to the specific needs of a company, industry, or CPA firm. Moreover, concentrations of CPAs in a given industry or interested in a particular topic vary widely by locale. These two points raise the complex issues of locations and critical mass numbers. A common perception is that most conference planners are from New York City and have a built-in bias toward using New York City locations. Consequently, planners and locations outside the metropolitan area often don’t seem to get the programs they want. Also, to some degree a self-fulfilling prophecy operates that makes it harder for out-of-town planners and their sites to get the breaks they deserve. If the common perception is that a venue far outside New York City is a poor draw, everyone has to communicate better to understand the location’s benefits and the needs and interest of its CPAs.

Which brings me to marketing: letting you, the CPA, know what is available. CPE catalogs are now being supplemented with websites, which can be easily expanded and updated instantaneously. E-mail is quickly gaining ground on direct mail. But despite this shift—in fact, many CPE providers now use electronic promotion almost exclusively—the NYSSCPA membership still relies on direct-mail brochures and catalogs, which are time-consuming, labor-intensive, and expensive to produce

Here I set forth a challenge to CPAs and CPE providers. CPAs, share with me your opinions on the CPE currently available in terms of content, level of sophistication, locations, and marketing. (If the NYSSCPA doesn’t have your e-mail address, visit our website—www.nysscpa.org—and enter it in the “Your Information” section under “Information Centers.”)

The CPA Journal is broadly recognized as an outstanding, technical-refereed publication aimed at public practitioners, management, educators, and other accounting professionals. It is edited by CPAs for CPAs. Our goal is to provide CPAs and other accounting professionals with the information and news to enable them to be successful accountants, managers, and executives in today's practice environments.