01 2020 CPAmerica Advantage newsletter

CPAmerica Advantage News From Your Accounting Association

Presenting Your CPAmerica 2020 Board of Directors In order to provide continuing oversight and management of the association, CPAmerica would like to announce the selection of this year’s nine directors, each chosen from an assorted representation of firms from each of the CPAmerica regions. These directors comprise the 2020 board of directors.

Ernie Gelpi will be guiding the board this year as chair. He is the leading partner of Kushner LaGraize, L.L.C., headquartered in Metairie, La., and he will assume the role in the leading position from the outgoing chair, Sharon Thompson . Thompson, leading partner and managing shareholder of Hughes, Snell & Co., will stay on the board for the remainder of 2020 and will act as the immediate past chair.

2020 new board chair Ernie Gelpi

2020 vice chair Greg Hammonds

Gregor y W. Ha mmonds, leading partner with Whaley Hammonds Tomasello Accountants & Advisors, based in McDonough,

January 2020 CAS Article, Part 2 P. 2 Member News P. 3

Ga., will start his new role as vice chair.

President's Corner - Alan Deichler P. 4 There during the course of the year, Hammonds will assist Gelpi in attaining his objectives for the board and will begin to start to set his strategies in place for All 2020 CPAmerica the time when he will become chair in 2021.

Regional Meetings Are Now Open for t he Registration

Rou nd i ng out remaining board members who are in their roles to help guide CPAmerica’s policies and executive planning are: James W. Barrett, leading pa r t ner w it h Meyers 2019 past chair Sharon Thompson Brothers Kalicka, P.C., based in Holyoke, Mass.; W. Dane Floyd, managing and leading partner with Aldridge Borden & Company, headquartered in Montgomery, Ala.; Brian Malthouse, president, shareholder and leading partner with VonLehman CPA & Advisory Firm, headquartered in Ft. Wright, Ky.; and Frank J. Monaco, leading partner with 415 Group, headquartered in Canton, Ohio.

With easy to reach destinations such as Denver (Central Mountain/West Coast Regional Meeting); Boston (Northeast/ Midwest Regional Meeting); and Atlanta (Southeast Regional Meeting), earning CPE, sharing best practices, and learning from industry-leading experts are but some of the takeaways of participation.

For more info, go to https:// tinyurl.com/rakmxzl

See Board of Directors, continued on page 2

New Member Snapshot: Stephano Slack LLC Stephano Slack LLC HQ: 125 Strafford Avenue, Suite 200 Wayne, Pennsylvania 19087 Tel: (610) 687-1600 | Fax: (610) 687-0016

Headquarters: Wayne, Pennsylvania

Wilmington Office: 1700 West 14th Street Wilmington, Delaware 19806 Tel: (302) 777-7400 | Fax: (302) 777-1220 www.stephanoslack.com Michael J. Stephano | Managing Partner | mstephano@stephanoslack.com Blake Chapman | Partner | bchapman@stephanoslack.com (CPAmerica Leading Partner contact) Jolie Karp | Partner | jkarp@stephanoslack.com Nicholas Ciocca | Partner | nciocca@stephanoslack.com Natasha O’Connell | Firm Administrator | noconnell@stephanoslack.com Liz Costa | HR Director | ecosta@stephanoslack.com Nicholas Ciocca | Marketing Director | nciocca@stephanoslack.com

Traditional Services: In addition to expertise in audits, reviews and compilations, Stephano Slack LLC assists clients with accurate and reliable due diligence, risk assessments and financial forecasting, as well as reviews of internal controls and agreed-upon procedures.

Specialty Services: Stephano Slack LLC’s team is dedicated to keeping current with the ever-changing compliance requirements of employee benefit plans. They believe that this essential process enables them to perform audits with the utmost in efficiency and accuracy and provide a clear picture of the status of clients’ defined benefits or defined contribution plans, employee stock ownership or profit-sharing plans, or health care plans.

Outsourced Accounting: The firm’s outsourced accounting practice serves as an extension of their clients’ team, bringing them the services and advice they need for a strong financial foundation. From back office support to outsourcing the entire function on an interim or permanent basis, the firm offers a flexible approach, remote capability, and a variety of service models from weekly to monthly to as-needed.

This is Part 2 of 2 of the CAS article, continued from the Dec. 2019 issue of the Advantage newsletter

We had the structure to do it and we had the expertise to do it. It's been pretty simple and straightforward to expand this practice based on the fact that many of our current clients already need our help on the tax side.” In a sense, CAS has been transformational. Dopson said, “what really worked out well for us was being able to turn bad audit clients into good client accounting services clients because we knew what their troubles were, we knew what their pains were, and we knew if Located in Los Angeles, SPS is unique in that they have their share of CAS clients from the entertainment industry. Schenkel said, “Our version of client accounting services is really like the definition of being a full-service firm. Our client accounting services consists of a few things: entertainment business management; family office outsourcing (which is essentially the same service but for non-entertainers); and accounting outsourcing for companies.” Schenkel mentioned that CAS for SPS right now represents about half of their business and that “Although this all started with the entertainment business and we have many entertainment industry clients (which is not too unusual for Los Angeles), the same type of service, when presented to non-entertainment, high net-worth and high income clients, they find that it’s a service that they also would like to have. Our firm has targeted non-entertainment folks to provide a similar service. We refer to this as family office outsourcing.”

Schenkel commented, “When I started out as an auditor and when I went out for a certified audit and met the client, their next question usually was, “When will you be finished?” Clients were so interested in when we would finish the job. They just wanted to have it done. It was almost like a necessary evil. Business management, family office outsourcing, and accounting outsourcing are services that clients really appreciate because it frees them to do the things they want, like, and need more time to do.”

Pace thinks the CAS method at GRF is a good fit and is very complimentary to the full-service offerings of the firm. He said, “We call our practice Outsourced Accounting and Advisory Services and I think it fits perfectly into a full-service, traditional CPA firm. Having this practice (as well as other new initiatives such as Risk Advisory and Cybersecurity) helps ensure that we can offer one-stop shopping to our clients. It also provides great opportunities to cross-sell within the firm and to determine if there is potential for greater firm revenue and to better service clients by transferring a client from one department to another.”

“We've been doing CAS for about 20 years at GRF. As technology evolved and the needs of our clients changed, our outsourced client accounting services group evolved as well. In other words, we didn’t build the practice from scratch like some firms are doing today because it already existed”, added Pace.

It seems like we increasingly hear about firms building up their CAS areas. Dopson explained that “there is a huge demand for it, there is a larger customer base, and it's something that is reasonably easy to sell because we are already surrounded by and work with many businesses that need it. I'm an auditor by trade, but not every client needs an audit. But in the CAS area, everyone needs a good accountant. The other thing about CAS is it is something that people tend to value a little bit more.

Sometime clients feel that an audit is just a commodity; they don't see a lot of value in it. Many businesses may feel the same See CAS, continued on page 4

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It's a small world at the International Group Meeting: These three namesakes met up in Fort Lauderdale last December (l. to r.) John Cournan of Packer Thomas (U.S.A.); John Wallis of Page Kirk LLP (United Kingdom); and John Byrne of Crowe - Bastow Charleton (Ireland)

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Board of Directors, continued from front page

New to the board of directors are Jackie Cardello, president and managing partner of GRF CPAs & Advisors, headquartered in Bethesda, Md., and Greg Denning, managing partner of Larson & Company, PC, based in South Jordan, Utah.

The 2020 board is scheduled to get together at the new CPAmerica main office in Gainesville, Fla., in mid-January.

Member News Aldrich Group of Companies announces John Lauseng as CEO-elect announced that the board of partners have selected John Lauseng as CEO-elect. He will serve as the fourth CEO in the 45-year history of Aldrich and will assume the position of CEO next year.

Lauseng, an Oregon native, joined Aldrich in 2009 as an auditor in the CPA firm. He served as the leader of the firm’s manufacturing industry niche and played a significant role in various strategic initiatives. In 2013, he was appointed to the Oregon State Board of Accountancy.

More recently, he served as President of Aldrich CPAs + Advisors LLP, overseeing service quality, processes and technical staffing resources across all geographies, including Alaska, Oregon, California, and remote employees.

With an extensive background in client service, Lauseng led major client attest engagements and advised on financial reporting, peer group comparisons, and maximizing performance. Prior to joining Aldrich, he worked for a large international CPA firm where he performed complex attestation work. He graduated from Oregon State University with a degree in accounting.

Meyers Brothers Kalicka announced two promotions

Holyoke, Mass.-based announced the promotion of Ian Coddington and Christopher Soderberg to associate positions.

Coddington's responsibilities include preparing tax returns and working with senior staff to conduct audit engagements.

He earned his bachelor’s in business management with a concentration in accounting from Westfield State University and he is a member of the Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants.

As an audit associate, Soderberg assists and supports the audit team in day-today functions. He holds a bachelor’s in accounting and management from Elms College.

Wegner CPAs receives NASBA certification for live and internetbased courses

Headquartered in Madison, Wis., has been approved as a registered sponsor on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors for both Group Live and Group Internet Based courses. This status affirms the firm's commitment to the delivery of high-quality continuing professional education in compliance with the Statement of Standards for Continuing Professional Education (CPE) Programs (revised August 2016) (Standards) and the program requirements of the National Registry of CPE Sponsors.

Thompson Greenspon earns ClearlyRated's 2019 Best of Accounting™ Award for client service excellence

, a leading accounting firm located in Fairfax, Va., announced that they have won ClearlyRated’s Best of Accounting™ Award for providing superior service. Award winners have proven themselves as industry leaders in service quality based entirely on ratings provided by their clients. On average, clients of 2019 Best of Accounting winners are 1.9x more likely to be entirely satisfied than those who work with non-winning firms. Thompson Greenspon received satisfaction scores of 9 or 10 out of 10 from 85 percent of their clients, significantly higher than the industry’s average of 45 percent in 2019.

Thomas Howell Ferguson, P.A. CPAs announces promotions (THF), headquartered in Tallahassee, Fla., announced four recent promotions: Dennis Gallant to director and market leader in the Bainbridge, Ga., Tax Services Department; Matthew Walker to senior manager in the Assurance Services Department; Nick Gilpin to manager in the Tax Services Department; and Jorge Rivera to manager in the Tax Services Department.

Gallant joined THF in 2015. He has been providing tax compliance and consulting services for more than 24 years. Gallant received his bachelor’s in accounting from the University of Akron in Ohio. In addition to being promoted to director, he has been named market leader for the new Bainbridge, Ga., office.

Walker has more than six years of experience in public accounting providing assurance and accounting services. He received his bachelor’s in accounting from Florida State University.

Gilpin has more than five years of experience providing tax compliance and consulting services. Gilpin received his bachelor’s and master’s in accounting with a focus in taxation from Florida State University.

Rivera joined THF in 2017 and has more than ten years of experience in public accounting and working with small and midsize companies. Rivera received his bachelor’s in accounting from Florida Gulf Coast College and his master’s in business administration from Florida Southern College.

Cendrowski Corporate Advisors announces Raker joins the firm – a leading accounting, litigation support, risk management, tax, and compliance consulting firm – announced the addition of Catherine Raker, CPA, as a senior tax associate to its growing tax group.

With close to 20 years of expertise in

corporate, international, and individual tax matters, as well as corporate and public audit experience, Raker will work across the firm’s clients and be based in its Bloomfield Hills office. Raker is a CPA in Michigan and holds a master's in taxation from Walsh College and a bachelor's in accounting from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth.

DMJ & Co., PLLC names two new partners and adds new consultant

, announced that Drew Haddock, CPA and A. Keith Jarmusch, CPA, CGMA have been named partners with the firm and Steven Gaffney, CPA, CFE, CFF, CRFAC, has joined the firm as a consultant to lead DMJ’s Transportation and Logistics Services Division.

Haddock is an experienced tax and accounting professional in DMJ’s Sanford, N.C., office where he handles tax planning and compliance for corporations, partnerships, and individuals. Haddock also has significant experience with multistate tax compliance advising clients on complicated transactions, including Section 1031 like-kind exchanges, opportunity zone incentives, and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to joining DMJ in October 2017, he worked for a large regional accounting firm in Raleigh, NC as a tax manager. Haddock earned his master's in accounting from East Carolina University and his bachelor's in accounting from North Carolina State.

He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the North Carolina Association of Certified Public Accountants (NCACPA).

Jarmusch has worked in DMJ’s Greensboro office since 2007 and has more than 30 years of experience in both industry and public accounting. He works directly with both corporate and individual clients on their tax consulting, compliance, and preparation needs. Prior to joining DMJ, he served as a CFO for a group of 15 related companies and as CFO/president of a small manufacturing company in Northeast Ohio. Jarmusch earned a bachelor's in business administration from Youngstown State University. He is a member of the AICPA and the NCACPA. In addition, Jarmusch is also an alumnus of Leadership North Carolina.

Gaffney will provide specialized consulting and accounting services to the industry and he has more than 25 years of experience in operating, managing, guiding accounting, finance, safety and customer relationships in the transportation industry. Gaffney earned a bachelor's in accounting from Pennsylvania State University. He is a CPA and also holds the credentials as a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Certified Forensic Accountant (CRFAC), and Certified in Financial Forensics (CFF).

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President's Corner: Quality Member Firms Drive CPAmerica’s Growth You may have noticed that CPAmerica has added a large number of new firms in 2019. As I write this column, we have added 11 new member firms and have three applications in process.

This would give us a total Alan Deichler of 14 new firms -- Yes, this President is the most new firms in a year since our start in 1978, when we began with 17 firms and grew quickly from there.

Although it is normal to add four to six new firms in a year, our objective is not to grow for the sake of growing. We are looking for good firms in open markets.

We have added firms in places that we haven’t had representation in some time, if ever. Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Maine, Northern California, and the Miami area are all new locations on our map of members. We haven’t changed our development process and we are very pleasantly surprised at the high number of new firms.

Here are some thoughts on why we have so many new members.

Many firms have debated on merging up and the partner group often comes to the conclusion that they don’t want to work for someone else. At this point, they realize they must grow to continue to be independent and then decide they need to be aligned with an association like ours. Quite a few of our new members have never before belonged to an association. For these firms, our sharing and particularly our Visitation Improvement Program (VIP) are big hits.

Another possibility is that the high level of M&A activity in the accounting profession is

starting to have an impact on associations.

Many associations have lost members. Firms that remain in those shrinking associations are looking around for healthier alternatives.

Many associations/networks have some form of geographic consideration; firms that wait too long may not be able to join the association of their choice.

A third possibility is that our association and the members that make it up are getting noticed in the press and in social media. We have three firms in the Accounting Today Top 100, six more in the next 100, 12 ranked 201-300, and a large number (32) in the 301400 ranking. We have 53 firms in the top 400 and rank second in associations/networks in the U.S. with representation on this list.

Eleven of our firms have been identified as Best of the Best by INSIDE Public Accounting and six were identified as Best Firms to Work For by Accounting Today.

There are about 44 networks and associations around the world, but we are one of the few with locations found solely in the U.S. We estimate our 2019 firms’ combined (CPAmerica and CPAConnect) revenues to be around $1.13B. That would put us very close to the top 10 associations in the world by revenue size -- and we’re only counting the U.S. Our programs and resources may be getting noticed as well. Our VIP meetings, a proprietary Practice Management Survey, membership in Crowe Global, support from Crowe LLP, and relationships with top consultants from around the country may all be helping draw the attention of prospective members.

Many associations/networks have an annual meeting along with a technical session or two and regional meetings. But

in 2020, CPAmerica will have 18 events designed to provide sharing moments by building relationships between our members and will provide CPE opportunities. Our four

largest events will be the Leading Partner Retreat, A&A Conference, Tax Conference, and the Next Generation Conference. We also have three regional meetings next year and a number of specialty group meetings including: Large Firm Group, New Leading Partner Group, New Partner Group, Client Accounting Services Meeting, International Group Meeting, and more. We’re not even counting the Crowe Global events that our members are invited to participate in.

Associations/networks have a main purpose for being. Some exist for access to expertise from a large firm. Others’ main benefit is for referrals among the members. Still others’ purpose is to provide a structured training and education program.

CPAmerica’s primary purpose is for sharing, but also to provide access to a top 10 firm, referrals between CPAmerica and Crowe Global, and connections to the profession’s top training organizations at significant discounts.

Thank you for your membership and participation in CPAmerica. We look forward to another successful year in 2020.

CAS, continued from page 2

way about a tax return. However, they really see value in having quality accounting and quality internal professional services within their books and records because they know what sloppy books look like and they know what good books look like, so CAS is something they see as more tangible than an audit, for example. There is more demand for it and it is seen as more valuable sometimes than some of the other services that we offer.”

Pace commented that “If you think about what companies are doing with their administrative functions, it makes perfect sense that outsourced accounting is a high-growth area. Your clients are already outsourcing human resources, IT services, payroll, etc. It is a logical next step to outsource accounting services.” He then said, “Clearly, there’s the technology aspect that makes it more and more doable. With the continuing evolution of cloud-based technology, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotic process automation, it’s much more possible to do this work from anywhere. This is one of those practices where if you want to do it virtually you can do that. That means that you can expand your hiring base to cover the entire country and maybe even all over the world.”

The full-service nature of a firm’s CAS offerings helps to offer clients a greater sense of business security. Schenkel finished by saying, “A client once told me that we should market our firm as being in the pampering and peace of mind business. Our tagline is ‘Freeing Clients to Pursue Their Passions.’”

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Contact us at: 7555 W. University Ave. Gainesville, FL 32607 (352) 727-4070 www.cpamerica.org Send feedback and advantage@cpamerica.org

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2020 Events and Meetings Technology Roundtable

New Leading Partner/Large Firm Group

June 16-19

September 21

Charleston, South Carolina

White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia

Focus: Technology

Focus: Leading Partners and Partners Growth and Leadership

Hotel: Belmond Charleston Place

Hotel: The Greenbrier

Large Firm Group

Client Accounting Services Meeting

Leading Partners Retreat

January 16-17

July 21-23

September 22-25

Saint Petersburg, Florida

Denver, Colorado

White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia

Focus: Leading Partners and Partners Growth and Leadership

Focus: Niche Development

Focus: Practice Growth and Management

Hotel: The Brown Palace

Hotel: The Greenbrier

Marketing Roundtable

Central Mountain/West Regional Meeting

Firm Management Roundtable

May 4-5

September 22-25

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

July 23-24 Denver, Colorado

White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia

Focus: Marketing

Focus: Partner-Level Member Sharing

Focus: Firm Management

Hotel: Loews Philadelphia Hotel

Hotel: Westin Denver Downtown

Hotel: The Greenbrier

New Leading Partner Meeting

Northeast/Midwest Regional Meeting

CPAConnect Roundtable

May 17-18

July 30-31

October 25-28

Tucson, Arizona

Boston, Massachusetts

Nashville, Tennessee

Focus: Partners Growth and Leadership

Focus: Partner-Level Member Sharing

Focus: Practice Growth & Management

Hotel: TBD

Hotel: The Liberty

Hotel: Kimpton Aertson Hotel

Next Generation Conference

New Partner Meeting

Tax Conference

June 3-5

August 12-13

November 8-11

Nashville, Tennessee

Atlanta, Georgia

Nashville, Tennessee

Focus: Senior/Manager Growth and Leadership

Focus: Partner-Level Member Sharing

Focus: Tax

Hotel: Waldorf Astoria Atlanta Buckhead

Hotel: Loews Vanderbilt

A&A Conference

Southeast Regional Meeting

International Group Meeting

June 16-19

August 13-14

December 1-4

Charleston, South Carolina

Atlanta, Georgia

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Focus: Audit

Focus: Partner-Level Member Sharing

Focus: International Practice Growth & Management

Hotel: Belmond Charleston Place

Hotel: Waldorf Astoria Atlanta Buckhead

Hotel: The Ritz-Carlton, Fort Lauderdale

Hotel: The Vinoy Resort & Golf Club

Hotel: Hutton Hotel

www.cpamerica.org

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www.cpamerica.org

A&A Webinar

A&A Webinar

A&A Webinar

May 28

June 25

July 9

2-4 p.m. ET

2-4 p.m. ET

2-4 p.m. ET

Title: Topic 842: Countdown to New Leasing Standard Effective Date

Title: AICPA Update: Implementing the New SASs in Your 2020 Audits

Title: Government/Not-for-Profit Update

Instructor: Rich Daisley

Instructor: Rich Daisley

Instructor: Charlie Blanton,CPA

A&A Webinar

A&A Webinar

A&A Webinar

August 20

November 5

December 10

2-4 p.m. ET

2-4 p.m. ET

2-4 p.m. ET

Title: Being Tech Savvy: Employing New Technology on Your Audits

Title: Assuring Audit Quality: Learning From Peer Review Results

Title: Best Practices in Preventing & Detecting Fin Statement Fraud

Instructor: Rich Daisley

Instructor: Marci Thomas, MHA, CPA, CGMA

Instructor: Rich Daisley

2020 CPAmerica A&A Webinar Series* *The 2020 Tax Webinar Series schedule will be posted soon on the CPAmerica website. To register or for more webinar information, go to: www.cpamerica.org > CPE & Training > Webinars or email Colleen Gaddy at: cgaddy@cpamerica.org or D’Yãn Davis at: ddavis@cpamerica.org

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