MACPA Statement // Spring 2021

STATEMENT MACPA’S

SPRING 2021

BUILDING A

POST-PANDEMIC PROFESSION New MACPA E-book offers crowdsourced look at the future of accounting and finance Page 12

Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants, Inc.

ALSO INSIDE

Will digital advertising taxes spread in 2021?

Page 7

Revised Maryland individual tax forms released Page 10

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E-14217-421 MD

CONTENTS Spring 2021 | Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants, Inc.

CHAIR’S COLUMN.............................................................................. 4 FEATURES Building a post-pandemic profession.................................................................. 12

DEPARTMENTS Tax Corner.............................................................................................................. 7 Business & Industry.............................................................................................. 41 Public Practice...................................................................................................... 53 Diversity & Inclusion............................................................................................ 57 High-Tech Solutions............................................................................................. 60 Financial Planning................................................................................................ 64

MEMBER NOTES................................................................................ 66 CLASSIFIEDS........................................................................................... 66

MEMBER SERVICES Lauren Baker Sydney Glen PEER REVIEW

2020–2021 BOARD OF DIRECTORS Avonette Blanding, CPA Chair

Cora Edwards

Lexy Kessler, CPA Vice Chair

E-LEARNING

Herbert J. Geary III, CPA, CGMA Secretary/Treasurer

Emily Trott SEMINARS/CONFERENCES Cyndi Powers SPONSORSHIP / ADVERTISING SALES Amy Puente Krislyn Suljak

Ray Speciale, CPA, Esq. Immediate Past Chair Christine Aspell, CPA Pat Byer, CPA Tricia Griffis, CPA Leon Katznelson Tim Samuel, CPA Richard C. Stang, CPA, ABV, PFS Thomas White, CPA, CGMA Jeff Wilson II, CPA, PFS, CFE, CGMA, CDFA

SENIOR STAFF Jackie Brown CEO Skip Falatko, CPA CFO Bill Sheridan, CAE CCO Rebekah Brown, CPA Director of Development Mary Beth Halpern Director Technical Services/ Regulatory Affairs Dee Sullivan Director of Learning

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! See below to submit content Bill Sheridan | MACPA Dulaney Center II 901 Dulaney Valley Road Suite 800 Towson, MD 21204 FOR CONTENT SUBMISSION: bill@macpa.org feedback@macpa.org TO ADVERTISE IN THE STATEMENT: krislyn@macpa.org P: 410.296.6250 F: 410.296.8713 Toll free: 800.782.2036 The MACPA reserves the right to edit all submissions for grammatical style and / or length.

Statement of fact and opinion are made by the authors alone and do not imply an opinion on the part of the officers or members of MACPA. The Statement is published four times a year by the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants, Inc. Bill Sheridan, Editor Krislyn Suljak, Advertising Sales

SPRING 2021

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STATEMENT

For a stronger CPA profession

We’re renewing our commitment to the future of the CPA profession.

The MACPA Foundation works to build a talent pipeline and ensure the strength of the CPA profession for years to come.

Now, it’s easier than ever to make a difference by making a donation through our

ALL-NEW WEBSITE.

Visit our new website to learn more about the difference your donation can make:

MACPA.ORG/FOUNDATION

SPRING 2021

Your donations support:

Pipeline

Providing training for young talent and educators

Diversity

Advancing diversity and inclusion initiatives

Mentorship

Connecting experienced CPAs with young professionals

Scholarships

Granting scholarships to accounting students

3

CHAIR’S COLUMN A year later, COVID’s uncertainty leads to learning and growth

BY AVONETTE BLANDING, CPA / CFO, MARITIME APPLIED PHYSICS CORPORATION COVID-19 was officially declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020.

What have CPAs learned in the year since?

There’s no shortage of examples from which to draw, but these are the lessons that stand out for me.

WE CAN PIVOT WITH THE BEST OF THEM. The definition of “work” has changed over the past 10 or 15 years. It used to be where you go. Today, it’s what you do. For the most part, where you do it doesn’t matter as long as you get it done.

At a fundamental level, accounting and finance professionals have always understood this, and we’ve experimented with that mindset in varying degrees. Still, for whatever reason, we never completely embraced the concepts of “working from home” or “remote work.” Like so many other sectors of the workforce, we seemed to prefer the office-bound traditions of our tradition-heavy profession.

And then came the pandemic.

When Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency on March 5 of last year, we were forced to embrace remote work, whether we liked the concept or not.

As it turns out, we like it just fine.

Our staid, tradition-bound profession is more flexible than most people give us credit for. Not only have we successfully pivoted to a remote work environment, we have thrived there. Sure, we’ve made some mistakes along the way, but we’ve learned from them, grown, and become a better profession as a result. We’re more fluid and future-ready than many people — ourselves included — ever imagined.

WE’RE TECHNO-GENIUSES. OK, that might be pushing it a bit, but when our backs are against the wall, we’re as technologically savvy as any profession around.

Our pandemic-fueled shift to remote work has accelerated our embrace of technologies like the cloud and artificial intelligence as we seek ways to better serve our employees and clients in an increasingly

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isolated world. And while the pandemic has accelerated the rate at which technological trends are impacting our profession, we are using those technologies to automate rote tasks and free up the time we need to provide more value-added services for our clients.

WE’RE ESSENTIAL. OK, we already knew that, but the pandemic drove that point home in a couple of key ways.

In the early days of the emergency, then-MACPA CEO Tom Hood did some snooping around and found that financial workers — including CPAs — are considered part of the nation’s “essential critical infrastructure” as defined by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA. With that definition in hand, Hood successfully urged Maryland officials to include CPAs among the state’s essential workers, allowing them to continue their critical work of keeping Maryland’s financial wheels turning during the lockdown.

From that point on, CPAs began leading their clients through the health, regulatory, compliance, and leadership mazes that the pandemic left in its wake. At the same time, they have remained focused on what comes next — namely, redefining and reimaging what roles our profession will play in a post-pandemic world.

“Understanding the predictable hard trends and visible future allows us to anticipate the massive social, health and government changes to come, as well as the continued march of exponential advances in technology,” Hood wrote. “We can expect significant changes in almost every structure we knew before the pandemic, including taxes and regulations in almost every industry. Some will become permanent and some will fade away. The leaders’ job will be to continue shaping their organizations through a constant iteration of redefining and reinventing their context as the pandemic fog clears.”

co-author Tom Peters has identified seven new rules for leading in the era of COVID19. They are: • Be kind.

• Be caring.

• Be patient.

• Be forgiving.

• Be present.

• Be positive.

• Walk in the other person’s shoes.

In other words, be human. Treat others as humans. Make sure your people come first.

It has always been important. This crisis — and the others that are sure to follow — make it critical.

Those are our marching orders as the world re-emerges from isolation. Be flexible and adaptable. Help those we serve navigate this new normal. Reimagine what our world and our profession look like going forward.

Practice “extreme humanism.” Few things are as important today as these.

It’s been a frightening, chaotic, tumultuous year to be sure, and as my tenure as MACPA chair nears its end, we’re still dealing with that fear and uncertainty. Many have suffered unimaginable personal loss, and the struggle to overcome this virus and forge a new path forward is real and ongoing.

But it has also been a year of learning, insights, personal growth, and amazing achievements. I’m excited by what the future holds, and by the opportunities our profession has to better serve their clients, the great state of Maryland, and the world at large.

It’s an exciting time. I hope you’ll walk beside me as we continue this journey together.

At the same time, the very nature of leadership is changing, so much so that leadership expert and In Search of Excellence

STATEMENT

#MarylandCPAproud

All-new town hall experience, designed & developed with your needs in mind.

In an ever-changing, interconnected world, the work of CPAs is more precious than ever. MACPA Town Halls exist to bring value and insight to you, the heroes making waves in our communities.

We’ve upped our game for 2021, evolving to meet the needs of CPAs in Maryland.

Our NEW Town Hall experience is bringing monthly, virtual updates on the issues affecting your role and your membership. Each individual event is unique, exploring a different professional trend or issue per month – attend as many or as few events as desired! However, we invite you to attend as many as you can to gain invaluable insight into a wide variety of timely issues.

Maxine Bardwell, CPA, WSSC, Incoming MACPA Board Member Candidate

For us, it’ll always be about helping you “navigate the now; anticipate the future” – Let’s continue forward, together.

Upcoming Town Halls: April 16 — Legislative Focus May 21 — Business & Industry Focus Pat Byer, CPA, MBA, CGFM, CGMA, MACPA Member

June 18 — Annual Meeting July 23 — Firm Focus August 20 — Emerging Leader Focus September 17 — Focus TBD October 22 — Focus TBD November 18 — Focus TBD December 17 — Focus TBD *All events are hosted online for your convenience.

LEARN MORE & REGISTER: Nicole Schuyler, Gary R. Bozel & Assoc., P.A. CPA Candidate and MACPA Champion

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TAX CORNER Will digital advertising taxes spread in 2021?

As Maryland prepares to enforce the first digital advertising tax in the nation, Massachusetts and several other states are pursuing digital advertising taxes of their own Editor’s note: The following article originally appeared on CPA Practice Advisor’s website on March 25. It is reprinted here with permission from Avalara, an MACPA strategic partner.

BY GAIL COLE revenues derived from digital advertising services in the commonwealth of at least $100,000, at the following tax rates: • 5 percent of the assessable base for a person with annual gross revenues of $50 million through $100 million.

• 10 percent of the assessable base for a person with annual gross revenues of $100,000,001 through $200 million.

• 15 percent of the assessable base for a person with annual gross revenues exceeding $200,000,001.

The tax would take effect on Jan. 1, 2022.

House Docket 3601 would create a 5 percent excise tax on the sale of digital advertising services within the commonwealth.

It would apply to persons with more than $25 million in annual revenue from digital advertising services in Massachusetts (i.e., when the ads are “received on a user’s device having an IP address located within the commonwealth”).

As Maryland prepares to enforce the first digital advertising tax in the nation, Massachusetts and several other states are pursuing digital advertising taxes of their own.

appearing on a device known or reasonably presumed to be used in Massachusetts, or when the Internet Protocol address indicates the device is in Massachusetts).

Read more about Maryland’s first-in-thenation digital advertising tax at bit.ly/ MDDigitalAdvertising.

“Digital advertising services” means “advertising services on a digital interface,” and includes banner advertising; search engine advertising; interstitial advertising; promoted, boosted, or sponsored content; and other comparable advertising services.

“Digital interface” is defined as any type of software a user can access, including a website or part of a website, or an application or part of an application.

MASSACHUSETTS: FOUR FLAVORS OF DIGITAL TAX At least four different digital advertising tax bills have been introduced in Massachusetts.

House Docket 3210 would tax annual gross revenues derived from digital advertising services in the commonwealth (i.e., ads

The digital advertising tax would apply to a person (a.k.a, an entity) with annual gross

Revenue generated by the tax would help finance the Local Newspaper Trust Fund.

No effective date was provided in the initial version of the bill.

House Docket 3522 would tax online advertising. As of this writing, the draft is still being finalized by House Counsel.

Finally, House Docket 3558 would establish a special commission to study the effects of a tax on digital advertising displayed in Massachusetts by companies generating over $100 million annually in global revenue. By Feb. 15, 2022, the commission would present a final report that includes: • Best practices of other states.

• Massachusetts tax revenue changes CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

SPRING 2021

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TAX CORNER CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7

resulting from the proposed tax revisions.

• Tax rates necessary to fund investment in public infrastructure and programming, and ensure economic competitiveness.

• Total amount of taxes currently paid by the identified companies.

CAN MASSACHUSETTS (OR ANY OTHER STATE) STOMACH A DIGITAL ADVERTISING TAX? Although the above bills have been introduced for consideration, they’re unlikely to gain much traction this session.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker isn’t interested in raising taxes. He’s repeatedly emphasized the need to encourage economic growth and face the challenges resulting from COVID-19 “without raising taxes on residents.”

House Speaker Ronald Mariano echoes that sentiment. Although he’s concerned Massachusetts may be “a little short” on revenue, he said in February that “taxes

are not on the table. We have no intention of raising taxes.” Senate President Karen Spilka also hopes to avoid raising taxes, although she’s acknowledged there could be a need to do so: “We have to see what happens with COVID.” There are certainly less contentious ways to increase tax revenue than a tax on digital advertising. Maryland’s new tax came under fire within days of passing. Amazon, Facebook, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and other affected parties are suing Maryland and seeking to block what they’re calling “a punitive assault on digital, but not print, advertising. It is illegal in myriad ways and should be declared unlawful and enjoined.” The complaint can be found at bitly.com/MDDigitalSuit.

BACK IN MARYLAND … AND BEYOND Meanwhile, Maryland lawmakers have passed a bill (Senate Bill 787) that would exempt digital interfaces owned or operated by a broadcast or news media entity

from the new digital advertising tax. This could make the discriminatory aspects of the tax worse, as the same type of service would be taxed differently depending on the type of business engaged in it.

SB 787 would also push the start of the digital advertising tax to Jan. 1, 2022, andprohibit taxpayers from directly passing on the cost of the tax to certain customers.

The bill now moves to Gov. Larry Hogan’s desk for his consideration.

Digital advertising taxes have been introduced in Connecticut, Indiana, Montana,New York, and Washington, though the Montana measure has already been tabled.

If any of the above bills are adopted, you can read about it in the MACPA State Tax Community and the MACPA blog.

Gail Cole is a senior writer at Avalara.

#MarylandCPAproud

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STATEMENT

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TAX CORNER Revised Maryland individual tax forms released Taxpayers eligible to subtract unemployment benefits must use Maryland Form 502LU FROM THE MARYLAND COMPTROLLER’S OFFICE Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot has announced that all individual Tax Year 2020 tax forms have been updated and are ready for use by taxpayers and tax preparers, effective immediately.

Ordinarily, April 15 would be the deadline for filing federal and state income taxes, but those due dates have been pushed back due to emergency legislation in Annapolis and Washington, D.C., that required extensive changes to the current year tax forms.

The IRS moved the federal income tax filing deadline to Monday, May 17. However, that does not apply to estimated federal income tax payments that remain due on April 15.

Franchot has extended the Maryland deadline by three months to Thursday, July 15, in order to help families and small businesses experiencing economic hardship due to the pandemic. The extension applies to individual, pass-through entity, fiduciary and corporate income tax returns, including first and second quarter estimated payments.

“It’s been a trying year for so many Maryland families and businesses, but the tax changes approved by state and federal lawmakers will bring additional relief to many taxpayers,” Comptroller Franchot said. “I want to thank Marylanders for their patience as our team worked as quickly as possible to update these forms.

As always, my pledge to taxpayers is we will process tax returns efficiently and securely, issue refunds within days, and provide the highest level of customer service that Marylanders deserve.”

Taxpayers who already filed their returns and were awaiting the revision of forms to amend their taxes to take advantage of an Unemployment Insurance subtraction must prepare and submit the amended filings using Maryland Form 502LU. The federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 excludes the first $10,200 of unemployment insurance benefits from federal income for taxpayers with federal adjusted gross income (FAGI) of less than $150,000.

The Maryland RELIEF Act allows a subtraction on the state return for unemployment insurance benefits in excess of the $10,200 federal exclusion for taxpayers with a filing status of single, married filing separate or dependent with a FAGI of less than $75,000, and filers with married filing joint, head of household, or surviving spouse status with a FAGI of less than $100,000.

Additionally, taxpayers who qualify for the newly expanded Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), including those who file using an Individ-

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ual Tax Identification Number (ITIN), can now use the EITC Assistant on the Comptroller’s website to determine the amount of their credit. Most eligible taxpayers who already submitted their returns do not need to file an amended return to receive the adjusted EITC amount. If the only income sources are W-2, 1099-MISC, and 1099-NEC, the Comptroller’s Office will automatically make the adjustments and send the additional refund payment to those who

“It’s been a trying year for so many Maryland families and businesses, but the tax changes approved by state and federal lawmakers will bring additional relief to many taxpayers."

– Comptroller Franchot

are due refunds.

THE TAX FORMS READY FOR USE AS OF APRIL 15 ARE: • 502, Maryland Resident Income Tax Return • 502CR, Maryland Personal Income Tax Credits for Individuals and Instructions • 502LU, Legislative Updates Addition / Subtraction Modifications (new form) • 502X, Maryland Amended Tax Form and Instructions • 505, Non-Resident Income Tax Return • 505X, Non-Resident Amended Tax Return All forms will be available at MarylandTaxes.gov. Third-party tax software vendors will have the updated forms available once they have successfully completed all necessary testing.

In just over two months since the start of the tax season, the Comptroller’s Office has processed more than 1.7 million tax returns and issued $1.17 billion in refunds to approximately 1.22 million taxpayers.

For more information or if you have questions about your return, e-mail taxhelp@marylandtaxes.gov or call (410) 260-7980 from Central Maryland or (800) MD TAXES from elsewhere. Assistance is available Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

STATEMENT

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BUILDING A

POST-PANDEMIC E-book offers crowdsourced look at the future of accounting and finance B Y B I L L S H E R IDA N , CA E Amazing things happen when you put smart people in the same room.

When the Summit conversations were over, CPAs were left with a question: What should we do next?

Need proof? Download a copy of Insights From The Innovation Summit, a crowdsourced e-book of ideas and insights about how accounting and finance professionals can become more future-ready and indispensable.

The answer, said former MACPA President and CEO Tom Hood, lies in answering two final, powerful questions: “What does the future need and expect from us?” and “What can you uniquely contribute to it in the biggest, boldest way possible?”

The book is a collaboration between the Maryland Association of CPAs, the Business Learning Institute, Burrus Research, Matchbox Virtual Media, and the 175 accounting and finance professionals who attended the MACPA’s most recent CPA Innovation Summit.

“The end of the pandemic is finally within our sights,” Hood said. “It is our hope that this crowdsourced project will have allowed us to stand collectively on each other’s shoulders, look beyond the pandemic, and prepare for the next normal.”

They came together in December 2020 for an innovative virtual learning experience that was equal parts lecture, panel discussion, and free-for-all side conversations among attendees. The e-book is a collection of the event’s best insights from all of those platforms.

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To help us do that, we are printing the e-book in its entirety on pages 13 through 39. The book is also available for download at bit.ly/SummitEbook.

Bill Sheridan, CAE, is editor of The Statement and chief communications officer of the Maryland Association of CPAs.

STATEMENT

PROFESSION

SPRING 2021

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Introduction

153

Our Partners

164

Our speakers served as conversation starters, tackling these compelling

SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

questions…

175

In the live chat, we asked attendees…

197

In the live chat, we asked attendees…

208

In the live chat, we asked attendees…

219

Moving from “essential” to “indispensable”

23 11

The way we can work Breakout Room #1: Digital Transformation

13 25

Breakout Room #2: Rebranding CPAs as trusted strategist

26 14

Breakout Room #3: Being Indispensable

27 15

The skills we can perfect

16 28

Breakout Room #4: Being Value-Added Advisors

17 29

Breakout Room #5: Working Alongside Automation

18 30

Breakout Room #6: Continuous Process Improvement

31 19

The tools we can harness

20 32

Breakout Room #7: Advancements in Cloud Computing

21 33

Breakout Room #8: Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning

22 34

Breakout Room #9: Big Data and Analytics

35 23

Next Steps?

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12 24

36 24

STATEMENT

Introduction Introduction Facing inevitable changes can be both daunting and invigorating. The last installation of the CPA Innovation Summit focused on anticipation and reimagination to put the CPA profession on an exciting path forward.

This time, we focused on moving from essential to indispensable.

Collectively travelling to and from the future, we’ve come up with building blocks serving to begin our profession’s path toward a bright future.

SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

Jumping off the identified seeds of future opportunities and impacts of the pandemic, CPA Practice Advisor Editor Gail Perry led panelists and attendees in a conversation that looked from present to future.

We reflected upon lessons learned in 2020 about being “essential” and its impact on future work and perspective. Then, we took a trip to the future with Dan Hood, editor of Accounting Today, who led panelists and attendees in envisioning what work and life will be like in 2030 and possible critical decisions made along the way that positioned us to be indispensable. The goal of taking on both perspectives is to drive formation of the foundation of our collective path forward in order to break through the fog of uncertainty. We also aim to motivate movement towards our indispensable future through analytical conversations while considering our work-life balance.

Among the 167 attendees and eight panelists, collective insights of 1,112 chat messages were exchanged. Attendees then moved into live video chat breakout discussions to dive even deeper into subtopics under the three overarching themes: The Way We Can Work, The Skills We Can Perfect, and The Tools We Can Harness. Attendees answered strategic questions looking at how we might practically achieve our profession’s biggest opportunities.

The following pages present the culmination of attendees’ insights and detail the various ways in which they have helped co-create this e-book.

Thank you all for participating enthusiastically and offering a multitude of insights contributing to our profession’s collective success.

SPRING 2021

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Our Our partners partners Our Partners

SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

Thank you to our preferred providers in the accounting and technology ecosystem, Thank you to our preferred providers in the accounting and technology ecosystem, who are partnering with us to imagine the possibilities and co-create the future of the who are partnering with us to imagine the possibilities and co-create the future of the profession. Together these companies form the Accounting Ecosystem providers who profession. Together these companies form the Accounting Ecosystem providers who are helping the finance and accounting system be #FutureReady, aware, predictive, and are helping the finance and accounting system be #FutureReady, aware, predictive, and adaptive. adaptive.

#FutureReady Resources #FutureReady Resources

Strategic Strategic foresight: foresight: What What can can we we be be certain certain about? about?

On Oct. 2, 2020 we started on this journey to reimagine our post-pandemic future. We On Oct. 2, 2020 we started on this journey to reimagine our post-pandemic future. We gathered our community with global futurist Daniel Burrus and accounting influencer gathered our community with global futurist Daniel Burrus and accounting influencer Tom Hood, CPA, CITP, CGMA, to talk about the leading trends facing the profession Tom Hood, CPA, CITP, CGMA, to talk about the leading trends facing the profession and the Burrus “Science of Certainty,” and how he uses “Hard Trends” to predict future and the Burrus “Science of Certainty,” and how he uses “Hard Trends” to predict future trends. In that session with more than 600 attendees, we discussed how much things trends. In that session with more than 600 attendees, we discussed how much things have accelerated since the pandemic began in March 2020 and what opportunities they have accelerated since the pandemic began in March 2020 and what opportunities they could now see and are most excited about. The results and report are in this link: could now see and are most excited about. The results and report are in this link: Results & report Results & report

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STATEMENT

Our speakers served as conversation starters, Our Speakers served as tackling these compelling conversation starters, tackling questions: these compelling questions: From Present to the Future: Where are we now, what did you learn, and what’s your future view?

SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

SPEAKERS:

SPRING 2021

Gail Perry, Editor, CPA Practice Advisor

Anoop Mehta, CPA, President, SSAI

Sydney Garmong, CPA Office Managing Partner, Crowe, LLP

Rusty Davis, CPA, Principal, Davis & Associates

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From Future to Present: Where will you be in 10 years, a “back-to-the-future” view?

SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

SPEAKERS:

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Dan Hood, Editor, Accounting Today

Chris Benson, CPA, Principal, L. K. Benson & Company

Avonette Blanding, CPA, CFO, Maritime Applied Physics

Jessica McClain, CPA, Controller, Brand USA

STATEMENT

In the the live live chat, chat, we we asked asked attendees In attendees … …

What have been some unexpected results that came out of the pandemic?

What have been some unexpected and results that came out of the pandemic?

What do you think will be the bestand and longest impact of the pandemic?

What do you think will be the best and longest impact of the pandemic?

Comparing these two questions, we saw a lot of similarities between what CPAs have Comparing these twowork, questions, we saw a lot ofwill similarities between CPAs (and have noticed today in our and what we expect remain the same inwhat the future noticed today our work, and what we expect will remain the same in the future (and thus has beeninchanged forever!)

thus has been changed forever!)

Unexpected results Unexpected results

Longest impact Longest impact More planning

More creativity

More creativity Ability to work from afar /Ability abroad to work from afar

/ abroad More productivity

More productivity More casual and friendly relations More casual and friendly relations Normalizing remote work Normalizing remote work More personal time More personal time More comfort at home More comfort at home More time at home More time at home Save money

SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

Here’s what the community said: Here’s what the community said:

More flexibility

More flexibility Going global global BetterGoing work-life balance Better balance Closerwork-life and deeper connections Closer and deeper conExercise nections and healthy eat-

ing Exercise and healthy eating No commute

No accessibility commute More More accessibility Environmentally friendly Environmentally friendly

More planning Automation Automation More tech savvy More tech savvy Human touch, more caring and empathy Human touch, more caring and empathy Hybrid, flexible work model Hybrid, flexible work model Adaptability Adaptability Convenience Convenience

Save money

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In the live chat, we asked attendees …

What will you take with you and do more of in the future?

Here’s what the community said: “Flexibility is the key. I will choose to work from home more.”

SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

– Mary Aldrich-Knight “More casual, more human, more empathy for others, more connections.”

– Tom Hood “Traditions and practices we were ‘chained to’ will be broken, and that flexibility will be key to success.”

– Stacey Milbourne “The pandemic has introduced a human element that was not there before. I LOVE this and hope it doesn’t go away.”

– Sona Akmakjian “Maintaining long-distance relationships – Zooms with long-distance family and friends.” – Jan Williams “More cloud and automation to allow focus on human interaction and higher level services.”

– Tom Hood “Future takeaways: Helping the young adults be prepared for tough times. The kids of 9-11 and the housing crash have different perspectives than other generations, but learned lessons I’d love to hear how they are coping with these days.”

– Susan Jeter

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In the live chat, we asked attendees…

What will you be doing in 10 years, if you can make as much change in the next 10 years as you made in the last eight months?

Here’s what the community said:

SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

“Retired, but looking for ways to continue to contribute to the profession.”

“Technology will change everything and the profession will be digitized.”

“Take over the world.”

“More data analytics and tech application along with more ‘success skills’ (not soft skills).”

“Working to improve outcomes in my community.”

“Living in my purpose.”

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“Helping others live better lives financially.”

“Leverage the virtual platform to balance work and play.”

“Probably doing what I like doing — helping clients and (hopefully!) getting paid for it. Helping my friends and neighbors is fulfilling and getting paid is a great benefit, too.”

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What future opportunities are you most excited about?

Below is a mindmap of the biggest themes shared by attendees.

Being indispensable Geographic barriers removed Digital Transformation Changes in generational leadership Remote-first workforce and culture Expanded customer base

SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

Greater diversity, equity, and inclusion Rebranding CPAs as trusted strategists Expanded talent pool Business model transformation Value pricing and subscription models

The way we can work:

The skills we can perfect:

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Anticipation Trendspotting Strategic Thinking Collaboration Being value-added advisors Working alongside automation Creation of new services Continuous Process improvement Accelerated Learning Building a culture of significance

The tools we can harness:

Advancements in cloud computing AI/ML capabilities RPA - Automated bookkeeping Big data and analytics tools New virtual platforms and collaboration tools Enhanced online payments Online & Blended Learning Blockchain

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Moving from “essential” Moving from “essential” to “indispensable” to “indispensible” After the two panel conversations, attendees were split into nine breakout rooms. There, attendees addressed how to approach the process of moving from being essential to being indispensable, and the following pages reflect their brainstormed thoughts and approaches.

SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

The way we can work Breakout Room #1: Digital transformation Breakout Room #2: Rebranding CPAs as trusted strategist Breakout Room #3: Being indispensable

The skills we can perfect Breakout Room #4: Being value-added advisors Breakout Room #5: Working alongside automation Breakout Room #6: Continuous process improvement

The tools we can harness Breakout Room #7: Advancements in cloud computing Breakout Room #8: Artificial intelligence / machine learning Breakout Room #9: Big Data and analytics

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SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

The way we can work

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Breakout Room #1: Digital transformation Facilitator(s): Safesend - Mike Cuffle SECU- Irwin Weinstein

SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

Imagined outcomes and results: Digital transformation is happening right before our eyes, and it is pivotal now more than ever to ride the wave of discovery and change. In the coming years, we anticipate more successful hybrid work environments, catering toward the virtual while also having more flexibility back “in the office.” Firm digital transformation will make us more productive, less stressed, and more profitable as we improve capacity.

Barriers to overcome: How might we introduce new technology to clients and staff?

How might we curve skepticism?

How might we better listen to one another?

How might we aid those who are less comfortable with tech?

How might we create technology roadmaps for staff?

How do we accomplish / implement this?

Adopt suitable technologies.

Be curious and willing to learn.

Listen and educate.

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Breakout Room #2: Rebranding CPAs as trusted strategist Facilitator(s): cpa.com- Brian Siet CPA Charge - Amy Mann

SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

Imagined outcomes and results: CPAs work in the best interest of our clients; it is imperative that we work toward developing strategies to rebrand and, in turn, build trust. Machines produce results, but humans provide reasoned judgment, experience, and insights. In today’s financial and social climate, we must constantly shift our focus to the future in order to provide clients with the most valuable insights.

Barriers to overcome: How might we create attitudes working toward change management?

How might we avoid simply going back to the way it “used to be”?

How might we encourage advising?

How might we rebuild business culture to be more collaborative?

How might we reinvent ourselves to be more forward-looking?

How do we accomplish / implement this?

See where the market is heading, the industry trajectory, make a plan, implement it, measure it.

Use case studies, share success stories.

You have to sell the benefits to being a trusted strategist. There will always be some people who don’t want that kind of work, but there are others who might just not understand what it means or what it will look like.

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Breakout Room #3: Being indispensable Facilitator(s): ADP- Laura Jansen Thomson Reuters- Will Hill

SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

Imagined outcomes and results: Acknowledgement and appreciation of hard work are always validating to those dedicated in their field. We must develop tools and strategies to ensure that our work is seen by clients as indispensable in order to retain both employees and clients. We must shift from a compliance role to an advisory role. We must operate through the lens of the customer and commit to being as dedicated to reaching their goals as they are. In supporting our clients, we increase our value.

Barriers to overcome: How might we combat fear?

How might we create a business culture that is more open?

How do we accomplish / implement this?

Looking at what we will risk if we do not make the investment.

The first step is to know yourself and if you are indeed risk-averse.

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SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

The skills we can perfect

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Breakout Room #4: Being value-added advisors Facilitator(s): Sage - Ed Kless Xero - Michael Soby

SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

Imagines outcomes and results: To continue as value added advisors for our clients, we need to adapt to both changes and clients through adopting positive outlooks and continual learning.

By working toward the following, we imagine more satisfaction in our work and more client recognition of worth in services provided by us, as well as expansion and growth in our own business and in the industry.

Barriers to overcome: How might we adapt to changes and clients in a positive way?

How do we accomplish / implement this?

More quality conversations with clients.

Openness to learning from others in the industry through creating a great professional network.

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Breakout Room #5: Working alongside automation Facilitator(s): Avalara - Sona Akmakjian Accountants World- Div Bhansali

SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

Imagined outcomes and results: Working alongside automation is an inevitable part of the industry’s evolution.

We envision that by embracing this reality and the following answers posed by attendees, we will see three dimensional growth — new service areas and value, increased efficiency, and increased quality and satisfaction in work for both clients and employees. As well as cultivation of a better work environment, we will be quicker in adapting to change with consideration of work/life balance.

Accuracy and scalability of services will improve as a result of automation integration.

Barriers to overcome: How might we see changes as an opportunity?

How might we use leaders to prepare everyone for changes?

How might we cultivate an environment of adaptability and understanding?

How might we inspire people to embrace change?

How do we accomplish / implement this?

Shifting resources into more exciting areas, such as data, robotics, and planning.

Positing automation as an exciting opportunity.

Proving that automation works, seeing value in the solutions and how it will improve results.

Hybrid approach of integrating people issues and technical issues by focusing on people first and then using technology solutions.

Recognising that automation will allow for us to focus on people.

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Breakout Room #6: Continuous process improvement Facilitator(s): Prophix- Wayne Slater Dext- Keith Bateman

SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

Imagined outcomes and results: Continuous process improvement is what propels us forward in providing quality services to our clients. Through addressing the following, we envision improvement made by finding solutions that achieves the intended results in solving problems. Along with utilisation of new technology to create efficiencies in not only the process, but our teams as well thus increasing morale and productivity.

Barriers to overcome: How might we inspire new ways of thinking?

How might we encourage flexibility in people’s mindsets?

How might we incorporate new voices and ideas in the evolution of this profession?

How might we forge trusting relationships?

How do we accomplish / implement this?

Thinking outside the box and reinventing the way processes “have always been done.”

Keeping an open mind and asking for feedback on process changes.

Taking advantage of technology as much as possible.

Providing support and an environment for innovators and creatives to thrive within our organisations.

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SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

The tools we can harness

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Breakout Room #7: Advancements in cloud computing Facilitator(s): Vic.AI - Todd Robinson Intuit- Jasen Stein

SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

Imagined outcomes and results: With advancements in cloud computing, we expect a more seamless and efficient technology support that will support our businesses in the future. When we allow technology to be more efficient, we also allow ourselves to revert back to being reliable and trusted advisors. By keeping the following in mind, it will save us a lot of time, grant us superiority in security, and provide us with the best ability to scale.

Barriers to overcome: How might we maintain the ability to integrate with other applications?

How might we devote the right amount of time in order to investigate and implement changes in the cloud?

How might we accomplish/ implement this?

Find out where your vendors are in the SOC compliance model.

Partner with the right tech vendors that will support you and your services best.

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Breakout Room #8: Artificial intelligence / machine learning Facilitator(s): MindBridge- John Colthart Botkeeper- Enrico Palmerino

SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

Imagined outcomes and results: Being able to focus on the type of work that is the most mentally stimulating, what people need the most, and what will make the biggest difference are the key ingredients to a successful future with artificial intelligence. By focusing on these ideas, along with the following points, we foresee that we will be able to provide added value to our clients.

Barriers to overcome: How might we bridge the generational gap?

How might we overcome the fear of change?

How might we learn to adapt quickly?

How will we accomplish/ implement this?

It is okay to change. It is okay to fail.

Curious in the hiring process how to identify people who have a mindset of being adaptable (how to identify those traits in people).

Push non-valued work off to the “machine.”

Enabling the existing team to enact change.

If you want to change / evolve, bring in people who are different than the current culture. Communicate the value; permission to fail.

Technology.

Technology is also changing as a response to societal shifts. An interesting feedback loop (because tech also catalyzes societal shift) .

Giving employees back time — to learn something new or work on something they don’t usually have time for.

Collaboration.

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Breakout Room #9: Big Data and analytics Facilitator(s): Engineered Tax Services- Heidi Henderson ByteChek- Jeff Cook

SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

Imagined outcomes and results: Big data and analytics will be able to predict future outcomes that we can use to have more relevant and customized products that better suit our clients needs.

In order to do this, we must have better information for strategic planning, better preparation for lending and equity requests, as well as better communication through alternative methods of presentation. From this, and from the following, we will be able to provide more valuable information for customers and clients.

Barriers to overcome: How might we find the right talent/professionals who know how to use these tools and get the most out of them?

How might we make sure everyone is on board and comfortable with new technology and the information it provides?

How might we overcome the fear that CPA will be less important, have less work, etc.?

How might we track the cost of training and/or the hiring of a skilled employee?

How might we improve our and Senior Management’s knowledge of this technology?

How might we dispel the belief that jobs are being eliminated, instead of upskilled?

How might we find ways to be creative while using data and analytics?

How might we make time or create a position with the time to spend to learn and potentially fail fast?

How might we ensure that we have a high level management champion to keep the project on track?

How might we confidently take inventory of current organization data and take those first steps?

How might we accomplish / implement this?

In the earlier session, there were several comments about changing/updating the accounting curriculum at universities. I agree. We also need to educate ourselves and clients.

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Next Steps?

Next Steps?

How to engage your people with lessons you learned from Innovation Summit:

SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

01 02

You can ask yourself how this topic could be relevant to your own practice.

If you are unfamiliar with the given topic, a good place to start is simply reading the page and see what your peers had to say about it. Their perspective may help develop a framing for the topic or a sense of what specific relevance it has to CPA work.

03

If you are more curious or willing to explore this topic, you can read the page and move on to doing some research on some of the keywords you found. We suggest picking up a book on the topic or reading a blog post related to it to deepen your knowledge. The resources provided by colleges are also great sources of learning opportunities.

04

Next, if you have some degree of familiarity with the topic, we suggest the next step to be starting conversations in and around your work environment. You can initiate this process by approaching friends, clients or colleagues about their perspectives on the topic. You can also start the process by using these pages as inspiration for conversations in your local work environment.

05

Finally, if you are feeling very adventurous, you could try to bring your community’s understanding to a whole new level by hosting learning environments to help yourself and your peers engage with this topic. If you’re interested in what this entails, we suggest you continue reading to consult section 4.4 where you will learn more about how to succeed at this endeavor.

Remember, this e-book is designed to aid you in your practice! The above list is not exhaustive. Do as you wish with it! Print it out, post it on the wall, scribble on it, share it with colleagues, use it as conversation starters — simply do as you wish to build an educational foundation with it. You can think of this list as a list of starting points from which you can draw the lines.

Go forth, be creative, and thrive!

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STATEMENT

Next Steps?

Creating learning environments with peers:

Are you interested in taking some leadership in creating learning opportunities for yourself and other CPAs interested in exploring some of these conversations? Great!

These pages are here to help you get started on this.

01

Ongoing conversations that people can contribute to whenever they wish, want to, or feel it’s necessary. This is best done through online resources that enable a forum to be created.

02

An event that happens at a specific time and place where people come together to discuss!

SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

Learning opportunities, you say? To give you the clearest insight into our meaning, we think of these as being classed in two ways:

We encourage you to contact your professional association to see if they can help by informing you of existing learning communities on these topics! If no such environment already exists, the association can help you better understand what you’ll need to do to start one. For example, if you’re thinking of hosting a learning event, they might be able to help by sharing resources or contacts to better reach your desired audience.

If ongoing conversations are what interests you the most, here are some ways to go about finding or making the group to tackle the idea: Start an email chain Post in a forum relevant to your practice Check the chat section associated with a wiki page relevant to your inquiry Post in reddit Find any other online environment pertinent to your curiosity (again, ask your association!)

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Learn the skill of anticipation: Learn the skill of anticipation:

“

To succeed in business today, simply being lean, agile, and executing well is no longer enough. You and your team need to harness the ability to anticipate the future.

SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

— Daniel Burrus —

”

2-minute demo of the learning system

The Anticipatory Organization: Accounting and (AOAF) enterprise edition The FInance AnticipatoryEdition Organization: The Anticipatory Leader: Accounting and Finance edition http://www.blionline.org/ao (AOAF) enterprise edition

Accounting and Finance edition (ALAF) individuals and small groups

www.blionline.org/AO

www.blionline.org/ALAF

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Conclusion: to action action Conclusion: A call to As this paper is released, three COVID-19 vaccines have been approved and are being distributed globally. The end of the pandemic is finally within our sights. It is our hope that this crowdsourcing project will have allowed us to stand collectively on each other’s shoulders to look out farther beyond the pandemic and prepare for the next normal.

What should you do next?

We believe the answer lies in two powerful questions: SPECIAL E-BOOK INSERT: Insights from the Innovation Summit

What does the future need and expect from us?

And What are you in a unique position to contribute to it in the biggest, boldest way?

A quote from Marianne Williamson in the movie “Coach Carter” sums it up well: “Your playing small does not serve the world.”

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Go out and be a bold, caring, and audacious person, and help us co-create a better future for all of us and the communities we serve.

Thank you!

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Sales tax changes.

Don’t risk it.

Automate it.

Fast, easy, accurate and affordable.

That’s Avalara.

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Avalara.com

STATEMENT

BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY Pandemic increased the urgency to prepare business for growth

BY SABINE VOLLMER Editor’s note: This article is part of FM’s “A Year of Evolution: CFOs on 2021” series featuring insights from finance leaders across industries, and their COVID-19 lessons and 2021 plans. Read the series in its entirety at fm-magazine.com/cfos-on-2021.

To receive weekly updates on this series, sign up for the CGMA Advantage newsletter at fm-magazine.com/newsletter.

FM: With no sign of the pandemic abating, what do you see as the main constraints for your business in 2021?

Johnson: It comes back to the inability to travel. Air travel has been limited, and we expect it to be limited for probably the first half of (2021).

Typically, we hold live events all across the globe, where we’re hosting customers and partners. Almost all of that has shifted to virtual. Not being able to travel and people not being able to congregate in large groups is a limitation.

We’ve been working in a largely virtual environment since the beginning of March 2020. Not being able to have salespeople on planes going to visit customers forced us to think differently about how we have those customer and prospect touchpoints in a virtual environment.

The economic and health impacts of the coronavirus pandemic have forced many businesses to address the way they manage uncertainty and risk.

To survive the impacts, which differed by geography and industry, businesses devised strategies based on what-if scenarios. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and predictive models helped cut through the complexity, but the speed at which the impacts could be felt also required up-to-date data and predictive modelling that had to be repeated frequently.

That created opportunities for companies like Qlik, a U.S.-based software company. Qlik helps customers around the world tackle complex problems through the use of data analytics. The digital tools produce insights into the data, which allow customers to transform their organizations, whether it’s a business, a university, or a not-for-profit.

The pandemic also created obstacles to pursue these opportunities, said Qlik Chief Financial Officer Dennis Johnson, CPA. FM talked with Johnson about the limitations the pandemic imposed on the company’s global sales force at a time when demand for data analytics software is rising and how the company is overcoming the obstacles.

Also, we typically do a big sales kickoff at the beginning of the year to get our sales force fired up, get them all aligned on our objectives. We’ll do it virtually, but again it’s a little more challenging to coordinate that way. When you do a Zoom, it’s very formal.

Everybody is on the call together, and so whether it’s a customer interaction or an internal meeting, you lose those informal interactions with people. You have to focus on putting more resources into it and really being thoughtful about how you plan the agenda to get that same result and impact from it.

FM: How has productivity been affected? Team morale — how do you help build the mental strength of yourself and your team as the pandemic drags on?

Johnson: We actually saw a bit of a surge in productivity at the beginning of the pandemic. People wanted to demonstrate we could make this work, that we were going to fight through this. It was almost a bit of an adrenaline rush.

The longer the pandemic played out, the more that was taxing on people. There was a lot of pressure on people, whether it’s parents who are home-schooling children or trying to deal with virtual school, hybrid school, whatever it might be and wherever they live, or taking care of family members who had caught the virus or who have some type of underlying condition and they have to be very careful about not catching the virus. So that was something that we really had to focus on, to really ramp up our communication cadence.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 43

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BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 41

Our executive team did listening forums where we would get random employees in small groups and just hear them out about what’s going well. What are we doing right? What’s not going too well? Where could we give you some additional support? Functionally, really ramping up our communications, doing skip-level one-on-ones (employees meet with their manager’s manager), team meetings, functional town halls. The best thing to do was to stay close to people to make sure we understood how they were feeling.

FM: What approach are you taking to budgeting and forecasting for 2021? Is it different from past years?

FM: Are there some things that you’ve started during the pandemic that you’re considering keeping, even when people are coming back to the office?

FM: How will the pandemic affect your finance function’s or your company’s digital transformation journey? Any plans to accelerate or hold off initial plans?

Johnson: We would do listening forums in the past, but I think we’ve seen the value of having an executive sit in a room with a cross-functional group of employees in a small setting and opening up the dialogue and encouraging people to be open. That’s been very helpful in terms of us staying close to the organization, really understanding what’s going on, not just hearing it from our direct reports up through the chain but getting close to people.

That is definitely something we’ll continue in more of a regular cadence maybe than we have in the past.

Johnson: We were a public company and went private in 2016.

We had a task to really get down our cost to finance and cost to general and administrative expense as a percentage of revenue, which we’ve done. We’ve reduced it dramatically and really driven efficiencies and scale out of the organization. Technology was at the center of that.

Johnson: It’s really not too much different. It’s maybe slightly more cautious just in terms of trying to predict specifically when things will return back to relatively normal where people will be travelling.

So maybe a little more cautious and just being able to pivot one way or the other if things break a certain way, the economy suffers a setback, or things really start to take off. We’re watching the news on vaccines and what that means to the economy very closely.

We used the world’s best software platforms, whether it’s NetSuite or Concur or Xactly for commissions and Salesforce for customer relationship management, but it all kind of starts with our own CONTINUED ON PAGE 44

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BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 45

technology. We’re using the Qlik products within finance to help scale our organization, drive insights into the business, and really get the most out of our organization from an efficiency standpoint.

That will continue to be part of our strategy going forward. If anything, we’ll focus more on those types of projects next year to make sure we’re remaining as efficient as possible and getting the most out of technology.

FM: What is your most important priority going forward?

Johnson: The primary focus is bookings growth. We want to continue to take market share and continue to disrupt the industry as we have for several years. The focus for us is really how we drive that bookings growth. Some of it is increasing productivity of our sales force to make sure that we’re making them efficient and that we see productivity gains year over year.

When we see a particular market where we can add sales capacity and drive bookings, we’re going to do that, and despite the pandemic we’ve done that. We continue to hire very aggressively.

We’ve retooled and re-prioritized as we’ve gone throughout the year, based on shifts in our market we’ve seen as a result of the pandemic. We do continue to invest in our organization and people, our products from a research and development standpoint, in our sales organization, and our customer success in order to continue to drive growth for the company.

We think that when the pandemic ends, we’re going to come out of this on a really strong footing.

FM: What are the biggest threats to your business now, and how are you managing them? What indicators are you tracking?

Johnson: Aviation and hospitality are two industries that we continue to watch very closely.

We look at churn rate. We look at the renewal rates, maintenance, and subscription contracts that are up for renewal — what’s happening within those sectors. And really what we try to do is help our customers through this. We’ve been a little more flexible for customers in industries that have been hit hard. We try to offer them ways to help them through this period of time and to stay loyal to them. Hopefully, they return that with loyalty to us.

FM: Have your business strategies changed? Are they being reassessed?

Johnson: What we’ve seen in the pandemic is more of a focus on cloud. It’s becoming top of the agenda for the CIOs we talk to.

We are adapting accordingly and accelerating our cloud strategy, which was already under way. We have our pure SaaS-only offering in the market now. We’re working with our customers in particular, to move them to the cloud and to help them manage their overall total cost of ownership.

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The other thing we’ve seen is a move from what we would call “passive” to “active” intelligence. Customers are really looking to access and make decisions on data much more quickly in real time versus relying on static dashboards or reports. In the past you would get a report delivered to your inbox and then the evolution was to dashboards. We’re looking to make that even more real-time with alerting capabilities, which we now build into our product, and mobile capability.

What the pandemic also exposed and what we’re responding to is filling in the gaps in the data pipeline, where the information comes from. Companies realized they had data silos or processes and technology gaps that slowed down their ability to access data and act on it. Creating a more robust data pipeline to manage the data process — accessing the data, transforming and preparing it, analyzing it — that’s really becoming a top priority.

Going back even maybe 10 years where a business user would have a need for information, they would work with their IT department and they would say, “This is the information that I need.

These are the time periods that I need, and I need it done for each month.” It might take two weeks to get that data, a month to get that data, six weeks to get that data. By the time it would land on your desk or in your e-mail inbox as a PDF report, it was already outdated. Then you start asking questions about, “Well, what about the last six weeks, and how quickly can I get that information to see what’s happened?”

The other thing we’ve seen is a move from what we would call “passive” to “active” intelligence.

Customers are really looking to access and make decisions on data much more quickly in real time versus relying on static dashboards or reports.

– Dennis Johnson, CPA, Qlik Chief Financial Officer What we’re talking about now is having information on your phone.

You get an alert on your phone that maybe there’s sales data in a particular region available, and that sales data indicates there’s been a drop-off in sales last week, or yesterday, or this morning, giving the person that’s responsible for that business the ability to jump in and look at what’s going on and talk to people and say, “What’s happening? How do we respond to this?”

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BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY “The pandemic has taught us the importance of solid leadership and staying close to people and really leading an organization through this.”– Dennis Johnson, CPA, Qlik Chief Financial Officer RAPID-FIRE QUESTIONS FM: What has been your biggest lesson from this pandemic?

Johnson: Expect the unexpected. Nobody in the world as we came into 2020 expected that we would be dealing with what we’re dealing with. Particularly as a finance leader, you just always need to be prepared, and there needs to be a plan that you can act on pretty quickly.

FM: What one piece of technology is a must-have in your 2021 budget?

FM: Looking ahead, what is one skill you want to develop in your team?

Johnson: Leadership. The pandemic has taught us the importance of solid leadership and staying close to people and really leading an organization through this.

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BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY Succession planning: Ensure your business does not die with you

BY KEVIN F. BRESS death” — designation will avoid having your business interest go through probate and will, most likely, help you avoid having to obtain a costly appraisal of the business after death.

The trust would be managed by one or more trustees who you select. Candidates for that job would be a key person in the business, your accountant, attorney, insurance person, or other advisor who is both trusted and competent. Family members may also play a role, but it is often those family members you are trying to protect by having your trustees take the helm.

Succession planning — better termed “success in planning” — is best approached if you think of it as running a fire drill for the continuation of your business if you suffer a permanent loss of mental capacity, or if you die. Your goal: Ensure your business does not suffer an economic fire and essentially burn out.

A comprehensive succession plan begins with a minutiae of little things, like where to find documents, keys, and passwords that may be stashed in file folders, at home, or that were hidden. Your plan culminates with addressing the transition of ownership, whether to family or a sale.

Some personal-service businesses, such as a computer repair shop, may simply have to liquidate if you are the heart and soul of the entity. Still, there may be value in selling off the parts.

Since most of us don’t consider running literal fire drills should a blaze engulf our residence, it is safe to assume far fewer business owners perform the comparable drill in the death or disability scenario.

Do not be complacent by thinking your well-drafted will directs the disposition of ownership and that is enough. You’ve not taken on the critical issues, big and small.

I suggest starting your plan by creating a three-ring binder, a playbook, tabbed with meticulously detailed content on each aspect of stepping into your shoes. Much of your playbook will be obvious — a tab containing passwords for the computer and Internet, your customer list, contracts, and what critical knowledge is in your head but no one else really knows. The two most difficult chapters in the playbook will be: 1. who initially takes control of the dayto-day management of the entity; and 2. what is the ultimate disposition of ownership.

Whether you operate a corporation, an LLC, or a partnership, it’s easy to temporarily park your ownership interest in a trust to be managed by the key people you think are best suited for operating your business. A simple “TOD” — or “transfer on

Whether you operate a corporation, an LLC, or a partnership, it’s easy to temporarily park your ownership interest in a trust to be managed by the key people you think are best suited for operating your business.

Think of this as a business trust steered by a committee you’ve selected. You specify how long the trust should control before the ultimate disposition of the business is decided. A tab in your playbook should give the trustees non-binding guidance on operations, salaries, and control. This informal direction allows the trustee some flexibility to maneuver but also gives them cover if a disgruntled family member protests why a decision was made a certain way.

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BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 49

You should address what happens if the business experiences a precipitous drop in revenue and its continuation looks dubious.

The trust platform affords small businesses much more flexibility. For example, suppose you are paying $1,000 per month from the business to your sister to help support her. Your accountant simply books that payment as a distribution to you, as owner, and you in turn gift the money to your sister. After your death, this arrangement would come to an abrupt stop.

The owners may see no reason to continue the payments, and there is no business purpose in so doing. With the trust arrangement, income from the business may properly be paid by the trustee to the sister for the designated duration.

If you have several children, the trustees have a challenge ahead of them: Which children will run / own the business and how much will be paid to others to equalize the inheritance? With the succession trust, the trustees can begin mediating a negotiation, whereby one child is to purchase the business and the other children will be cashed out. It’s likely all interests cannot be equalized, and some will argue unfairness. The trustee has a better shot at working out the disposition than letting the children fend for themselves.

If the negotiation goes nowhere, your trustees should be given a heavy hammer to wield and decide if selling the business is the only course. A sale might involve retaining a business broker or you providing them with a list of potential purchasers in one tab of the playbook.

The family will often balk at any sales price, saying it was too low. The trust can contain language exonerating the trustees for accepting a price which they deem appropriate, albeit lower that hoped. Often the loss of the owner immediately deflates the value of the business due to the loss of your business acumen, instincts, and connections.

Start with an estate planning attorney who can provide you with a comprehensive outline of the issues for your succession planning. You want your planning attorney to think of issues that you had not considered.

Kevin F. Bress is a shareholder and managing director in the estate planning law firm of PK Law, P.A.

Stein Sperling’s Tax Litigation & Controversy Team Stein Sperling is one of 34 Firms in the US ranked First Tier in Tax Litigation & Controversy by US News & World Report. The Firm is also nationally ranked in Tax Law and Trusts & Estates.

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PUBLIC PRACTICE 6 steps for creating the capacity to offer more value

BY ARIANNA CAMPBELL Keep in mind, it’s not just young people who need training. More tenured people may need training as well, but they’re less likely to ask.

STRATEGY NO. 2: INCREASE ENGAGEMENT According to Gallup’s most recent employee engagement survey: • Forty percent of employees are engaged in their work. They are loyal and psychologically committed, leading to higher productivity and retention.

• Forty-seven percent of employees are not engaged. They may be productive, but they’re not psychologically connected to the company. They miss more work days and are more likely to leave.

• Thirteen percent of employees are actively disengaged.

They’re physically present but psychologically absent. They are unhappy and insist on sharing this unhappiness with others.

Challenges with engagement will cause friction and decrease productivity, which in turn limits capacity in your firm. To create capacity, identify engagement gaps and start taking steps to close them.

One of the challenges firms face in transforming from compliance to advisory and consulting is capacity: People are so busy with existing client work that it feels impossible to learn new skills and deliver new services.

First, it’s important to understand that capacity does not equal time, and that capacity is not fixed. While we tend to think of increased capacity as giving us more time, capacity also encompasses money, resources, skills, and opportunities.

The following six strategies will help your firm create the space to focus on providing more value to your clients.

STRATEGY NO. 1: UPSKILL YOUR TEAM A common limit to our capacity is not having trained people to whom we can delegate. For example, partners and managers may spend time preparing tax returns or performing audit procedures instead of working on business development or training staff.

When everyone, at all levels, is working at their highest and best use, your firm will have greater capacity. Start upskilling your team to give them core success skills like: • Consultative conversations • Creative conflict • Collaboration • Continuous improvement • Business development • Public speaking • Thought leadership • Technology, including A.I. awareness and education

...it’s important to understand that capacity does not equal time, and that capacity is not fixed. While we tend to think of increased capacity as giving us more time, capacity also encompasses money, resources, skills, and opportunities.

STRATEGY NO. 3: LEVERAGE EXISTING TECHNOLOGY The next strategy involves looking at the technologies your firm has and assessing how you’re using them. Firms often believe they need to invest in new technologies to gain certain features or functionality, but the features and functionality they need may already be included in their existing technology stack – they’re simply not using them.

Using your existing technology effectively will create more capacity and conserve resources. Make sure you’re staying on top of software updates. Have conversations with your solution providers to understand the latest features and have ongoing discussions with them about increasing your investment return.

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STRATEGY NO. 4: EXPLORE NEW TECHNOLOGIES Provide clients with the tools to easily collaborate with your team, provide information, and perform the tasks you need them to complete.

Too often, firms focus on the technologies that will make their teams more operationally effective but allow the client experience to take a back seat. Then, if the firm doesn’t experience immediate time savings, they scrap the initiative. This focus on operational efficiency is short-sighted and overlooks the fact that proving value from the client’s perspective is paramount.

Look for new technologies that put your client’s needs first. Here are some ideas: • Embedded chatbots in your website that answer simple questions posed by clients and prospects, or that connect them to a person who can.

• Technology that replaces paper organizers and allows clients to sign engagement letters, access PBC lists, and securely send documents using a mobile device.

• Software that automates tax return assembly and delivery.

The easier it is for clients to work with you, the greater your capacity to serve them.

STRATEGY NO. 5: IMPLEMENT AUTOMATION Automation provides a vast opportunity to increase capacity in your firm. The tasks being automated aren’t what clients value.

Clients don’t care whether a staff member manually enters every number into a tax return or trial balance. They simply want their tax return or financial statement to be accurate. What they value is the advice and guidance you provide along with that deliverable.

Look for ways to automate routine, manual tasks that will save people time. Some ideas of tasks to automate include:

• Moving files and folders • Copying and pasting • Filling in forms • Reading and writing to databases • Scraping data from the web • Connecting to APIs • Making calculations • Extracting structured data from documents • Collecting social media statistics • Following if-then algorithms STRATEGY NO. 6: FOCUS ON PROCESS IMPROVEMENT Process improvement is important. We want to look for ways to streamline processes, improve the way we’re doing work, remove steps that don’t add value, and build consistency. But efficiency is a milestone, not the end game. Ultimately, your goal should be to better serve clients and add more value to the services you deliver.

If you’re just focused on efficiency, you run the risk of missing opportunities to use those efficiency gains. It’s possible to put a lot of time and money into improving your firm’s processes but still not have the right skills or a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Remember, the goal of creating capacity isn’t to do more of what you’re already doing, but to provide an opportunity to learn and implement a value-added approach to client service. Take advantage of these strategies to create capacity and better serve your clients.

As a shareholder and consultant for Boomer Consulting, Arianna Campbell helps accounting firms challenge the status quo by leading process improvement initiatives that result in increased profitability and client satisfaction.

• Opening e-mail / attachments • Logging into web / enterprise applications

A meeting of the minds that lead firms and organizations 54

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Women TO WATCH 2021 AWARDS

outstanding female

Recognizing CPAs in Maryland

The Women to Watch Awards program highlights the accomplishments of women in the CPA profession and demonstrates to emerging female leaders that success is not out of reach.

Do you know a female CPA leading the profession forward?

NOMINATE A WOMAN TO WATCH EMERGING LEADERS are those women who are up-and-coming stars in their organizations.

EXPERIENCED LEADERS are those who have established their roles as leaders in their organizations by advancing to the highest levels of management or ownership, and by mentoring those following in their footsteps.

Nominees may be leaders in any industry, at any career stage.

Nominate a leader you know at MACPA.ORG/AWARDS Nomination deadline: June 30, 2021

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DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION Significant diversity gaps exist at senior levels of accounting profession, study shows FROM THE MACPA BLOG are telling us that the only way to overcome today’s DE&I challenges is to collaborate to enact meaningful change, and collective action needs to be taken now.”

The study found that 43 percent to 55 percent of respondents from groups underrepresented at senior levels left their employers due to a perceived lack of equitable treatment, and at least 30 percent have left because of a lack of inclusion.

The lack of DE&I poses risks to the success of the profession’s transformation currently under way. As many as 18 percent of the respondents from diverse demographic groups left the profession altogether due to these factors.

A perceived lack of diversity, equitable treatment, and inclusion could threaten the success of the accounting and finance profession to transform itself and prepare for changes to come, according to a new research study conducted by the Institute of Management Accountants and the California Society of CPAs. Titled “Diversifying U.S. Accounting Talent: A Critical Imperative to Achieve Transformational Outcomes,” the study examined race and ethnicity, gender, and LGBTQIA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual) orientation in the U.S. accounting profession, including public and management accounting. It also examines the role of ethics in the profession’s overall progress around diversity, equality, and inclusion (or DE&I) and presents solutions to drive expansive change.

The Maryland Association of CPAs was among the partners that worked with IMA and CALCPA on the project.

The study found that there is a significant diversity gap between those in executive leadership ranks and the broader accounting profession as well as the U.S. population. For example, African Americans make up 8.5 percent of the profession but only 1 percent of partners at U.S. CPA firms and 1.5 percent of CFOs of Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies. The survey revealed that diverse professionals believe they aren’t advancing in the profession because of a lack of equity and inclusion.

“Although our research highlights the stark reality facing the profession today, it also presents a great opportunity,” said IMA President and CEO Jeff Thomson, CMA, CSCA, CAE. “Members of our profession

“The diversity gap between senior leadership and the broader accounting profession is a huge wakeup call that this needs to be fixed through real solutions,” said CalCPA President and CEO Anthony Pugliese, CPA, CGMA, CITP. “More diverse leaders are needed to connect people of all backgrounds to the profession and to serve as role models so we can retain and develop the next generation of talent.”

The study concluded that for the profession to continue to grow and succeed with a robust talent pipeline, actions to address DE&I issues need to be taken now. This includes bringing in and promoting talented people based on relevant and unbiased factors rather than demographics.

“This report gives a voice to members of the profession by presenting their contemporary experiences and is meant to heighten awareness and inspire change at all levels,” said Loreal Jiles, the IMA’s director of research and lead researcher on this project.

The report acknowledges DE&I improvement efforts that are already under way and suggests action in four areas: awareness, attraction, promotion, and accountability.

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“If we collaboratively work to close the diversity gap, it will not only have a positive impact on the front-end pipeline of candidates coming into the profession, it will work to curb the loss of talent that we are seeing.”

– Brad Monterio, CalCPA’s chief learning officer “If we collaboratively work to close the diversity gap, it will not only have a positive impact on the front-end pipeline of candidates coming into the profession, it will work to curb the loss of talent that we are seeing,” said Brad Monterio, CalCPA’s

chief learning officer and CalCPA research lead on this project.

In addition to the MACPA, the partners that worked with IMA and CalCPA on this research study included the International Federation of Accountants, the National

Association of Black Accountants, the Association of Latino Professionals for America, the National Society of Black CPAs, the PhD Project, the Connecticut Society of CPAs, the Colorado Society of CPAs, the Florida Institute of CPAs, the Illinois CPA Society, the Massachusetts Society of CPAs, the Ohio Society of CPAs, the Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs, and the Texas Society of CPAs. The first in a multi-part global series, the report is informed by results from an online survey of more than 3,000 current and former U.S. accounting and finance professionals and interviews of nearly 60 accounting, human resources, and DE&I practitioners and academics.

The report is available at imanet.org/diversifying-accounting-talent.

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HIGH-TECH SOLUTIONS Three cybercrime trends to watch in 2021

BY KRISTEN HUGHES

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the digitalization of many companies and a shift to remote working. That increased firstquarter cybercrime 273 percent in 2020 compared to 2019. foreseeable future.

Bourke says the shift created a new level of complexity.

“All it takes is one staff person to give away the keys to the kingdom and let a potential cyberthief in,” he says.

However, firms can re-examine the controls and security protocols they have in place to mitigate the risk.

Cyber breaches have become more common threats for businesses. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the digitalization of many companies and a shift to remote working. That increased first-quarter cybercrime 273 percent in 2020 compared to 2019.

The new and innovative ways hackers found to steal company data cost U.S. businesses an average of $8.64 million per breach. Even more startling: Small businesses were victims of nearly a third of all cyberattacks.

What new trends, patterns and hacks can we expect this year?

How can CPA firms protect their practices and their clients from cyberattacks?

Jim Bourke, CPA, CITP, CFF, CGMA, a cybersecurity expert and managing director of advisory services at Withum, shares three cybercrime predictions for the year.

TREND 1: REMOTE WORK IS MAKING COMPANIES MORE VULNERABLE TO CYBERATTACKS. Within the past year, more people across the globe are working remotely than ever before. “That creates a massive amount of opportunities for cyberthieves,” Bourke says. “We’re going to see a continued proliferation of cybersecurity breaches.”

The pandemic affects how we all work, and your IT department is no different. Most IT teams are well versed in protecting office networks against data breaches. However, they likely didn’t anticipate that most of their staffs would work remotely for the

TREND 2: ORGANIZATIONS WILL EDUCATE EMPLOYEES ABOUT HOW TO MINIMIZE SECURITY RISKS WHILE WORKING REMOTELY. Bourke suggests that more companies will instruct their staffs about how to prevent these risks while working remotely. IT departments should cover topics such as how to secure home networks.

For example, he says, “Most people never change the password for their home wireless router, which is a major point of vulnerability.

Anyone who passes through your house could gain access to anything that your laptop is connected to while you’re on that network.”

Hackers may also target the technologies commonly used for remote work, such as Microsoft Office, Skype, or Zoom.

“This technology is not new, but we’re using a lot more of it than we’ve ever used before,” Bourke says. “We’ll begin to see more phishing attacks around trying to steal credentials for these programs.”

Firms should be proactive to ensure that employees know how to identify these types of attacks.

TREND 3: CPAS WILL CONTINUE TO BE ESSENTIAL PARTNERS IN IDENTIFYING AND ADDRESSING CYBERSECURITY RISKS. CPAs regularly work with financial information and understand the vulnerabilities associated with storing and handling confidential data. Bourke says the required education for CPAs — whether for their accounting degrees or as part of continuing education throughout their careers — uniquely prepares them for a cyberseCONTINUED ON PAGE 62

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The AICPA has developed some resources...in its Cybersecurity Resource Center to expand your firm’s knowledge. The Institute also offers cybersecurity certificates to help you learn more about how to prepare for these threats. curity role. “The best team to help clients with respect to cybersecurity awareness and remediation is a team made up of CPAs and IT professionals,” he says.

CPAs can serve multiple roles in preventing cybercrime — such as identifying potential threats, developing safety protocols and evaluating risk management plans — within their firms or for clients.

However, if your firm doesn’t have cybersecurity expertise, you can connect clients with experts who can help them put together effective cybersecurity risk management programs. If your firm wants to expand its cybersecurity knowledge, consider training your staff or partnering with a firm that has this expertise.

INCREASE YOUR FIRM’S KNOWLEDGE Cyberattacks aren’t going away and are becoming more prevalent.

CPAs play an important role in protecting clients from risks. It’s better to proactively address threats. Now is the time to learn the best cybersecurity practices.

The AICPA has developed some resources, including articles, podcasts, reports and webcasts, in its Cybersecurity Resource Center to expand your firm’s knowledge. The Institute also offers cybersecurity certificates to help you learn more about how to prepare for these threats.

If you want to take it a step further, consider the Certified Information Technology Professional (CITP®) credential for your staff. The CITP credential illustrates proficiency in assessing, detecting and managing cyber risk. Having a CITP on staff will help boost client confidence and enhance your firm’s credibility as a cybersecurity service provider.

Ultimately, cybercrime is not only a risk to your (and your clients’) data but to your firm’s reputation. But with proper training, you can be prepared to mitigate these potential risks.

Kristen Hughes is associate director for advisory services and credentialing with the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants.

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FINANCIAL PLANNING MACPA’s 35th annual Personal Financial Planning Conference addresses ‘sequence of return risk in retirement,’ and much more

BY SETH HAMMER, CPA, PH.D.

35TH ANNUAL

PERSONAL FINANCIAL PLANNING CO N FE R E N C E The MACPA’s 35th annual Personal Financial Planning Conference, held virtually on Oct. 27, 2020, addressed “Strategies for Managing Sequence of Return Risk in Retirement,” presented by nationally renowned adviser Michael Kitces, along with a variety of highly relevant expert-presented financial planning topics.

Mr. Kitces’ presentation, addressing the sequence of return challenge, focused largely on two interrelated retirement planning concerns: 1. How many dollars, without worrying about the markets, can an individual withdraw each year from savings / investment accounts during retirement?

2. How many dollars does an individual need to accumulate to reach his or her retirement distribution goal?

A prime confounding factor in addressing these concerns is the sequence of investment returns variable, which may be most problematic during those early years immediately following retirement.

As an initial basis for illustration, Mr. Kitces presented hypothetical scenarios for a 60-year-old retiree with a 30-year retirement window, holding a 60 percent stock / 40 percent bond asset allocation, rebalanced each year, that yielded average annual returns of 10 percent and 5 percent, respectively. Inflation was assumed to be 3 percent per year for the period.

In the first case presented, in which investment growth was based on a linear average, annual withdrawals of $65,895 (about 6.6 percent) were generated and shown to fully cover the 30-year projected retirement period.

However, in a second example in which stock returns were zero in the first two years and 20 percent in the last two years, it was demonstrated — even with overall average stock returns remaining at 10 percent per year — that the retiree’s investments would be depleted prior to reaching age 85. Similarly, if inflation was higher in the early years of retirement, and with it a concomitant increase in early year spending, the portfolio — with all other things being equal in the model — would be depleted of funds prior to the end of the assumed 30-year retirement period.

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Mr. Kitces presented a variety of strategies for addressing the sequence of returns challenge, including a retirement bucket approach, whereby spending needs are segmented into three buckets — cash, bonds, and equities. A central concept of the bucket approach is that in the earliest years a greater portion of retirement distributions are drawn from a cash bucket, to protect a portfolio from early and, therefore, more dangerous downward market swings. Other strategies presented included the use of annuity buckets, whereby asset allocations shift over time in conjunction with adjustments in discretionary spending, and dynamic spending plans.

In a separate session, Mr. Kitces presented strategies for optimizing Roth conversions, which included techniques that utilize “backdoor Roth” IRAs and “mega backdoor Roth” 401(k) strategies.

Other presentations at the conference included those by Ellen Pratt and Tim Kelly, which targeted planning for late-stage health planning concerns.

Ms. Pratt, as part of her planning presentation, explained the differences and nuances (e.g., services and costs) of a variety of health care options for the elderly, including independent living, continuing care retirement communities, skilled care, and others.

Mr. Kelly’s presentation, “How to Select Product Features to Meet Various Needs for LTC,” addressed the changing landscape of the long-term care insurance market, including the continuing growth of hybrid products that can potentially be utilized for long-term care and / or life insurance coverage.

Rounding out the conference were presentations from MACPA conference stalwarts who, as they have frequently done in the past, continue to provide the highest level of insight and analyses of relevant financial planning topics. Maurice Offit, of Offit Kurman P.A., presented the “Pros and Cons of Revocable Living Trusts.”

Kevin Bress, of PK Law, provided an estate planning update with a focus on developing Maryland issues, which included a review and analysis of Maryland’s new spousal share law. Anirban Basu, of the Baltimore-based Sage Policy Group, presented broad overviews and analyses of the local, regional, and global economies.

The MACPA’s Advance Personal Financial Planning Committee is already diligently planning its 2021 conference. Details are soon to follow.

Seth Hammer, CPA, Ph.D., is an accounting professor at Towson University.

STATEMENT

INTERACTIVE ONLINE EVENT

EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLAN AUDIT CONFERENCE 2021

FACE THE CHALLENGE of plan audits in 2021 and beyond Stay current on regulatory and industry developments affecting EBP audits.

THE CON FER EN C E I S PR O VI D ED I N

2 TRACKS

INTERMEDIATE + ADVANCED AUDITORS TRACK

BASIC AUDIT WORKSHOP MAY 25 | CPE: 8 | LIVE WEBCAST

MAY 12 | CPE: 7 | LIVE WEBCAST This track provides CPAs an update on accounting and auditing issues and offers a variety of sessions designed to address areas that add complexity to EBP engagements.

This track walks through the required audit procedures for CPAs who are new to auditing EBPs.

Register yourself or your team today at macpa.org/benefitplans Group discounts apply!

SPRING 2021

#MarylandCPAproud

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MEMBER NOTES CLASSIFIEDS Kelly A. Garbinski, CPA, has been promoted to manager in the Hagerstown, Md., office of SEK.

job openings SUCCESSION PLANNING TWO PARTNER,

Hillary M. Grove, CPA, has been promoted to manager in the Hagerstown, Md., office of SEK.

Cara A. Lowery has been promoted to senior associate in the Hagerstown, Md., office of SEK.

Denver R. Martin, CPA, has been admitted as a member of SEK, CPAs & Advisors, effective Jan. 1.

With more than 12 years of experience, Denver is an integral part of the firm’s Accounting Services and Tax Department. He primarily works with closely held businesses in a variety of industries, including construction, health care, financial services, and the manufactured beverage industry.

Alexis Rose, a staff accountant with Lanigan, Ryan, Malcolm & Doyle, P.C., has passed her CPA exam.

LeeAnn Yang, CPA, has been promoted to chief financial officer with Creating Healthier Communities, which brings communities, non-profits, and businesses together around a shared commitment to better health and well-being.

FIRM NOTES Scholl & Lybrook CPAs, LLC, has celebrated its first anniversary.

Partners G. Richard Scholl, CPA, and Anna V. Lybrook, CPA, and their staff have worked hard to achieve success and would like to thank all of their clients, business associates, families and friends for their support.

SEK, CPAs & Advisors has won ClearlyRated’s 2021 Best of Accounting® Award. Winners have proven to be industry leaders in service quality based entirely on ratings from their clients. SEK received satisfaction scores of 9 or 10 out of 10 from 93 percent of their clients — significantly higher than the accounting industry average of 43 percent in 2020.

SEK, CPAs & Advisors has been recognized as Best Accounting Firm / Tax Firm in the tristate (Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia) for 2021 by VerStandig Media. Other professional service categories included financial planner, insurance agency, law firm, and more.

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high quality, $4M, Towson CPA firm moving toward retirement, seeks two next generation entrepreneurial CPAs to begin transition.

Reply in confidence to Krislyn Suljak at krislyn@macpa.org file# MA001

TAX PROFESSIONALS FOR BUSY SEASON

(or flexible year round). Kenneally & Company, a mid-size Towson CPA firm of highly motivated professionals, seeks like-minded individuals experienced with individual or business income tax return preparation. Familiarity with ProSystem fx is a plus. Flexible hours, excellent compensation and a pleasant working environment. Forward your resume via e-mail to mlindemon@jlkcpas.com or via fax, (410) 321-9809.

EXCEPTIONAL OPPORTUNITY

Quality Mid-size Towson CPA Firm seeks the following professionals to help service our growing Client base: Staff Accountant 2+ Years’ Experience Senior Accountant 4+ Years’ Experience Manager 7+ Years’ Experience Candidates will provide tax and accounting services to entrepreneurial clients.

We offer challenging work with direct client engagement, limited overtime (no overtime after April 15th), flexible work schedules and excellent compensation package including a built-in partnershiplike profit sharing and performance bonus. Experience with ProSystem FX Tax and ProSystem Engagement is a plus.

Contact: Kenneally & Company, 660 Kenilworth Drive, Suite 104, Towson, MD 21204 | 410-321-9558 | E-mail: dmiller@jlkcpas.com

mergers & acquisitions MARYLAND PRACTICES FOR SALE:

gross revenues shown: Available after 4/30/21-NW of Baltimore CPA $655K & Bethesda/Gaithersburg/Frederick Area Tax Firm $117K. For additional information or to see nationwide listings and register for free email updates visit us at www.APS.net.

THINKING OF SELLING YOUR PRACTICE? Accounting Practice Sales is the leading marketer of tax and accounting practices in North America. We have a large pool of buyers, both individuals and firms, looking for practices to purchase. We also have the experience to help you find the right fit for your firm, negotiate the best price and terms and get the deal done. We welcome the opportunity to talk to you about our risk-free and confidential services. For more information please call Bradley Holmes with the APS Holmes Group at 1-800-397-0249 or email Bradley@APS.net.

STATEMENT

Take your practice to the next level With Intuit ProConnect Tax—the #1 professional tax software in the cloud*—you can:

Work when, where and how you want to

Streamline your work in a single place

Be protected by Intuit data security experts and tools

Learn more, and try ProConnect for free, at proconnect.intuit.com SPRING 2021

*based on actual tax year 2019 usage data for ProConnect customers

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STATEMENT

Time for a fresh take on accounting Let your client relationships bloom and take your practice to the next level with Xero. With easy online accounting tools, you can collaborate easily, automate tasks, and grow your practice.

To learn more about how Xero can help elevate your practice, visit xero.com/cpa

SPRING 2021

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MACPA COULDN’T DO EVERYTHING THAT WE DO FOR OUR MEMBERS WITHOUT OUR

PREFERRED PROVIDERS

L E AR N M O R E AT

www.macpa.org/preferred-provider-futureready-resources For information about sponsoring MACPA programs or to learn more about advertising with the MACPA please contact Amy Puente at 443.632.2323 or amyp@macpa.org.

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STATEMENT

Stop Going in Circles Try the Tax Package E-Sign Solution that Actually Works SafeSend Returns is a revolutionary tax return assembly, delivery, and e-signature system – an entirely unique solution that will leave you wondering, why has no one thought of this before? Stop chasing e-signatures, and implement the solution built for tax & accounting firms.

Schedule a SafeSend Returns demo at safesend.com/macpa.

MARYLAND ASSOCIATION OF CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS 901 Dulaney Valley Road, Suite 800 Towson, MD 21204 410.296.6250 | www.macpa.org

Make connections.

Advance your career.

V I RT U A L F O R M AT

May 24-27, 2021 | Virtual, interactive event Take a pivotal step towards a rewarding CPA career by being a part of this year’s Future CPA Leadership Series (FCLS). This unique program is all about equipping future CPAs with professional networks and practice-ready skills to advance their opportunity and success in the accounting profession. In our increasingly virtual world, connections matter more than ever — which is why we’ve designed FCLS to put you in direct contact with leaders in the profession, like-minded peers, and potential employers from various industries. Attend all of the sessions or just a few — the choice is up to you.

No application Network with potential employers

Customize your own agenda Gain a deeper understanding of the profession

LEARN MO RE & R EGISTER

macpa.org/future-cpa-series

#MarylandCPAproud