The summer's trade-show circuit suggests renewed vitality and confidence in the profession and some hints of new trends.
by Rick Telberg
At Large
As Yogi Berra once said (or is said to have said): "You can learn a lot by watching."
In the business-end of the accounting profession, you can learn a lot by watching, too. Take, for instance, a couple recent strolls through trade shows for CPAs. A couple months ago, it was the New Jersey state society's show. Last month, it was the New York society's show, perhaps, at 30 years old, the grand-daddy of them all. Both shows, run by the avuncular and peripatetic Russell Flagg (who also runs the California society's show), suggest renewed vitality and confidence in the profession, and provide clues to key trends to watch for. And, for the record, the AICPA was well-represented by CPA2Biz with a busy booth very much in tune with new offerings for CPAs, their clients and companies.
Trend-to-Watch No. 1: Document Management Is More Than Just 'Going Paperless.'
It's really about all sorts of new customer and supplier relationships, workflow efficiencies, corporate security and disaster recovery.
CPA Alan Kupperman, from the Parsippany, N.J., office of J.H. Cohn, for example, told how, a year after rollout, his large regional firm was improving productivity, cutting costs, enhancing client service, and mitigating risk with improved security. One key: Administrative assistants each have their own desktop scanners now.
All software vendors are playing into this trend, from tax, accounting and auditing, to practice management and time-and-billing. But a few making a big splash at the New York show include specialists Champion Workflow Systems, eFilecabinet, Immediatech, and a couple new ones: Office Tools Pro, ViewWise, and the British-import Star Computers Ltd., a practice management suite. Mirra Personal Server, whose booth was reportedly thronged at the Los Angeles show, should not be left out of this list for their automatic backup and storage capabilities. And of course, Hewlett-Packard and Fujitsu were there in strength, with HP showing off its standard-setting PC's, laptops and multifunction printer-fax-copier-scanners, and Fujitsu with a small but fast portable scanner. One more note on the HP booth: The new tablet PC seems poised to become a handy cross-breed between a PDA and an ultra-lightweight PC. You have to see it to believe it.
Trend-to-Watch No. 2: Local Bankers and Financial Businesses Are Hungry for CPAs.
How badly do bankers rely on CPAs? Take it from Karen Adler, a senior mortgage consultant at Emigrant Mortgage. She said at the New York show that 25 percent of her traffic comes via CPAs. So, clearly, the competition for the trust and loyalty of the CPA is of paramount interest to bankers and other financial professionals.
The First National Bank of Long Island, for instance, was offering a free gift for every new business checking account opened by Aug. 21, plus special lines of credit for CPA firms and their principals. The Temecula Valley Bank in New Jersey was on the prowl for CPAs with common clients in gas station and convenience stores, a couple of the bank's specialties. Not to be counted out, national powerhouse Washington Mutual was offering a 500-basis-point discount on business real estate loans. CitiGroup is waiving a slew of fees for CPA firms. It's enough to send CPAs laughing all the way to the bank.
On the financial services front, global UBS was at the show looking to hire CPAs as personal financial advisors. Fidelity was hawking their massive IRA rollover capabilities and their groundbreaking Charitable Gift Fund. Financial Analysts Inc. was looking for life insurance sales. The voluble Lance Wallach was pitching VEBA's as passionately as ever.
But most interesting was WorthMark Financial Services of St. Paul, Minn., which is offering a new alternative for CPAs considering the broker-dealer business. Since it can cost $100,000 to $500,000-plus for a CPA firm to set up its own B-D, WorthMark has created limited partnerships with units priced as low at $25,000 in existing B-D's, thus sidestepping a lot of regulatory and administrative costs and headaches.
Trend-to-Watch No. 3: Outsourcing and Offshoring Aren't Necessarily the Same Thing
Everyone knows CPAs "know it all" and "can do it all." But most choose not to. So, since time immemorial, CPAs have been delegating work, referring it out, sending it to service bureaus, or hiring specialists. They're no dummies; it's called "leverage." Since the 1990s, CPAs have been "outsourcing" jobs like computer networking or payroll. Today, the hot-button issue is clearly "offshoring," which the AICPA is monitoring closely and has given clear guidance on, including "AICPA Releases Guidelines on Outsourcing Engagements."
At the New York show, the range of outsourcing solutions ranged from simple bookkeeping, from a company called, simply enough, The Bookkeeping Company, in New York, to the Web-based PayCycle, founded by Rene LaCerte (yes, a cousin of the LaCerte tax family), in Palo Alto, Calif. Of course, stalwarts like ADP, CompuPay, Ceridien, up-and-comer Gevity in human resources, the local Professional Advisor Services in the PEO business, and CPA2Biz's own Paychex programs shouldn't be overlooked. But today, even McBee, once a humble stationery supplier is pitching payroll.
Further up the evolution scale, venture-capital financed Xpitax was at the show, with Datamatics, CCH-owned SurePrep, the Goodrej Group and GT Limited. All, to one extent or another, send some processing overseas. But for all the hubbub over "offshoring," tallied up and footed, the total market for offshored tax returns remains just one-tenth of one percent of the returns filed, according to Greg LaFollette, editor of CPA Technology Adviser.
Of course, if a CPA firm really wants to handle payroll all by itself, PenSoft was at the show with the software for it.
And for CPA firms looking to aid clients in Web commerce, Envision's Roger Maggio was fielding questions.
Miscellany: In other news from the show, global ERP leader SAP drew attention with its midmarket SAP One entry, vying against Best Software's MAS 90 and Microsoft's Great Plains. Mergers and acquisitions brokers were also busy, from Max Krotman at GlobalForce, to Leon Faris and friends at Professional Accounting Sales, and the relatively low-profile Strategic Alliance Funding & Equity Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
State CPA society trade shows remain the premier gathering place for CPAs and vendors to do business face-to-face. Two upcoming events that are not to be missed include the Illinois show in Chicago Aug. 24-25 and the Florida exhibition in Fort Lauderdale, Sept 29-Oct.1. Be there or be square.
