PCPS Resources

The AICPA Private Companies Practice Section (PCPS) is a great resource for your firm practice management needs. PCPS serves over 6,000 member firms with a variety of tools and resources to help their member CPAs and their firms be successful through education and advocacy. Visit www.aicpa.org/pcps for more information.

SAS 112 FAQ

SAS No. 112 will have an impact on the audits your firm performs for financial statements that ended on or after December 15, 2006. PCPS offers members a toolkit to provide better insight and tools for the implementation of SAS No. 112. The FAQ document, just one component of the SAS 112 Toolkit is intended to address the most common practitioner questions related to applying SAS No. 112. In addition, it provides links to additional resources that may help you in understanding and applying SAS No. 112. Click here

SAS 112 PCPS Web Forum Archive

PCPS conducts regular management web forums, free, to all PCPS member firms. This previously recorded web forum, presented by Chuck Landes, CPA of the A&A standards group at the AICPA, explores the impact on the audits your firm performs for financial statements that ended on or after December 15, 2006. It provides you with insight into the implementation of SAS No. 112 and how to communicate the new standard and its impact to your clients as it relates to their audit engagement. The full audio and video, along with the PowerPoint presentation are available to members and non-members for a limited time, free. Click here and scroll to the bottom of the page for more information.

Risk Assessment Standards FAQ (SAS 104-111)

SAS’s No. 104-111, the Risk Assessment Standards will have an impact on the audits your firm performs for financial statements that begin on or after December 15, 2006. PCPS offers members a toolkit to provide better insight and tools for the implementation of the Risk Assessment Standards. The FAQ document, just one component of the Risk Assessment Standards Toolkit is intended to address the most common practitioner questions related to applying SAS No. 112. In addition, it provides links to additional resources that may help you in understanding and applying SAS No. 104-111. Click here

Risk Assessment Standards (SAS 104-111) PCPS Web Forum Archive

PCPS conducts regular management web forums, free, to all PCPS member firms. This previously recorded web forum, presented by Chuck Landes, CPA of the A&A standards group at the AICPA, explores the impact on the audits your firm performs for financial statements that begin on or after December 15, 2006. It provides you with insight into the implementation of the Risk Assessment Standards, and how to communicate the new standard and its impact to your clients as it relates to their audit engagement. The full audio and video, along with the PowerPoint presentation are available to members and non-members for a limited time, free. Click here and scroll to the bottom of the page for more information.

Mortgage Broker/Lender CPA Comfort Letters

Many CPAs today are faced with a unique challenge of providing a loan broker or lender with a “comfort” letter on behalf of a client. There have been many questions raised over the last few months and PCPS would like to point you to guidance that will help in these situations. Click here for more information.

PCPS Technical Issues Committee (TIC) Alerts

Does today's news impact your Firm? Learn more about expert practices and explore the opinions of your colleagues through leading industry and PCPS publications. You can find the latest Standards, TIC Alerts, and TIC Comment Letters right here.

PCPS MAP Survey Results

PCPS/TSCPA Map Survey Commentary

The 2006 National MAP Survey Commentary provides CPA firms with a "quick introduction to the survey results that can help you pinpoint areas that you may want to analyze more thoroughly," according to David Morgan, PCPS Executive Committee Chair. The Survey is conducted biannually and had over 1800 participants in the U.S. in 2006 and is known to be the largest CPA benchmarking survey of its kind. Click here

PCPS 2007 Top MAP Issues Survey

Since 1997, the PCPS Survey of Top Practice Management Issues (formerly known as the Management of an Accounting Practice (MAP) Top 5 Issues Survey) has polled the managing partners of CPA firms, asking them to rank the most important practice management challenges that their firms currently face. Click here for a summary of the 2007 results.

PCPS Human Capital Center

PCPS White Paper “Best Practices in Recruiting and Retaining Talented Staff”

This white paper provides a brief report on selected results of the 2004 staffing survey in order to offer firms insights into how others are handling recruitment and retention and to allow them an opportunity to benchmark their efforts against those of their peers. As a service to member firms, the paper also contains extensive listings of best practices for specific aspects of recruiting and retention that are intended to help CPAs address these challenges. Read the White Paper

PCPS Human Capital Center – Team Recruitment

Recruiting staff is a top priority for today’s CPA firms. The Team Recruitment section of the PCPS Human Capital Center offers member firms the learning, tools, and resources necessary to build a strong and viable team. In this section, firms will learn to:

· Assess their current team members and their staffing needs

· Evaluate various recruiting methods and execute the related recruiting strategies

· Use targeted behavioral based interviewing techniques

Employ the Team Recruitment Action Plan as a guide for your recruiting efforts.

PCPS Human Capital Center – Performance Management

Public accounting is a people business and retaining staff is a main concern for today’s CPA firms. It is only logical that our profession should demand the effective management and optimal development of our greatest asset, our team members. The Performance Management section of the PCPS Human Capital Center provides member firms with the learning, tools, and resources necessary to establish performance measures and to compare the team members’ performance to these measures consistently. This section also helps the team understand how to set their goals, give, and receive feedback and constructively manage poor performance. Refer to the Performance Management Implementation Action Plan as a guide for introducing this system to your firm.

Succession Planning

2008 PCPS Succession Survey; Revelations, conclusions and recommendations

This publication reports on the results of the 2008 Succession Survey in order to provide information to practitioners as to how firms are handling the issue of succession planning and provides conclusions and recommendations based on the survey results. This report can be used as a tool for practitioners to evaluate their succession planning efforts against those of their peers and the growing need for succession planning to be a regular and ongoing practice within their firm. Click here

PCPS Succession Planning Resource Center

Note to State: You may also want to include a link to the Succession Planning Resource Center with this section. The link is:

http://pcps.aicpa.org/Resources/Succession+Planning

This is a quarterly e-newsletter on making the most of busy season. Every article will contain a wealth of tips to help make your practice more effective and efficient, along with an action agenda containing steps that PCPS members can implement in their own practices. PCPS has provided the first three issues of this useful newsletter:

PCPS Brief is an e-newsletter that synthesizes information, news, and other resources around a particular issue or concern and offers actionable ideas for your practice. Some topics include Creating a Culture of Ownership and Accountability, Becoming a Great Leader, and Client Retention Tips, to name a few. Click here

News & Views is a monthly e-letter is co-authored by David Morgan, Chair of the PCPS Executive Committee and Jim Metzler, AICPA Vice President of Small Firm Interests. Each author will provide you with their perspective on the latest technical development and practice management issues affecting small firms. Click here

This is the monthly newsletter for the AICPA Private Companies Practice Section. It provides more than 6,000 member firms with up-to-date information and news on the business and accounting issues and offers creative strategies and solutions for practice management. Click here

PCPS Practice Management Forums are a series of free online forums available exclusively to PCPS members. These forums focus on the most critical practice management issues facing firms today, including staffing, succession planning, and workload compression.

The PCPS Practice Management Forums are presented by nationally recognized consultants, each forum takes participants through a live, interactive PowerPoint presentation and gives them the ability to ask questions, all from the comfort of their own desks. Archived versions of all past web forums are also available to PCPS Member Firms.