Ami Beers, CPA, CGMA, senior director–Assurance & Advisory Innovation for AICPA & CIMA, joins the JofA podcast for this episode to guide CPAs on how to approach the new SEC rule on climate-related disclosures. The SEC adopted the rule March 6. But, about a month later, it put a stay on the rule’s implementation, in response to multiple legal challenges to the rule. Some argued that the SEC overstepped its authority, and others said the SEC didn’t do enough. Either way, it’s likely the ru...
May 16, 2024•16 min
Tax filing season can be a marathon, or it can be a sprint to the finish. Either way, the collective sigh of relief is real. Melanie Lauridsen, vice president–Tax Policy & Advocacy for the AICPA, reflected on the last filing season and addressed advocacy items to watch in this episode of the Journal of Accountancy podcast. Lauridsen, in her third tax advocacy update of 2024, discussed the latest on employee retention credit (ERC) claims, including an eye-popping cost estimate. She also share...
May 09, 2024•13 min
Roger Kenyanya, vice president of finance at home improvement store Lowe’s, took part in the inaugural AICPA and CPA.com AI Symposium about three months ago in New York. Why did he refer to the event as a “humbling, full-circle moment” in a LinkedIn post? Find out on this episode of the JofA podcast. Kenyanya, a member of the Future of Finance Leadership Advisory Group, shares how both the finance function and overall business are harnessing the power of AI. He also details his career journey an...
May 02, 2024•19 min
Danielle Supkis Cheek, CPA, vice president and head of Analytics & AI for Caseware, had an interesting way to continue her exploration of the ethics of using AI tools in accounting: She asked ChatGPT to give her an answer. The response helped in her assessment of such tools. She shared more about that result — and answered our questions — in this episode of the JofA podcast. What you’ll learn from this episode: · What a well-known generative AI tool had to say about the risks of using large ...
Apr 25, 2024•19 min
To Jen Croneberger, it’s easy for many in society to spend a lot of time planning to do big things but not always carrying out those plans. Taking an “if/then response approach” to life prevents accomplishing big goals, and so Croneberger advises people to take big leaps, even if they’re uncertain about having a safety net. That’s one of several leadership concepts discussed on this JofA podcast episode. Croneberger, an author and consultant, is the keynote speaker June 17 at the AICPA & CIM...
Apr 18, 2024•26 min
In the first part of a two-part podcast discussion, Hamza Khan detailed how he was affected by a severe case of burnout about 10 years ago. In this episode, Khan, an author and keynote speaker, shares more about his battle with burnout today. Khan explained some of the reasons burnout can affect women in particular and shared some of the knowledge gleaned from attending two AICPA & CIMA Women’s Global Leadership Summits. He also discussed why having relatively few one-on-one meetings with hi...
Apr 11, 2024•14 min
Hamza Khan believes the four-day workweek to be “an inevitability.” It is the sort of workplace trend that could help to diminish burnout, which is the main topic of this JofA podcast episode with Khan, an author and entrepreneur. This episode is the first of a two-part conversation with Khan, who has given keynote presentations at several AICPA & CIMA events, including the Global Women’s Leadership Summit and the CFO Conference. Khan spoke last year on the JofA podcast about the difference ...
Apr 04, 2024•17 min
Tom Hood, CPA/CITP, CGMA, executive vice president–Business Growth and Engagement at AICPA & CIMA, together as the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, has his finger on the pulse of the profession. He’s traveled all over, talking to everyone from corporate CFOs to newly minted accountants and accounting apprentices, and he’s sharing some of the insights gained from those discussions on this episode of the JofA podcast. Hood, who has been in his current role for t...
Mar 28, 2024•17 min
Ken Witt, CPA, CGMA, AICPA & CIMA associate director–Management Accounting Research and Development, explains in this JofA podcast episode why finance decision-makers in the first-quarter Business & Industry Economic Outlook Survey are more optimistic now compared with the end of 2023. Witt summarizes the survey results, including CPA decision-makers’ expectations for revenue and profit increases and the top challenges facing them and their businesses. What you’ll learn from this episode...
Mar 21, 2024•11 min
The AICPA & CIMA CFO Conference begins April 24 in Charleston, S.C. Sandy Sloyer, CPA, CGMA, and Misty Geer, CPA, CGMA are long-time members of the conference planning committee, and they joined the JofA podcast to discuss how priorities have changes for finance leaders over the past few years — and how the conference agenda has been adapted as a result. Here’s a link to the list of conference sessions . What you’ll learn from this episode: · Attendance options for the April conference. · Ho...
Mar 15, 2024•14 min
Melanie Lauridsen, vice president–Tax Policy & Advocacy for the AICPA, returns as a guest on the JofA podcast to update listeners on the focus areas of tax advocacy. Her team is paying close attention to employee retention credit claims, beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting requirements, and IRS contingency plans in the event of a government shutdown. Resources: January advocacy conversation with Lauridsen on the JofA podcast JofA coverage of the federal court opinion holding the...
Mar 14, 2024•15 min
The factors contributing to a decline in the accounting talent pool are many, and so are the strategies to address the issue. In this podcast episode, Sue Coffey, CPA, CGMA, AICPA & CIMA’s CEO–Public Accounting, explains what early research has shown about why students are showing less interest in accounting. She also details the steps that multiple entities, including the National Pipeline Advisory Group (NPAG), are taking to grow the pipeline. In the interview, Coffey discusses CPA licensu...
Mar 07, 2024•21 min
Wassia Kamon, CPA, was a featured speaker at the Future of Finance Summit in Orlando late last year, and she joined the JofA podcast from the event to discuss how leaders can overcome their own biases to be more inclusive. Kamon, vice president of finance at the Low Income Investment Fund in Atlanta, points out that with social media and other commonly used applications, it’s very easy for us to choose our own news, friends, and interest areas — or have algorithms choose the focus areas for us. ...
Feb 29, 2024•13 min
Bring together three of the top experts in the accounting technology space, and you’re bound to learn something (often, many things) new. That’s been the premise of the JofA Accounting Technology Roundtable since 2011. It held true again in 2024. After discussing artificial intelligence and automation in Part 1 of the roundtable , published Wednesday, the three panelists — Automata Practice Development’s Wesley Hartman, IntrapriseTechKnowlogies’ Donny Shimamoto, CPA/CITP, CGMA, and Boomer Consul...
Feb 22, 2024•32 min
ChatGPT generates most of the headlines, but it’s only a small part of the big picture when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI) in the accounting profession. What is the wider view on AI for accounting firms and finance departments, and how does it all relate to automation making life better for CPAs? Find out from three of the top accounting technology experts in the latest episode of the JofA podcast. Gathered for the JofA ’s annual Accounting Technology Roundtable, the panelists — Automa...
Feb 21, 2024•22 min
Darryl Bonner of Connecticut-based Liberty Bank is part of a pioneering finance apprenticeship program. He’s in the midst of a rotation through several departments at the bank, and he’s taking steps to receive the CGMA designation as well. Bonner is one of the first apprentices in the AICPA’s Professional Apprenticeship for Finance Business Partners program, which in 2022 was approved by the U.S. Department of Labor. On this podcast episode, Bonner discusses why he was drawn to Liberty Bank, how...
Feb 15, 2024•13 min
The practice of accounting is increasingly tied to technology, the T in the acronym STEM (science, technology, engineering, math). That tie-in is one reason the AICPA is advocating for accounting to be federally recognized as a STEM education field. Two AICPA leaders join this episode of the JofA podcast to discuss the STEM topic: Jan Taylor, CPA, CGMA, academic in residence and senior director–Academic & Student Engagement, and Lauren Pfingstag-Vahey, director–Congressional & Political ...
Feb 08, 2024•17 min
Dan Crumb, CPA (inactive), CGMA, is a repeat guest on the JofA podcast, because, as CFO and executive vice president of the Kansas City Chiefs, his team is back in the Super Bowl for the second year in a row and the fourth time in five seasons. It’s a run he’d like to see continue and one that has presented the franchise with expanded revenue opportunities. In this episode, Crumb discusses the NFL’s first online-only playoff game, how the team’s finance function uses artificial intelligence (AI)...
Feb 06, 2024•26 min
Mike Westervelt, CPA, is chair of the AICPA Accounting and Review Services Committee (ARSC), and he joins this episode of the JofA podcast to discuss the committee’s role in assisting members. In 2023, ARSC released a decision tree to guide practitioners in eliminating confusion related to the applicability of AR-C Section 70, Preparation of Financial Statements . He compares the decision tree, an interactive PDF , to the Choose Your Own Adventure book series. Resources: · ARSC homepage · Analyt...
Feb 01, 2024•15 min
Melanie Lauridsen, vice president–Tax Policy & Advocacy for the AICPA, joins the JofA podcast to review 2023’s tax advocacy highlights and look ahead to key issues this year and beyond. Her team’s focus areas include the employee retention credit claims, beneficial ownership information reporting requirements, along with numerous other issues of concern to tax practitioners. Resources: n JofA article on BOI and what it means for CPA firms n FinCEN news from December on BOI final rule n Tax S...
Jan 25, 2024•17 min
Jennifer Wilson is passionate about the accounting pipeline and the work being done by the National Pipeline Advisory Group (NPAG). Wilson, the CEO of Convergence Coaching and independent facilitator for NPAG, joined the JofA podcast this week to update listeners on progress in addressing talent concerns. Wilson details the timeline for delivering a draft report to AICPA Council, themes that are emerging in discussions so far, and how entities but also individuals can play a vital role in attrac...
Jan 18, 2024•18 min
Kimberly Ellison-Taylor, CPA, CGMA, the founder and CEO of KET Solutions and a former AICPA board chair, is energized by people she met and words she heard at recent events. Ellison-Taylor recaps some of the highlights in this episode of the JofA podcast, focusing on a session at the Future of Finance Summit in December on how finance professionals, and women in particular, can turn dreams of serving on a corporate board into reality. Also, get caught up on recent articles in the JofA , includin...
Jan 11, 2024•16 min
Barry Melancon, CPA, CGMA, the CEO of AICPA & CIMA, explains why the accounting profession has to embrace generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) instead of running from it. And that’s not all he’s talking about in this episode of the JofA podcast. Melancon shares insights on the effect of AI on audit and assurance, how private equity’s entry into accounting is changing firms, how business models themselves are changing, and why he says the world needs accountants more than ever. This is...
Jan 04, 2024•21 min
Steve Saah, executive director of the finance and accounting permanent placement practice at Robert Half, joined the JofA podcast last week at the Future of Finance Summit in Orlando, Fla. In the interview, he shares recent data that seems positive related to hiring trends. He also offers insights into the future of in-office work, analyzes the role that inflation plays in that dynamic, and discusses the advantages organizations have with multiple generations in the workforce. What you’ll learn ...
Dec 21, 2023•15 min
The JofA podcast took a road trip last week to the Future of Finance Summit, catching up with several leaders on highlights from the event and reflections on its growth since the first event in Nashville, Tenn., in 2021. Tom Hood, CPA/CITP, CGMA, executive vice president–Business Growth and Engagement at AICPA & CIMA, leads off this compilation episode, sharing a favorite quote and how it applies to the summit’s themes. He and other speakers explain how a growing community of leaders is appl...
Dec 19, 2023•19 min
Barry Melancon, CPA, CGMA, the CEO of AICPA & CIMA, joins the show this week for the first part of a two-part conversation on the state of the profession and what CPA can expect in 2024 on several fronts. Melancon details concerns about a potential IRS shutdown in tax season, the state of ESG reporting and regulation, how elections could play out, and why the threats to CPA licensure are real. Part 2 of the conversation will be published in an early January episode of the JofA podcast. What ...
Dec 14, 2023•22 min
In the fourth-quarter results of the Business and Industry Economic Outlook Survey, CPA decision-makers remain pessimistic about both the global and U.S. economy, but less so about their own organizations. They also are showing a hesitance to hire, facing an array of challenges, as explained in this episode of the JofA podcast. Guest Ken Witt, CPA, CGMA, AICPA & CIMA associate director — Management, Accounting Research and Development, analyzes the results of the quarterly survey. What you’l...
Dec 07, 2023•12 min
Jeff Drew, the JofA ’s editor-in-chief, is the guest on today’s episode, taking listeners through some of the articles in the December issue, which goes live on Friday. Drew, a former JofA senior editor and manager with the AICPA’s Private Companies Practice Section, has focused on content for the daily and monthly magazines for more than a decade. He is also the host of the Small Firm Philosophy podcast . He previews coverage on the topics of: n firm practice management; n considerations for po...
Nov 30, 2023•15 min
The 2023 Digital CPA Conference , Dec. 3–6 in Las Vegas, will be the event’s 12th year. To explore the trends that drive this year’s agenda – and to look back on the conference’s weather-delayed start – Michael Cerami joins the JofA podcast. Cerami is executive vice president of strategic alliances, business development, and communications at CPA.com, the AICPA’s business and technology subsidiary. Cerami discusses generative AI, previews some of the Digital CPA sessions, and explains how busine...
Nov 16, 2023•15 min
The title above is the first question posed to the guest on this episode of the JofA podcast. Byron Patrick, CPA/CITP, CGMA, vice president—Client Success at the B3 Method Institute, is a repeat guest on the show, and he’s spoken previously about best practices for virtual meetings. The conversation topic was spurred by an article covering recent research about how our brains perceive interaction differently in virtual meetings than in-person meetings. The first time Patrick appeared on the JofA...
Nov 09, 2023•17 min
