with CBA President Joseph Rosenbaum , CPA
Something else we are doing in this arena is called Students Understanding the Requirements to be a CPA , or more easily referred to as the SURE CPA Project ( dca . ca . gov / cba / applicants / sure-cpa-project . shtml ).
We ’ re looking at ways to make the requirements as clear as possible for students by updating CBA resources as needed , potentially altering how the requirements are categorized and worded , and even exploring the idea of changing how the CBA deals with transcripts , such as determining that a particular degree could potentially satisfy all the educational requirements . More confident students now should hopefully lead to more licensees in the future .
Q : Closer to home , what ’ s on the CBA agenda for 2024 that CPAs should be aware of ? One of the main things I ’ m focused on is our Sunset Review . This is something that happens every four years , where every one of the various boards and bureaus within the Department of Consumer Affairs essentially need to prove their worth and justify their regulatory existence .
The CBA has prepared a Sunset Review Report that contains data and responds to questions posed by the Legislature . It ’ s a voluminous document that provides the Legislature a complete view of what the CBA does , and how it does it . This year , 2024 , happens to be our Sunset Review year , so it really allows us to take an internal look and see how things are working , see how the CBA is functioning , and what , if any , changes may need to be made . It ’ s a valuable exercise for the CBA itself .
Continuing our focus on communications and outreach is another priority for 2024 . Our team did a fantastic job last year with producing high-quality videos , expanding our social media presence and conducting outreach events , and I expect more of the same this year .
We will also begin developing our next Strategic Plan throughout the year , as our current plan concludes at the end of 2024 .
Q : There ’ s been a strong emphasis on attracting talent and diversity to the profession , as well as shifting its image . What role is the CBA playing to showcase the varied career paths available to CPAs and reaching out to underrepresented groups ? We absolutely want to showcase the many exciting opportunities that exist within the accounting profession . The CBA will be including this type of messaging in videos we are planning to produce this year .
During our outreach events that we conduct on university campuses , my fellow CBA members and I speak to the fact that virtually every industry you can imagine has the need for CPAs , and that they could potentially be doing so much more than
Serving in any sort of a volunteer capacity and giving back to your profession gives you a sense of belonging and you get an opportunity to interact with like-minded individuals .
Joseph Rosenbaum , CPA
just taxes . Students get excited about this . It ’ s an important narrative to tell , and I guess you could even call it a rebranding .
I love the diversity of the membership of the CBA itself ; it ’ s really reflective of the look of our state . One of the ways we make a concerted effort to reach out to under-represented communities is by increasing the availability of information on our website to ensure resources are readily available , engaging through all social media channels and having a presence at college campus events ( virtually or in person ). Our goal is to assist everyone in achieving their goal of becoming a CPA .
Q : What advice would you give young graduates or professionals breaking into public accounting at a time of so much change ? For young graduates , my advice would be to go ahead and take the CPA Exam at your earliest convenience . One thing I did not do as an accounting graduate was take the exam right away . I waited until several years after graduation after I had been working to finally get around to taking the exam . That made it a little more difficult to get back into some of the concepts that I wasn ’ t dealing with every day . I would encourage you to get the exam scheduled and under your belt . And given the recent changes to the CPA Exam , I think it ’ s exciting that it ’ s much better reflective of what CPAs are going to be working on in the future . It ’ s a good time to be graduating in accounting , especially given the pipeline issue , and accounting is a good career choice because CPAs are in demand .
For young professionals , I would say to pay attention to what ’ s going on around you . No matter what task you ’ ve been assigned , make sure you put it into context . Why are you being assigned this task ? What ’ s the relevance ?
When I had larger teams working on a project or investigation , we often didn ’ t really have a set game plan . We had a rough outline of what needed to be done , but knew it was going to change . I would have regular meetings where we ’ d get the team together and say , “ Here ’ s what we ’ re trying to do , let ’ s go through it again .” This gave everyone the broadest view possible of what the project was , what our goals were , and what we were trying to achieve . Once everyone broke off and started working on their assigned tasks , occasionally things might come up that weren ’ t really part of their assignment but impacted the broader project . Maybe someone else was working on that aspect of the project . Knowing the big picture allowed them to realize this and say something .
This was important in litigation matters , for example if someone found a key piece of evidence that we needed to know about but wasn ’ t necessarily part of that individual ’ s task , understanding how everything fit together can prevent things from falling through the cracks . I encourage you to look around and observe so you can be more helpful with the big picture .
16 CALIFORNIA CPA MARCH / APRIL 2024 www . calcpa . org