One of the newer areas, and also the fastest growing area, of accounting is forensic accounting. A forensic accountant has a unique job because the responsibilities involve the integration of accounting, auditing, and investigative skills. Using all of these skills, a forensic accountant is, in summary, a true investigator. Forensic accountants are trained to look beyond the numbers and deal with the business reality of the situation.

A forensic accountant is typically an accountant that is hired by a large firm or company, but can also be engaged in public practice, or can be employed by insurance companies, banks, police forces, government agencies, or other organizations. The forensic accountant would be hired by such organizations to investigate, analyze, interpret, summarize, and present complex financial and business information so that it can be easily understood and properly supported.

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CPA firms serving small businesses have been outsourcing tax and other general accounting services for some time. Now these CPA firms are considering outsource providers for other higher-value accounting services. CPA firms can leverage their relationship with small businesses and help them in outsourcing their higher value accounting projects. For example projects like real-time accounts integration needs process knowledge specific to a small business, IT skills, and accounting process standardization skills. CPA firms may not have all the skills needed for the real-time account integration projects. They can act as a liaison between the small business owners and outsource providers in outsourcing real-time account integration projects.

CPA firms that partner with outsource providers gain a competitive advantage over those that don’t. By aligning with an accounting outsource provider, an accounting firm can virtually tap into several different small business markets without making a heavy investment of time and capital. This means the CPA firm minimizes its risk while maximizing its potential for significant market gain. Currently many small CPA firms are not embracing these types of projects for their small business customers, but this trend is happing in several big accounting firms. As the need increases for accounting integration projects in small businesses, more small business focused CPA firms will start partnering with accounting outsource providers.

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CPA means Certified Public Accountant and this is a designation, which is offered to eligible accountants who clear the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination conducted by the United States. Along with this, the accountants must also posses the required state educational qualification and experience. The CPA license provided to the candidates, who clear this exam, protects the general public from inefficient accountants who perform substandard work. The first law of accountancy was passed the year 1896 by the New York state law, in order to test the credentials of the accountants. After this law was passed accounting evolved as a profession and was tagged with the licensing requirements and this profession followed with some professional ethics and certain working standards.

Many states followed this lead and ultimately fifty-four jurisdictions accepted the public law accounting legislation. The licensing authority solely lies in the hands of the Board of Accountancy as well as for compliance with the state laws. Most of the accountants practicing in the US hold the CPA license and those practicing without it are prohibited. As a result in most of the cases the CPA certification was not allowed to be used outside the state until professionally licensed or certified by that particular state.

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Filed under: CPA