Walking the path of change in public accounting. (CPAs in Michigan)

CPAs in Michigan

Walking the Path of Change in Public Accounting

CPAs, like many other business people, are being forced to take a look at the marketplace in which they operate, the programs that attract and retain employees, the services they are offering and the way in which they market these services to their clients and potential clients given the changing business environment. Tremendous changes are in store in this decade and beyond for public accounting.

The driving forces behind change. In Michigan, one small practitioner finds corporations growing vertically via mergers and acquisitions into areas that small business used to handle. "This eliminates many potential clients," says Paul A. Hense, CPA, a sole practitioner in Grand Rapids. "On the other hand, large CPA firms merging are creating more opportunities for CPAs like me--I can now pick up many of the smaller clients who are often intimidated by larger firms," he continues," and that is my livelihood."

"More often than not we are finding the economy is forcing us to practice leaner and meaner," says Harold Dubrowsky, CPA, managing partner of the Detroit office of Grant Thorton. "Clients are trying to defer services that are elective in an effort to conserve cash. Coupled with a decline in aggressive business expansion, the need for such services as computerization and policy and procedure formulation has been reduced."

Linda Holloway, CPA, president of Dupuis & Ryden, PC, indicates that like most other mature industries, the CPA service industry is long overdue for …