19/10/2007 - Extract from "Practical Accountant" July 2007 - Age of Associations, Networks and Alliances
The right membership helps with practice management. business development, assessing specialized expertise, obtaining greater national and international reach, and utilizing additional staff.
"For an independent, growing CPA firm, association membership brings a new dimension to growing and developing the firm."
Benefits of Joining
One of the newest associations is Praxity, a global alliance of independent firms. William Fingland, BKD chair, is also the PRAXITY chair. There are a number of interesting aspects to PRAXITY, a second-generation association. For example, according to Fingland, there are three participation levels that of member, associate and correspondent. In the U.S. there are only eight member firms and they have combined over a billion dollars in revenue. Fingland believes that "provides an opportunity to grow closer together, so that we understand each and we can participate in sharing better."
Commitment to public section and international business, technical capability, PCAOB registrations and governance of the firms were membership criteria according to Fingland. "We want a stable base of members. We don't want members coming and going because failure to provide proper succession in their firms." Firms' financial information, risk assessment, client acceptance and ISQC1 or equivalent compliancy were also examined to ensure that quality controls were within international standards. General governance of PRAXITY is limited to six individuals, and PRAXITY voting is based on firm's revenue. A primary benefit that Fingland sees is that the firms are a homogenous group and will be able to run it as a business. He also sees a greater sharing of best practices between firms. He cites a recent seminar conducted by European firms to U.S. firms on IFRS convergence as an example
