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CPAmerica ADVANTAGE News From Your Accounting Association

December 2022

Tax Conference attendees line dancing at Ole Red in Nashville, Tenn.

IN THIS ISSUE: ► Reflecting on the 2022 Tax Conference and getting ready for tax season ► Preferred Provider Spotlight - Payroc ► Member News ► CPAmerica Insights - Grace Horvath

Reflecting on the 2022 Tax Conference and getting ready for tax season What do you get when you combine cowboy boots, a honky tonk, accountants, a live band and line dancing? The 2022 CPAmerica Tax Conference in Nashville, Tenn.! For this three-day meeting, nearly 180 tax professionals, including more than 50 first-time attendees, met for the annual Tax Conference with an all-star speaker lineup to including some of the profession’s most influential tax professionals and consultants. As members prepare for the upcoming tax season, it was imperative to feature speakers covering timely and relevant topics. Tom Hood, AICPA’s executive vice president of business growth & engagement, kicked off the meeting with a keynote addressing the future of the profession and how to move from being essential to indispensable. His inspirational message gave attendees a lot to talk about during that evening’s Tom Hood delivering the keynote presentation networking reception. Randy Crabtree, representing Premier Sponsor, Tri-Merit, LLC, kicked off the second day of the meeting discussing mental health awareness and how burnout is not a badge of honor. Checking in with yourself and managing your mental health are crucial during busy season and all year long. Randy Crabtree will also be hosting

a webinar, Mental Health Awareness - Beyond Burnout, on December 13, at 3:30pm ET, visit tinyurl.com/y8hme45k for more information and to register. As the meeting continued, attendees received tax updates, shared best tax practices for remote workers, Randy Crabtree sharing the importance of mental health awareness explored pass-through entity taxation, spoke about estate planning and established the best software to increase efficiency with tax preparation workflow. These information sessions were led by influential speakers, Sam Donaldson, Jordan Goodman, Jim Hamill, Steve Platau, Howard Wagner, Randy Johnston and Sam Allred. With the state of the profession facing a war on talent, Sam Allred’s presentation provided key strategies to optimize employee talent retention and led a member sharing discussion on how CPAmerica firms are combatting this challenge. Along with the highly technical content, to continue building on CPAmerica’s foundation of improving through sharing, conference attendees spent a halfday in member sharing sessions by topics of their choice, followed by sharing sessions by firm size, discussing pain points specific to each revenue group. These open discussions provide a space for members to During the Tax Executive Committee meeting, new

CPAmerica President, Grace Horvath addressing meeting attendees

See Tax, continued on page 2

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appointments to the Tax Advisory Committee were approved and goals for the next year were confirmed. The committee’s appointments include incoming chair, Alex Semerano, Pease Bell CPAs, and three-year term member, Kathleen Corcoran, Wheeler Wolfenden and Dwares, CPAs. The 2022-23 chair, Todd Miller, Maxwell Locke & Ritter, outgoing chair, Kevin Hill, EFPR Jim Hamill presenting about Scorps, Partnerships, & Ownership Changes Group, and Tax Clinic Editor, Carolyn Quill, Thompson Greenspon, were also recognized. Members were also spotlighted for their various contributions throughout the year, including to the December Tax Clinic in “The Tax Adviser,” the monthly publication of the AICPA, for being facilitators of sharing calls and member sharing sessions at the conference, and for mentoring first-time conference attendees. One very important matter of business was to vote on the 2024 Tax Conference location. Daily networking breaks, evening receptions and the Special Event at Ole Red fostered opportunities to debrief from the sessions, continue the sharing, and create lasting relationships that extend beyond the conference. One conference attendee shared, “It was a great conference. Good to meet others that we talk to over email with but don’t see. Good all the way around!” Another attendee shared, “The best one I have been to! Very good!”

Enjoying food and drinks while getting ready for line dancing at Ole Red

After another successful meeting, we are now in the planning phase of

Attendees, sponsors and CPAmerica staff

Showing off their cowboy hats at Ole Red

the 2023 conference. As you and your firm move towards the end of the year and upcoming tax season, we hope these tools and resources have best prepared you for another successful season. We look forward to seeing everyone next year in Albuquerque, N.M.!

Start 2023 off right with

What’s Ahead for 2023 - Your CPAmerica Benefits & Resources January 11 | 2:00pm ET Join our CPAmerica sharing call to learn about upcoming events, webinars, preferred provider benefits and much more. You will hear from the CPAmerica team along with fellow members on these various CPAmerica resources. Scan the QR code to the right to register.

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Member News Executive vice president joins GRF CPAs & Advisors GRF CPAs & Advisors (GRF), an Inside Public Accounting (IPA) Top 125 Public Accounting Firm and Accounting Today Regional Leader, is pleased to announce that Patty Kautz, CPA, has joined the firm as executive vice president. Bringing nearly 35 years of leadership experience in operations, finance, Patty Kautz governance and strategy, Kautz most recently served as the chief operating officer (COO) at IPA Top 200 firm, VonLehman & Company. Her extensive career also includes managing the accounting departments for entities owned by a large family office and serving as an auditor at Deloitte & Touche (now Deloitte). “Patty is known as an expert in financial, operational, and governance matters for mid-size accounting firms,” said Jackie Cardello, CPA, president and managing partner. “GRF is delighted to add a strategic thinker and team builder like Patty to our leadership.”

Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C. announces new hires Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C. (MBK) welcomes Colleen M. Berndt, CPA; Mia A. McDonald; Karen A. Korpinen, MSA; and Eric J. Bone to their firm. Berndt was hired as senior manager and holds valuable experience in both public accounting and corporate firms. She has practiced public accounting since 1989 and brings practical solutions and a commonsense approach to her work, and seeks to Colleen Berndt develop relationships with each of her clients while ensuring timely responses to their needs. McDonald, Korpinen and Bone were all hired as associates in the Audit and Accounting Department. McDonald has worked in public accounting since 2020, when she began as Mia McDonald an intern with MBK. She approaches customer service with an open mind and listening ears. Korpinen brings her experience in the nonprofit field to her work in public accounting with MBK and approaches customer service with a positive attitude, clear communication and creative problem solving. Karen Korpinen Her strong teamwork and

commitment to continued learning and growth makes her an asset on each of her engagements. Bone brings his fresh perspective to his engagements as a recent college graduate and Eric Bone believes customer service starts with listening to clients’ unique needs so that he can better understand their business and help them achieve their goals.

Widmer Roel senior manager selected for AICPA Leadership Academy Widmer Roel, a Fargo, N.D., public accounting firm, congratulates Juan Martinez, CPA, on being one of only 36 CPAs honored by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) as a member of the Leadership Academy’s 14th graduating class. Martinez is a senior manager at the firm, his responsibilities include providing audit and Juan Martinez advisory services to a wide range of clients while maintaining a focus in the construction and employee benefit plan industries. Martinez was selected based on his exceptional leadership skills and professional experience for the fourday Leadership Academy program, which was held in October 2022. Martinez has been in public accounting since 2016 and obtained his ND CPA License in October of 2018. Additionally, Martinez has had the opportunity to serve as a Board Member for the North Dakota CPA Society since 2020.

Kassouf chief information officer honored by FBI Kassouf principal and chief information officer, Russ Dorsey was honored with the FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award (DCLA). The FBI recognized Dorsey for his efforts and achievements fostering outreach, education, and information sharing among the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and other Russ Dorsey agencies, organizations, and businesses. “I have a deep respect for law enforcement, and now that I’ve come to know so many over at the FBI office, to be acknowledged for contributing anything worthwhile in return is truly humbling,” Dorsey said. Dorsey joined Kassouf in 2014 as information technology manager. He leads all information technology efforts at the firm with a crucial emphasis in cybersecurity

awareness and training. He is also the President of the InfraGard Birmingham Members Alliance and a Board Member of TechBirmingham. “We are incredibly thankful for Russ’s leadership in cybersecurity, disaster preparedness, and fraud prevention. He is an expert in his field and helps those of us at the firm and in the community be more aware and vigilant,” said Kassouf Director Jonathan Kassouf. Dorsey has spearheaded events such as the Financial Fraud Summit and Healthcare Fraud Summit since 2018.

GRF announces recipients of inaugural Diversity Matters Scholarship GRF CPAs & Advisors (GRF) is pleased to announce the 2022 recipients of the GRF Diversity Matters Scholarship. The scholarship was established this year to encourage more people of color to enter the accounting profession. The program provides financial assistance to sophomore, junior, and senior students enrolled in an accredited accounting program. “Diverse representation in the accounting profession is important to GRF,” said Trevor Williams, CPA, GRF’s Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). “The GRF Diversity Matters Scholarship provides needed funding to talented and deserving people of color pursuing a degree in accounting. This funding bridges the gap for those who may not have access to education without assistance from their community.” 2022 GRF Diversity Matters Scholarship recipients include: Shawn Smith and Da Park (University of Maryland Eastern Shore); Angele Velasco, Moises Zelaya, Nicole Codorlupo and Ronnie Gruseck (Loyola University); and Ibiyemi James and Rocky Aliping, Jr. (Bowie State University). To support the student’s pursuit of a future career in public accounting, the $1,000 award will be issued for the spring 2023 semester.

Welcome to our 2022 new member firms CironeFriedberg, LLP Meepos & Company, CPAs Peters & Chandler, PC RFH, PLLC

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CPAmerica Insights Time flies when you’re having fun... 2022 has been a challenging and good year for CPAmerica. Any first-year president would say year one in the role was not a breeze. I feel like this year one has been a success. What doesn’t kill you Grace Horvath, makes you stronger President right? Dark humor aside, the situations that did present themselves were turned into opportunities for growth and strengthening of the organization. As you read this, we are already focused on 2023 and working on our updated strategic plan. For the moment, let us take a look back. I recall last January sitting at [my predecessor] “Alan’s desk.” It was the feeling when you were little and slipped your feet into your mom’s or dad’s way too big shoes and stomped around acting like a grown-up. Except this time, I was a full-blown adult and the shoes still felt so big. We went through hosting our first director’s review (the annual chairs’ evaluation of association leadership), new board member orientation and full in-person board meeting without Alan in 12 years. It was no sooner than we let our breath out for a positive first month before the nefarious actors of the dark web shut us down with a ransomware attack. My second thought after “[adult language here]” was “well at least we’re getting this out of the way early.” Hindsight graced us with the good fortune to say the event resulted in significant improvements to our systems all the way around. Most operating systems were moved to the cloud. We rewrote our disaster recovery plan, and Withum conducted an assessment that helped us fortify our network to the best of our ability to prevent future attacks. Throughout that debacle, work never stopped on our new Learning Management System (LMS) which launched in June. Anyone who has implemented software understands the degree of success of implementation is relative to everyone still speaking to one another. I am happy to report the majority of our firms are interacting with the new LMS. Many are enjoying the dues-covered CPE tracking and compliance tools,

and vendor content continues to grow, featuring thousands of hours of technical and nontechnical CPE. Eleven firms have upgraded to the Tier 2 option. And staff are all still speaking. We hosted our first full year of live events since 2019. NextGen doubled in size with the addition of one complimentary delegate per firm. Regional meetings were busy, with many attending their first meeting in three years. Leading Partners Retreat and Firm Management Roundtable grew exponentially, despite being located in the country’s most elusive resort both in location and modern decor. Thankfully, we learned everyone found their way out of their rooms and home safely, although some more car sick than others. I also attended Crowe’s Global Conference along with a couple of members, and the Crowe LLP annual partners meeting. These were the first in-person meetings for our strategic partners at the global network and the US firm since 2019. Speaking of meetings, we doubled event sponsorships in 2022, forging relationships with the best-of-the-best providers to the profession. We added providers in the areas of technology and CAAS, which is our fastest growing program after NextGen. We have gained four outstanding new members to date this year, including a firm in Oklahoma City, giving us our first firm in that state since my time at the association. As of the time I’m

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writing this, we are standing at 90 firms. Thankfully we have only lost one to date in 2022, due sadly to M&A. We welcomed new staff this year which has caused a close examination of longstanding programs. CPAConnect is undergoing a refresh including a renewed emphasis on CPAmerica sponsorship. We also revived the Visitation Improvement Program (VIP) Committee who met at LPR to assess the popular program moving forward. Nineteen VIPs were hosted in 2022, with a goal of 20 for 2023 where the committee’s conclusions will be reflected, including the addition of a host and visiting team follow-up meeting. Reflecting on being better in 2023, I’m starting with a Sam Allred suggested read, “Free to Focus,” by Michael Hyatt. I’m excited to learn how to “achieve more by doing less.” I hope you have some time over the coming holidays to consider your past year and gain energy for the one ahead. The year is not over yet, and we have learned nothing if not to expect the unexpected. We will be ready for it.

Send feedback and member firm news to: advantage@cpamerica.org

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