When Mark Leeds arrived at the Rye Brook office of Win Properties Inc. on the morning of July 26, none of the handful of bookkeepers under his employ had become “illegals” overnight.
But as they advance up the ladder in the accounting profession, they face the same gauntlet of licensure and continuing education that certified public accountants must run to obtain and keep the CPA designation.
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On July 26, New York enacted its largest overhaul of its CPA licensure rules since the Great Depression, extending industry requirements that had only applied to audit company workers to accountants in companies that previously did not have to obtain a license, as well as those in consulting, academia, government and other ancillary trades.
New York is also allowing CPAs in other states to obtain a temporary license to do business here for up to five years.
For Leeds, the chief financial officer of Win Properties and “outstanding CPA in industry” as designated in 2008 by the New York Society of CPAs, the new rules are largely a formality as he already maintains his CPA credential ”“ though he admits he let it lapse after moving from Long Island to Westchester eight years ago, which he blames on his renewal paperwork not being forwarded to his new address.
But many others are scrambling to learn about the new rules and sign up for CPA continuing education classes, giving a boon to training companies that provide such programs, including vendors that offer training through the Web.
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“The ones that are having difficulties with this are the ones in industry,” said Elliot Lesser, a New Rochelle resident who is co-director of the litigation and business valuation group at New York City-based Berdon L.L.P. “There has been a bit of a rush to get registered.”
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That is placing a tremendous burden on the New York State Office of the Professions, which in the past two years has issued less than 2,000 new licenses statewide, out of a total population of some 40,000 CPAs registered to do business in New York.
“If another 30,000 (would-be) CPAs have to register, you can only imagine it,” Lesser said.
Complicating matters was an upgrade of the office”™s web site in early August, prompting the board to take down its site for the weekend beginning Friday, July 28 ”“ making it far more difficult for accountants to get information on the new rules just as they took effect.
On the eve of the reform bill, Westchester County had the fourth largest cluster of CPAs in New York, with nearly 2,500 licensed here as of July, less than half the number in Nassau County, which leads the state. Combined, Rockland, Putnam, Orange, Dutchess and Ulster counties have about 1,700 CPAs registered with the state.
Traditional accounting firms will also likely be affected. For instance, the White Plains office of J.H. Cohn L.L.P. has 80 CPAs and more than 100 more accounting professionals who do not have the designation, according to information the New York City-based firm provided the Westchester County Business Journal.
Beginning in 2012, accounting firms also face a mandatory peer review process of their quality measures.
While some may find the new rules onerous, Leeds said it will benefit the state”™s accounting industry in the long run by enhancing the professional image of accountants across the spectra of industry, and providing connections to those who have been operating on the periphery of the industry.
“I like it because ”¦ sometimes you can feel like a forgotten person (without a CPA license),” Leeds said. “This recognizes that we are all professionals, whether in the government, whether in industry, (and) whether in private practice.”
