As potential clients in the now-legal medical marijuana industry in Pennsylvania begin to call on CPAs for professional services, a conflict arises as to whether or not CPAs can serve these clients under the profession’s Code of Professional Conduct.

Now is a good time to take stock of all of the personally identifiable information in your firm’s possession and focus on addressing the risks posed by a potential cybersecurity breach. To help ease the burden of dealing with these complex areas, the PICPA has developed a cybersecurity threat management program.

New technologies that enable the analysis of huge quantities of data are poised to radically transform auditing. While the use of data extraction software has increased and provided incremental improvement to the audit process, advances in workflow automation and artificial intelligence will soon result in a complete overhaul of the audit process.

The AICPA, for its part, released a completely new special purpose framework designed for small businesses. Called the Financial Reporting Framework for Small- and Medium-Sized Entities, (FRF for SMEs), this new framework offers a simplified financial reporting option for those entities that are not required to use U.S. GAAP. Is this new framework right for your business or clients? The devil, as always, is in the details.

The relationships between a CPA and his or her clients can last for many years, having been built on a foundation of trust and professionalism. However, the increase in third parties asking for comfort letters threatens these relationships and challenges the integrity and ethical behavior of the CPA as well as their billable hours.