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Modern CPAs work behind the scenes as trusted advisors in nearly all significant business decisions. Successful accountants display the ability to think strategically and creatively and to be problem solvers and business advisors. CPAs must be masters of interpersonal relationships and have the highest ethical standards, both in fact and appearance.

Perceptions of the CPA, however, can differ widely, whether from the viewpoint of the investing public or from the perspective of the companies that engage CPAs to audit their financial statements or perform other functions. In fact, many people not involved in the business management or accounting profession may perceive CPAs as "book smart," reclusive number crunchers who sit quietly in a cubicle typing numbers into a ten-key adding machine. But decision makers in the corporate world know that successful CPAs are highly interactive, where most of their time is spent in face-to-face communications while performing complex tasks within the ever-changing boundaries of today's regulatory and legal landscape.

The esteem of the non-business community may not seem as important as that of the CPA's clients. Yet the outcome of most litigation cases is largely determined by jurors' perceptions of the accounting profession. Thankfully, the auditing profession has rebounded in public perception after a downturn in the wake of Enron. A recent Gallup poll indicated that 42 percent of Americans have a positive view of the accounting profession, with only 14 percent having a negative view.

Auditing is a process where a reasonable level of assurance can be provided to third parties regarding assertions made by a company. The primary function of auditing is to enhance the reliability of financial information. As a result, auditing also serves to facilitate the free flow of capital in a market system. This function is driven by the necessity for standardized, comparable financial information in a free market so that decision makers are better able to choose between alternatives.

When a company provides a separate, independent, competent third-party report on its financial statements, the comfort level of a potential investor or lender is enhanced, and that person is more likely to make the required funds available for the company's cash needs. Thus, even if the law did not require an audit, the free market system would tend to encourage (if not necessitate) one.

The accounting profession has encountered perhaps its greatest degree of change in recent years, most recently with the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), which dramatically altered the landscape of modern public accounting. SOX requires that auditors now express an opinion on the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting of the companies being audited. It also reinforces the requirement for auditors to be independent of their audit clients and limits how much work the auditor can perform. It is necessary for the auditor to be independent and objective. Otherwise, if not, he or she may not be as willing to highlight and reject improper accounting treatments. It also leads to the appearance of unethical behavior. If CPA firms are not independent of their clients in both fact and appearance, they diminish their role of enhancing the reliability of financial information and inhibit the free flow of market capital.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) is a private sector, nonprofit corporation established by SOX to oversee auditors of public companies. The PCAOB bases its independence requirements on four basic principles: (1) an auditor must not act as management or as an employee of the audit client; (2) an auditor must not audit his or her own work; (3) an auditor must not serve in a position of being an advocate for his or her client; and (4) an auditor must not have mutual or conflicting interests with his or her audit clients.

If an auditor is to avoid auditing his or her own work, certain complex tasks that a company is not able to perform internally may have to be outsourced to a second CPA firm. For example, auditors cannot prepare the tax accrual for their clients because they would then be unable to independently audit the accrual. Many larger firms take this a step further by taking advantage of separate audit and tax departments. Using the example of the tax accrual, the client would prepare the accrual, the auditor would audit it, and the firm's tax department would assess the reasonableness of the auditor's work.

These independence issues also mean that auditors should not serve as business consultants to their audit clients, since the desire to retain the lucrative consulting engagements would compromise their audit independence. However, there are many other services CPAs can provide to non-audit clients. Many of these clients may still need to be educated on exactly what services a CPA firm can (and cannot) provide. For instance, an audit is just one form of assurance which can include many other services to improve the quality of information for decision makers. Such information can be financial or non-financial. Electronic commerce, elder care, comprehensive risk assessment, entity performance measurement and information systems quality assessment are just a few examples of assurance services areas.

Additional services provided by CPAs include accounting, litigation support, management consulting, personal financial planning and tax advisory services. Within each of these services is a subset of endless possible specialties, such as environmental accounting, forensic accounting, information technology services and international accounting. In an internal business or industry setting, the CPA may provide financial management, financial reporting, internal auditing, management accounting, tax planning or any number of non-financial services.

CPAs are business experts whose knowledge and skills are sought and valued by management in a variety of capacities. They can help businesses succeed in whatever complex circumstances they face, using their analytical skills and their ability to think creatively, strategically and solve intricate problems in a variety of situations. It's up to those of us in the profession to communicate these realities (while dispelling falsities) to further enhance the public's perception.