Small firms make connections.

On December 13, the American Institute of CPAs small firm advocacy committee (SFAC) sponsored an online conference via CompuServe to discuss three key issues:

* Staffing.

* Peer review.

* Specialization.

CPAs were able to learn not only what committee members were thinking but also what concerned their fellow small practitioners. "It was an opportunity to try a new medium to deliver information to a broader base of small practitioners at an extremely low cost," said Janet Caswell, a conference panelist and former SFAC member.

In the interests of speed, the panelists-current and former members of SFAC and the management of an accounting practice committee--developed questions and prepared answers in advance. These were then uploaded quickly as the conference proceeded. However, the panelists were online during the entire conference, so participants could ask questions. Ed Zollars, CPA, volunteer sysop on the Accountants Forum, moderated the conference.

Major headaches, helpful solutions

Most panelists and participants who brought up problems discovered that others had found themselves in the same situations. For example, one CPA raised the question of whether to pay employees for bringing in clients or to require employees to do so as part of their jobs. Other participants then discussed their policies and experiences with this issue.

For another example, during the peer review discussion, one CPA voiced concern that some firms could becomes so specialized performing peer reviews, and spend so much time doing them, they would end up doing hardly any other accounting work. There was almost universal agreement this would be a bad trend. CPAs also gave marketing tips: A panelist who was on the Board of her daughters' private school said she offered to donate to the school 10% of her first year's fee for any new business from parents. "We got an immense number of good clients from that promotion."

Current success and future plans

Zollars said the conference attracted a group of practitioners different from those who spend time on the Accountants Forum. "The conference appealed to CPAs who wanted to spend a couple of hours at a set time on particular subjects." He emphasized the participants got a wealth of information from the conference without spending time and money traveling. Eventually, Zollars would like to see such conferences expanded to include voice and video teleconferencing. Someday online conferences may be open to anyone with an Internet connection, free from CompuServe and its competitors. Everyone will need to have proper, standardized software, however.

Caswell emphasized that small firm members who didn't participate could still glean a lot of useful information from the transcript. (The transcript is in the CPA Firms/MAP section of the Accountants Forum as "roomtalk" and on the AICPA Web site. Members without online access can call 800-272-3476 and request a hard copy.) Caswell said she would like to see more participation and expansion to get even more feedback from members. A participant who helped choose the top 10 technologies expected to have the greatest impact on CPAs in 1997 (see "The IT Committees' Top 10 List," JofA, Feb. 96, page 12), Caswell believes such technology could someday help the SFAC by allowing members to provide detailed input on a variety of small-firm issues. In the meantime, she encourages CPAs to relax and join in. "I think some potential participants are nervous because an online conversation is 'the written word' and they think it should be perfect," she said. "In actuality, it's just a conversation between colleagues."