PCPS UPDATE.

Are you getting the most out of your peer review?

Maximize the benefits you get from your review! Visit the PCPS's "Road Map to the Peer Review Process" at www.aicpa.org/pcps/index.htm to learn how you can get the most value from your review. This online guide serves as a reference and resource for PCPS members.

The road map is intended to prepare CPAs for their reviews and provides tips on resolving any differences that occur during the review, gives suggestions on choosing the right peer review team and offers efficiency models. Following is an example of the kind of advice you can expect from the road map:

Measuring your reviewer. Although it is important to establish that a potential reviewer has the proper credentials, there are other things that firms may want to know. Practitioners may believe a compliance review alone is not enough for their firm. They may want to hire a reviewer who will do more than ensure the firm is in conformance with professional standards. Reviewers can be more valuable if they offer firms insights and suggestions that will help them to better manage their practices.

Defining your peer. One important determination to be made is whether the review team comes from a firm that is truly a peer. How does that firm's size compare in terms of billings and number of personnel to the firm being reviewed? What size are its clients? Does it specialize in the same industries and have the same depth of knowledge in those areas? Does it perform similar engagements? Is its personnel of the same caliber? Does it face the same kinds of liability exposure? A review team also should have a personal understanding of the firm's unique practice issues in order to do a good job.

Grow your firm by offering additional services

Check out "Insights," PCPS' new online video, which highlights how CPA firms are restructured to offer consulting and assurance services. The how-to video profiles GEMKO, a technology consulting firm subsidiary created by Gaines, Metzler, Kriner & Co., LLP, a CPA firm in Buffalo, New York. GEMKO was formed in 1991 to offer a series of customized technology applications for its client base, including network software integration...