PCPS Update.

New TIC Chair Eyes Firm Overload

The new chair of the PCPS technical issues committee (TIC), Candace E. (Candy) Wright, an audit director with Postlethwaite & Netterville in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, wants to keep CPA firms from experiencing future standards overload. TIC is charged with overseeing all standards issues that affect CPA firms and their clients, and Wright is taking this responsibility seriously.

While TIC focuses primarily on issues that affect smaller firms and privately-held clients, it also must keep large firm and public company issues on its radar screen. Wright intends to ensure small firms do not get "blindsided" by issues that only Big Five firms are adequately staffed to handle.

"There is a trickle-down effect that reaches smaller firms, even if they don't have clients that are SEC registrants," said Wright. "Many large firm issues are relevant to smaller firms, who strive to maintain an efficient audit process while complying with all the professional audit standards."

The TIC interacts regularly with the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, the AICPA's accounting standards executive committee (AcSEC), the auditing standards board (ASB), the Independence Standards Board and various government regulatory agencies. To meet its goals, the TIC tests proposed guidance to determine how it will affect small and midsize firms.

According to Wright, some of the members of the regulatory bodies have little first-hand experience with the situations, problems and challenges of smaller practice units. She plans to beef up contact with all relevant standard-setting bodies to ensure their continued awareness of the needs of small firms and the accounting and auditing needs of their similarly small clients.

Wright succeeds James A. Koepke, a shareholder of Doeren Mayhew, a firm in Troy, Michigan. He has been the TIC chair since 1996. Wright joined Postlethwaite & Netterville in 1985 and was made a director in 1994. Prior to joining the firm, she was an accountant with a multistate pharmaceutical...