A Cleveland cpa has an undergraduate
degree and has met the exam and experience requirements for state
certification. A Cleveland cpa must take continuing education courses to remain certified
and licensed. A Certified Management Accountant (CMA) is trained to meet the
demands of today's accounting requirements in addition to participating on the
company's management team. As with a CPA, a CMA must pass an exam, have
business experience, and obtain continuing education credits. In growing
companies, owners want an accountant who can help them manage financial
business performance and have responsibility for the internal control function.
A CMA is well-suited for this task. There are additional designations that some
CPAs have, including Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV), Certified
Valuation Analyst (CVA), and Personal Financial Specialist (PFS), among others.
In addition to certifications, you should look for some type of expertise in
your industry or a similar industry. Some firms have a specialty in auto
dealers, others specialize in construction contractors, others work with non-profits
and some may have experience in retail.
The work that most CPA
professionals do often involves following to strict timelines:
- Organizes your paperwork and files
A
CPA should be able to access the data or the records quickly at any time they
needed. They won’t have the luxury of spending hours searching for a particular
document that has misplaced or lost track of proper organization.
- Working efficiently under pressure
Tax
season is a difficult time for many CPAs; they could have to work late or on
weekends. Despite the workload, a CPA can’t afford to make any errors since a
mistake on your part could lead to financial losses for your client.
Maintaining excellent organization will help.
- Overall perspective
A
CPA needs to pay close attention to every detail of their work. But at the same
time, they should not lose overall perspective of the task at hand and organizational
skills will be more and more important as they gain status.
Your needs on what
qualifications to seek in an accountant must also take into consideration what
services your business needs from an accountant. Maybe you only seek a firm to
prepare your tax return and compile end-of-year financial statements. However,
if you also want tax and financial planning advice or retirement planning
advice, you may need to seek someone with different qualifications or
background. Some businesses also require their CPA to attest to the validity of
their financial statements to an outside party, such as a bank. It is very
important to understand how a CPA differs from an accountant. While both
typically have accounting degrees, a CPA has passed the Uniform CPA Exam which
is a rigorous exam that tests one's understanding of tax law and standard
accounting practices and they have obtained a state license, which has good
character and ethics requirements. A CPA takes professional education courses
to maintain his or her license, and a CPA also has unlimited representation
rights.
