A solid message.

If there’s one message CPAs should be repeating over and over again, it’s this: “Your doctor is certified. Your lawyer is certified. Is your accountant?”

The license CPAs hold represents a higher level of education, expertise and integrity. Once everyone knows the difference between accountants and certified public accountants, who wouldn’t want a CPA on their side?

Thanks to the Associated Press, the message is spreading far and wide.

The AP’s Joyce Rosenberg has written an article that advises the public on how to pick a CPA. It’s shown here on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Web site, but since the AP is a wire service, it has been published in newspapers throughout the country as well. Best of all, the article draws a line in the sand between CPAs and accountants and explains how CPAs can better serve their clients.

It’s yet another affirmation that one’s accountant should be a certified public accountant.