I gave my annual professional issues update to our oversold Business & Industry Conference on May 18 at the Turf Valley Inn & Conference Center in Ellicott City. Close to 150 CPAs representing businesses all across Maryland — private companies and public companies alike — were represented.

So here are my top five issues facing CPAs in business and industry:

1. Lack of time
2. Standards and regulatory overload
3. Staff shortage
4. Dealing with technology
5. Competition and the speed of business

Or as the book, Breathing Lessons, by Deloitte states, “CFOs are as busy as a bartender at a New Year’s Eve party!” But it is exciting to see CPAs in demand as CFOs in business, due to the core values we bring to the table — values like integrity, lifelong learning, objectivity, competence, and being attuned to broad business issues. (See the CPA Vision Project for more information.)

Here are some resources we discussed during this session:

• Breathing Lessons from Deloitte and CFO magazine
• The four faces (roles) of the CFO, as outlined in an earlier post on our blog
• The “Top Talent Study” from the AICPA PCPS team
• Pictures from the conference at the MACPA’s Flickr site
• The FASB’s new Private Company Financial Reporting site.

And just for fun, we compared the “old image” of the CPA (using Monty Python’s clip about the vocational guidance counselor with a chartered accountant) to the MACPA’s 2006 CPA Road Show video produced in conjunction with the AICPA; you can watch our video here on YouTube. (Send the link around and let’s see if we can make our CPA video one of the top YouTube clips.)

Some more resources for industry CPAs:

• The MACPA’s Business & Industry Committee (members only; requires login)
• AICPA’s Financial Management Center
• AICPA’s Top Ten Technology Issues
• AICPA’s Audit Committee Center

Keep coming back. Our next business and industry post will feature why CFOs should be CPAs.