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VOLUME 23, NUMBER 5 MY PERSPECTIVE By M. Darren Root, CPA.CITP, Executive Editor Proud to Be Part of the Profession I 've been immersed in our profession ever since I was a kid. I practically grew up in my father's public accounting firm in Bloomington, Indiana. On Saturday mornings, I would drive with Dad to his ofce. Being the 1960s, business was done much diferently than it is today. Core 'workfow' tools consisted of pencils, paper, desk calculators and an IBM Selectric typewriter. A standard workday was 4 am to 7 pm. Tere was no such thing as a 'virtual' meeting. My dad met his clients in person—on their turf. In fact, I recall walking around the town square, making onsite visits. I Darren is the Executive Editor of CPA Practice Advisor. He remains in public practice as the principal of Root & Associates, LLC, in Bloomington, Indiana, and is president of his consulting practice, RootWorks. He formerly served on the Board of the AICPA's CITP Credentials Commitee and is a former member of the Board of Directors for the Indiana CPA Society. He speaks at dozens of professional organizations each year and fequently serves as a guest lecturer at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business. 4 would help him by labeling journal posting headings while he met with the client. Te highlight of my day was visiting his pizza parlor cl ient—I don't remember talking accounting, but it was the best pizza ever! Tese experiences shaped my perspective and perception of the small accounting firm: five or fewer employees, local clients, and long hours. And this perspective didn't change over the next several years. My dad continued to do business the same way—using tools no more sophisticated than the typewriter and copy machine. At 18, I enrolled at Indiana University. I was drawn to its business school, which is one of the highest- I HAD A TOUGH TIME RECONCILING WHAT I WAS LEARNING IN SCHOOL WITH WHAT, AT THE TIME, I KNEW TO BE THE REAL WORLD OF May 2013 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com ACCOUNTING. ranked in the country. Within my frst semester, I found myself drawn to accounting, and the curriculum gave me new view of the accounting profession. My experiences in Dad's frm led me to view the profession as 'mom and pop,' where all clients were local and their needs didn't reach beyond payroll, monthly f i na nc ia l st atement s, a nd t a x returns. Now, I found myself introduced to a much broader perspective that included an alphabet soup of concepts I had never heard of before— EBITDA, EPS, GAAP, and others. I had a tough time reconciling what I was learning in school with what, at the time, I knew to be the real world of accounting. Afer graduating college I took a job with Deloitte Hask ins and Sel ls (one of the 'Big 8' back then). I specifcally chose to work in the Indianapolis ofce, because it was small enough that I could perform both audit and tax work. Working for a bigger frm, I served clients that didn't reside on the town square. I worked with General Motors, large banks, and high-income taxpayers. W hile the work environments of my dad's frm and Deloite were very diferent, they shared a common denominator—long hours. Different firm, same unhealthy work-life balance. Being a small cog in a big wheel at Deloitte didn't feel good to me. I couldn't envision making a lifelong career of it, so I made the decision to return to my dad's frm. I found it virtually the same as it looked years before, from the drab carpet and furniture to the old-school hardware. I approached business at this point by doing what I intuitively 800-547-7377 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com Publisher: Jim Baker Executive Editor: M. Darren Root, CPA.CITP Editor: Isaac M. O'Bannon Managing Editor: Jill Burnett Technology Editor: Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP Associate Editor: Taija Jenkins Columnists: David McClure Doug Sleeter Jim Boomer, CPA.CITP Kristy Short Michelle Golden Randy Johnston Rene Lacerte Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA.CITP Art Director: Rhonda Cousin National Sales Manager: Barry Strobel Site Manager: Brittney Klaas Media Production Representative: Barb Evenson Audience Development Manager: Angela Kelty Editorial Advisory Board: Bob Cedergren, CPA.CITP, CISA, CISM, CISSP, CGEIT Chris Fraser, CPA.CITP, CISA, MCP Jason Lawhorn, CPA.CITP Gary A. Masino, CPA Ryan McCowan, CPA.CITP Linda O'Neal Troy Patton, CPA David Primes, CPA.CITP Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP Doug Sleeter Sandra L. Wiley CYGNUS BUSINESS MEDIA CEO: John French CFO: Paul Bonaiuto VP, Human Resources: Ed Wood VP, Audience Development: Julie Nachtigal VP, Technology: Eric Kammerzelt CYGNUS PUBLISHING Executive Vice President: Gloria Cosby Vice President of Production Operations: Curt Pordes For reprints and licensing please contact Nick Iademarco at Wright's Media 877-652-5295 ext. 102 or niademarco@wrightsmedia.com. The opinions given by contributing authors are their own and are not the opinions of our staff. All trademarks used are the property of their respective owner. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — Practice Advisor, (ISSN #2160-8725 (print), ISSN #2160-8733 (digital); USPS #017-576) is published eight times a year (April/May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December) by Cygnus Business Media, Inc., incorporating two editions known as CPA Practice Advisor and NSA Practice Advisor, 1233 Janesville Avenue, Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin 53538. Periodicals postage paid at Fort Atkinson, WI 53538 and at additional mailing offces. Printed in the U.S.A. Send all subscription inquiries or change of address to: Practice Advisor, PO Box 3258, Northbrook, IL 60065-3258. 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