Super CPAs





Paul Copley Accountants are sexy? Really?

Here’s one professor who thinks so, anyway.

“Enron came along and I became very sexy,” Dr. Paul Copley says. “Suddenly accounting practices became a daily conversation on NPR.”

Copley is the director of the School of Accounting, but if someone at a cocktail party asks him what he does, he’s more likely to start with “faculty at JMU.” If you mention the A-word too soon, he jokes, people may V-line for the shrimp dip.

So not everyone is aware of the new, sexier status accountants have achieved in the wake of high-profile fraud cases. But at least Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco demonstrated that accounting is important, Copley says. “They proved that getting it right matters.”

Dr. Brad Roof agrees. After three decades in the College of Business, where he is now an associate dean, Roof is certain that Hollywood’s stereotype -- a humorless man whose only friend is his ledger -- is incorrect. “Successful accountants must have strong people skills in addition to technical skills,” Roof says.

Ledgers are gone, anyway, replaced by computers. In today’s world of accounting, “there’s hardly any math,” Roof says. “It’s more about logic and problem-solving. It’s more like a foreign language.”

And that’s exactly how Roof teaches it. “I tell students that accounting is about how you put financial words together. Like grammar, there are a lot of conventions about how you do things. As an accountant, you serve as an interpreter. You enable people who don’t know the language to make better decisions.”

 

Two JMU Profs Recognized

Roof shared this analogy with Virginia Business, where he was featured in November 2006. He and Copley were named Super CPAs by the magazine, among 15 CPAs working in higher education who were honored.

Having two professors on the list is an honor for JMU, Roof says. “When I started here 30 years ago it was “James Who?”. People only recognized UVA and Virginia Tech. Now I work in a premiere business school, not just in Virginia, but throughout the region.” 

What changed? Roof gives some of the credit to Copley. “Before he was hired, we were like a baseball team that’s one player away from the World Series. Since then, we’ve been hitting home runs.”

Copley Establishes Boot Camp for CPA Exams:
Graduates Rank High on Pass Rate

Copley came to JMU from the University of Georgia’s J.M. Tull School of Accounting where he had an illustrious career. He won numerous awards and honors including recognitions for outstanding teaching and research. He has authored two textbooks on governmental and not-for-profit accounting, has penned nearly three dozen major publications and presentations, and serves on both the U.S. Comptroller General’s Advisory Council on Government Auditing Standards and the Virginia Society of CPA’s Educational Foundation.

“He has a pretty good sense of humor, too,” Roof says.

Copley’s mark on Madison will include the creation of a “CPA Boot Camp,” an innovative technique for preparing new graduates taking the CPA Exam.

“I realized our students are staying in Harrisonburg for a few months after school,” Copley recalls. “They are locked into leases and waiting for jobs that start in the fall.” So he decided to offer a six-week exam review course. “Convincing the students was easy,” he says. “Convincing the organizations that prepare review materials was the tough part.”

Becker Endorses Course

Copley received permission from Becker CPA Review for his course in 2005. Typically, Becker recommends that students spend months in the course, but Copley wanted to teach it in six short weeks. “They laughed when I said I’d have 35 kids in the first class,” Copley says. “When 41 of our graduates signed up, they were astounded.”

Of the 41 JMU students taking the exam in 2005, 19 passed, a 46.3 percent pass rate. The average national pass rate is 16 percent.

JMU Ranks High

JMU now ranks 25th in the nation in performance on the exam when compared with undergraduates at 2,000 colleges and universities, according to the 2006 edition of “Candidate Performance on the Uniform CPA Examination.”

What Copley sees as a “pretty simple concept” quickly earned attention. Professors from around the nation are calling him to find out what JMU is doing.

The best part, he says, is providing students with an edge. “Employers who hire our students are saying to other schools, ‘JMU is doing this, why aren’t you?’”

This was the case for alumnus Daniel Lovinger. He participated in the CPA Boot Camp last summer, passed the CPA Exam in October, and is now working at PricewaterhouseCoopers. “I think the course is a great idea,” he says. “It is the only way to have a legitimate shot at passing [the CPA exam] over the summer or within the first couple months at work.”

Lovinger believes his early success was a strong indicator to his employer. “Passing so quickly makes a huge difference and people higher up start noticing and remembering you. It is the best way to make yourself stand out above the other new hires.”

With more and more graduates being recruited by firms such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, Roof says “the proof is in the pudding.”

New graduates like Lovinger are also aided by the recent scandals. Thanks to congressional demands for more extensive probes, companies are adding accountants at a record pace.

PricewaterhouseCoopers reports an increase of 40 to 60 percent in the number of hours it takes to do a typical audit, creating a sellers’ market for talent.

It also means a bonanza in perks and workplace flexibility, Roof says. “Thanks to a new generation of CPAs and the increased demand for them, senior partners are recognizing that they’ve got to change.”
Compensation is on the rise; bonuses are more frequent; vacation time and sabbaticals are more negotiable. At PricewaterhouseCoopers, Lovinger can even enjoy financial “thank-yous” for a job well done, discount programs on travel, jewelry, technology and other products, and “Without Warning” awards of gift baskets for working on particularly tough projects.

Roof and Copley aren’t jealous of the new generation; they’re glad to see renewed popularity for the accounting profession. “It adds to my sense of mission,” Roof says. “JMU produces ethical, well-trained, creative accountants. Our students leave with a work ethic, they’re group-oriented, and they’re unpretentious. That’s what I’m most proud of.”

So what if accounting isn’t a hot topic at cocktail parties? “Paul has a neat side project he can talk about,” Roof volunteers. “He’s rebuilding a 1968 Scottie travel trailer, a real ‘canned ham!’”
Who says accountants aren’t sexy?