MACPA members who belong to the AICPA can do their part in helping to improve corporate governance by signing up for the AICPA’s Audit Committee Matching System (ACMS). The system connects companies to a database of CPAs who may meet the skills and experience necessary to serve on boards of directors and their audit committees.

The ACMS was created for two reasons—to provide members with opportunities to serve on boards of directors and as a public service to SEC registrants, privately owned companies and nonprofit and government organizations looking for qualified, credentialed candidates to serve on their boards and audit committees. The system allows companies to find AICPA members who meet the SEC definition of “financial expert.”

CPAs are ideally qualified to serve as financial experts, defined by the SEC as someone who has some experience either directly as a principal financial officer, accounting officer, controller, public accountant or auditor, or supervising/managing someone with these responsibilities AND has the following attributes:

• An understanding of generally accepted accounting principles and financial statements;
• The ability to assess the general application of such principles in connection with the accounting for estimates, accruals and reserves;
• Experience preparing, auditing, analyzing or evaluating financial statements that present a breadth and level of complexity of accounting issues that are generally comparable to the breadth and complexity of issues that can reasonably be expected to be raised by the registrant's financial statements, or experience actively supervising one or more persons engaged in such activities;
• An understanding of internal controls and procedures for financial reporting; and
• An understanding of audit committee functions. 

MACPA members are encouraged to sign up for the ACMS as part of a joint effort with the AICPA to educate business leaders in Michigan and across the United States about the importance of effective corporate governance. MACPA members will be positioned as ideal candidates for serving on boards of directors and their audit committees. 

To learn more about the ACMS or sign up, visit the AICPA’s Web site at http://www.aicpa.org/info/committees/index.asp.