Theresa Drew doesn’t use a crystal ball, but she can envision the future. And for CPAs, that future is rapidly transforming, bringing with it new and exciting opportunities for those ready to embrace change. With Drew’s 20 years of accounting experience, it’s a good bet her forecasting is on target.

As partner-in-charge of the Assurance and Advisory Services practice for Deloitte & Touche in Arizona, Drew continues to reinvent and expand what it means to be a CPA. Take, for example, the traditional audit. Even this time-tested practice has taken on a new and improved look.

"How we approach the audit is really an ongoing evolution. It’s not as though we woke up one morning and decided we needed to do something different. We responded to the changing business climate," Drew explains. And that climate helped create the demand for a new level of service; thus, the value-added audit was born.

"At Deloitte & Touche, the value-added audit is designed to make sure we deliver quantifiable benefits to our clients. Instead of just the traditional audit, where we opine on their financial statements, we provide more," she says. Drew points to hundreds of ways that CPAs help companies improve performance; for example, when clients can see the impact to the bottom line in reducing their days receivables’ outstanding. "When clients can actually quantify results, they’re going to know they’ve received value," she adds.

Not only do the audits provide additional value, but they’re also often done without the traditional reams of paper. "Deloitte & Touche utilizes what we call Audit System/2, which is a completely paperless audit. We don’t print out any of the work papers. Everything is done on the computer, all the way up through the partner-level review of that work." Paperless audits, a product of the melding of technology, accounting savvy and vision, is a benefit that all CPAs can appreciate.

The Umbrella Expands
But the role of the CPA has gone well beyond even value-added and paperless audits. "Business has become much more complex and our clients are looking to CPAs to be business advisors, not just auditors," Drew says. "Assurance services continue to encompass the traditional audit services that CPAs have provided for many years. But the umbrella has really gotten bigger to include much more consultative services."

More and more, companies are expecting CPAs to be experts in a variety of subjects, from something as simple as how to cut expenses to a situation as complex as integrating acquisitions. For Drew, this means accounting professionals must be able not only to quantify information, but also to make it useful and understandable for clients through the interpretation of data. "Providing consultative services means you’re using your business and analytical skills and forward-thinking ideas to provide operational advice to companies," she explains.

When evaluating acquisitions, Drew says, "For example, we might review a target company’s financial statements and then be able to interpret those numbers for our clients. We must be prepared to help our client successfully negotiate the transaction, if, after evaluating the pitfalls, the acquisition remains in the best interest of our client."

Drew believes staying current on business trends is absolutely critical, and that utilizing cutting-edge technology is essential for survival. "The uses for technology are incredible today. Our people utilize laptop computers on-site. The computers enable them to access resource materials, databases, competitive information about different industries, and comparative data for benchmarking purposes, all while they’re in the field. This information enables accounting professionals to respond immediately to the market and help clients make decisions quickly.

Integrity Remains the Cornerstone
Despite all the changes, Drew stresses that some core components of the accounting profession must remain the same. "Integrity forms the cornerstone of our profession. Being independent, having integrity, providing objective viewpoints – that’s really what our profession has always been based on. CPAs are already trusted financial advisors. Now we have to go beyond that and become true business advisors," she says.

To be able to perform the value-added audits Drew champions, CPAs must first add value to themselves. "It’s time for us to take that educational background and business sense and grow ourselves professionally. We must continue to enhance our technology skills, our communication skills, our analytical skills, and continue to be of service to our clients in enhanced measures," she explains.

No crystal ball; just plenty of forward-thinking and an eye on the horizon.