Changing Hawaii

By Diane Yukihiro Chang

Friday, July 18, 1997

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Cold, cruel economy
has CPAs shivering

GONE shopping lately? At major retail centers, once thriving stores that had cash registers going ka-ching, ka-ching are now closed down and boarded up. No need to convene an economic summit to learn it's hard times for Hawaii businesses.

Fresh money is not surfing through the marketplace. It's so bad that even the certified public accountant -- one of the most highly regarded, sacrosanct and fuddy-duddy of all professions -- is being forced to morph with the times.

These days, mere number-crunching doesn't cut it; specialization and consulting services rule.

Only in their dreams do CPAs relive the fat days of Japanese investment. Back then, this town's digit counters could sit in their comfy offices, calculators at the ready, as phone lines lit up with calls from rich and demanding clients.

Such memories are now painful to recall. Reality bites when foreign moolah disappears.

But David M. Carr of Carr Gouveia & Associates on Paa Street has great faith in his fellow CPAs. "I'm worried about the economic condition of Hawaii," says Carr, "but optimistic about the profession's ability to adapt."

As chairman of the (take deep breath) Management of an Accounting Practice Committee of the Hawaii Society of Certified Public Accountants (phew!), Carr has the future of the industry on his mind.

Through extensive reading and studying survey results, the 20-year accounting veteran has spotted major trends for local CPA practices, including:

Increased price pressures, competition for fewer clients and collection problems due to the slow economy.

A large pool of high-caliber accounting employees in the job market.

An "aloha spirit" that tends to sustain friendlier and longer-term client relationships.

Serving a client not so much as a bean counter but as a trusted business advisor.

So much for the present, but what about the future? Carr anticipated that the answers might come from Audra L. Furukawa's senior accounting thesis on the CPA "Firm of the Future."

Based on a suggestion by her UH-West Oahu accounting professor, Donald Sartori, and guided by Carr, Furukawa developed a four-page survey. She mailed it to more than 200 local CPA firms soon after April 15, that ominous deadline for the federal tax-filing season.

Survey recipients must have still been busy -- or were physically and mentally pooped. Only nine individuals filled out and mailed back their questionnaires to Furukawa, who was disappointed by the low return rate but elated by the "A" she earned for her efforts.

WHILE statistically invalid because of the small number of responses, Furukawa still made projections about the CPA "Firm of the Future" in Hawaii.

It will aggressively market and advertise. It will focus on tax and consulting services. And it will use the most up-to-date computers and new software to keep labor costs down while treating its remaining workers better, through more flexible scheduling, for example.

Sounds pretty progressive for a bunch of folks who once wore green eyeshades and slipped #2 pencils behind their ears.

If they keep innovating and changing with the times, count on the CPAs of HI and the USA to be A-OK.