I don’t believe that we should ever shrink from difficult questions.  Here are a couple we have been dealing with at the Board of Accountancy:

 “How much regulation do we need?”

“Shouldn’t we just leave it to the market to weed out the ineffective and incompetent?”

So are these questions dishonest?  Since they are sourced from both ends of the political spectrum, I am not sure that they can be dismissed easily. 

"This is an experiment of sorts in right sizing regulation."

Here is another one:

“What is the value added function of regulation?  What do efficient and effective regulators do?”

Here is our shot at an answer:

In the later part of 2018, a Board task force took a look at our statute governing firm licensing in Washington State following questions we received from some stakeholders like the ones above.

The result of this effort was House Bill 1208, referred by us as the Firm Licensing Bill.  It was overwhelmingly supported by the Washington CPA community.

The new bill passed by both houses of the Legislature and was signed into Law by Governor Inslee on April 19, 2019. The change in our statute will take effect on July 28, 2019.

"The change in our statute will take effect on July 28, 2019."

In a nut shell, the bill limits the requirement for a firm license in Washington State to only those firms that perform or offer to perform compilation or attest services.  Our mission is to protect the public and monitor licensees’ compliance with attest standards.

Firms who will no longer be required to maintain a license, may want to maintain one in order to facilitate inter-jurisdictional mobility. Some firms may simply want to point to themselves as a licensed firm.  This option is allowed.

We will also be working to clarify naming conventions for non-licensed CPA firms who want to incorporate the title “CPA” into their firm name or trade name.   These should be pretty common sense to most practitioners, but feel free to participate in the rule making process by submitting any suggestions or comments to the Board.

This is an experiment of sorts in right sizing regulation.  Work with us to make it a success.

About the Author

Charles Satterlund lives in Olympia Washington with his wife Denise and is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Economics from Central Washington University.

Prior to his appointment as the current Executive Director for the Washington State Board of Accountancy, he served the agency for three and a half years as the Director of Investigations under Executive Director Richard Sweeney. In addition, Charles worked for the Washington State Department of Health, the Washington State Auditor’s Office, and the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services during his 32 year career with the State of Washington.