CPA Practice Advisor - 35

BUILDING YOUR NICHE PRACTICE

website download, and/or made into
a video or podcast.
Conduct research to
identify the people
and or organizations
to pitch your content,
e.g., free, lunchand-learn webinars,
evening networking
events, podcast series,
or video channel
subscriptions.
One of the easiest ways to conduct research is with social media.
On LinkedIn, you could:
■ Send a private message announcing
an event or new content to 100
of your first-degree connections
per day;
■ Use the advanced search filters to
identify connections and send them
a personalized request message;
and

STEP 3

evaluation of the practitioner's
quality control system as well
as the quality of audit and attest
engagement work papers, reports
and communications with those
charged with governance. Practitioners seeking a qualified reviewer
may consult the Peer Review Public
File at www.aicpa.org/forthepublic/
peerreviewpublicfile.
As part of the aforementioned
system of quality control, the
practitioner must develop procedures for accepting new clients and
evaluating and continuing to engage
with existing clients. Required
elements to consider include, but
are not limited to, whether there
are components to the financial
statements and whether the practitioner qualifies as a group auditor.
In addition, the practitioner must
ensure that management is willing
and able to accept responsibility for
the preparation of financial statements in accordance with Generally

■ Leverage InMail to message seconddegree connections.
On Twitter, you could create
a Twitter list that includes profile
handles of the towns where you
want to focus. Then you can send
a Tweet to that list several times a
month. To do that, you'd create a list
on your company's Twitter account
with a name that doesn't have any
spaces, such as Municipality_Prospects. When you have content to
share, simply start the Tweet with
this format @FirmTwitterHandle/
Municipality_Prospects [enter your
tweet].
Remember to use a combination
of appropriate hashtags to help
draw in your leads, such as #CityClerk, #PublicService, #CityHall,
#TownClerk, #CountyClerk, etc.
For example, @FirmTwitterHandle/Municipality_Prospects Want to
ease the burden of document reten-

tion? Here are 3 tips you can use
today! Get the list. #[TownName]
#LocalGov #CityClerk
With Facebook and Instagram,
you can have a little more fun and
post photos of your business history, staff's community activities,
around-town selfies, and volunteer
efforts. Hashtags are also helpful on
these platforms. Use up to three on
Facebook and a maximum of 10 on
Instagram. More than 10 on Instagram could cause your profile to be
shadow banned, which means your
posts would be suppressed.

Accepted Accounting Principles
(GAAP), and whether management
understands their obligations as
it relates to establishing a sound
internal control environment. The
practitioner must also consider
whether they are qualified and
whether the engagement will
necessitate the use of an audit
specialist. Each engagement also
mandates that independence exist
in fact and in appearance, and audit
documentation is retained to reflect
this conclusion.

threats, and identify and document
a member of management and/or
those charged with governance
with suitable skills, knowledge and
expertise who is able and willing to
accept responsibility for those nonattest services. Furthermore, when
threats are deemed significant, the
practitioner must implement safeguards over the threats to ensure
independence is not hindered.
These safeguards must be actions
taken by the practitioner, such as
requiring a qualified CPA who is not
a member of the engagement team
to review the applicable financial
statements and/or work papers, or
engaging a CPA from another firm
to provide such review.
Before entering the government
and municipal arena, CPAs should
understand that a plan to dabble
in the industry is fraught with a
high degree of risk. Many firms
do not adequately consider this
aspect of the service sector to their

INDEPENDENCE
When assessing the independence
from the potential client, Government Auditing Standards require
additional consideration beyond
U.S. Generally Accepted Auditing
Standards. For instance when
threats to independence occur as a
result of the practitioner performing non-attest services, the practitioner is required to identify those

STEP 4

Develop a print
campaign supporting
your online content
efforts. Postcards with
eye-catching graphics are easy to read,
provide information
immediately, and may

AUGUST 2019 ■

be used as a lead generation tool.
Identify one call to action
per print campaign, for example,
download something, register for
an event, view a video, listen to a
podcast, or engage on social media.
Also, include a trackable URL
for anything that points to your
website. Google and Raventools
both have easy-to-use URL builders
for this purpose. If you create a bit.
ly account, you can also shorten
and make memorable links for each
campaign.
Your goals with these URLs are
to create:
■ Easy-to-enter links,
■ Memorable campaign names for use
in links, and
■ Trackability.
Now that you have this four-step
plan, what will be the first topic you
address? ■

detriment in terms of reputation
and sometimes livelihood. To successfully practice in this sector of
public accounting, industry-specific
expertise is critical, and moreover
required under our professional
standards.
As with most initiatives, a thorough understanding the industry
and the necessary investment are
the first steps in the journey. ■
Keeley Hines is a principal in The Bonadio
Group's Government Division. She has 15
years' experience providing audit and accounting services to municipalities, public authorities,
school districts and other exempt organizations.
Gail McIntyre is a Quality Assurance Partner
in The Bonadio Group's Professional Excellence
Division, focused on financial reporting, professional development and risk management.
Gail's industry experience includes exempt
organizations, municipalities, employee benefit
plans and compliance. The Bonadio Group is a
nationally ranked Top 40 CPA firm delivering
integrated financial and consulting services
to a diverse range of organizations - Private
sector, public entities, exempt organizations and
financial institutions.

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