Art of Accounting: Class recess

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My Baruch College graduate seminar on managing an accounting practice ended last week. Teaching this course was a highlight of my career.

When I was asked to put together this course, I immediately accepted. It seemed like a chance of a lifetime, and it was. I was given the opportunity to share my love of public accounting with graduate students who were considering public accounting as their career choice. I relished this opportunity, but what I never considered was the immense pleasure of interacting weekly with the students. Their ages seemed to run from 22 or 23 to the mid-40s. Everyone of them were involved, energetic, excited and curious. They asked probing and great questions. They were concerned how they could succeed in their careers.

When I started preparing for this course, I drew up an outline of the curriculum and started gathering the materials I would use in the weekly classes. I was literally given a blank slate to create the course. I was asked to teach this course six months beforehand, so I had plenty of time to organize my published and posted material and develop new concepts. I also had to orchestrate the 14-week, three-hour classes to teach, maintain attention and interest, generate excitement, and to motivate the students toward public accounting.

My original thought was to prepare a "book" on each critical topic. I pretty much did this in a rough draft for the first three sessions. These were on starting an accounting practice (70 pages), pricing services (133 pages) and staffing (172 pages). I used the first two to guide my lectures, but when I saw the staffing "book," I realized this was overkill, too thorough, and way too much for the students to read and absorb each week, so I changed my focus. I switched to PowerPoint decks with some supplementary handout material. I also used many PowerPoint presentations from CPE programs, so I taught toward the practical aspects that practitioners were most interested in. I ditched the book idea and, if I end up not teaching for a semester, I will then use that time to edit the material into some books.

I had 33 students and encouraged one-on-one Zoom meetings. I had an office at the school, but found the flexibility of scheduling much easier using Zoom. At these meetings, I found out concerns the students had and were able to adapt them into my lectures. I then started each class with a discussion of news stories that affected public accounting and CPAs. This brought the school lessons into current reality. I also added some PowerPoint discussions on broad issues that clients ask their CPAs about, such as the stock market, valuing their businesses and how to better manage their time and keep in touch more effectively with their businesses. By the way, 29 of the students took advantage of this opportunity, with some more than once.

I also brought in four guest speakers. I've already written about the visits of Hitendra Patil and Steven Zelin. A third was Jeremias Ramos, a CPA and tax associate who had just left Withum. He shared his experiences in public accounting and how he manages his career and spends his daily time at work. The other was Michael L. Moskowitz, owner and founder of Equity Now mortgage bank, who was a Baruch graduate and a CPA. He shared his public accounting experiences and provided the reasons that led him into starting his own extremely successful business. He told me he never was asked how he got started and wasn't sure he would have enough to say to interest the students. Well, he spent much more than double the allotted time answering questions that the students couldn't ask fast enough. Not only was this a great learning experience, but the students now had the private phone number of the CEO of a mortgage bank they could call directly if they or any future clients needed a mortgage. Pretty cool!

Baruch College had designated a particular week as "Ethics Week" and asked each professor to spend some time discussing this critical area. I had previously reviewed two ethics textbooks for The CPA Journal and became friendly with one of the authors, so I had plenty to share in this regard. As the centerpiece of the discussion, I used repetitive ethics violations by two Big Four accounting firms. I showed news articles and talked about how I thought the huge fines that were assessed were mere slaps on the wrists and should have been 20 times greater. As I did in all my lectures, I used real situations, charts, graphs and glimpses into the future if those detrimental actions became business as usual behavior. I was angry and tried to convey this to the students. Hopefully I got my points across.

When I organized the syllabus I decided to not have any tests but to have the students write a term project. I graded attendance, class participation, homework, the term project and their presentation of an executive summary of their project. The attendance requirement was easy. They just needed to show up or provide a valid excuse for an absence. The class participation was also easy since I tried to call on everyone each night. I didn't always get to this but usually came pretty close. The homework was nothing more than a question they would need to respond to when I called on them as a segue into that night's primary lecture topic. 

I did not know what to expect with the quality of the written project or presentation. Well, I was very impressed with all of the presentations and term projects. They were well developed, researched, imaginative, creative and covered a variety of topics, all relevant to the course mission. These students should be very proud of themselves, as I am of all of them. Further, many of the term projects are suitable to be published, and I will follow up with the students to see about getting them published. When I told the head of the accounting department, Professor Donal Byard, how pleased and impressed I was with the overall quality, he responded, "Of course. They are Baruch students!" One of my students, Martins Jukna-Parsons, did a term project that I adapted into a column last week. I am also consolidating four students' term projects into an article for The CPA Journal. 

I was very excited about being able to teach this course and about my interactions with these exceptional students who will become the future leaders in the profession. They stimulated me and I hope I did likewise for them. I also feel fortunate to be able to pass on some of my experience and provide inside looks at what they can expect in their careers. There is also a personal pride I have in being able to teach at the college I graduated from 60 years ago. When I attended Baruch, it was the best there is, and after teaching my third course there in the last two years and seeing the quality of the students, I can tell you unequivocally, it is still the best there is!

I also recommend teaching to my colleagues. You will put in a lot, but I also guarantee you will get back much more than you put in!

Do not hesitate to contact me at emendlowitz@withum.com with your practice management questions or about engagements you might not be able to perform.