David A. Costello, CPA, President & CEO and Michael R. Bryant, CPA, CFO of NASBA jointly and severally stated that NASBA’s 2010 financial statements did not contain any untrue material statements and their auditors, Lattimore Black Morgan & Cain, PC seconded that so obviously the following is all accurate. We looked ourselves. Not being professional financial statement ninjas, however, we invite you to take a peek for yourself here.
The good news for NASBA is that total consolidated revenue in Fiscal 2010 was $33.7 million compared to $31.4 million in Fiscal 2009, an increase of 7.3%. There were more CPA exam candidates as well as a new state added to NASBA’s CPAES program, which does the work of state boards of accountancy by processing CPA exam applications.
Interestingly, though my grandparents have been eating Alpo for the last two years thanks to Ben Bernanke and I’m earning a little under half a percent on my savings, NASBA must have a good investment banker because they did pretty well for themselves in FY 10. The annual report states that revenue from escrow management fees related to the CPA exam increased over the prior year and that higher interest rates, on average, during FY 10 were earned on these funds which are held in fully-insured securities or interest-bearing accounts. Can someone please let me know where these accounts are?! I want in.
But the most interesting part of NASBA’s mostly dull financial statements is the $300,000 “fine” Prometric paid them for violating its CPA exam agreement. Yes, the same agreement that was just renewed through 2024 with much fanfare last year.
The item is reported as “Income from Contract Issue” on NASBA’s consolidated financial statements and buried in note 12 thusly:
Note 12. Income from Contract Issue
As a part of the initial CBT Services Agreement effective May 31, 2002, Prometric was required to obtain and maintain insurance policies for certain specific perils, coverage amounts, terms and conditions naming the Association and its member boards as additional insureds. During fiscal 2010, the Association asserted that Prometric failed to comply with certain applicable insurance requirements. Prometric denied the assertions but, in resolution of the matter, provided evidence that it had come into compliance, agreed to indemnify, hold harmless and defend for any coverage lapses, and paid $300,000 to the Association. In addition, Prometric reimbursed the Association for certain legal and administrative expenses related to the resolution.
It doesn’t appear that NASBA declared the legal and admin expenses it also received so we’re assuming they were either immaterial or just embarrassing. Any financial statement detectives are welcome to come to their own conclusions.
Wait, is this saying that 60% of the candidates that took their CPA exams in WA, were international candidates?
Or that 60% of the CPAs minted in the great state of WA were for international candidates taking the CPA outside of the US?
The latter is concerning, the former is concerning but not to the extent of the latter.
https://x.com/PSBJ/status/2024299218194604174
“The Washington State Board of Accountancy issued its most licenses ever in 2025. Only a quarter of the new licensees, however, lived in Washington.”
Wtf is TBTB
TPTB = The Powers That Be aka the people who have the most influence and make the decisions.
Boomers in this “profession”, looking at you big Four and mid-tier firms, and their crony politicians are destroying the CPA profession. Globalization has been and will always be a negative factor for Americans. Everything under the sun will or is in process of getting outsourced. Where is all the protests and anger from the AICPA over this?!?
[Editor note: I had to remove your last sentence, sorry. Message me if you want to brainstorm a way to say what you wanted to say that won’t get us nasty emails from the AICPA and/or their lawyers about it. I hear you though! ~Adrienne]
“Where is all the protests and anger from the AICPA over this?!?”
Why do you think the AICPA went global? They are getting dues money from all over the world, so they don’t care where their members live.
Remember, they are now the Association of International… no longer the American Institute
Internationally, having your CPA can be a huge career boost within your own company, and it doesn’t necessarily mean competition with U.S. CPAs – this is partly because the profession has historically done a great job of promoting its values and maintaining a strong reputation. WA has historically had positive business ties overseas, plus their changing CPA eligibility rules make it easier for work-experienced candidates to apply with just a 4-year degree; thus, part of this is the natural combination of those two (it could be any other state with the same factors). Even if not true in every case, this appears to be more a symptom than the problem. U.S. CPA counts are shrinking, no? The work’s gotta get done somehow – the SEC and IRS ain’t gonna wait. With tech expanding the geographic pool of service providers, the ol’ supply/demand curve marches on. Maybe U.S. firms should take a hard look internally as to why their local workforce is shrinking due to a decrease in market entrants and what they can tangibly do about it (i.e. challenge longstanding norms, and *gasp* perhaps put less money in the owners’ pockets just because they suffered through a crappy business model and deserve to be paid to keep it going).
Why can’t we just pay CPA’s more??? Like u gotta increase to at least 6 figures if you want people to go through the hard process of getting the job. I was considering CPA but was hesitant because they get paid as much as a mcdonalds manager and work longer hours
Putting $$ in the owners pockets is all the large firms care about. They could have taken action to address the accountant shortage years ago. We can wonder about whether the shortage was created purposefully or not but offshoring work absolutely benefits large firm owners financially.
“Should We Be Concerned?” No.
Washington is one of the few states that does require residency or a social security number to get your CPA license. A little context goes a long way…
This is beyond shameful, and grassroots CPAs need to demand action from the fat cats at the AICPA. The townhalls have turned into nothing more than a circle jerk of all that is wrong with this profession…
This is disheartening. I am studying for my CPA and there’s already so much competition from offshoring. It makes you really wonder if its worth it if they’re just going to give the job to someone who will work for half the pay.
Having a defeatist attitude and blaming offshoring might be popular among the associates happy hour events but it will not help your career. It blows my mind how so many on this site are afraid of competition.