Integrative Advisory Services

CHAPTER 1History of the Accounting ProfessionFrom Compliance to Advisory

You could say that accounting is literally in my blood. My grandfather's family immigrated to the United States from Russia in 1909. They lived in an immigrant neighborhood in Minnesota, a tightly knit community where everyone set their sights on a better life.

As immigrants, my family saw accounting as an attractive profession because it supplied a steady job. At the end of the day, every type of business needs help keeping their books.

My grandfather worked hard and became a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in 1935, in the depths of the Depression, and early in the formation of the accounting profession in the United States. He worked as a CPA until 1977, when he passed away. Throughout his career, he experienced massive shifts in the accounting profession.

From the stories I have heard about my grandfather, he was not today's model of a CPA. He saw the business as not just a way to earn a good living to support his family, but as a way to help his community. He was a one-person operation. He cultivated clients by word of mouth. He had an office with some contractors and used the traditional paper ledger and sharp pencils.

Of course in his days—the Stone Age of accounting by today's standards—accounting was strictly pen and paper. The lone piece of technology was often a 10-key machine. The “cloud” was folders in filing cabinets, each carefully labeled and arranged. These were the polished wingtips and ...