Accounting: CPE Day 2022

Brian Terrell founded BTerrell Group in 1991 and oversees management and strategy for this Dallas based provider of Sage Intacct financial management software, which is the only accounting application ever to be designated by the AICPA as their Preferred Provider of Financial Applications. In addition, BTerrell’s experienced developers tailor the application’s business functionality to exact customer requirements, when necessary.

Born in Plainview, Texas, Brian grew up on a farm where he learned to create value through hard work. From there, he received his Bachelor of Science degree from Texas A&M University before starting a career with Arthur Andersen & Co. In February 1991, Brian and his wife Nancy began practicing public accounting with Terrell & Terrell, CPAs. Within a year, the firm refocused all professional services exclusively on business software automation and eventually rebranded as BTerrell Group in 2008.

Brian rides 125 miles a week as an avid cyclist and ride leader for the Plano Bicycle Association. He and his wife Nancy live in Dallas and anticipate the arrival of their fourth and fifth grandchildren in 2022.

Learning Objective(s):

1. Understand the appeal and expansion of the subscription economy
2. Review special challenges in applying subscription models to professional services
3. Identify the impact of subscription pricing on culture, marketing, pricing, compensation, and valuation
4. Analyze the design, execution, and results of an actual professional service company's transition from fixed pricing to subscription pricing

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Jeff Matthews, a Partner with StoneTurn, brings over 25 years of experience in financial investigations, forensic accounting, and litigation support. His clients include the nation’s top law firms, Fortune 100 legal departments and government investigative agencies. Further, for the past 12 years, Jeff has also been an Adjunct Professor with the University of Texas at Arlington and teaches a graduate-level Fraud Investigations class that he developed.

Jeff is a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the state of Texas. He was the Certified Fraud Examiner of the year in 2013 and has been voted a four-time All-Star speaker by the Institute of Internal Auditors. His autobiography, Holding Accountants Accountable, which details his career as a fraud fighter, was released in 2019 by Wiley Publishing. Further, as a Faculty Member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, Jeff lectures on a variety of fraud and litigation topics throughout the US.

Learning Objectives:
Session participants will learn how to:

1. Identify and avoid unethical situations in your profession and to operate within the boundaries of professional guidelines and standards;
2. Recognize current and emerging trends to spot new areas of weakness; and
3. Maintain a healthy dose of skepticism by ‘testing, not accepting’ when performing an assignment

Background

Lisa is a managing director in EY’s International Tax and Transaction Services (ITTS) practice within the Financial Services Organization (FSO) with over 19 years of experience. She leads the EY Global Investor Services (GIS) offering.

Experience

• Lisa serves as the Global Engagement Leader for several GIS projects and has significant experience with planning, design, implementation and monitoring of globally coordinated projects.
• She works with many large asset managers, mutual funds and US pension plans to provide a centralized approach to addressing tax reporting and filing requirements in various countries.
• She provides tax consulting, planning and compliance services for a variety of clients, with a focus on centralized global services with transparency and accountability.
• Prior to leading GIS for the firm, Lisa worked in EY’s National Tax department focused on tax consulting engagements for tax exempt organizations.
• She has been a speaker at various conferences on the topic of non-resident tax compliance related to direct investments and capital gains tax.

Education and certifications

• Lisa holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Accounting (Tax emphasis) from Oklahoma State University.
• She is a CPA licensed in Texas and Oklahoma and is a member of the AICPA, Texas Society of CPAs and Oklahoma Society of CPAs.

Learning objectives:

1. Provide an overview of tax requirements related to international investments
2. Summary of roles and responsibilities
3. General overview of withholding and reclaim markets
4. General overview of markets requiring local filings and/or representation

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Sriram Villupuram is an associate professor in the Department of Finance and Real Estate and the director of the Ryan-Reilly Center for Urban Land Utilization at the University of Texas at Arlington College of Business. He earned his Ph.D. in Finance and Real Estate, MSE in Industrial Engineering from Arizona State University, and BE in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Madras, India.

Dr. Villupuram’s research interests include valuation, macroeconomics, real estate price indices, and mutual funds. His research has been presented at the American Economic Association, Western Finance Association, Financial Management Association, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, and the American Real Estate Society. He has been a visiting scholar at the Federal Bank of Chicago’s Banking Supervision and Regulation division. The Wall Street Journal has written about his research on artificial intelligence and valuation. DFW media outlets such as CBS 11 News, NBC News, Dallas Business Journal, and Fort Worth Star-Telegram regularly interview him on various finance and real estate issues.

He has received the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award from the University of Texas at Arlington College of Business.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the current trends in residential and commercial Real Estate
2. Understand the current state of the economy (Texas vs. the US economy) and potential headwinds for Real Estate
3. Future predictions for Real Estate

Richard S. Mark is currently an Associate Professor of Accounting at the University of Texas at Arlington teaching in the areas of ethics and financial accounting. He has dual undergraduate degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Pre-Medicine from the University of Colorado, a Juris Doctorate from University of Colorado, and a Master of Taxation (LL.M.) from the University of Denver. He is a CPA in the United States and a Chartered Accountant in the British Commonwealth.

Prior to joining the UTA faculty, Professor Mark was a sole-practitioner and later an associate at various Dallas law firms. He subsequently became a Director of Tax for Atlantic Richfield Company and later a tax manager at Arthur Young & Co (now Ernst & Young). He has also previously served on the board of directors of a number of private energy firms.

Over more than 4 decades, Professor Mark has conducted numerous professional development seminars for most of the Western, Southwestern and Southern state societies of CPAs and public and private companies. He has also consulted and provided expert testimony for the IRS; various global energy concerns including Exxon-Mobile, Chevron, Shell, Gulf, Phillips 66, Conoco; hedge fund and tax software companies; law firms; international government agencies within the State of Victoria in Australia; and the State of Alaska.

Professor Mark has been approved to train accounting students in ethics in preparation for the CPA exam since 2005.

Learning Objectives:

1. To educate Texas Certified Public Accountants in ethical standards and issues associated with the practice of accounting within the State of Texas. As part of the education process, this course will:
   a. aid Texas CPAs in applying ethical judgment when interpreting the various standards and rules applicable to the practice of public accountancy within the State of Texas;
   b. encourage Texas CPAs to place primary importance in ethical decision making on public, rather than self-interest when evaluating their ethical decisions even at the loss of position or client
2. To help Texas CPAs to develop more than a technical understanding of the various applicable Rules of Professional Conduct when involved in the performance of professional accounting services/work. Within this context, this course will review and encourage open discussion of the Rules of Professional Conduct and their implications for persons in a variety of practices, including:
   a. attest and non-attest services for Texas CPAs in public practice (§ 501.52);
   b. internal accounting and auditing services for Texas CPAs in industry;
   c. education or government service

Download Accounting Ethics Handout

Department Chair and Associate Professor

Dr. Ramgopal (Ram) Venkataraman joined UT Arlington as Associate Professor of Accounting in 2013 and was selected to be the Chair of the Accounting Department effective September 2018. He was formerly an Assistant Professor of Accounting at the Cox School of Business, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX and at the Carlson School of Management in University of Minnesota. Dr. Venkataraman obtained his PhD from Penn State University.

Prior to joining academia, Dr. Venkataraman had extensive accounting, consulting and corporate experience for a total period of 12 years as a Chartered Accountant rising to partner in a mid-size Indian accounting firm and later as Finance Manager for a company in the United Arab Emirates and Project Manager in India for an industrial venture.

Dr. Venkataraman’s research interests are varied. He is broadly interested in the role of accounting information on capital markets and various players in the capital markets such as investors, financial analysts and auditors. Recently, he has also been involved with several medical research projects with faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center as well as the Biomedical engineering department at UTA. He has published his articles in both leading accounting journals and medical journals.

He enjoys bringing real world practice and examples to his students in the classroom to prepare them to apply the knowledge gained in the class immediately to their jobs.

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe the principles underlying Goodwill Accounting in the US: Initial Recognition and Subsequent measurement.
2. Issues with Impairment only as well as amortization approaches
3. Academic Research Findings
4. Why revising Goodwill Accounting is no longer on FASB technical agenda.

Brandon joined JTaylor in 2020 and specializes in state and local taxation with an emphasis on transaction taxes such as sale and use. Leveraging over 20 years of experience in indirect tax expertise, he has represented companies both large and small in a variety of industries including manufacturing, energy, defense, hospitality, healthcare, and retail. During his career, Brandon has successfully recovered millions of dollars in erroneously assessed and/or overpaid sales and use taxes directly contributing to his clients’ bottom line. In addition to refund recovery and audit defense, he has extensive experience in a myriad of state and local issues belaboring businesses including ASC 450 reviews, nexus analyses, M&A due diligence and state and local tax credits and business incentives.

Both a graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and a Certified Member of the Institute from the Institute of Professionals in Taxation, Brandon began his career at Ryan, LLC representing Fortune 1000 companies with state and local tax needs including audit defense and refund recovery. Prior to joining JTaylor, he served as senior manager for Deloitte Tax LLP multistate indirect tax practice group.

Learning Objectives:

1. Discuss and understand emerging nexus traps used by the state enforcement agencies.
2. Identify common tactics used by state auditors and discuss strategies on how to avoid them.
3. Identify and understand how to utilize common exemptions in uncommon situations to legally minimize sales and use tax liability.
4. Discuss various dispute resolution options and understand the advantages and disadvantages of each.

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Chandrani Chatterjee is an assistant professor in the Accounting Department at UTA. She received her PhD in Accounting from the University of Iowa in August 2021. She specializes in archival financial accounting research. She is broadly interested in both voluntary and mandatory disclosures. Most of her current work is related to examining costs and benefits of accounting standards and how accounting standards affect the contracting value of accounting information.

Prior to joining academia, she worked in the steel manufacturing industry in India as an accountant. She finds that her industry experience and research inform her teaching and that her teaching experience informs her research. She enjoys teaching Accounting Information Systems, Financial Accounting and Managerial Accounting.

Learning Objectives:

1. Discussion of Costs and benefits of implementing accounting standards
2. Comment letter Lobbying against new accounting standards
3. Understanding the new lease accounting standard and related disclosures
4. A close look at real effects of the lease accounting standards
5. Discussion of Anecdotal Evidence and Cases

Mr. Sargent serves as a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Accounting Department of the UTA College of Business. He teaches graduate and undergraduate level classes in the areas of Accounting for Managers, Accounting Information Systems, Auditing, and Emerging Technologies. He is also the faculty advisor for the Accounting Society, National Association of Black Accountants, and the Cybersecurity Club.

Mr. Sargent has published research articles on critical thinking and organizational agility in peer-reviewed journals. At national and regional conferences, he has presented multiple papers on critical thinking, data analytics, organizational development, and fraud. He also has over 25 years of business leadership and technical experience and has an extensive background and certifications in auditing, information security, risk management, and fraud prevention/detection techniques.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the basics of data analytics and big data
2. Understand how data analytics has been traditionally used within the accounting profession
3. Understand the relationship between cognitive ability and the ability to perform data analytics functions
4. Understand why increased cognitive ability and more robust use of data analytics are critical to the future success of the accounting profession

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