Organizers of Lean Accounting Summit Announce AICPA Sponsorship

American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) will be a sponsor of the 2007 Lean Accounting Summit. In anticipation of the September 27-28 Summit, AICPA has scheduled a Webcast on the subject of Lean Accounting. The Webcast will be held March 7, 2007 from 1:00-3:00 p.m. EST. https://www.cpa2biz.com/CS2000/Products/CPA2BIZ/Webcast/Real+Numbers+through+Lean+Accounting.htm

Fishers, IN (PRWeb) February 13, 2007 -- Organizers of the 3rd annual Lean Accounting Summit (www.leanaccountingsummit.com/aicpa) announced today AICPA's involvement as a sponsor. AICPA will run a series of articles throughout the year and conduct a webcast on March 7th to raise awareness of lean accounting principles. The Summit will be held at Walt Disney World's Yacht and Beach Club Resort September 27-28, 2007.

Dwayne Butcher, co-organizer of the Summit, shares his thoughts on AICPA's involvement. "To have an elite organization like AICPA involved with the Summit is important to the lean accounting movement. It brings to light the healthy discussion and debate that is taking place among lean accounting proponents and skeptics."

John F. Morrow, a CPA and AICPA vice president for business, industry, and government, explains why his organization is sponsoring the Summit, "There are a lot of advanced management techniques out there, and I can't bring everything to our membership," Morrow said. "But if a technique is picking up momentum, and members are responding positively to it, I feel it's my job to bring it to the attention of the rest of the membership."

Morrow said so many business and management theories come and go that not all of them are addressed via an AICPA event, but he had noticed a growing interest in lean and Lean Accounting among some of his members.

"In the past, attendees of the Summit, many of whom are AICPA members, asked why AICPA wasn't involved. We understood that until the lean accounting movement matured and grew, that it would be considered a fringe topic and not endorsed by accounting associations," Butcher explained. "It's no longer fringe though. If you typed 'lean accounting' in Google just 5 years ago, you would have gotten perhaps 20 websites that reference that term. Today, the number of lean accounting websites, books, articles, and workshops illustrate that this movement has gone mainstream."

The first Lean Accounting Summit in September of 2005 drew 320 attendees. This past September, 520 finance and accounting professionals attended the Summit. Butcher expects the 2007 Summit to sell out with 700 attendees.

Butcher describes attendee demographics, "With any event like this, you get a variety of attendees, but we were surprised that the majority were C-level, VPs, and Directors, primarily in manufacturing. We've also seen a number of representatives from healthcare, service, and government."

When asked why attendees are heavily from manufacturing, Butcher explains the significant changes manufacturing has undergone in the past 100 years. He claims that traditional accounting practices were suitable for batch manufacturing, but are inadequate in modern, just-in-time manufacturing. "But manufacturing isn't the only industry that's changed in this way. Any industry where accounting and operations are routinely at odds would likely benefit from implementing lean accounting principles. This movement could better be described as 'accounting in support of modern operations and processes,'" Butcher said.

The AICPA has more than 330,000 members. About 40% of the members are in public accounting and 43% are in business and industry -- the two largest groups represented.

AICPA Webcast: https://www.cpa2biz.com/CS2000/Products/CPA2BIZ/Webcast/Real+Numbers+through+Lean+Accounting.htm

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