The evolution of accounting firms

The development of accounting firms has gone through four stages:

I. Recovery and reconstruction stage (1980- 199 1 year)

The audit of certified public accountants originated from the separation of enterprise ownership and management rights, which is the product of the development of market economy to a certain stage. As long as there are two rights separation and different stakeholders in the market economy, it is necessary to establish and develop this social supervision system.

China's CPA system was first established in 19 18. In the early days of the founding of New China, due to the highly centralized planned economy, the development of the CPA industry was once interrupted. From 65438 to 0978, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made a historic decision to implement reform and opening up, and China's economic and social development entered a new period of "opening to the outside world and invigorating the country". In the early days of reform and opening-up, China's economic and social foundation was weak, and all industries were waiting for prosperity. It is urgent to introduce foreign capital and participate in domestic economic construction, and foreign-funded enterprises have emerged one after another. According to international practice, it is necessary for China to improve its investment environment and attract foreign investment to establish an independent auditing system for certified public accountants and provide auditing services such as capital verification, auditing and liquidation for foreign-funded enterprises.

1980 promulgated the detailed rules for the implementation of the income tax law on Chinese-foreign joint ventures, which stipulates that when a joint venture submits its income tax return and final accounting statement to the tax authorities, it shall attach the audit report of the certified public accountant. 1980 12 the Ministry of finance issued the interim provisions on the establishment of accounting consulting institutions. This is an important symbol of the recovery and reconstruction of the CPA system in China.

This stage has gone through about ten years. During this period, the State Council and the Ministry of Finance formulated and implemented a series of policies and measures to support and promote the recovery and reconstruction of the industry, and the industry developed gradually from scratch.

Select certified public accountants through evaluation. To rebuild the CPA system, we must first solve the problem of employees. Because the CPA system has been interrupted for nearly 30 years, there is no accumulation of talents in this field, and it takes another process to re-train. In order to meet the urgent need, the state adopts examination to select certified public accountants from financial accounting personnel who have obtained the titles of accountant and senior accountant.

Establish an accounting firm in the form of "affiliated". Due to the reasons of the times, I don't know much about the nature of the institution where certified public accountants work. It was originally called "Accounting Advisory Office", which has a strong color of functional departments. Later, it was renamed as "accounting firm", but it is still clear that it should be initiated by its superior competent unit, and the accounting firm is still a subsidiary of the affiliated unit.

Introduce laws and regulations to support the accelerated reconstruction of the industry. Due to the historical conditions at that time, the status and nature of the CPA industry were unclear, the social awareness was very low, and the development of the industry was extremely slow. In order to speed up the pace of reconstruction, the State Council promulgated the Regulations on Certified Public Accountants in July, which stipulated the qualifications of certified public accountants, the establishment of accounting firms and the scope of business.

Establish an association to undertake industry management functions. With the increase in the number of firms and the expansion of business scope, how to implement necessary management and supervision of certified public accountants and firms, effectively organize and carry out professional ethics and vocational skills education, strengthen industry management, and ensure that certified public accountants practice independently, objectively and fairly has become a major issue to further promote industry recovery and reconstruction. 198811June, the Ministry of Finance established the China Institute of Certified Public Accountants with reference to international practice, and then provincial institutes of certified public accountants were established one after another. The establishment of the association has accelerated the pace of industry management and provided an organizational basis for the comprehensive recovery, reconstruction and development of the industry.

The above measures are mainly based on the actual needs of recovery and reconstruction, and focus on promoting and accelerating the pace of recovery and reconstruction in four aspects: employees, institutional setup, legislative guarantee and management organization. About 199 1 year ago, there were 459 accounting firms with 6,722 registered accountants in China, who undertook a large number of foreign-funded enterprises' tax declaration, audit, capital verification and foreign exchange revenue and expenditure report review, which played a positive role in improving the investment environment at that time and attracting overseas investment.

Second, the standard development stage (199 1- 1998)

There are many standards to measure whether the development of modern service industry is standardized, such as whether there is a qualified talent team, whether there is a perfect practice standard, whether there is a sound legal guarantee, whether there is a standardized competition order, and so on. As an expert industry, the foundation of CPA industry is talents. The CPA examination system is a key link and an important foundation for selecting and cultivating professionals who meet the needs of industry development, and it is an international common practice.

In the stage of industry recovery and reconstruction, the qualification of certified public accountants in China is determined by the examination, and those who pass the examination are mainly retired old financial accountants. In the middle and late 1980s, the proportion of certified public accountants over 60 years old exceeded 80%. The assessment system not only lacks objective and scientific assessment standards, but also lacks independent, objective and fair implementation procedures.

199011July and1991July, the Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange were established one after another, which marked the initial formation of China's capital market, which put forward more urgent requirements for the standardized development of the CPA industry and the professional quality of employees. In order to adapt to the development of this situation, accelerate the change of the status of the industry team, and scientifically select industry talents, the national unified examination for certified public accountants was held for the first time in February, 199 165438. With the establishment of the examination system, there are clear standards and scientific ways to measure what a certified public accountant is and how to become a certified public accountant, which effectively regulates the selection and training of professional talents in the industry and lays a solid talent foundation for the professional and standardized development of certified public accountants. In 2007, the number of people who passed the general examination for certified public accountants reached 654.38+400,000.

At this stage, not only the talent selection system was established, but also a lot of standardized development work was carried out in formulating industry practice standards, improving management system and rectifying market order, which pushed the industry onto the track of standardized and legal development and clearly reflected the theme and characteristics of standardized development.

Establish a system of certified public accountants' practice standards and standardize the practice behavior of certified public accountants. From 199 1 to 1993, CICPA has successively issued seven professional rules, such as checking and verifying accounting statements, to unify the professional standards and standardize the professional behavior of certified public accountants. On this basis, in 1994, the Ministry of Finance approved the establishment of the Independent Auditing Standards Group for Certified Public Accountants in China, and began to study and formulate the Independent Auditing Standards for China with reference to international practices, and successively formulated and implemented six batches of 48 standards, basically forming a framework system of independent auditing standards for certified public accountants, including basic standards for independent auditing, basic standards for professional ethics, basic standards for quality control, basic standards for continuing education and specific standards.

Improve the legal construction of the industry and standardize the management of the industry. Legal system construction is the foundation and powerful guarantee for the development of industry norms. 1993 1 01October 31day, the fourth session of the Eighth National People's Congress passed the Law on Certified Public Accountants, which systematically stipulated the qualifications of certified public accountants, the establishment of accounting firms, business scope, professional standards, legal responsibilities and responsibilities of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Around the implementation of the Law on Certified Public Accountants, the Ministry of Finance and the AICPA have successively formulated and issued four industry management systems, namely, registration of certified public accountants, approval of firms, temporary practice abroad, etc. 14, and established a relatively complete industry management system with the Law on Certified Public Accountants as the core. The certified public accountant industry has moved towards standardization on the track of legalization.

Realize the combination of the two sessions and standardize the social audit market. At the end of 1980s and the beginning of 1990s, another social auditing team, the certified auditor, appeared, whose functions were exactly the same as those of certified public accountants. Because the two teams are managed by different departments, the standards of qualification access and practice norms are different, which brings great confusion to market competition and industry management. After many studies and coordination at the the State Council meeting, on June 9th, 1995, China Institute of Certified Public Accountants and China Institute of Certified Auditors jointly established the new Institute of Certified Public Accountants in China, creating a new situation of unified legal norms, unified professional standards and unified supervision and management. Compared with the current situation of multi-industry management, market segmentation and association coexistence, this is not only a great progress in the reform and development of CPA industry, but also a successful attempt in the development of industry norms. The unified management of independent audit market has a far-reaching impact on the progress and standardized development of the industry.

Carry out rectification and standardize the practice order. 1993 The three major cases of vilen, Great Wall Electromechanical and China Tax successively reflect the disadvantages of low professional ethics of some certified public accountants and chaotic management of branches. In order to solve these problems, in 1993, the qualifications of certified public accountants and firms, especially branch offices, were inspected and cleared, and a large number of branches with irregular practice and chaotic management were cancelled. From July 1997 to the end of June 1998, according to the spirit of the State Council's instruction on "Rectifying the accounting profession in a down-to-earth manner", the CPA profession once again carried out rectification work, and more comprehensively determined the tasks of "clearing teachers, clearing firms and clearing businesses". After more than a year of rectification, * * * cancelled 520 firms, cancelled branches 1474, punished firms 1 18 1, cleaned up 487 employees1person, and punished 2,748 illegal employees, which effectively rectified the situation.

Third, the stage of system innovation (1998-2004)

The CPA profession, which has stepped into the standardized and legal development path, has also encountered many new problems in the process of further accelerating its development. Among them, the system problems formed by historical conditions, especially the management system of the firm, are the main bottlenecks restricting the further development of the industry, and the original system needs to be reformed and innovated.

When the industry is restored and rebuilt, the firm is affiliated with the party and government enterprises and institutions and managed by the institutions. With the deepening of economic system reform, the disadvantages of this management system are increasingly apparent. For example, affiliated units manage the property of the firm and even directly interfere with the practice of certified public accountants, which damages the independence of certified public accountants and inhibits the entrepreneurial enthusiasm of the firm and its employees; Firms rely on the administrative power of affiliated units to solicit or designate business, which also seriously undermines the fair competition order in the market. In addition, under the affiliated system, the improper practice of the firm may lead the party and government organs to bear joint and several legal responsibilities, especially with the development of the securities market, the legal responsibilities of certified public accountants are gradually increasing, and the problem of unclear professional responsibilities caused by the affiliated system must be solved. All these problems require a thorough reform and innovation of the company's subsidiary system.

In order to eliminate the disadvantages of the affiliated system of accounting firms, under the leadership of the Ministry of Finance, from 1998 to the end of 1999, the CPA industry has comprehensively carried out and completed the decoupling and restructuring of accounting firms. Accounting affairs are completely decoupled from their subordinate units from the four aspects of "people, money, business and name" and transformed into self-discipline, self-development, self-management and self-financing. The decoupling and restructuring of the firm has completely changed the relationship between responsibility and rights in the industry, laid the institutional foundation for the independent, objective and fair practice of certified public accountants, and greatly released and stimulated the vitality of the firm.

As the micro-foundation of industry development, the innovation of firm management system and development mechanism has also strongly promoted the innovation of industry operation system, organization system, management mechanism and supervision system, and has become a new starting point and power source for industry prosperity and innovation. As a result, the development of the industry has entered the stage of institutional innovation marked by the decoupling and restructuring of 1998 companies. In the following years, institutional innovation became the main theme of industry development.

Realize the innovation of industry operation mechanism and management system. How to improve and strengthen the supervision, guidance and management of the association to the firm has become a new topic for the industry development under the new historical conditions of decoupling and restructuring of the firm. With the support and guidance of financial departments at all levels, associations at all levels actively explore and improve the organizational system and operational mechanism of industry management. On the basis of studying the new situation and new tasks, the CICPA formulated and issued the Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of the Association's Self-discipline Management System, in which the self-discipline management system is summarized into three aspects: the decision-making organization system with the Council and the Standing Council as the core; Member-centered complete industry management and service functions; Association executive system with secretariat as the main body. According to the requirements of the Guiding Opinions, associations at all levels vigorously develop and improve the functional system of industry management services, and constantly establish and improve the industrial management organization systems such as member congresses, councils, standing councils and special (professional) committees. Significant progress has been made in the organizational system and operational decision-making mechanism of industry management, the construction and execution of the secretariat have been continuously strengthened, and the level of industry management has been continuously improved. Under the leadership and guidance of the financial department, the association has become an important force to promote the development of the industry.

Realize the innovation of industry supervision mechanism. The decoupling and restructuring of the firm is also divorced from the management system of the affiliated units, which objectively requires strengthening industry management and supervision. To meet the needs of this situation, associations at all levels focus on strengthening supervision and improving quality, and vigorously promote the innovation of industry management systems such as industry qualification management, continuing education and practice supervision. Especially in practice, the industry supervision system has been gradually established, including the annual inspection system of certified public accountants, the annual report supervision and business filing system of listed companies, the conversation reminder system, the practice quality inspection system of firms, and the disciplinary system. Among them, the practice quality inspection system of firms requires that the practice quality of all firms in China should be inspected according to a five-year inspection cycle, so as to find out the problems existing in the practice of firms in time, and combine education with punishment to help firms improve their practice quality. At the same time, taking the auditing of securities, futures and financial industries as the focus of practice quality inspection, closely tracking the behaviors of "getting burned, overstepping one's duty" in the annual report auditing process of listed companies, establishing the analysis system of the annual report auditing business of listed companies, and forming a supervision system combining before, during and after the auditing of listed companies, which has achieved remarkable results in improving the information quality of listed companies.

In addition, in the process of promoting the innovation of various institutional mechanisms in the industry, we have more deeply realized that honesty is the soul and cultural foundation of the industry system construction and the core value of the industry development. To this end, the CPA profession has established the working idea of "taking honesty as the main line" and has always adhered to it. Among them, the "Outline of Industry Integrity Construction" was issued and implemented to comprehensively guide and systematically strengthen the integrity construction and professional ethics construction of certified public accountants; Implement a new batch of certified public accountants' honesty oath system; By signing a letter of commitment on good faith practice, self-discipline convention and strengthening the internal quality control of the firm, we will guide the majority of members to actively put the concept of good faith into action. At the same time, formulate and implement the member integrity file system, and take the information of members' professional ethics compliance, unfair competition behavior, types and reasons of punishment as important records of the member integrity file, and strengthen the supervision of members' practice integrity behavior. The concept of "honesty is the foundation and morality is the most important" has now become the consensus of the industry. The continuous improvement of the integrity level of the industry has won the trust of the government, the public and the market, creating conditions for comprehensively promoting the reform and development of the industry.

Four. International development stage (since 2005)

Since the beginning of the new century, China's economy has developed continuously and rapidly. Enterprises speed up the implementation of the "going out" strategy, actively participate in international cooperation and competition, allocate resources and expand the market on a global scale, and the characteristics of China's economic internationalization are increasingly prominent. Building an open economic system with internal and external linkage, mutual benefit, safety and high efficiency is inseparable from internationally comparable financial information and international accounting services, which puts forward new requirements for the international development of the CPA industry. To this end, at the end of 2004, the CICPA held the fourth member congress, which put forward the idea of international development by opening the domestic market and entering the international market at the same time, and demanded that measures be taken to vigorously promote the international development of the industry.

Focusing on the "Fourth Generation Meeting", in line with the general trend of China enterprises going global and the internationalization of the CPA industry, in 2005, the CPA industry established an internationalization-oriented industry development strategy roadmap, and the industry development entered a new stage of internationalization. At present, the strongest voice of industry development is to closely focus on the internationalization development goal of the industry and vigorously implement the three major strategies of industry development.

Focus on cultivating international talents and fully implement the industry talent strategy. The key to promote the internationalization of the industry lies in improving the internationalization level of certified public accountants in China. In 2005, CICPA formulated and implemented the first systematic industry talent strategy of China market intermediaries-Guiding Opinions on Strengthening Industry Talent Training, and on this basis, issued and implemented the Competency Guide for Certified Public Accountants in China, which comprehensively planned and guided the education, selection and training of industry talents. According to this strategic requirement, CICPA focused on the training of international talents, vigorously implemented the training project of leading talents in the industry, and successively selected four reserve teams of leading talents from the industry for follow-up training, and selected outstanding students from them to study and practice abroad, focusing on training international professionals and firm management talents who can be familiar with international business rules and adapt to the international audit environment; Strengthen international cooperation in personnel training, make arrangements for mutual exemption of examination subjects with overseas professional organizations, and support and fund China certified public accountants to obtain overseas recognized professional qualifications; At the same time of setting up the examination area in Hongkong, we will set up the European examination area for China CPA examination in Brussels to attract international talents to join the CPA team in China. Carry out overseas internship, teacher training and teaching quality evaluation of outstanding students in certified public accountants' professional colleges, establish a scientific training mechanism for industry reserve talents, continuously improve the teaching quality of colleges and universities, and cultivate international reserve talents.

With the goal of achieving international convergence, we will further promote the standardized international convergence strategy. Realizing the international convergence of standards is not only the requirement of improving the level of opening to the outside world, but also the need of fully realizing the international development of industries. In line with the general trend of economic, social and industrial development, CICPA has vigorously implemented the strategy of international convergence of standards. After more than a year's efforts, 48 auditing standards were officially issued in February 2006, and a new auditing standards system was established to meet the requirements of market economy development and conform to the general trend of international integration, realizing the integration of China auditing standards with international standards, which was positively responded and highly praised by the international community. At the same time, by formulating standards implementation guidelines and comprehensively strengthening training, the smooth implementation of the new standards in all domestic companies on June 6+10/October 6 +0, 2007 and the smooth transition of the old and new standards systems were effectively ensured. On this basis, we will actively promote the equivalent mutual recognition of auditing standards with developed market economy countries and regions, and take the lead in realizing the equivalent mutual recognition of auditing standards with Hong Kong, thus providing strong technical support for the internationalization of Chinese CPA profession.

With the firm going out as a symbol, vigorously promote the firm's strategy of becoming bigger and stronger. In ord to meet that service needs of domestic large and super-large enterprise group and the needs of the industry to cope with the increasingly fierce international competition,

In June, 2007, CICPA issued and implemented the Opinions on Promoting Firms to Become Bigger and Stronger and the Guide to Internal Governance of Firms, which launched the strategy of becoming bigger and stronger in an all-round way, vigorously developed and cultivated firms that can provide comprehensive services for large enterprises and enterprise groups, as well as international firms that can provide comprehensive services for China enterprises' "going out" strategy and transnational operations. On June 5438+February, 2007, nine ministries and commissions in the State Council jointly issued "Several Opinions on Supporting Accounting Firms to Expand Service Exports", supporting qualified firms to actively go out, establish an international service network, establish an international brand, and serve the "going out" strategy of China enterprises. Under the guidance of the strategy of making the industry bigger and stronger, large domestic law firms have started the pace of strong alliance and internationalization, and achieved initial results in setting up overseas practice institutions and developing overseas business.

China's CPA industry has only been rebuilt for more than 20 years, and there is still a big gap compared with the CPA industry in developed countries with a history of more than 100 years. To realize the internationalization of the industry, better serve the internationalization of China's economy and participate in the international competition of the industry has a long way to go, which requires long-term exploration and unremitting efforts.

Reviewing and summarizing the development of the industry has important enlightenment and reference significance for us to continue to do a good job in the construction of the CPA industry and even further promote the development of China's market intermediary industry. In particular, the following basic experiences deserve our further persistence and development.

Industry development should always adhere to the purpose of safeguarding public interests. Public interest is the source of industry interests. Without the premise of safeguarding public interests and losing public trust, there will be no industry development. Once some employees in the industry deviate from the track of safeguarding public interests and simply pursue the personal interests of practicing institutions, the development of the industry will be seriously frustrated. The future development of CPA industry should continue to adhere to the fundamental purpose of safeguarding public interests, correctly handle the relationship between industry interests and public interests, and take safeguarding public interests as the premise while respecting industry interests.

The development of the industry can not be separated from the national macro-policy and the attention and support of government departments. The development of CPA industry can not be separated from the reform and opening up, the construction of socialist market economic system and the strong support of government departments at all levels. The 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and all previous plenary sessions since the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China have repeatedly made it clear that we should vigorously develop intermediary organizations such as accounting firms. The report of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China once again proposed to standardize and develop market intermediary organizations, which provided strong legal and policy support for the development of industry norms. The CPC Central Committee and the leaders of the State Council have made many important instructions and instructions on the construction of CPA industry. The leaders of the Ministry of Finance have always attached importance to the development of the CPA industry, and promoted the management of the CPA industry as an important aspect of financial management, which pointed out the direction for the construction and development of the industry. Financial departments at all levels have also provided strong support for industry construction. At the same time, other departments' understanding and support of the CPA industry has provided strong guidance, support and help to solve the difficulties in the development of the industry and improve the practice environment of the industry.

The development of the industry benefits from active opening to the outside world and reference. The recovery and reconstruction of the CPA profession in China has only been more than 20 years. The rapid and standardized development of the CPA industry and its entry into the world accounting arena also benefited from our initiative and persistence in opening up and scientific reference. Through foreign exchanges and cooperation, we take the opportunity of "please come in" and "go out" to strengthen exchanges with various countries, regions and international accounting professional organizations, and actively learn and draw lessons from industry management experience; Strengthen exchanges and cooperation between professional circles, and absorb the most advanced auditing concepts, technologies, methods and firm management experience in the world; Actively participate in the international affairs of accounting professional organizations to enhance the industry image and international influence. Especially in recent years, China's CPA industry has begun to enter the international stage by vigorously cooperating with overseas professional institutions in personnel training, implementing the strategy of international convergence of standards, promoting the firm to go international and exploring the international market.

The development of the industry can not relax the quality construction of the team for a moment. Market economy is a credit economy based on honesty, and honesty is the cornerstone of market economy. The reason why the CPA industry can occupy a place in the socialist market economy stems from the market's expectation for the professional ability and ethics of CPA. The construction of industry integrity and professional quality is the basis for the existence and development of the industry. In the development of China's CPA industry, whether it is to establish an examination system to standardize the industry development, to reform the firm system to innovate the industry system, or to implement the industry development strategy to promote the international development of the industry, the most fundamental thing is to build and serve the professional quality and integrity of the industry. To further promote the development of the industry, we must always adhere to the principle of "taking the construction of integrity as the main line" and guide all the construction work of the industry.

Industry development needs to respect the law, adhere to scientific development, and constantly carry out institutional mechanism innovation and institutional innovation. The CPA profession is a new industry in China, and the construction of the socialist market economic system has a process of continuous improvement. In this situation, there is no fixed model for the development of the industry to copy, let alone stick to the rules and stand still. We should actively explore, summarize and grasp the development law and stage characteristics of the industry and constantly innovate. The future development of the industry is dynamic and will inevitably encounter many new difficulties and problems. With the development of the industry and the change of the macro situation, we need to constantly explore the development law of the industry, the development situation and development requirements we are facing, keep pace with the times, and actively carry out institutional innovation and institutional innovation.

Industry development is inseparable from strong industry organizations. International experience and practice in China show that a strong industry cannot be separated from a strong industry organization. With the attention and support of the financial department, the organization construction, team construction and function construction of associations at all levels have been steadily strengthened, and the role of association management services has been effectively played. The work done by the Association in examination, training, norm setting, supervision, system reform, membership service and industry research and development exploration has played a vital role in promoting the healthy development of the industry.