Aaron Berson, CPA – 2021 40 Under 40 Honoree

My career has taken many twists and turns in the past few years, however, some career highlights are:

• Passing the CPA exam, finally – basically passed it twice
• Building a team and new service offering at EisnerAmper, CAAS
• Helping build out a virtual practice at GettryMarcus, VRTL
• Being asked to speak at my first conference
• Speaking at many conferences such as QuickBooks connect, Xerocon, NCCOA – Tax Symposium, AAA Annual meeting, Digital CPA and more.
• Serving on the board of the NYSSCPA’s as Vice President and president of the manhattan chapter
• Founding Fringe Advisory and growing over 300% during the pandemic
• Can’t leave out being honored now, 5 years in a row by CPA Practice advisor for 40 under 40!
• For more and often updated check out my info page https://fringeadvisory.co/about/aaron-berson/

What are you doing to make a difference in the profession, your community, the world?

This past year has been one for the record books, the world is in a state I can’t remember it being ever in my lifetime and only reading about in history books. Because of this I have been working to support business owners and other firms through all the changes in regulation, strategy, and forecasting. I have been writing detailed articles to help others understand the changes, hosting round tables to bring together practitioners with the same challenges and fostering amazing discussions.

Due to the world being forced into virtual status we have expedited an already growing trend in the accounting profession, to work from anywhere. Many I have spoken to at larger firms had the infrastructure in place, however, the mentality lagged. In person strategies and structure were simply replaced with those same structures just via a video call, often creating even longer hours due to the annexation of commute times into the workin day. This isn’t working virtually.

Working virtually is creating a form of asynchronous collaboration that allows for various schedules, times zones, work styles and more. This should all be towards empowering every team member to work in their best way without negatively effecting the whole. To truly do this as professionals, we must work smarter not harder. Because of the increasing need for practitioners to understand software tools better and to start to adapt this updated mentality to work I have started a small community ChallengeSALY. My auditor friends will understand SALY stands for Sammy As Last Year. This community and YouTube channel is all about looking at process, software, and structure through a new lens. It is just starting out but check it out often for new content and to join the conversation. www.challengesaly.com

Favorite books/websites/podcasts/speakers/bloggers:

This one is so hard as so many speakers have had a large influence on me

• Clayton Oates
• Geni Whitehouse
• Blake Oliver and the cloud accounting podcast

Websites:

• CPA.com
• CPA Practice Advisor
• The Journal of accountancy
• FASB.org (just some light reading) – Actually, really do like reading the actual rules from time to time about specific issues.

What do you like best about the accounting profession?

I love that there is endless opportunity to learn and grow. The accounting profession has been and is going through a massive amount of change every year or two at this point. There are seemingly constant changes to the code we follow in Audit and Tax, there are countless new processes and systems we use in Virtual Controller and CFO Services. The only thing constant about our profession these days is change and that makes for amazing learning opportunities and personal challenges to overcome every single day!

In addition to the endless opportunity to learn there is also the ever increasing ability to be a teacher and influence someone else’s journey in a positive way. This can take the form of providing key insights, meaningful conversation or sometimes pointing out the obvious to our clients and business owners; or this can be teaching and inspiring others in the profession or soon to join the profession. When I have served as mentors to others this has provided some of the most fulfilling experiences to me personally along with teaching. The moment you explain something in a unique way that clicks with someone struggling is euphoric.

See all of the 2021 “40 Under 40” honorees.