Gina Crete, Candice Fuller, Jerrel Jones,
Patricia Williams
ETH/557
January 12, 2015
Lisa Kreuger
The governing of the behavior of Certified Public Accountants (CPA) is done by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountant (AICPA). The largest professional association for the CPAs is the AICPA. The purpose of the AICPA is to equip CPAs to fulfill their duties to the public sector.
Five Sections of the AICPA Rules of Professional Conduct
There are five sections to the AICPA Rules of Professional Conduct: Independence, Integrity, and Objectivity, General Standards Accounting Principles, Responsibilities to Clients, Responsibilities to Colleagues, and Other Responsibilities and Practices. Each section, except for Responsibilities to Colleagues, has rules for an accountant to follow. Some of the rules are flat out rules with no exception, but some of the rules can be interpreted in different ways depending on the person reading them. In order to comply with the AICPA Rules of Professional Conduct, an accountant must understand each rule and understand what the rules really mean.
Overall Purpose of Each Section
Section one of the AICPA Rules of Professional Conduct is Section 100 – Independence, Integrity, and Objectivity. An accountant needs to remain independent from the work one performs, always do what is right, and stay objective throughout the process. If an accountant breaks any one of these, all three could be question. In order to maintain a good standing, one has to be unconnected, honest, and unbiased.
There are two rules for section 100 of this code. Rule 101-Independence states “A member in public practice shall be independent in the performance of professional services as required by standards promulgated by bodies designated by Council” (Accounting ethics, 94). Rule 102- Integrity and objectivity pertains to members being free of conflicts of interest. This rule makes sure that accountants