Companies rate among ‘Best CPA Firms for Women’

Companies rate among ‘Best CPA Firms for Women’

Carla Fleischmann Gubernick, left, Kim Price-Capen, Darlene Wozny and Michele Jacobs. Courtesy Rehmann

A professional growth organization for women in finance has rated two companies with West Michigan locations among the “Best CPA Firms for Women.”

The Accounting & Financial Women’s Alliance, or AFWA, named Troy-based Rehmann and Southfield-based Plante Moran as two of 14 firms that are advancing women based on the 2019 Accounting MOVE Project methodology.

“Firms of all sizes are engineering new ways for women to excel. And when women excel, firms win new clients and grow their relationships with existing clients,” said Joanne Cleaver, president, Wilson-Taylor Associates, the AFWA research partner and content strategy firm that manages the Accounting MOVE Project.

The Accounting MOVE Project lauded Rehmann for creating custom career paths for women in the firm, including adding upper-level positions, such as subject-matter experts, that can be either career destinations or a step on the way to shareholder.

Plante Moran was recognized for creating “programs and policies to help women forge meaningful peer relationships” to act as “a support system through life stages that often threaten career momentum.”

The 2019 Accounting MOVE Project found women comprise 33% of the management committees at participating firms, compared to 19% when the project began in 2014.

Women now hold 27% of the partner or principal roles at CPA firms, compared to 19% in 2014.

Methodology

The Accounting MOVE Project is an annual survey of large financial, accounting and consulting firms to determine the state of women in the industry by looking at the factors “proven to be essential to women’s career success”: money, opportunity, vital supports and entrepreneurship or MOVE.

The annual “Best CPA Firms for Women” list released by the Accounting MOVE Project ranks public accounting firms by their women’s initiatives, female leadership and driving results.

To earn a spot on the “Best CPA Firms for Women” list, an employer must have a high proportion of women at most or all levels of management and proven success with the MOVE factors.

Project data acts as a benchmarking tool and helps firms set goals for intervention, support and progress in the program.