eNewsletter – March 2020

Dear RPA Members and Students,

We are living in extraordinary times and we’re learning more about COVID-19 every day. The world has been impacted on an immense scale, changing daily life and the operations of many businesses, schools and offices. There is a great deal of uncertainty and we would like you to know that the health and well-being of our members, students, clients and associates is what matters most for RPA Canada.

Throughout the uncertainty, one thing we do know is small and medium sized business owners will be called upon to help lead in the recovery. Success will depend on staying connected with each other, our communities, and the resources we need. Here is the link to the most up to date information about COVID-19.

Here is the latest response from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau:

“We also know small businesses may struggle through this period of economic slowdown… We are in the enviable position of having significant fiscal firepower available to support you.”

As RPAs, our priority is to support our associates, clients and the business community, particularly in these uncertain times. We are moving forward in promoting the RPA designation, and training our members and students through Continued Professional Development (CPD). We just had a very successful webinar on Cyber Security which was well attended and shared many helpful tips to members on how to better protect themselves from cyber-attacks. We are aggressively connecting with community colleges in efforts to coordinate the launch of our dynamic ‘RPA Education 2020’ program.

Please do your best to keep yourself and those around you healthy. Remember to practice good hygiene, and connect with your health authority for advice if you experience symptoms associated with COVID-19.

We understand this is a highly dynamic and evolving situation. Our commitment to you is to keep you informed and provide you the professional support you need.

Be well,

Zubair Choudhry, RPA, APA

President/CEO

Thank you so much for making Cyber Security Webinar a great success. The Society of Professional Accountants of Canada is committed to keep its members in-step with time. Attached is webinar presentation and offerings from TENET Computer Group. Enjoy a 20% special discount on services for the RPA members. Contact information is as follows:

TENET Computer Group Inc. / Groupe Access

2820 14^th Ave Suite 101, Markham, ON L3R 0S9

Kitty Atkinson                                     Rick Jordan

Tel: 416-664-3069 x 204                      416-665-3069 x 204

kitty@tenet.ca                                      rick@tenet.ca

As we face the challenge of COVID-19 together as a Canadian family, we view it as responsible citizenship to do everything we can to mitigate the spread of the virus. We encourage you to think of the more vulnerable people in our communities and follow the recommendations of the government of Canada to practice social distancing.

The Government of Canada is taking immediate, significant and decisive action to help Canadians facing hardship as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. On March 18, 2020, the Prime Minister announced a new set of economic measures to help stabilize the economy during this challenging period. These measures, delivered as part of the Government of Canada’s COVID-19 Economic Response Plan, will provide up to $27 billion in direct support to Canadian workers and businesses. Details……

Click here for details of flexibility for taxpayers.

To retain a client for the long term, developing a personal relationship with client is the key. Here are several steps that you can take to win trust and further the client’s interests and goals:

1. Accept the client without discrimination (such as on the basis of age, disability, gender identity or expression, genetic characteristics, language, marital and family status, accounting condition, national or ethnic origin, political affiliation, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status). This does not abrogate the right of the accountant to refuse to accept a client for legitimate reasons.
2. Having accepted professional responsibility for the client, continue to provide services until these services are no longer required or wanted, or until another suitable accountant has assumed responsibility for the client, or until after the client has been given reasonable notice that you intend to terminate the relationship.
3. Act according to your conscience and respect differences of conscience among your colleagues; however, meet your duty of non-abandonment to the client by always acknowledging and responding to the client’s Accounting concerns and requests whatever your moral commitments may be.
4. Inform the client when other commitments may influence your recommendation concerning the provision of, or practice of any accounting procedure or intervention as it pertains to the client’s needs or requests.
5. Communicate information accurately and honestly with the Client in a manner that the client understands and can apply; and, confirm the client’s understanding.  Continue…

Several industries have led the way in developing their ability to collect, clean and analyze data:

• Credit card companies monitor every single transaction their customer make and can detect fraudulent transactions with a high degree of accuracy using rules developed by processing millions and billions of records.
• Cell phone companies analyze calling patterns of their subscribers to detect if the called party was a subscriber of a competitor or not. This helps them to offer more attractive call rates and packages to win customer loyalty.
• For Facebook and Linkedin, data itself is their main product. Advertisers utilize Facebook and Linkedin data to launch a campaign.

Big data have three characteristics:

1. Big data can be billions of rows and millions of columns.
2. Big data mostly have complex structures and data types.
3. Speed, creation and growth of big data is usually very high.

Big data is sometimes described as having 3 Vs : Volume, Velocity and Variety. Due to its size and complex structure, big data cannot be efficiently analyzed with traditional tools. Today’s accountants and analysts need to learn new and modern tools to deal with big data.

Please write to us about your significant achievements, suggestions and feedback to include in the next eNewsletter. You can reach us at cpd@rpacanada.org