Introduction
AICPA Code of Professional Conduct consists of rules, interpretations and ethical rulings and principles issued by American Institute of certified public accountant to govern ethical and professional responsibilities of CPA members. It is divided into, six unenforceable principles which express ideal ethical guidelines and form the framework for which rules are established. Secondly, eleven rules which define the least acceptable and enforceable standards to every member while in performance of professional services. Finally there are interpretations of the rules of conduct and the ethical rulings concerning enquiries about specific happenings (Loughran, 2011).
AICPA Code of Professional Conduct Purposes
The code main purpose is to describe standards i.e. guidelines and rules required for auditors’ independence, integrity and objectivity, tasks to clients and contemporaries and acts disreputable to the accounting profession. This function seeks to assists and enhances CPAs to vividly understand their responsibilities in business, avoiding below par performances and outputs. Secondly, the code provides an ethical and moral foundation of the Accountants profession. This mainly offers guidance in relation to moral conduct while dealing with clients or any third parties. It ensures that independency is achieved in most of the assignments of Accountants. Thirdly the standards defined in the code form the basis of quality policing within the profession. This ensures continued consistency in the quality works to clients and professionalism within the AICPA. It is the means by which Accountants are disciplined for violating rules therein. These are the three most important purposes of the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct (Crawford and Loyd, 2008).
Reasons
The above are among the most important purposes of the code since they cover every aspect of ethical conduct which includes responsibilities, public interest, and integrity, objectivity, due care and scope and nature of services. Whereby, responsibility refers to exercise of sensitive professionalism and moral judgment of Accountant when offering their services. Public interest infers AICPA members to carry out their acts and services in a manner that shows commitment to professionalism and that honors public trust. Integrity is a state of members’ state of mind which demands performance of responsibilities with the highest sense of honesty. Objectivity refers to members being impartial and independent from the entity they are offering services to. Due care is the act of CPAs member being thorough and exercising diligence while performing their duties. Finally, scope and nature of services entails members observing the principles of this code when considering the scope and the nature of services provided to clients.
Moreover, the purposes collectively offer a means of policing which assists in maintaining the esteem of the profession. It also leads to AICPA members maintaining high quality while administering their accounting tasks to clients. They also assist in setting and maintaining a standard and procedural basis to handle uncertain situations which may occur to a CPA member in the line of duty. These rules have also greatly contributed to the enforcement of the core values associated with the CPA profession. These include integrity, objectivity, competence, continuing education and knowledge of broad business issues.
Conclusion
These ethical standards have been adopted by many other professions and also other CPAs in different countries. Consequently, the code is considered the foundation of ethical reasoning in accounting. AICPA Code of Professional Conduct has contributed positively to ensuring better and quality services, high degree of integrity and objectivity among AICPA members. This has made the Accounting profession to be among the most respectable profession in the country and around the globe.
References
Crawford,M. and Loyd D. 2008. PA’s Multistate Guide to Ethics and Professional Conduct. Sydney: CCH.
Loughran M. 2011. Financial Accounting for Dummies. Toronto: John Wiley and Sons.