Ideas in Motion: David Primes Morphs Geek Speak into Technology Savvy
By Scott H. Cytron, ABC
Sometimes, you just can’t judge a book by its cover … and this is certainly the case with David Primes, CPA. If you really knew his background, you might expect him to walk around with a pocket protector, slide rule, a calculator on his belt loop and masking-taped black glasses. He might even flash you his Mr. Spock Vulcan ears.
In actuality, the visual image and pedigree associated with his professional career (and even personal hobbies) is much, much different. While it’s true that David is an avid science fiction reader, he doesn’t live in a fantasy world. Although he loves Star Trek, he has never attended a convention. Instead, David seeks only the most progressive technologies, software and systems for clients and customers – a pursuit that continues to make Sobul, Primes & Schenkel, CPAs, APC, in Los Angeles, one of the most progressive accounting organizations on the West Coast.
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David Primes, CPA
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“Technology has been much more important to our firm in building and maintaining an edge in productivity and service,” says David, a shareholder for the firm. “Our early adoptions of a variety of tools have helped us grow and manage our business compared to some other firms of similar size.”
David’s primary role is to set the technology policy for the firm. He determines the tools for consideration, evaluates the products and makes purchase decisions. He also handles the maintenance, upgrades, updates and troubleshooting on all the in-house systems, with some assistance from an outside consultant.
“I have always sold my service as a ‘translator,’ because I understand both the language of business and accounting on one side and technology on the other. I also have a good awareness of the universe of solutions available, so I can help a client find the right consultant to implement a solution, while making sure both sides are on the same page.”
This is proof positive that math and science disciplines also prepares an individual to pursue accounting. While attending California State University at Northridge, he says he was majoring in engineering when he discovered “calculus, girls and bridge, not necessarily in that order. “
“When it became clear to me that I wasn’t going further in engineering, I took a few classes in other disciplines, and accounting was on the list since it had come up on one of those high school aptitude things. While I did well in accounting and psychology, I wasn’t interested in writing a lot of papers, so I pursued accounting.”
After his second semester in accounting, he landed a part-time “percenter” job at an accounting firm and his career path was solidified. He says he gravitated to math and science for the logic, discovery and problem-solving aspects, acknowledging that he is very left brain.
“I found accounting to have the same “real world” relationship to economics, which I truly enjoyed, as engineering had to physics,” says David. “I also found the kind of elegance in accounting equations that I had seen in math and science.”
The “percenter” job he refers to is based on producing a style of income statement that has percentages for period and year-to-date columns. At the time, the staff accountants had electric adding machines instead of calculators, and all the statements were prepared and then routed to him to calculate those percentages on a large adding machine. He also proofread financial statements, bound tax returns, ran errands, answered phones and did some accounting staff work. After six months or so, the firm started buying the new electronic calculators for the staff; as a result, he was converted to an intern, performing staff work on a part-time basis.
A love for technology became apparent when he married his analytical thinking with what was occurring in the mainframe and PC arena.
“Today, if I were going to college, I probably would pursue the IT flavor of accounting, but it didn’t exist back then,” says David. “I had done computer programming before embarking on my accounting career, so when personal computers started taking hold in the ‘80s, it was like going home for me. Back then – and even today – I use a piece of technology and people will say, “How did you figure that out?” To me, there is no ‘figuring it out’ – it’s just intuitive to me.”
In addition to planning and evaluating technologies for the firm, he also checks the health of the network to ensure backups are running, the anti-virus software is doing its job and other functions are running properly. David also reads technology publications every week, and reviews Web sites for information to help the firm and its clients. One of the areas that has required more and more of his attention in the last year is in communications.
“In the area of consulting with clients, the biggest changes have been in providing more ways to communicate with and assist clients,” he says. “E-mail, instant messaging, and in particular, remote access, provide ways to provide faster, more efficient service.”
While he and others at Sobul, Primes & Schenkel provide the technology consulting role, the firm does not serve as a reseller for any software program.
“Early on, I experimented with the reselling issue, but the firm was not in a position to build the infrastructure to do a full-fledged software support organization,” he says. “We have taken the path of forming key affiliations with high-quality consultants and use them to provide this function.”
Also on behalf of the firm, David instructs others at state and national conferences on how to use various technologies.
“I have presented or been a part of presentations of the Internet, mobile computing (laptops and PDAs), the use of software tools like automated workpapers, and communications over the years. I am very comfortable in front of groups sharing knowledge; this gives me a feeling of satisfaction and enjoyment, and am probably more comfortable in that situation than in smaller social groups.
David also is a self-proscribed “serial” volunteer and feels it is important to share his experience and time with many groups.
“Teaching has always interested me, and this is a way to give it a try while I am still committed to my firm and partners.”
About Author:
Scott H. Cytron, ABC, is an accredited communications and public relations consultant working in the accounting, health care, high-tech and finance industries. He can be reached at scott@cytronandcompany.com or through his Web site, http://www.cytronandcompany.com .
About Column:
Ideas in Motion is a monthly column designed to focus on best practices within CPA firms and organizations involved in providing technology related services.
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