Abstract Management services as practiced by CPAs have expanded very substantially in the past two decades. The author believes that this expansion is a sensible process reflecting the relevance of the CPA's basic abilities as a systems man and interpreter of financial data, and the logical evolution of the accountant from his role as the practitioner of the first well-developed quantitive method into a broader role based on the new realm of information science. The computer and, more recently, management science have been important catalysts in moving these services to their present status in the CPA environment. At the same time, most of us now realize this is the logical structure for a management services activity in the business environment of the 60's, dominated as it is by the complexity and interconnectedness of its various activities. The scope of consulting activity as performed by professionals operating as members of a CPA firm is a thorny subject. That might be surprising when one observes that consultants have never been beset by any collective difficulty in this regard. They purport to be competent in one or more of the many phases of management; over time the assertion of competence is tested.
Felix Kaufman (Sun,) studied this question.