I. Recovery and reconstruction stage (1980- 199 1 year)
The audit of certified public accountants originated from the separation of enterprise ownership and management rights, which is the product of the development of market economy to a certain stage. As long as there are two rights separation and different stakeholders in the market economy, it is necessary to establish and develop this social supervision system.
The system of certified public accountants in China was first established in 19 18. In the early days of the founding of New China, due to the highly centralized planned economy, the development of the CPA industry was once interrupted. From 65438 to 0978, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made a historic decision to implement reform and opening up, and China's economic and social development entered a new era of "opening to the outside world and invigorating the country". In the early days of reform and opening up, China's economic and social foundation was weak, and all walks of life needed to flourish. It is urgent to introduce foreign capital and participate in domestic economic construction, and foreign-funded enterprises have emerged one after another. According to international practice, it is necessary for China to improve its investment environment and attract foreign investment to establish an independent CPA audit system to provide foreign-invested enterprises with audit services such as capital verification, auditing and liquidation.
1980 promulgated the detailed rules for the implementation of the income tax law on Chinese-foreign joint ventures, which stipulates that when a joint venture submits its income tax return and final accounting statement to the tax authorities, it shall attach the audit report of the certified public accountant. 1980 12 the Ministry of finance issued the interim provisions on the establishment of accounting consulting institutions. This is an important symbol of the recovery and reconstruction of the CPA system in China.
This stage has gone through about ten years. During this period, the State Council and the Ministry of Finance formulated and implemented a series of policies and measures to support and promote the recovery and reconstruction of the industry, and the industry gradually developed from scratch.
Select certified public accountants through examination. To rebuild the CPA system, we must first solve the problem of practitioners. Because the CPA system has been interrupted for nearly 30 years, there is no accumulation of talents in this field, and it takes another process to re-train. In order to meet the urgent need, the state adopts the method of examination to select certified public accountants from financial accounting personnel who have obtained the titles of accountant and senior accountant.
Establish an accounting firm in the form of "affiliated". Due to the reasons of the times, I don't know much about the nature of the practicing institution where the certified public accountant works. Formerly known as "Accounting Consulting Office", the functional departments have strong colors. Later, it was renamed as "accounting firm", but it is still clear that it should be initiated by its superior competent unit, and the accounting firm is still a subordinate institution of the affiliated unit.
Introduce laws and regulations to support the industry to accelerate reconstruction. Due to the historical conditions at that time, the status and nature of the CPA industry were unclear, the social awareness was very low, and the development of the industry was extremely slow. In order to speed up the pace of reconstruction, the State Council promulgated the Regulations on Certified Public Accountants in July 1986, which stipulated the qualifications of certified public accountants, the establishment of accounting firms, business scope and so on.
Establish an association to undertake industry management functions. With the increase of the number of firms and the expansion of business scope, how to implement necessary management and supervision of certified public accountants and firms, effectively organize and carry out professional ethics and professional skills education, strengthen industry management, and ensure the independent, objective and fair practice of certified public accountants has become a major issue to further promote the recovery and reconstruction of the industry. 1988 1 1 In June, the Ministry of Finance established the China Institute of Certified Public Accountants with reference to international practice, and then provincial institutes of certified public accountants were established in various places. The establishment of the association has accelerated the pace of industry management and provided an organizational basis for the comprehensive recovery, reconstruction and development of the industry.
The above measures are mainly based on the actual needs of recovery and reconstruction, and strive to promote and accelerate the pace of recovery and reconstruction from four aspects: employees, institutions, legislative guarantees and management organizations. Around 199 1 year, there were 459 accounting firms with 6,722 certified public accountants in China, which undertook a large number of foreign-funded enterprises' tax declaration, audit, capital verification, foreign exchange revenue and expenditure report review, etc., and played a positive role in improving the investment environment at that time and attracting overseas investment.
Second, the standard formulation stage (199 1- 1998)
There are many measures to measure whether the development of modern service industry is standardized, such as whether there is a qualified talent team, whether there is a perfect practice standard, whether there is a sound legal guarantee, whether there is a standardized competition order and so on. As an expert industry, the CPA industry is based on talents. The CPA examination system is a key link and an important foundation for selecting and cultivating professionals who meet the needs of industry development, and it is an international common practice.
In the stage of industry recovery and reconstruction, the qualification of certified public accountants in China is determined by examination, and the people who pass the examination are mainly retired old financial accountants. In the middle and late 1980s, the proportion of certified public accountants over 60 years old exceeded 80%. The assessment system not only lacks objective and scientific assessment standards, but also lacks independent, objective and fair implementation procedures.
199011July and1991July, Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange were established one after another, which marked the initial formation of China's capital market, which put forward more urgent requirements for the standardized development of CPA industry and the professional quality of employees. In order to adapt to the development of this situation, to speed up the change of the status of the industry team and scientifically select industry talents, the national unified examination for certified public accountants was held for the first time in February. 199 165438. With the establishment of the examination system, there are clear standards and scientific ways to measure what a certified public accountant is and how to become a certified public accountant, which effectively regulates the selection and training of professional talents in the industry and lays a solid talent foundation for the professional and standardized development of certified public accountants. In 2007, the number of people who passed the general examination for certified public accountants reached 6.5438+0.4 million.
At this stage, not only the talent selection system was established, but also a lot of normative development work was carried out in formulating industry practice standards, perfecting management system and rectifying market order, which pushed the industry onto the track of standardized and legal development and clearly reflected the theme and characteristics of normative development.
Establish a standard system of certified public accountants' practice and standardize their practice. From 199 1 to 1993, CICPA has successively issued seven practice rules, such as checking and verifying accounting statements, unifying the practice standards and standardizing the practice behavior of certified public accountants. On this basis, in 1994, the Ministry of Finance approved the establishment of the Independent Auditing Standards Group for Certified Public Accountants in China, and began to study and formulate the Independent Auditing Standards for China with reference to international practices, and successively formulated and implemented six batches of 48 standards, basically forming a framework system of independent auditing standards for certified public accountants, including basic standards for independent auditing, basic standards for professional ethics, basic standards for quality control, basic standards for continuing education and specific standards.
Improve the legal construction of the industry and standardize the management of the industry. Legal system construction is the foundation and powerful guarantee for the development of industry norms. 1993 10 10/October 3 1 day, the fourth session of the Eighth National People's Congress passed the Law on Certified Public Accountants, which systematically stipulated the qualifications of certified public accountants, the establishment of accounting firms, business scope, practice standards, legal responsibilities and responsibilities of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and comprehensively standardized the profession of certified public accountants. Around the implementation of the Law on Certified Public Accountants, the Ministry of Finance and the CICPA have successively formulated and issued four industry management systems, including CPA registration, firm approval, and temporary overseas practice, and established a relatively complete industry management system with the Law on Certified Public Accountants as the core, making the CPA industry move towards standardization on the track of legalization.
Realize the combination of the two sessions and standardize the social audit market. At the end of 1980s and the beginning of 1990s, there appeared a social auditing team-the certified auditor, whose functions are exactly the same as those of certified public accountants. Because the two teams are managed by different departments, the standards of qualification access and practice norms are different, which brings great confusion to market competition and industry management. After many studies and coordination in the State Council Conference, on June 9th, 1995, China Institute of Certified Public Accountants and China Institute of Certified Public Accountants joined forces to form the new China Institute of Certified Public Accountants, which created a new situation of unified legal norms, unified professional standards and unified supervision and management. Compared with the current situation of multi-head management, market segmentation and coexistence of multiple industry associations, this is not only a great progress in the reform and development of the CPA industry, but also a successful attempt in the development of industry norms. The unified management of independent audit market has a far-reaching impact on the progress and standardized development of the industry.
Carry out rectification and standardize the practice order. 1993 three major cases, Zhongyuan Industry, Great Wall Electromechanical and China Tax, occurred one after another, reflecting the disadvantages of low professional ethics of some certified public accountants and chaotic management of branches. In order to solve these problems, 1993 inspected and cleared the qualifications of certified public accountants and firms, especially branches, and cancelled a large number of branches with irregular practice and chaotic management. 1July, 1997 to1end of June, 1998, according to the spirit of the State Council's instructions on "doing a solid job and rectifying the accounting industry", the CPA industry once again carried out rectification work, and more comprehensively determined the tasks of "clearing teachers, firms and businesses". After more than a year of rectification, 520 firms were cancelled, branches 1474 were cancelled, firms 1 18 1 were punished, 48,765,438 employees were cleared, and 2,748 illegal employees were punished, which effectively reorganized the ranks, standardized the order and further promoted the industry.
Third, the stage of system innovation (1998-2004)
The CPA industry, which has stepped into the standardized and legal development path, has also encountered many new problems in the process of further accelerating its development. Among them, the system problem formed by historical conditions, especially the management system of the firm, is the main bottleneck restricting the further development of the industry, which requires us to reform and innovate the original system.
When the industry is restored and rebuilt, the firm is affiliated to the party and government enterprises and institutions and managed by the institutions. With the deepening of economic system reform, the disadvantages of this management system are increasingly apparent. For example, affiliated units manage the property of the firm, and even directly interfere with the practice of certified public accountants, which damages the independence of certified public accountants and suppresses the entrepreneurial enthusiasm of the firm and its employees; Firms rely on the administrative power of affiliated units to solicit or designate business, which also seriously undermines the fair competition order in the market. In addition, under the affiliated system, improper practice of the firm may lead to joint and several legal responsibilities of the party and government organs, especially with the development of the securities market, the legal responsibilities of certified public accountants are gradually increasing, and the problem of unclear professional responsibilities caused by the affiliated system must be solved. All these problems require a thorough reform and innovation of the related system of enterprises.
In order to eliminate the disadvantages of the affiliated system of accounting firms, from 1998 to the end of 1999, under the leadership of the Ministry of Finance, the CPA industry has comprehensively carried out and completed the decoupling restructuring of accounting firms. Accounting affairs are completely decoupled from affiliated units from four aspects: "people, finance, affairs and fame" and transformed into self-discipline, self-development, independent management and self-financing. The decoupling and restructuring of the firm has completely changed the relationship between responsibility and rights in the industry, laid the institutional foundation for the independent, objective and fair practice of certified public accountants, and greatly released and stimulated the vitality of the firm.
The innovation of firm management system and development mechanism, as the micro-foundation of industry development, has also effectively promoted the innovation of industry operation system, organization system, management mechanism and supervision system, and has become a new starting point and power source for industry prosperity and innovation. As a result, the development of the industry has entered the stage of institutional innovation marked by the decoupling and restructuring of 1998 enterprises. In the following years, institutional innovation became the main theme of industry development.
Realize the innovation of industry operation mechanism and management system. How to improve and strengthen the supervision, guidance and management of the association to the firm has become a new topic for the industry development under the new historical conditions of decoupling and restructuring of the firm. With the support and guidance of financial departments at all levels, associations at all levels actively explore and improve the organizational system and operational mechanism of industry management. On the basis of studying the new situation and new tasks, the AICPA has formulated and issued the Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of the Association's Self-discipline Management System, in which the self-discipline management system is summarized into three aspects: the decision-making organization system with the Council and the Standing Council as the core; Member-centered complete industry management and service functions; Association executive system with secretariat as the main body. According to the requirements of the Guiding Opinions, associations at all levels vigorously develop and improve the functional system of industry management and service, and constantly establish and improve the organizational system of industry management such as member congresses, councils, standing councils and special (professional) committees. Significant progress has been made in the organizational system and operational decision-making mechanism of industry management, the construction and execution of the secretariat have been continuously strengthened, and the level of industry management has been continuously improved. Under the leadership and guidance of the financial department, the association has become an important force to promote the development of the industry.
Realize the innovation of industry supervision mechanism. The decoupling and restructuring of the firm is also divorced from the management system of the affiliated units, which objectively requires strengthening industry management and supervision. To meet the needs of this situation, associations at all levels focus on strengthening supervision and improving quality, and vigorously promote the innovation of industry management systems such as industry qualification management, continuing education and practice supervision. Especially in practice, the industry supervision system has been gradually established, including the annual inspection system of certified public accountants, the annual report supervision and business filing system of listed companies, the conversation reminder system, the practice quality inspection system of firms, and the disciplinary system. Among them, the practice quality inspection system of firms requires that the practice quality of all firms in the country should be inspected according to a five-year inspection cycle, so as to find out the problems existing in the practice of firms in time, and combine education with punishment to help firms improve their practice quality. At the same time, the auditing of securities, futures and financial industries is regarded as the focus of practice quality inspection, the "fire-burning" behavior in the auditing process of listed companies' annual reports is closely tracked, and the auditing business report and analysis system of listed companies' annual reports is established, forming a supervision system that combines before, during and after the auditing of listed companies, and has achieved remarkable results in improving the information quality of listed companies.
In addition, in the process of promoting the innovation of various systems and mechanisms in the industry, we have more deeply realized that honesty is the soul and cultural foundation of the industry system construction and the core value of the industry development. To this end, the CPA profession has established a working idea of "taking honesty as the main line" and has always adhered to it. Among them, issue and implement the outline of industry integrity construction, comprehensively guide and systematically strengthen the integrity construction and professional ethics construction of certified public accountants; Implement a new batch of certified public accountants' honesty oath system; By signing a letter of commitment on good faith practice, self-discipline convention and strengthening the internal quality control of the firm, we will guide the majority of members to actively put the concept of good faith into action. At the same time, we will formulate and implement a member integrity file system, which will take information such as members' professional ethics compliance, unfair competition behavior, types and reasons of punishment as important records of members' integrity files, and strengthen supervision over members' practice integrity behavior. The concept of "honesty-based, morality-based" has now become the consensus of the industry. The continuous improvement of the integrity level of the industry has won the trust of the government, the public and the market, creating conditions for comprehensively promoting the reform and development of the industry.
Four. International development stage (since 2005)
Since the beginning of the new century, China's economy has developed continuously and rapidly. Enterprises speed up the implementation of the "going out" strategy, actively participate in international cooperation and competition, allocate resources and expand the market on a global scale, and the characteristics of China's economic internationalization are increasingly prominent. Building an open economic system with internal and external linkage, mutual benefit and win-win, safety and high efficiency is inseparable from internationally comparable financial information and international accounting services, which puts forward new requirements for the international development of the CPA industry. To this end, at the end of 2004, the CICPA held the fourth member congress, put forward the idea of international development by opening the domestic market and entering the international market at the same time, and demanded that measures be taken to vigorously promote the international development of the industry.
Focusing on the "Fourth Generation Meeting" and conforming to the general trend of China enterprises going global and the internationalization of the CPA industry, in 2005, the CPA industry established an internationalization-oriented industry development strategy roadmap, and the industry development entered a new stage of internationalization. At present, the strongest voice of industry development is to closely focus on the internationalization development goal of the industry and vigorously implement the three major strategies of industry development.
Focus on cultivating international talents and fully implement the industry talent strategy. The key to promote the internationalization of the industry lies in improving the internationalization level of certified public accountants in China. In 2005, CICPA formulated and implemented the first systematic industry talent strategy of China market intermediary organizations-Guiding Opinions on Strengthening Industry Talent Training, and on this basis, issued and implemented the Competency Guide for Certified Public Accountants in China, which comprehensively planned and guided the education, selection and training of industry talents. According to this strategic requirement, CICPA focused on the training of international talents, vigorously implemented the training project of industry leading talents, and successively selected four reserve teams of industry leading talents for follow-up training, and selected outstanding students from them to study and practice abroad, focusing on training international professionals and firm management talents who can be familiar with international business rules and adapt to the international audit environment; Strengthen international cooperation in personnel training, make arrangements for mutual exemption of examination subjects with overseas professional organizations, and support and fund China certified public accountants to obtain overseas recognized professional qualifications; At the same time of setting up the examination area in Hongkong, we will set up the European examination area for China CPA examination in Brussels to attract international talents to join the CPA team in China. We will carry out overseas internships, teacher training and teaching quality evaluation for outstanding students in certified public accountants' colleges and universities, establish a scientific training mechanism for industry reserve talents, continuously improve the teaching quality of colleges and universities, and cultivate international reserve talents.
With the goal of achieving international convergence, we will further promote the standardized international convergence strategy. Realizing the international convergence of standards is not only the requirement of improving the level of opening to the outside world, but also the need of fully realizing the international development of industries. In line with the general trend of economic, social and industrial development, CICPA has vigorously implemented the international convergence strategy of standards. After more than a year's efforts, 48 auditing standards were officially issued in February 2006, and a new auditing standards system was established to meet the requirements of market economy development and conform to the general trend of international convergence, realizing the convergence of China's auditing standards with international standards, which was positively responded and highly praised by the international community. At the same time, through the formulation of standards implementation guidelines and comprehensive training, the smooth implementation of the June 2007 65438+1 October1Nisshin standard in all domestic firms and the smooth transition of the old and new standard systems were effectively ensured. On this basis, we will actively promote the equivalent mutual recognition of auditing standards with developed market economy countries and regions, and take the lead in realizing the equivalent mutual recognition of auditing standards with Hong Kong, thus providing strong technical support for the professional internationalization of certified public accountants in China.
With the firm going out as a symbol, vigorously promote the firm's strategy of becoming bigger and stronger. In ord to meet that service needs of domestic large and super-large enterprise group and the needs of the industry to cope with the increasingly fierce international competition,
In June, 2007, CICPA issued and implemented the Opinions on Promoting Firms to Become Bigger and Stronger and the Guidelines on Internal Governance of Firms, which launched the strategy of making firms bigger and stronger in an all-round way, vigorously developed and cultivated firms that can provide comprehensive services for large enterprises and enterprise groups, as well as international firms that can provide comprehensive services for China enterprises' "going out" strategy and transnational operations. From June, 5438 to February, 2007, nine ministries and commissions in the State Council jointly issued "Several Opinions on Supporting Accounting Firms to Expand Service Exports", supporting qualified firms to actively go abroad, establish an international service network, establish an international brand, and serve the "going out" strategy of Chinese enterprises. Under the guidance of the strategy of making the industry bigger and stronger, large domestic law firms have started the pace of strong alliance and internationalization, and achieved initial results in setting up overseas practice institutions and developing overseas business.
China's CPA industry has only been rebuilt for more than 20 years, and there is still a big gap compared with the CPA industry in developed countries with a history of more than 100 years. It is a long way to go to realize professional internationalization, better serve China's economic internationalization and participate in professional international competition, which requires our long-term exploration and unremitting efforts.
Reviewing and summarizing the development of the industry has important enlightenment and reference significance for us to continue to do a good job in the construction of the CPA industry and even further promote the development of China's market intermediary industry, especially the following basic experiences, which deserve our further persistence and development.
Industry development should always adhere to the purpose of safeguarding public interests. Public interest is the source of industry interests. Without the premise of safeguarding public interests and losing public trust, there will be no industry development. Once some employees in the industry deviate from the track of safeguarding public interests and simply pursue the personal interests of practicing institutions, the development of the industry will be seriously frustrated. The future development of CPA industry should continue to adhere to the fundamental purpose of safeguarding public interests, correctly handle the relationship between industry interests and public interests, and take safeguarding public interests as the premise while respecting industry interests.
The development of the industry can not be separated from the national macro-policy and the attention and support of government departments. The development of CPA industry can not be separated from the reform and opening up, the construction of socialist market economic system and the strong support of government departments at all levels. The 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and all previous plenary sessions since the 16th National Congress have repeatedly made it clear that intermediary organizations such as accounting firms should be vigorously developed. The report of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China once again proposed to standardize and develop market intermediary organizations, which provided strong legal and policy support for the development of industry norms. The CPC Central Committee and the leaders of the State Council have made many important instructions and instructions on the construction of CPA industry. The leaders of the Ministry of Finance have always attached importance to the development of the CPA industry, and promoted the management of the CPA industry as an important aspect of financial management, which pointed out the direction for the construction and development of the industry. Financial departments at all levels have also provided strong support for industry construction. At the same time, other departments' understanding and support of the CPA industry has provided strong guidance, support and help to solve the difficulties in the development of the industry and improve the practice environment of the industry.
The development of the industry benefits from active opening to the outside world and reference. China's CPA industry has been rebuilt for more than 20 years. The rapid and standardized development of the CPA industry and its entry into the world accounting arena also benefited from our initiative and persistence in openness and scientific reference. Through foreign exchanges and cooperation, take the opportunity of "please come in" and "go out" to strengthen exchanges with countries and regions and international accounting professional organizations, and actively learn and learn from industry management experience; Strengthen exchanges and cooperation between professional circles, and absorb the most advanced auditing concepts, technologies, methods and firm management experience in the world; Actively participate in the international affairs of accounting professional organizations to enhance the industry image and international influence. Especially in recent years, the CPA profession in China has cooperated with overseas professional institutions to cultivate talents, implemented the strategy of international convergence of standards, pushed the firms to go international, explored the international market, and started to enter the international stage.
The development of the industry can not relax the quality construction of the team for a moment. Market economy is a credit economy based on honesty, and honesty is the cornerstone of market economy. The reason why the CPA industry can occupy a place in the socialist market economy comes from the market's expectation of CPA's professional ability and professional ethics. Industry integrity and professional quality construction are the basis for the existence and development of the industry. In the development of China's CPA industry, whether it is to establish an examination system to standardize the industry development, to reform the firm system and innovate the industry system, or to implement the industry development strategy to promote the international development of the industry, the most fundamental thing is the professional quality and integrity of the construction and service industry. To further promote the development of the industry, we must always adhere to the principle of "taking integrity construction as the main line" and be responsible for all construction work in the industry.
Industry development needs to respect the law, adhere to scientific development, and constantly carry out institutional innovation and institutional innovation. The CPA industry is a new industry in China, and the construction of the socialist market economic system has a process of continuous improvement. In this situation, there is no fixed model for the development of the industry to copy, let alone stick to the old ways and stand still. We should actively explore, summarize and grasp the development law and stage characteristics of the industry, and constantly innovate. The future development of the industry is dynamic and will inevitably encounter many new difficulties and problems. With the development of the industry and the change of the macro situation, we need to constantly explore the development law, the development situation and development requirements of the industry, keep pace with the times, and actively carry out system innovation and system innovation.
Industry development is inseparable from strong industry organizations. International experience and practice in China show that a strong industry cannot be separated from a strong industry organization. With the attention and support of the financial department, the organization construction, team construction and function construction of associations at all levels have been steadily strengthened, and the management service role of associations has been effectively played. The work done by the Association in examination, training, norm-making, supervision, system reform, membership service and industry research and development has played a vital role in promoting the healthy development of the industry.