The Team Player

From the July 2009 Issue

At 31, Steven Harris, CPA, shares many of the attributes of his generation, especially music and a great appreciation for business, personal and entertainment technology. But there is definitely something old-school about him, and this is most visible in his dedication to his employer, his family and his community.

Unlike many young professionals who anticipate and even desire several employment changes during their careers, Steven plans on staying right where he is for the foreseeable future. Since an internship during his senior year in 1998 at the University of Missouri’s St. Louis campus, he has been on the staff of RubinBrown LLP (www.RubinBrown.com), a 350-person accounting, assurance and business consulting firm with locations in St. Louis and Kansas City. It is the 55th largest practice in the United States. Steven is an audit manager, overseeing several corporate clients from the firm’s St. Louis headquarters, which has more CPAs than any other firm in the city.

RubinBrown serves a large and diverse primarily corporate client base through industry-specific divisions that offer full service to businesses in industries such as automotive, contractors, home builders, hospitality, nonprofit, real estate, manufacturing, media, financial services, professional services and public sector entities. Its core areas of practice include assurance services, tax consulting, benefits management, IT consulting, corporate finance and forensic accounting.

Although the firm uses an industry-oriented approach to its client services groups, Steven notes that he is more of a generalist, working with several of the teams to provide audit and taxation services.

“It’s a great opportunity to be able to work with a diverse group of clients because it gives me a greater range of experience in many industry groups on both the audit and tax side,” he said.

Professional Snapshot
	Steven Harris, CPA Audit Manager RubinBrown LLP www.RubinBrown.com St. Louis, MO Productivity Score: 440

“And this group-oriented approach, which includes audit, tax, consulting and other services into each division, helps build teams that work as one to meet all of the needs of our clients. And that’s a key point because it takes the ‘mine’ out of the client service equation. These are OUR clients, not mine, yours or theirs.”

During his 10 years at RubinBrown, Steven has seen many of the major technological trends in the accounting profession first-hand, from the old binders that were in place a decade ago to the movement toward digital audit workpapers and increased remote work capabilities that allow for flexibility and instant access to client data while increasing the need for controls over their information. He notes that these advances, including the anywhere wireless card for his laptop and his BlackBerry, have made audit work much more efficient since teams can access all of their data, email and other information when at client locations. As evidence of its effective use of technology, RubinBrown earned a 440 on The CPA Technology Advisor’s Productivity Survey, a free technology assessment tool for accounting firms (www.CPATechAdvisor.com/productivity).

“These technologies really had a major effect on how we do our jobs and also let us be much more responsive to our clients,” Steven noted. As a part of all accounting internships, RubinBrown has all newcomers work with their technology groups for a few weeks. This experience, plus Steven’s personal interest in technology, further helps him professionally and when traveling to visit his fiancé Arica in Detroit. The two will be married in August and will then honeymoon in the Bahamas.