C.I.T.P.

I feel I should personally thank the AICPA for creating the C.I.T.P. designation especially for me. I got this designation without taking any test. I didn't take any different continuing education or do any different work. The C.I.T.P. was created simply to bring people like me together. So who are we? We are the people who have an atypical interest in technology, and want to see what we can do with it to help businesses be stronger.

My atypical interest started when I was very young. My neighbor bought a Commodore VIC 20. I could make programs that changed Fahrenheit into Celsius, or did simple math problems. I was hooked pretty quickly. My Dad saw this and decided it would be a good idea to get a computer of our own. He bought the much more powerful Commodore 64. I spent a lot of time with that thing over the next couple of years. My main interest was making a stick figure that walked, jumped, climbed and fell all over the screen. A couple years later, my step dad got a PC. A big step up, it had an internal hard drive. My school also began using the Apple 2Cs in the classroom. By the time I hit college, I was pretty smitten with computers. Purdue offered a ton of classes in this department. I ended up with a minor in Management Information Systems. This wasn't as much for work as it was for fun. The programming class I had to take may have been the easiest class I took in college.

When I graduated, the firm I worked for had a need for some technology help, and I jumped right in. My first task was hooking up Palm Pilots to the contact management database. Over the years, I have set up a lot of workstations, upgraded network operating systems and migrated a few servers. I have done a lot of research on new equipment, for clients and the firm. I have spent countless hours on problem troubleshooting, and I am proud to say I have won most battles. I have also done an amazing amount of work with accounting packages, most notably QuickBooks. This led to another certification, QuickBooks Pro Advisor. Needless to say, I have had many opportunities to fulfill my extraordinary interest in technology, and I have enjoyed every minute.

The C.I.T.P. community is still developing, but for me the designation has been a great way to make people aware of my skill set. Having a trusted adviser who can help you create a technology backbone to best serve your financial needs is invaluable. I often find people struggling between a lack of efficiency and a lack of cash. The best thing about technology is that the price in no way represents the effectiveness. Effectiveness is all about your process and cutting out useless steps to make you more efficient. I'm glad, as a C.I.T.P., I can help myself and my clients figure this out.