I'm Being Audited! Now What?

We have almost completed the fourth quarter for 2013. Are your credentials requirements up to date? After reviewing our client base and their license renewal requirements, there are a significant number of jurisdictions, nine for architects, fourteen for engineers, and nine for landscape architects due in December 2013. The learning unit and professional development hours range from eight annually to thirty biennially.

Continuing education is a condition of renewal held by jurisdiction statutes.

Now is a good time to evaluate your completed and pending continuing education requirements. Professionals of the built environment have numerous options for continuing education, including seminars, lunch & learns, online continuing education that may be free or require a small fee, industry conferences, university courses, and something as simple as reading a specific approved article for self-reporting purposes.

Are you prepared for an audit?

The easy to ignore elephant in the room is a potential audit. Typically the audit process is initiated at the time of license renewal. However, certain jurisdiction rules allow random audits immediately following license renewal. It can be daunting if you are not prepared to submit the proper required documents or if you have not maintained complete records for professional licensure.

How complicated can an audit be?

The following are examples of some jurisdiction auditing procedures:

• A random computer audit selection occurs during license renewal or after license renewal has been completed.
• A letter sent requiring licensee to prepare and submit certificates of completion, transcripts, jurisdiction log form with chronological completed continuing education credits, license renewal form, and renewal fee.
• Jurisdictions may require electronic submissions, hard copies mailed or both.
• Jurisdiction staff and licensing board reviews audit licensee's documentation.
• Fine/fees will be charged for noncompliance of continuing education requirements. As an example in Ohio - $500 to $1500 for the total number of delinquent continuing education credits may be assessed.
• Typical compliance periods range from 30 days to as much as 120 days.
• Ultimately, if the jurisdictional license board determines compliance has not been met, you may be required to fulfill a reinstatement process. This process may include three references, a documented list of all projects you have been working on since your license has been canceled, and yes you are still required to complete the delinquent continuing education!

Simplify your life by managing your most valuable resources, your licenses, your professional affiliations, and your continuing education requirements.

Lexi Selvig, CDT, President, LS Credentialing Services LLC, is a registered consultant on Industry Speaks. She can be reached at info@AECredentialing.com

Early Bird Pricing Through Today for PSMJ Principals Bootcamp Atlanta, Feb 6-7, 2014

This is your last chance to take advantage of special early bird pricing (Save $300!) for PSMJ's popular Principals Bootcamp in Atlanta, GA, February 6-7, 2014. Covered during the two-day conference:

1. Why 90% of design firm mission statements are a waste of time.
2. How to win a project when you are 1 of 40 firms proposing.
3. How to get your multiple offices to work as a single company.
4. How to move from managing projects to managing project managers.
5. Six ways to raise your multiplier to 5.0 or higher.
6. The best-kept secrets for motivating employees.
7. Three keys to ownership transition success.
8. And much more...

2014 Dates & Locations

• January 30-31, 2014 – San Francisco, CA
• February 6-7, 2014 – Atlanta, GA
• February 20-21, 2014 – Denver, CO
• March 13-14, 2014 – Seattle, WA
• March 20-21, 2014 – Boston, MA
• March 27-28, 2014 – Chicago, IL
• April 3-4, 2014 – Vancouver, BC
• April 10-11, 2014 – Dallas, TX

More information, and registration link here.

5IN30 - Axium Best Practice Webinars for AE Firms

Axium's upcoming complimentary webinars focus on 5 great ideas. The November 22 webinar covers Maximizing Retirement Savings, and December 6 covers Speeding Up Your Billing Process.

The Axium webinar page has details, registration links.

PSMJ's A/E/C Project Management Boot Camp Reviewed on Industry Speaks

"This boot camp will not make you a project manager, however it does provide the foundation and tools to become successful," says Jason Jaworski, MSEM, project manager for the jdi group, Inc. (Maumee, Ohio).

Jaworski attended the Chicago boot camp August 8-9, 2013; PSMJ holds them at various locations throughout the year. Check out his full course review on Industry Speaks.

EnergyPro and California 2013 Title 24Free Learning Opportunities

Learn how to model and document Title 24 compliance for building envelopes, commercial lighting designs, mechanical system designs in commercial buildings, etc.

Southern California Gas Company educational sessions are coming up in October and November at its Energy Resource Center in Downey, Calif.; attendees can receive AIA learning units. Selected offerings, which are free to attend, from October 9 through November 13:

• EnergyPro Training for Envelope and Windows
• EnergyPro Training: Indoor & Outdoor Lighting
• EnergyPro Training: Mechanical
• EnergyPro Training: Advanced
• California's NEW 2013 Title 24 Standards: Compliance and Beyond
• You Benchmarked your Building, What's Next?

Full calendar of Southern California Gas Company educational events.

10000 Small Businesses: Free Business Management Program for Owners

Free placement in 10000 Small Businesses, a business management course funded by a $500 million investment by the Goldman Sachs Foundation and Goldman Sachs, is now available on a competitive basis. The program will run until 10,000 small business owners have completed the course. Courses are offered in cities around the U.S., including Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City and Cleveland.

Owners applying must have a small business which has been in operation for at least two years, has revenues between $150K and $4M in the most recent fiscal year, and has a minimum of four employees. Classes are balanced to include multiple business sectors, and enrollment for each course is limited to 30-40 participants. The program of eleven full-day sessions and out-of-class business building activities is designed to help create jobs and economic growth.

In Southern California, both Long Beach Community College and Los Angeles City College are offering the 10,000 Small Businesses curriculum. The fall enrollment deadline has passed, but it isn't too early to plan for the next session offered. For more information, see 10000 Small Businesses - Locations, Partners and Application.

Best Practices in Business Development: Just Taped at AIA National Convention, Available for CEUs

Karen Compton taped her popular webinar Best Practices in Business Development at the recent AIA National Convention in Denver. The course is now available for AIA/CES learning units.

Introduction on the AIA Virtual Convention webpage:

With the fiscal year well underway, many firms are adapting their business development to respond to changing market conditions. For those firms that lack a defined and strategic direction, efforts must be made to devise a business development (sales) plan that responds to a changing economy, explores new and emerging markets, responds to changes in funding mechanisms and advances the firm's overall business objectives.

This session is designed to examine:

1. The need for Business Development Planning
2. Best practices in strategic / business development planning
3. Changing client demands
4. Metrics used to assess your effectiveness

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the value of business development planning
• How your business development plan supports your firm’s business objectives
• Articulate the return on investment in developing a sales culture
• Learn what other participants are doing (or not doing) and the BD challenges they face

Speaker(s): Karen Compton, Principal, A3K Consulting

Best Practices in Business Development TH505, AIA Virtual Convention Course

Never Stop Learning!

There are many challenges associated with developing and managing a small firm: staffing, getting work, doing good work, getting paid. A major challenge, but a necessary goal while managing all the rest, is to keep learning.

One of my clients recently admitted he hadn’t remained current on his continuing education. Moreover, the education he had received was on design, code compliance and accessibility. As a firm owner, principal and partner, your continuing education must not only cover topics that drive your professional career (i.e., design), it must also address the ever evolving and challenging aspects of practice management.

Practice management, today, is far more complex. As a service-based industry, we sell intellectual capital: ideas and solutions for real world problems. That said, the “personnel” issues of the 1980s have become the human resources, benefits, compensation, state regulation, federal regulation, performance, and other requirements of the 2010s. The former “computer” department has morphed into complex data and information management, as well as hardware, software, intellectual property rights and phone, electronic and internet communications. These are just two examples! The increasing complexity of management systems and the speed at which they operate affect all aspects of practice management, including business development, finance, and operations.

Let’s face it, very few of us enjoy practice management. But it is the business of architecture and engineering that allows us to continue to practice every day. Well-managed firms achieve their business objectives, attract and retain employees and provide opportunities for the continued exchange of ideas. The AIA Practice Management Knowledge Community is one of many sources that provide free or low cost continuing education on these topics. If you have resources to recommend, post your comments and thoughts!

Karen Compton, CPSM. Karen Compton is principal of A3K Consulting (Glendale, CA), a business development and strategic planning firm specializing in the architecture, engineering and construction industries. Ms. Compton is also the founder of Industry Speaks™, a web-based business-to-business portal that connects AEC firms with experienced consultants, provides peer reviews of consultants, reports on key industry trends, and publishes expert reviews of professional courses and books. Contact her at kcompton@a3kconsulting.com.