The first Accounting Day® was believed to be held in 1972. It’s believed by some that the San Diego Chapter of the California Society of CPA’s organized the event to interest young people in pursuing an accounting career. Others remember IMA (Institute of Management Accountants) as the original organizer. Some of these early events were called “Accounting Career Days.” In 1976, other professional organizations were invited to participate and the event became known as simply “Accounting Day® ” with an overall change in the event format. Today, speakers of local and national prominence present a wide variety of seminars to participants of the event.
Accounting Day is now a collaborative event between several nonprofit professional organizations managed by the Accounting Education Institute (AEI) and Jim Colville with the objective of providing quality education to their members and to accounting and finance professionals from all disciplines including public practice, industry (companies large and small), and government. Additionally, Accounting Day provides a great networking environment. The stories and feedback we get is incredible as to the quality of networking opportunities and successes. Additionally, Accounting Day contributes to the scholarship funds of major universities and works with universities and organizations to enhance accounting education with an emphasis of real world applications and situations.
All professional accounting and accounting related organizations are encourage to participate which allows them to provide education and networking to their members.
Current (2021) and past participating organizations, the San Diego Chapters of:
- Accounting & Financial Women’s Alliance (AFWA)
- Institute of Management Accountants (IMA)
- ISACA (The IT professionals)
- Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE)
- Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA)
- American Society of Military Comptrollers (ASMC)
- California Society of Certified Public Accountants (CalCPA)
- Asian Accountants of San Diego – (AASD)
The purpose of Accounting Day® is to promote the accounting profession, to provide an opportunity for networking among accountants in public practice, industry, and government, and to provide quality continuing education for attendees.
Webinars-As discussed elsewhere on this site, Accounting Day primarily is a Live event with occasional Webinar components. However, the official provider of Accounting Day, Accounting Education Institute (AEI), offers many webinars including those under the Accounting Day name. Since COVID-19 substantially all events are webinars by AEI.
National Accounting Day is held on May 19th of each year and is celebrated in May and October year with the live educational and networking event (this website). Many websites use the term National Accounting Day and International Accounting Day interchangeably where, in fact, they are two different celebrations. National Accounting Day is May 19th each year and International Accounting Day is November 10.
National Accounting Day website