CFO Magazine

Going to extremes

No, it doesn't refer to cooking the books. Extreme accounting is instead the latest extreme sport, in which participants liven up daring activities like skydiving, snowboarding, and rock climbing with a little double-entry bookkeeping.
Inspired by the quirky British danger sport extreme ironing (yes, as in clothes), extreme accounting began as a Website spoof (www. extreme-accounting.com) staged by Coda Group, a UK-based financial-software company. Since then, however, accountants from all over the world have been submitting pictures of themselves "injecting the adrenaline rush of accounting" into extreme sports, according to Emma Hoyle, a spokesperson for the Extreme-Accounting Members' Association. The Website is now co-sponsored by Coda and Britain's Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

Hoyle says the purpose of the Website is to "debunk any myths about accountants being dull, suited people with uninteresting lives outside of work." So far, there are no entries from American CPAs, but Hoyle says the association would welcome them. "They wouldn't even have to be involved in extreme sports, but just something that helps them shrug off the dull image of accountancy," she adds.
For its part, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants has no plans to replicate the campaign, says spokesman Joel Allegretti. Maybe it's just as well. After all, given the rash of recent accounting scandals, being dull isn't such a bad thing. —Alix Nyberg Stuart

CFO Magazine, 1st May 2005