ALD Focusing on Awareness, Feed Enhancements and Reimplementation

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Published: September 13, 2022

Since 2005, NASBA’s Accountancy Licensee Database (ALD) has served the Boards of Accountancy by providing an invaluable enforcement resource. This central database houses CPA and firm license information for the 54 participating Boards of Accountancy along with disciplinary and other licensee information. Licenses are linked across state lines, allowing board staff to view all licenses for an individual at the same time. The ALD is used for a variety of enforcement and licensing purposes by the various state boards.

With this central database, alerts can be sent to designated board staff when one of their licensees is disciplined in another state, as well as when their status in another state is changed to Deceased. Several boards use the ALD to issue licenses more efficiently by using the ALD to find information in lieu of certain paper forms (ex: Interstate Exchange Forms). With disciplinary information available for the licensees and alerts provided, boards can then determine if they wish to take similar action in their own states.

The ALD Taskforce convened in Fall 2021, headed by Executive Director Dan Sweetwood (Nebraska State Board of Public Accountancy), to encourage boards to enhance their feed to the ALD by including other information such as disciplinary actions, employment, education, and CPA Exam details.

The Taskforce has focused on “The Big 4” by encouraging boards, if they are not doing so already, to automate their feed delivery, link their licensees by including the necessary information in the file, as well as include firm license data and disciplinary data. The Tennessee State Board of Accountancy added firm data to their ALD file earlier this year.

Most participating boards include disciplinary information for their licensees, but not all. The Tennessee Board also added disciplinary data to their file at the beginning of 2022 and the Virginia Board of Accountancy is poised to do the same in the coming months.

In addition to these efforts, the Taskforce has presented at NASBA’s Annual Conference for Executive Directors and Board Staff to remind boards of the importance of the ALD, as there are many new executive directors who may not be aware of the ALD’s benefits and uses. Finally, many boards are changing their licensing systems and the Taskforce wanted to remind Boards to remember their feeds to the ALD as part of the development effort in those system changes. Since the fall of 2021, the ALD team has worked with the boards in Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, and Wyoming to test and re-implement feeds from their new licensing systems. Five additional boards are actively working on their new feed files as well alongside the team.

If you have questions about the ALD, please contact Clint Blasengame and the ALD team at [email protected].