Here’s what you’re looking for: CPA Trendlines Research

Survey respondents look beyond tax season.

By CPA Trendlines Research

Just about every small business has an accountant, and smart business owners tap their accountant not just for tax prep but for general business advice.

And smart accountants offer smart advice. Because what’s good for the client is good for the accountant.

MORE: Seven Steps to a Stronger Future | Accountants Bullish Locally, Bearish Nationally | Firms Culling Clients as Staffing Woes Persist | Are Accountants Charging Too Little? | Revenue Growth Is Top Priority for Small Firms | Is the CPA Business Model the Clog in the Pipeline? | Accountants Cozy Up to Clients with CAS
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The CPA Trendlines 2024 Busy Season Barometer has harvested quite a bit of smart advice with an open-ended question about the best advice for small businesses.

Responses bounced all over the business ballpark, but a lot of them warned of change and economic turbulence.
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Fees and business lines of course, but what about an operations person?

By CPA Trendlines Research

The AICPA’s National Management of an Accounting Practice (MAP) survey took a good look at a lot of data – revenues and profits, staff turnover and professional salaries, services and fees.

MORE: Accountants Bullish Locally, Bearish Nationally | Top Performers Lead in Leverage, Culling, Outsourcing | Revenue Up at 59% of Accounting Firms … and More Good News | ChatGPT for the Reluctant Accountant | Survey Shows Challenges, Priorities Shifting | Accountants Torn Over 2024 Economy, Offer Advice | SURVEY: Are You Offering the Right Services?
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And then, toward the end, it says, “But all the data in the universe won’t do you any good if you don’t do something with it.”

It then calls on CPA firms to evolve if they want to survive and thrive through seismic shifts in technology and marketing.
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One-quarter of accountants see trouble ahead for the source of their bread and butter.

By CPA Trendlines Research

The Trendlines 2024 Busy Season Barometer is unearthing a perplexing paradox.

It seems that most CPAs think their firm and their clients will do better this year – or at least no worse than last year, which itself was a pretty good year.

MORE: Top Performers Lead in Leverage, Culling, Outsourcing | Auditing Standards ‘Yellow Book’ Updated | Compensation’s Up, but Up Enough to Retain Staff? | CPAs Needed to Help Small Biz Adopt AI | Survey Shows That Tech Remains the Great Divide | Will Unclogging the Accounting Pro Pipeline Kill Mobility? | Accountants Bullish on Income | SURVEY: Which Niche’s the Best Niche?
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At the same time, they tend to see things getting worse for the national economy and small businesses in general.

What’s going on?
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How does your firm compare?

By CPA Trendlines Research

If the early results from the CPA Trendlines 2024 Busy Season Barometer: Emerging Issues, Opportunities, and Trends hold true through April, this will be a pretty good year for the vast majority of accountants and tax practitioners – not quite as good as last year, but still, pretty good.

MORE: Busy Season Barometer Offers Clues for Better Business | Tax Practitioners Say Happy Days Are Here … Again | Brandon Hall: Firms Try to Make Too Much on Tax Prep | If Only the IRS’s Tax Pro Were Useful | ID Theft a Problem for IRS Even When It Doesn’t Exist | IRS Still Falling Short on Service | Eight Ways the IRS Can Speed Up Processing Tax Returns | Treasury IG Sees Progress at IRS | How Tax Practitioners Became Cybersecurity Risks
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Despite difficulties finding staff and professionals, 45 percent of respondents say they have increased their client list by at least 5 percent. (Last year, it was 65 percent.)

In fact, 14 percent have seen an increase of over 10 percent. Good, but not as good as last year’s 22 percent.
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Take a tip from a peer.

By CPA Trendlines Research

The CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer: Emerging Issues, Opportunities, and Trends is more than just a survey of the state of the industry at CPA firms across the nation. It also offers clues to what firms are doing to make the busy season better, easier and more profitable.

The clues are in the comments – open-ended answers where practitioners tell us what they’re doing, how they’re feeling and where they’re going.

MORE: Tax Practitioners Say Happy Days Are Here … Again | The IRS Is Coming! Get Your Clients into Compliance | End Tax Season Meetings with Clients … Seriously | Brandon Hall: Firms Try to Make Too Much on Tax Prep | Eight Steps to Getting Started with AI: A Guide for Tax Professionals | FTC Nails TurboTax for ‘Free Filing’ Scam | If Only the IRS’s Tax Pro Were Useful | ID Theft a Problem for IRS Even When It Doesn’t Exist
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One of the best questions is “What are you doing differently this year?” Each answer reflects an attempt to make the best of a stressful situation – the annual tax season.

Here are a few quotes to think about, categorized by how well various respondents’ seasons are going this year. Each is an idea that might make your year better.
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