careers

After an Economic Pause, the Accounting Industry Restarts Expansion Engines

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THE CPA TRENDLINES BUSY SEASON BAROMETER
Click to join the survey; see the results

But many CPA firms appear to be missing out on the recovery.

by Rick Telberg
CPA Trendlines  Research

The nation’s tax and accounting industry appears to have re-started expansion with new hiring in January, after a two-month pause at the end of 2012 in November and December, according to CPA Trendlines research. But the gains appear to be concentrated in non-CPA-owned offices.

Analysts are attributing the 2012 year-end economic stall to two major storms which slowed economic activity: One, Hurricane Sandy, and, the other, Congress, which has been gridlocked under a bubble of hot air.

CPA Trendlines PRO members:
Get the instant download
full report (PDF, 20 pages), here.

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Novice Manager Needs to Know: How To Do It All?

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15 strategies for a first-time supervisor’s success.

Here at CPA Trendlines, Ed Mendlowitz answers some of the toughest questions practitioners can throw at him. He’s the right one to ask. After more than 40 years in the business – building his own practice, running the firm, and eventually selling it to a major regional firm, WithumSmith+Brown, where he remains a senior partner and consultant to professional services clients – he has the answers. We’re happy to have him at CPA Trendlines. Send your questions for Ed here, or chime in with Comments below.

Ed Mendlowitz CPA The Practice Doctor Q and AMore from Ed Mendlowitz, The Practice Doctor Q&A: Why No One Listens to You | Fun Reads for Busy Season  |  When NOT to Offer a Free Initial Consultation | Measuring Growth in Yourself, Staff and Partners  |  What Do You Think You’re Doing?  | Can You Teach Judgment?  |  Clients’ Calls At Home  | What You Need to Know before Expanding into Business Valuation |

Question: My boss asked me to call you.  I am a staff accountant with five years experience.  I am having a lot of stress trying to manage everything I have to do. I am juggling supervising people that I don’t know how to supervise, being managed less by those above me and having to figure out more for myself – including things I never did before or in industries I never worked on previously, keeping current with changes in accounting rules and taxes (since I am more like a generalist and clients ask me everything) never seem to have any free time, juggling my schedule because most of my clients are never ready when they say they will be and being accountable to my boss for everything I do plus what the staff working under me does. So how do I do it all? How can I prioritize all my responsibilities? READ MORE →

Measuring Growth in Yourself, Staff and Partners

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“Knowledge Gap” method uses a client-centric approach.

Ed Mendlowitz answers some of the toughest questions practitioners can throw at him. He’s the right one to ask. After more than 40 years in the business – building his own practice, running the firm, and eventually selling it to a major regional firm, WithumSmith+Brown, where he remains a senior partner and consultant to professional services clients – he has the answers.

More for CPA Trendlines PRO Members: What Do You Think You’re Doing?  | Can You Teach Judgment?  |  Clients’ Calls At Home  | What You Need to Know before Expanding into Business Valuation | Asking an Attorney for a Referral Fee  |  Are Partner Retreats Really Worth the Cost? | Audit Reports Without Doing the Work? | Should I Really Spend the Time Making Checklists? | What’s a Tax Practice Worth Today? |

QUESTION: I suspect that my partner has “maxed out” and cannot grow further which will retard our growth.  What can I do or how can I deal with this?

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10 Ideas to Keep Your Firm Moving Forward

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Jean Caragher
Jean Caragher

Attract and retain the best and the brightest.

by Jean Caragher
Capstone Marketing

Daniel Burrus, considered one of the world’s leading technology forecasters and business strategists and author of six books including “Flash Foresight: How to See the Invisible and Do the Impossible,” was the opening speaker at the 2012 CCH User Conference held this week in my new hometown of San Diego.

Complete conference coverage: Cloud & Mobile Technologies Drive Change in Tax and Accounting  |  How Apple Is Changing Your Business  |  10 Ideas to Keep Your Firm Moving Forward  |

Given the rapidly changing world in which we work, Burrus challenged us to look into the future to determine those hard trends (those that will happen whether we want it or not) and soft trends (those trends over which we have control) that will impact our business.  Then, he encouraged us to use flash foresight – the ability to trigger a burst of accurate insight about the future – and to use it to produce a new and radically different way of doing things. READ MORE →

What New Accounting Grads Want from Your Firm

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Survey of college professors provides clues for successful recruiting.

Internships and social networks speak loudest when new college accounting graduates weigh their first jobs offers, according to a new Public Accounting Report survey obtained by CPA Trendlines.

The study ranks the relative importance of factors to students when choosing a job offer, including:

  • Access to latest technology
  • Compensation and benefits
  • Desirable location or geographic base
  • Long-term career opportunities
  • Technical reputation
  • The firm’s long-term business outlook
  • The firm’s quality of life in terms of an employee-friendly environment
  • Whether the offer is from a Big Four firm
  • Workplace diversity

And the survey reveals the companies and CPA firms soon-to-be graduates are hoping to join:

  • A company in private industry
  • Any Big Four firm
  • Any Top 25 firm
  • A local firm
  • BKD
  • Deloitte
  • E&Y
  • Grant Thornton
  • KPMG
  • PwC

The survey also shows how many undergrads have actually worked in a public accounting firm before graduation, and the top 10 corporations would recommend as employers. But the most closely followed part of the survey are the rankings  of the top 25 undergraduate accounting programs.

The responses are tabulated in the following charts with analysis by the survey’s author:

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Can You Teach Judgment?

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Empowering staff to make mistakes, safely.

Here at CPA Trendlines, Ed Mendlowitz answers some of the toughest questions practitioners can throw at him. He’s the right one to ask. After more than 40 years in the business – building his own practice, running the firm, and eventually selling it to a major regional firm, WithumSmith+Brown, where he remains a senior partner and consultant to professional services clients – he has the answers. We’re happy to have him at CPA Trendlines. Send your questions for Ed here, or chime in with Comments below.

Get more Ed: Clients’ Calls At Home  • What You Need to Know before Expanding into Business Valuation  • Asking an Attorney for a Referral Fee  • Are Partner Retreats Really Worth the Cost? • Audit Reports Without Doing the Work? • Should I Really Spend the Time Making Checklists? • What’s a Tax Practice Worth Today? • Preparing to Sell Your Practice in a Few Years? 13 Things You Need to Know Today • 10 Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Decide to Add Financial Services to Your Practice •  Why Selling Your Practice Is Not a Retirement Strategy •  Congratulations! You Bought a Tax Practice. Now What? • How Accountants Can Keep the Business When a Client Wants to Sell Theirs • 10 Reasons Clients Don’t Pay, and What To Do about It • 13 Reasons Timesheets Will Never Die

QUESTION: Recently a colleague asked me: “How do you teach judgment?” and before I could respond, he answered it himself with “You can’t teach judgment!” READ MORE →

2013 Trends in Starting Salaries in Finance and Accounting

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Business demand drives hiring, new competition for talent.

Special to CPA Trendlines

Fueled by new demand from business clients, CPA firms of all sizes are looking to expand audit and tax practices and pursue new new market segments, according to a fresh report on the accountant jobs market. (PRO members: Get the full report, courtesy CPA Trendlines.)

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