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

OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Beware the Work-Life/Workload Doom Spiral

man on spiral staircase

Five strategies for keeping your firm out of it.

By CPA Trendlines Research

Is your firm in a doom spiral?

MORE: Business Model Transformation: Do It or Die | Misperceptions, Corrections, Accountancy and Lemonade | Whole Person Retention: When It’s Not Just the Money | Global Trends Show Many Dissatisfied CPAs | More Big Firms Shut Their Doors to New College Grads | Seven Enticements to Keep Talent On Board | Employee Retention Is Easier Than Attraction | Let Interns Fix the Staffing Shortage? | Disruptors: Talent Crisis? What Talent Crisis? | Three Ways to Raise the Bar for Your Business | Accountants’ Advice: Be Careful, Quick, Creative … and Lean
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Here’s what it looks like:

  1. A CPA quits or retires.
  2. The firm can’t attract a replacement.
  3. The firmwide workload remains constant.
  4. Increased workloads get redistributed.
  5. A CPA quits because of stress.
  6. Workloads increase again.
  7. Someone else quits. No one gets hired.
  8. The firm turns away clients.
  9. Revenue drops. Salaries stagnate.
  10. Uncompetitive salaries hinder hiring.
  11. A CPA quits or retires.
  12. Repeat.

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OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Why the Dry Pipeline? It’s About Time

serious young man studying

And it’s about time the profession took action.

By CPA Trendlines Research

It’s been with us from the beginning. We can measure it but we can’t see it. It’s our friend and our enemy. It’s infinite, yet we never have enough of it.

And it may be the big leak in the CPA pipeline.

MORE: Business Model Transformation: Do It or Die | Misperceptions, Corrections, Accountancy and Lemonade | Whole Person Retention: When It’s Not Just the Money | Global Trends Show Many Dissatisfied CPAs | More Big Firms Shut Their Doors to New College Grads | Seven Enticements to Keep Talent On Board | Employee Retention Is Easier Than Attraction | Let Interns Fix the Staffing Shortage? | Disruptors: Talent Crisis? What Talent Crisis? | Three Ways to Raise the Bar for Your Business | Accountants’ Advice: Be Careful, Quick, Creative … and Lean
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Yes, it’s time.

So concludes the Illinois CPA Society’s 2024 “Re-Decoding the Decline” survey and report on why the pipeline of incoming accounting talent has been going from dribble to drip.
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OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Business Model Transformation: Do It or Die

pair of diagrams
Adapted from AICPA and other sources.

 

Four areas ripe for change.

By CPA Trendlines Research

Five ugly facts your firm may need to deal with:

  1. Seventy percent of CPAs are at or near retirement age.
  2. The numbers of accounting graduates and CPA exam candidates are both dropping.

MORE: Global Trends Show Many Dissatisfied CPAs | More Big Firms Shut Their Doors to New College Grads | Seven Enticements to Keep Talent On Board | Employee Retention Is Easier Than Attraction | Let Interns Fix the Staffing Shortage? | Disruptors: Talent Crisis? What Talent Crisis? | Accountants’ Advice: Be Careful, Quick, Creative … and Lean | Top Performers Lead in Leverage, Culling, Outsourcing | Firms Culling Clients as Staffing Woes Persist | Compensation’s Up, but Up Enough to Retain Staff? | Are Accountants Charging Too Little?
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  1. Gen Z (ages 20-30) is transforming the labor market with new values on workplace environment, compensation, benefits, leadership, DEI policies, culture and corporate mission.
  2. The majority of current CPAs have no interest in becoming partners.
  3. Roughly half of current CPAs might consider finding another firm, and almost 15 percent wouldn’t mind leaving the profession altogether.

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OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Misperceptions, Corrections, Accountancy and Lemonade

woman mentoring teen girl

Five notions you can help correct.

By CPA Trendlines Research

The National Pipeline Advisory Group is worried about the pre-professional pipeline that takes in students at one end and, years later, pumps CPAs to a business world that desperately needs them.

MORE: Whole Person Retention: When It’s Not Just the Money | Global Trends Show Many Dissatisfied CPAs | More Big Firms Shut Their Doors to New College Grads | Seven Enticements to Keep Talent On Board | Employee Retention Is Easier Than Attraction | Let Interns Fix the Staffing Shortage? | Disruptors: Talent Crisis? What Talent Crisis? | Three Ways to Raise the Bar for Your Business
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And there’s plenty of reason to worry. The number of students majoring in accountancy is in steady decline, dropping from 75,153 diplomas in 2018 to 62,318 in 2022.

The number of candidates for the CPA exam is also dropping. It dipped 6 percent in 2023 after a 7 percent dip the year before.
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OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Whole Person Retention: When It’s Not Just the Money

bar chart

Thirty-eight ways to retain personnel.

By CPA Trendlines Research

A survey conducted by the Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs has come up with some disturbing data.

The survey report almost seems to spin bad news into good. When CPAs in Pennsylvania who have three to 10 years of experience were asked how strong is their desire to stay in public accounting, 56.7 percent rated their desire at five (out of seven) or higher.

MORE: Global Trends Show Many Dissatisfied CPAs | More Big Firms Shut Their Doors to New College Grads | Seven Enticements to Keep Talent On Board | Employee Retention Is Easier Than Attraction | Let Interns Fix the Staffing Shortage? | Disruptors: Talent Crisis? What Talent Crisis? | 3 Ways to Raise the Bar for Your Business | Accountants’ Advice: Be Careful, Quick, Creative … and Lean | Seven Steps to a Stronger Future
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Is that good news or bad? If about half of CPAs are reasonably happy with their jobs … what about the other half?
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