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OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

AI Leading to ‘Miracle-Level’ Productivity Increases

Every year, the 2025 Rosenberg MAP Survey asks the industry’s top consultants to share their observations from CPA firms across the country: How do you think the next 12 months will unfold? Trends? Predictions? Other thoughts? Also, how would you assess the last 12 months? Trends? Observations? Struggles?

KPIs likely will change.

By Jennifer Wilson
 The Rosenberg Survey

Mergers and acquisitions and private equity will continue to consolidate the Top 100 and allow new firms to find their way to the list. But brokers will find it harder to convince the quality firms left in late 2025 into 2026 that they should sell out. Those firms believe in their mission, talent and clients, and themselves, and see the immense opportunity to diferentiate by remaining independent and sustaining their firm’s legacy into the future.

MORE: The 2025 Rosenberg MAP Survey is available from CPA Trendlines here.

New artificial intelligence “best of breed” solutions will create miracle-level productivity increases within firms that are in pilot now and we’ll begin reimagining the learning paradigm for interns and associates especially.
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LEADERSHIP

You Need Capable Successors for a Seamless Transition

Younger businesswoman and older businessman smiling and talking in office hallway

Prepare now.

By Jennifer Wilson

As Vince Lombardi said, “Contrary to the opinion of many people, leaders are not born. Leaders are made, and they are made by effort and hard work.”

 To experience a seamless transition as your leaders grow up, and then eventually out of your organization, identifying and developing your up-and-comers must become a core competence. Without these critical abilities, there won’t be anyone to carry out the vision of your firm, serve your clients, or pay your retirement benefits and/or buyout. In this article, we’ll share ideas for developing leaders in your firm, identifying your partner potentials, and preparing them to step in and lead when the time comes.

MORE: Generosity: The Root of Great Leadership
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The first step is to make a cultural commitment to develop leadership skills in your people. Some firms offer a leadership development program that allows people at various levels and in different roles, including administrators, to enroll in the program to enhance their ability to lead.
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LEADERSHIP

Generosity: The Root of Great Leadership

woman smiling and reaching out to shake another woman's hand

How it can benefit you and your firm.

By Jennifer Wilson

“What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.” – Albert Pike, American lawyer and journalist

I wrote a blog post two years ago (almost to the day) entitled, “We’re All Selfish – So Why Hide It?” In it, I suggested that great leaders must have the courage to acknowledge that they have selfish interests in their work, to admit what they most want and then collaborate with others to meet their needs and the needs of the greater good, too.

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My work with firms and individuals since then has only reaffirmed my belief that selfish interest drives us in our work and, when it is subconscious or overpowering, damages an organization’s teamwork, inspiration and ultimately, its growth and progress. While pondering the impact of selfishness, I have recently begun to examine the special AND rare “opposite” human characteristic: GENEROSITY and its impact on leaders, their people and their organizations when it is present.
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OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

As Private Equity Closes In, Firms Seek New Answers to Staffing Problems

Smart leaders are investing in tech, talent and orderly retirement timing.

By Jennifer Wilson
The Rosenberg National Survey of CPA Firm Statistics

We’ll see positive movement in staffing with more firms investing in outsourcing, offshoring, non-accounting staff added to work streams, increasing starting salaries, providing more support on campus to students and candidates, and other pipeline initiatives. The pace of consolidation and private equity investment will only accelerate, changing the face of the Top 100, with firms separating their audit practices .

EDITOR’S NOTE: Every year, The 2024 Rosenberg National Survey of CPA Firm Statistics asks the profession’s top consultants two sets of questions:

    • How do you think the next 12 months will unfold? Trends? Predictions? Other thoughts?
    • How would you assess the last 12 months? Trends? Observations? Struggles?

MORE: When Staffing Falls Short, Clients Get Culled | How Accounting Firms Are Dealing with Retirement | Next Five Years Are Critical for Accounting Firms | Staffing Turnover’s Down, But Why? | What’s Your Firm Worth? Private Equity Wants to Know | The New Pipeline: Outsourcing and Offshoring | Is This the Last Year of Accounting’s Golden Age?
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PE investors will have their hands full, trying to manage by the numbers, and drive change with traditionally change-averse, entrepreneurial partners who didn’t sign up originally to submit to a boss. And I fear that PE firms are overpaying for their equity stakes (and driving firm prices up for acquirers) and that realization will begin to dawn on some of them who realize there might not be a flip in sight.
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OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Tax & Accounting Firms to See More Consolidation

illustration of business negotiation with paperwork, puzzle pieces

ALSO: Next Gen leadership will rise.

By Jennifer Wilson
The Rosenberg MAP Survey

EDITOR’S NOTE: Every year, the Rosenberg MAP Survey asks the industry’s top consultants to share their observations from CPA firms across the country. How do you think the next 12 months will unfold? Also, how would you assess the last 12 months?

Unless there’s another round of vaccines, we’ll see more COVID-19 disruption as colder weather forces more firm activities indoors. More consolidation will happen as more firm leaders feel pressure to move their problems to a larger firm and the megafirms feel more pressure to keep up with the Joneses and absorb more.

MORE: 2024 OUTLOOK: ‘Specialization Is the Future’ | Remote Work Will See Cuts; PE Will Trickle Down | Tech, Capital Will Drive Accounting Profession Growth | ‘Great Shakeup’ in CPA Firms on the Way | PE, Consolidations to Keep Impacting Accounting Profession | Soft Skills Are Front and Center
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At some point, perhaps longer than 12 months from now, one or more of the superconsolidators is going to falter. More than likely is some significant service failures as their lack of integration and acculturation drives turnover and a talent shortage beyond what they’re able to rescue. I hope this doesn’t happen, but it feels like some of these firms are facing a perfect storm of financial performance and growth expectations, high client demand, capacity issues and a less unified, disorganized leadership apparatus unable to respond to these challenges.
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MANAGEMENT

OUTLOOK 2023: Capacity Strategies Drive Change

Clients benefit, but so do small firms and Next Gen staff.

By Jennifer Wilson
The Rosenberg MAP Survey: National Study of CPA Firm Statistics

Unless there’s another round of vaccines, we’ll see more COVID-19 disruption as colder weather forces more firm activities indoors. More consolidation will happen as more firm leaders feel pressure to move their problems to a larger firm and the mega firms feel more pressure to keep up with the Joneses and absorb more.

MORE: OUTLOOK 2023: Top Five Trends | OUTLOOK 2023: Compensation Gets Creative | OUTLOOK 2023: The Office Is Over | 2023 OUTLOOK: Private Equity Comes for Accounting Firms
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At some point, perhaps longer than 12 months from now, one or more of the super consolidators is going to falter, more than likely is some significant service failures as their lack of integration and acculturation drives turnover and a talent shortage beyond what they’re able to rescue. I hope this doesn’t happen, but it feels like some of these firms are facing a perfect storm of financial performance and growth expectations, high client demand, capacity issues and a less unified, disorganized leadership apparatus unable to respond to these challenges.
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FEATURED

Each Generation Must Change

Older man and younger man having meeting at deskHow can you be part of the solution?

By Jennifer Wilson
Bridging the Gap

Much like siblings, multiple generations working at the same firm often bring entrenched points of view and strong biases that have at least some basis in truth. Dropping these notions may be uncomfortable and require a conscious effort, but will benefit the firm as well as individual relationships within it.

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With three distinct generations in the workplace today, the impacts of generational differences are phenomenal. Firm leaders are challenged to balance and blend each generation’s unique historical context, motivators and somewhat differing values systems to create a unified team and a sustainable firm.
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FEATURED

12 Shifts to Ensure Firm Success

Plus six ways the pandemic impacted the profession.

By Jennifer Wilson

Every year, The Rosenberg MAP Survey asks the industry’s top consultants to share their observations of what they are seeing at CPA firms across the country.

MORE: How to Reinvent the Firm for the COVID Age | Why It’s Time for an Acquisition | Three Ways the Accounting Profession Has Changed | Ramping Up for the Year Ahead
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Now that we are more than a year from the start of the pandemic, what do you feel are the long-term ramifications to the accounting industry?

There are many, but the most important impacts of the pandemic to the profession are: READ MORE →

FEATURED

SURVEY: 2020’s Disruptions Are Only the Beginning

Young businesswoman using smartphone and tablet at outdoor cafeExpect a blended workforce that works anytime, from anywhere.

By Jennifer Wilson

One of the biggest shifts because of COVID-19 includes the move to remote work during the lockdown and the ensuing “a-ha” the profession experienced when they realized their people could be productive when working remotely – and most were doing it without child care to boot!

MORE: COVID Brought Us More and Better Client Communication
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Firms that investing in cloud technology, moving to paperless processes, putting a laptop in everyone’s hands, and supporting remote work in some form prior to the pandemic were in much better shape making the quick pivot to 100-percent remote.

Another big “AHA” was the realization that firms should have helped their clients move to paperless and be better prepared for remote work pre-pandemic.

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FEATURED

2020 Outlook: Business Development Goes Borderless

Be ready to try new things faster.

By Jennifer Wilson

The traditional business model is under attack in so many ways including terrifically short staffing, which is leading to record profits for many firms, but also the cause of burnout and a growing sense of hopelessness and turnover, too. Leaders are being forced to rethink traditional staffing models and are realizing many of the jobs inside their firms do not require accounting graduates or CPA candidates to do them.

MORE: 2020 Outlook: Data Import on the Rise | 2020 Outlook: Becoming the Most Valuable Advisor | Top Three Tips for 2020 Success | 2020 Outlook: Where Do You Want to Be? | 2020 Outlook: Dicey Disruptions | 2020 Outlook: Upstream Mergers | 2020 Outlook: Staffing Gets Creative
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Firms are simply overpaying for those roles today. This is leading to the exploration of non-CPA hires, and firms embracing outsourcing and offshoring options, especially for lower-level leveraged positions.
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FEATURED

2019: Firms Grapple with Change

Another key: helping firm leaders retire with grace.

By Jennifer Wilson
The Rosenberg Survey: National Study of CPA Firm Statistics

It was another year of growth, but it was also one of change in firms, driven more by outside factors than by traditional growing pains.

MORE FROM THE MAP SURVEY: Staff Policies Improve, But Not Mentoring
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We’re seeing significant shifts in firm leadership, as more partners transition out of their roles and begin the move to retirement. Partner groups are renegotiating buy/sell and other partnership provisions that to reflect today’s and tomorrow’s conditions.
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FEATURED

SURVEY: Staffing and Succession Still Rocking Firms

Is your admin staff ready to support all your changes?

By Jennifer Wilson
Rosenberg MAP Survey

We like to say that we specialize in solving CPA firm problems and problems were WAY UP in 2016!

MORE FROM THE MAP SURVEY: Tech Advances Will Lead to Dichotomy | Technology Evolving Faster Than Accounting Firms | Succession Issues Stalling Some M&A | Technology Playing Center Stage in CPA Profession
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The #1 cause? Succession, transition and the need to have the right Next Gen leaders in place to lead, grow the firm and fund retirements. In most firms, organic revenue growth was up but staffing – having the right people in the right roles in the right timing – wasn’t keeping up. More revenue, more clients and fewer resources led to a feeling of overwhelm in many firm leaders and talent.
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LEADERSHIP

A Call for Change: An Open Letter to Each Generation

Three businesspeople of different agesDrop the preconceptions and start working as a team.

By Jennifer Wilson
Bridging the Gap

Much like siblings, multiple generations working at the same firm often bring entrenched points of view and strong biases that have at least some basis in truth. Dropping these notions may be uncomfortable and require a conscious effort, but will benefit the firm as well as individual relationships within it.

With three distinct generations in the workplace today, the impacts of generational differences are phenomenal. Firm leaders are challenged to balance and blend each generation’s unique historical context, motivators and somewhat differing values systems to create a unified team and a sustainable firm.
READ MORE →