Marc Rosenberg, Author at CPA Trendlines

Accounting Still Short on Staff and Students

Firms have had to adjust.

By Marc Rosenberg
The Rosenberg National Survey of CPA Firm Statistics

I believe 2003-2007 was the Golden Age of the CPA profession because the robust increases in revenues and profits were never better. The early and mid-2020s will be named by someone much more clever than me, but many of us feel these current years of prosperity have eclipsed the Golden Age.

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: Artificial Intelligence Plays Role in Analytics, Optimization | Challenges for the Accounting Profession: Private Equity, Offshoring, Training New Hires | Recalibration Is Key for Accounting Profession | People Development Still a Concern | Focus on Intentional Growth | Accounting Firms Upshift to Corporate Model | Tech Anxiety Paralyzing Some Accounting Firms | What’s Going to Happen? Lots, Say Consultants | Growth and Complacency Must Concern Accounting Firms This Year | Solving Staffing Requires Intention | How Accounting Firms Are Handling the Staff Shortage | The Future of Fees | As Private Equity Closes In, Firms Seek New Answers to Staffing Problems
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Paradoxically, firms are still frustrated by too much business and with too few staff.

There are three areas currently causing disruption in our industry:
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Surveying Your Staff: Why and How

Six ground rules for optimum results.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Staff: Managing Your #1 Asset

“The partners may think they know how the staff feel about the firm, but it’s only important what the staff think.” – Marc Rosenberg

If you truly and honestly want to make your firm a great place for your staff to work, the first thing you need to do is ask them what they think. There are two primary types of surveys:

MORE: Better Communication = Better Retention | Eight Strategies for Recruiting | Why Developing Women Partners Matters | Six Tips for Setting Compensation | Eleven Things That Good Mentors Do | How Remote Work Is Impacting Accounting Firms | How to Solve the Big Disconnect in Talent Management
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Staff satisfaction surveys, where the staff respond to firmwide questions about their jobs, their supervisors, the partners, the management and advancement. These are very much like client engagement surveys.
Upward evaluations of partners and managers by the staff. With these surveys, staff evaluate each partner and manager they worked for. Some firms opt to limit this type of survey to partner evaluations only.

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Better Communication = Better Retention

Tips for policies, staff meetings and just plain fun.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Staff: Managing Your #1 Asset

“I have yet to find a company that has earned high levels of customer loyalty without first earning high levels of employee loyalty.” – Frederick Reichheld

We have discussed key ways to retain staff. This post looks at scheduling and managing, accountability, communication and ideas for having fun at the office.

MORE: Eight Strategies for Recruiting | Why Developing Women Partners Matters | A Better Way to Provide Performance Feedback | Training? CPE? They’re Not the Same | Six Tips for Setting Compensation | Staff Crave Advancement and Challenge | What Leadership Looks and Feels at CPA Firms | Eleven Things That Good Mentors Do | Give the Recognition Your Staff Needs | The Importance of Great Bosses | How Remote Work Is Impacting Accounting Firms | Make Work Flexibility Work for Everyone | Why Staff Leave CPA Firms … and How to Stop Them | How to Solve the Big Disconnect in Talent Management | What Relevance Means for Staffing in Accounting | How Accounting Staffing Has Changed
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Scheduling of Staff

Organized, effective centralized scheduling enables firms to staff client projects so the client work is promptly completed. Other benefits:

It matches staff with the assignments each needs to grow and develop technically. Example: A staff member may have worked on nonprofits and needs more experience in the for-profit sector.

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Eight Strategies for Recruiting

Plus interview questions, ideas for small firms and more.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Staff: Managing Your #1 Asset

“In looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence and energy. If they don’t have the first, the other two will kill you.” – Warren Buffett

“We believe hiring to be the most important first step toward the organization’s success.” – Anonymous

MORE: Why Developing Women Partners Matters | A Better Way to Provide Performance Feedback | Training? CPE? They’re Not the Same | Six Tips for Setting Compensation | Staff Crave Advancement and Challenge | What Leadership Looks and Feels at CPA Firms | Eleven Things That Good Mentors Do | Give the Recognition Your Staff Needs | The Importance of Great Bosses | How Remote Work Is Impacting Accounting Firms | Make Work Flexibility Work for Everyone | Why Staff Leave CPA Firms … and How to Stop Them | How to Solve the Big Disconnect in Talent Management | What Relevance Means for Staffing in Accounting | How Accounting Staffing Has Changed
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This post offers a plethora of ideas and techniques to recruit staff. All of them can be sorted into eight high-level strategies:

ABR: Always be recruiting. We all know that staff are very hard to find and retain. It’s been this way for decades and seems to get worse every year. In the past, firms recruited only if they had an opening. Progressive firms proactively recruit 24/7. Given the 15-20 percent turnover rate at CPA firms, they never know when a staff person will resign or need to be terminated. But one thing is sure – turnover will occur. If your firm website doesn’t have a section on the careers page that encourages applicants to submit their resume even if there are no openings posted, add one immediately.

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Why Developing Women Partners Matters

Several experts on offer tips on how.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Staff: Managing Your #1 Asset

“If I have 500 partners and 400 are men, I figure I have 150 underperforming partners.” – A Big 4 managing partner

The CPA profession suffers mightily from a shortage of labor. There are several reasons for this, in no particular order:

Accounting is not a popular major in college.

MORE: A Better Way to Provide Performance Feedback | Training? CPE? They’re Not the Same | Six Tips for Setting Compensation | Staff Crave Advancement and Challenge | What Leadership Looks and Feels at CPA Firms | Eleven Things That Good Mentors Do | Give the Recognition Your Staff Needs | The Importance of Great Bosses | How Remote Work Is Impacting Accounting Firms | Make Work Flexibility Work for Everyone | Why Staff Leave CPA Firms … and How to Stop Them | How to Solve the Big Disconnect in Talent Management
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Since the turn of this century, a dreadful shortage of accounting professors has challenged universities’ ability to meet student demand for accounting courses.
The CPA firm industry has high turnover, generally in the 15-20 percent range. Reasons include the technical demands of the work, busy seasons, long hours, the profession’s requirement that people wait 10 to 20 years before making partner and the failure of partners to mentor staff.

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Scheduling of Staff