Accounting Will See Agentic AI
PE groups seek their own solutions.
By Roman Kepczyk
The Rosenberg Survey
OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS
Strategic Growth Is Key in Accounting This Year
Do you have rainmakers? You’ll need them.
By Tamera Loerzel
The Rosenberg Survey
The IPA Top 500: When Bigger Isn’t Better, Firms Get Smarter.
Success is no accident.
With Chelsea Summers
Inside Public Accounting
Disruption Is the ‘New Norm’ for the Accounting Profession
Three questions to ask.
By Matt Rampe
The Rosenberg Survey
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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Major Accounting Firm IPOs on the Way
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?
Artificial intelligence will affect talent at multiple levels.
By Allan Koltin
The Rosenberg Survey
The second CPA firm flip (present private equity firm replaced by another private equity firm) of a Top 20 CPA firm will take place in early 2026.
The first “rollup/consolidator” flip (rollups with revenues between $100 and $500 million) will take place. Interestingly, when these rollups sell their equity stake, they won’t be acquired by “mothership” CPA firms but rather will go larger PE firm rollups and/or new PE firms desirous to enter the accounting profession.
MORE: The 2025 Rosenberg MAP Survey is available from CPA Trendlines here.
There will be up to three initial public offerings (IPOs) of significant accounting and consulting firms in 2026 and 2027. One might be a “tax only” CPA firm and the other two might be advisory and consulting firms.
By 2035, there will be six to eight CPA firms that are publicly traded (today CBIZ is the only publicly traded CPA firm).
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Rosenberg MAP: Staff Turnover Falls to Record Low
Are CPA firm retention tactics finally paying off?
By CPA Trendlines Research
The Rosenberg Survey
Staff turnover at CPA firms has fallen to its lowest level in years, signaling that the profession’s investments in culture, compensation and flexibility are paying dividends.
MORE: The 2025 Rosenberg MAP Survey is available from CPA Trendlines here.
The 2025 Rosenberg MAP Survey reports average professional staff turnover at 11.1 percent, down sharply from 18.8 percent in 2022 and the lowest since before the pandemic, marking a major shift after years of talent turbulence.
Firms that struggled to recruit and retain staff during the labor shortages of 2021 and 2022 now report greater stability and stronger pipelines.
“This trend may reflect firms’ stronger retention strategies,” the survey notes. “Lower turnover not only reduces recruitment and training costs, but also helps preserve institutional knowledge and maintain stronger client relationships.” READ MORE →
Rosenberg Survey: Efficiency Slips as Staffing Expands
Productivity drives profitability as never before.
By CPA Trendlines Research
The Rosenberg Survey
After several years of steady gains in productivity, CPA firms are seeing a slight decline in revenue per person, suggesting firms are adding staff faster than they are growing revenue, even as hiring rebounds and turnover drops.
MORE: The 2025 Rosenberg MAP Survey is available from CPA Trendlines here.
According to the new 2025 Rosenberg Survey, the erosion in average revenue per full-time equivalent employee comes after consistent increases from 2020 through 2024. Larger firms are still posting the highest efficiency levels. But the overall trend points to a mild dilution of productivity as practices rebuild teams and expand support infrastructure following years of lean staffing. READ MORE →
Partner Pay Hits $615,000 But Lags Behind Revenue Growth
Precision management now drives partner prosperity.
Precision management now drives partner prosperity.
By CPA Trendlines Research
The Rosenberg Survey
After years of strong top-line expansion, CPA firm partners are finding their personal earnings growth lagging behind overall revenue gains, according to the 2025 Rosenberg Survey.
MORE: The 2025 Rosenberg MAP Survey is available from CPA Trendlines here.
Average income per equity partner is rising just 3.2 percent this year to $615,000, compared with double-digit revenue increases in the last two years. The survey concludes that leverage, the ratio of professional staff to partners, and billing rate management remain the most decisive drivers of profitability.
Hood and Weber: Time to RISE | The Disruptors
RISE2040 challenges the accounting profession to stop reacting and start shaping its own future.
This is a preview. The complete 1-hour video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
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The Disruptors
With Liz Farr
What will the future of accounting be like? As listeners to The Disruptors know, I’ve been asking accountants about their predictions for the state of accounting in ten years. However, a new initiative from the AICPA and CIMA, RISE2040, is taking that further by asking accountants worldwide for their vision of accounting in 2040. I recently spoke with Tom Hood, CPA.CITP, CGMA, executive VP of Business Growth and Engagement for the AICPA, and Lexi Weber, CPA, senior manager for Emerging Professionals Initiatives at the AICPA, about RISE2040.
CPA TRENDLINES CELEBRATES:The 100th Episode of The Disruptors
MORE STREAMING: Proctor: Turn Dumb Ideas into Brilliant Solutions | Carter-Gray: How 1 Poor Review Strengthened the Firm | Hartman: Upwork to “40 Under 40” in 3 Years | Telka: Transform Fear into Fuel | Woodard: Move Past Reports; Deliver Results | Baker: Find True Purpose to End Burnout | Brolin: The W.I.N. Leadership Formula | Gertrudes: How EOS & “Unreasonable Hospitality” Reshaped GrowthLab | Vilms: The Power of People in a Tech-Driven World | Dickerson: From Diagnosis to Disruption | Kapilovich: Treat People Like People | Martha Yasso: From Wall Street to Main Street | Jackie Meyer: Tax Plans in 90 Seconds? Believe It | Erica Goode: Build a $200K Firm in 15hrs/Week |
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Hood explains, “This is a project to co-create a vision for the global accounting and finance profession writ large. That means public accounting, management accounting, CPAs, and CGMAs globally.” The timing reflects the convergence of three events: the conclusion of Horizons2025, the maturation of the AICPA-CIMA joint venture created in 2011, and new leadership under CEO Mark Koziel.
Weber sees this as an empowering project for younger accountants. “From the emerging professionals’ perspective, I think it’s a really beautiful project, because we have a say in what the future is going to be like.”
CPA Firm Growth Slows to 7.9% After Two-Year Surge
Expansion gives way to strategic adaptation.
By CPA Trendlines Research
The Rosenberg Survey
After two years of double-digit expansion, CPA firm growth is cooling.
Average revenue growth among firms over $2 million is falling to 7.9 percent this year, down from 10.7 percent in 2023 and 2024.
MORE: The 2025 Rosenberg MAP Survey is available from CPA Trendlines here.
The slowdown, while modest, signals that the post-pandemic boom driven by mergers, tax complexity and advisory demand is giving way to a more mature phase marked by tighter margins, higher costs and the growing influence of private equity, according to the 2025 Rosenberg Survey, the accounting profession’s leading management benchmark.
Emerging Pros Need More than Tech Training
Two ways to close the skills gap.
By Rebekah Olson, CPA
CEO, Maryland Association of CPAs
Melancon: P.E. and the Partnership | Gear Up For Growth
Not all will succeed, but accounting will influence and evolve the models.
Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher
For CPA Trendlines