OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS Archives - Page 36 of 661

Are Client Services a Fourth-Rate Priority?

July 30, 2024

There are a few barriers hindering expansion.

By CPA Trendlines Research

When the Thomson Reuters 2024 State of Tax Professionals survey asked 500 professionals in tax and accounting firms what their top priorities were, client services came in fourth, behind efficiency/automation, talent retention/hiring, and pricing/revenue.

MORE: Revenues Rising as Pricing Models Evolve | 150 Credit Hours: Helping or Hindering? | Can’t Recruit? Retain! | The Accountant as a Strategic Business Partner | Report: Efficiency Still the Top Priority for Accounting Firms | Is Tech Causing Both CPA Shortage and Low Salaries? | Audit Firms Nervous about New Tech | What Accountants Can Learn from T-Ball | Staffing Tops List of Woes at CPA Firms | To Replenish the Talent Pipeline, Go Back to the Classroom | Beware the Work-Life/Workload Doom Spiral | Why the Dry Pipeline? It’s About Time
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Note how the top three all might be included in a category called “getting your act together.” They basically deal with fine-tuning the accounting firm machine.

Putting that machine to work aims at offering more or better client services and, the fifth priority, growing the practice.
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150 Credit Hours: Helping or Hindering?

July 25, 2024

By CPA Trendlines Research

One study suggests there is little if any upside but plenty of downside.

By CPA Trendlines Research

Four decades ago, the American Institute of CPAs promulgated a rule requiring accountants to complete 150 credit hours to qualify for certification, an increase from 120 hours. Basically, it required a fifth year of college education.

MORE: Can’t Recruit? Retain! | The Accountant as a Strategic Business Partner | Report: Efficiency Still the Top Priority for Accounting Firms | Is Tech Causing Both CPA Shortage and Low Salaries? | Staffing Tops List of Woes at CPA Firms | To Replenish the Talent Pipeline, Go Back to the Classroom | Beware the Work-Life/Workload Doom Spiral | Why the Dry Pipeline? It’s About Time | 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
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State boards of accountancy had discretion over when to enact the rule. By 2015, all states and U.S. territories had adopted it.

Fun fact: the national rule did not impose any requirements on what courses the students had to take. It didn’t have to be courses on tax law or accounting standards. Philosophy, music theory or basket-weaving would do. State boards, however, often mandate specific course requirements.
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Tax and Accounting Priorities Shifting in Turbulent Times

July 18, 2024

By CPA Trendlines Research

Three actions that firms can take.

By CPA Trendlines Research

A multinational Thomson Reuters survey of tax professionals has found accounting firms shifting their priorities after a year of unexpected developments and before a year of unexpected developments.

That’s a lot of unexpected developments.

MORE: Report: Efficiency Still the Top Priority for Accounting Firms | Is Tech Causing Both CPA Shortage and Low Salaries? | Staffing Tops List of Woes at CPA Firms | Why the Dry Pipeline? It’s About Time | Whole Person Retention: When It’s Not Just the Money | Seven Enticements to Keep Talent On Board | Disruptors: Talent Crisis? What Talent Crisis? | Seven Steps to a Stronger Future
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In 2023, the annual survey saw firms and their clients hunkering down for a year of post-COVID-19 unknowns, a recession that never came, inflation that wouldn’t quit and interest rates that persisted at uncomfortable heights.

This year, it looks like firms are reassessing where they stand and where they are going. Times are turbulent – technologically, economically, politically, environmentally – so recovering from the past and preparing for the future are going to require some changes.
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Report: Efficiency Still the Top Priority for Accounting Firms

July 16, 2024

By CPA Trendlines Research

Tech’s the tool, but AI? Not yet.

By CPA Trendlines Research

For the second year in a row, the Thomson Reuters State of Tax Professionals Report finds that improving efficiency is the top strategy priority for accounting firms, but this year, for the first time, it ties with talent.

As the report notes, the two priorities are tightly linked in the sense that efficiency is linked to productivity. The former drives the latter.

MORE: Is Tech Causing Both CPA Shortage and Low Salaries? | Audit Firms Nervous about New Tech | To Replenish the Talent Pipeline, Go Back to the Classroom | Beware the Work-Life/Workload Doom Spiral | Why the Dry Pipeline? It’s About Time | Business Model Transformation: Do It or Die | 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 | Let Interns Fix the Staffing Shortage? | Disruptors: Talent Crisis? What Talent Crisis?
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The report is based on an international survey of 500 respondents, about half in the United States, with the rest in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Brazil and Argentina. Data comes from the first quarter of 2024.
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Is Tech Causing Both CPA Shortage and Low Salaries?

July 14, 2024

By CPA Trendlines Research

dot chart — The number of accounting degree completions from bachelor’s programs from 1994-2021. Source: 2023 AICPA Trends Report

There’s a paradox going on.

By CPA Trendlines Research

A working paper by three academics presents a paradoxical contradiction in the accounting industry. Somehow, technology, which is starting to replace some accounting functions, is causing a shortage of accounting professionals. And despite the high demand for the few graduates who major in accounting, starting salaries are lower than in related professions.