OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Firms Offer Advice About CAS

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man with six arms handling various aspects of business

Can’t find staff? Focus on technology … and other suggestions.

By CPA Trendlines Research

Client accounting services is a bold, new world in the accounting industry, so no surprise we’re getting a lot of good advice from the CPA Trendlines Outlook 2024: Emerging Issues, Opportunities, and Trends survey.

MORE CAS SURVEY: Ten+ Ways Firms Prefer (and Prefer Not) to Market CAS | SURVEY: The CAS Pricing Problem | CAS Challenge: No Staff, No Services | CAS ‘One-Stop Shop’ Means Steady Clientele | Accountants Cozy Up to Clients with CAS
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If 59 percent of firms are offering some form of CAS, that means 41 percent aren’t even though most (but not all) the 59 percent are saying go for it … but be careful.

ASAP… but

While one respondent says, “Dive in, there is plenty of need out there,” and another just says, “Do it ASAP,” most others recommend some forethought and planning.
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Is the CPA Business Model the Clog in the Pipeline?

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older woman showing young woman something on office computer screen

Maybe a flip in perception is in order: 150 hours as an investment, not a burden.

By CPA Trendlines Research

The accounting profession is in trouble. Big trouble.

CPA firms experience the problem as a difficulty in finding certified professionals. But the real problem is in the personnel pipeline that feeds the industry, the long, hard, expensive process of becoming a CPA.

MORE: Can Big Data Spot Financial Fraud? | Will Unclogging the Accounting Pro Pipeline Kill Mobility? | Accountants Bullish on Income | Which Niche’s the Best Niche? | Ethics on Sustainability Puzzle Some Accountants | Accountants Hopeful, Concerned and Confused about AI | Survey Respondents See Exciting Year Coming Up | The 7 Categories of Cybersecurity Solutions Firms Need
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To continue the metaphor, it’s also the drain pipe – the increasing flow of professionals out of CPA firms and into retirement. In 2020, 75 percent of CPAs became eligible to hang up their green eyeshades and find something else to do, such as get to know their families and experience the pleasures of daylight.
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Ten+ Ways Firms Prefer (and Prefer Not) to Market CAS

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One point of concern: who’s doing the marketing?

By CPA Trendlines Research

The CPA Trendlines Outlook 2024: Opportunities, Emerging Issues and Trends survey is bringing to light an array of marketing strategies that CPA firms are using to promote their client accounting services.

MORE CAS SURVEY: SURVEY: The CAS Pricing Problem | CAS Challenge: No Staff, No Services | CAS ‘One-Stop Shop’ Means Steady Clientele | Accountants Cozy Up to Clients with CAS
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Nine strategies are mentioned by at least a few of the early survey respondents.
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SURVEY: The CAS Pricing Problem

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Accountants grapple with how to value insight and advice.

By CPA Trendlines Research

One of the biggest challenges to offering client accounting services (CAS) isn’t offering the actual services; it’s figuring out how and how much to charge for them.

MORE CAS SURVEY: CAS Challenge: No Staff, No Services | CAS ‘One-Stop Shop’ Means Steady Clientele | Accountants Cozy Up to Clients with CAS
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When the CPA Trendlines survey Outlook 2024: Emerging Issues, Opportunities and Trends asked what’s most tough about CAS, finding and training staff ranks #1, of course, for 30 percent of respondents. But pricing CAS services was close behind for 29.2 percent.
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CAS Challenge: No Staff, No Services

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Demand isn’t a problem, but supply might be.

By CPA Trendlines Research

The CPA Trendlines Outlook 2024: Emerging Issues, Opportunities and Trends survey asks 23 questions about Client Accounting Services. Early results clearly reveal certain emerging issues:

MORE CAS SURVEY: CAS ‘One-Stop Shop’ Means Steady Clientele | Accountants Cozy Up to Clients with CAS
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  • A majority of CPA firms (59 percent) now offer CAS, and a lot more (21 percent) may soon join them.
  • A sizable portion of clients want these services.
  • Staff shortages and training are the biggest challenge (for 30 percent) and biggest obstacle (for 44 percent) to offering CAS.

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Will Unclogging the Accounting Pro Pipeline Kill Mobility?

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man placing box on desk to move into new job, with to coworkers in background

Changing the 150-hour requirement could have unintended consequences.

By CPA Trendlines Research

The day-to-day of the CPA may be grueling at times, but one thing makes the day a little easier – the facility of mobility.

Not only can a CPA with a driver’s license in one state drive in other states, but in most cases, they can practice their profession in other states, too. If you’re licensed to practice in one state, you’re good to go in every other state except, coincidentally, the one you can’t drive to.

MORE: Accountants Cozy Up to Clients with CAS | Accountants Torn Over 2024 Economy, Offer Advice | Are You Offering the Right Services? | 42% of Accountants Turn Away Work Over Staff Shortages | Talent Gap Widening: Be Very Scared | Looking for Recent Grads? Good Luck
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Practice mobility is crucial in a business system that often as not transcends state borders, and it’s even more important as professionals work remotely, sitting in one state while practicing in another.
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CAS ‘One-Stop Shop’ Means Steady Clientele

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bar chartAccountants share which niches offer the best new opportunities.

By CPA Trendlines Research

How do you measure success in client accounting services?

MORE CAS SURVEY: Accountants Cozy Up to Clients with CAS
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Almost half of early respondents to the CPA Trendlines Outlook 2024: Emerging Issues, Opportunities and Trends survey define success as that glorious moment when they become a one-stop shop for their clients.
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Tax & Accounting Firms to See More Consolidation

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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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