OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Tax & Accounting Firms Grow for 9th Straight Month

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Overall accounting profession employment

 

Bookkeeping is playing the tortoise game.

By Beth Bellor

Bit by bit, the accounting profession is growing. Despite a staffing shortage. Despite an uncertain economy. Despite everything, tax and accounting firms are steadily adding to headcounts.

MORE: Tax & Accounting Profession Grows, but Wages Don’t | Tax and Accounting Pay Advancing at 5.9% Pace | Accounting Jobs Up 4% for Year
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As tax and accounting professionals begin planning for the year ahead, the CPA Trendlines Research team is fielding a new survey to check the pulse of the profession, detect emerging trends, and identify the best success strategies going into 2024.
Join the Survey. Get the Results.
Click here to launch the 10-minute survey.

According to the latest data mined by CPA Trendlines Research, new highs were reached in September in employment overall, staff, CPA firm staff, bookkeeping, women overall and women in CPA firms. Staff also hit a new mark for hourly earnings.

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Is Audit in Crisis Because of Definitions?

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Auditors, accountants and businesses need to agree on expectations and deliverables in audits.

By Alan Anderson
Transforming Audit for the Future

Instant download:
“The New Manifesto for Accountants.“

Do the banks and investors get useful information from historical audited financials? In their book, “The End of Accounting and the Path Forward for Investors and Managers,” Baruch Lev and Feng Gu researched the relationship between changes in stock prices and the dates that corporate financial reports were released.

MORE: Three Fundamental Questions to Ask in Audit | How Auditors Can Beat AI | The Big Issues in Audit: Frustration, Inconsistency and Technology | Five Ways to Increase Audit Efficiency | Early Adopters Gain an Edge in Audit | Talent Retention: Five Tips for an Audit Adjustment | Six Benefits of an Internal Audit | The Ten Financial Controls That’ll Make You a Hero | Five Cash Reports You Can’t Live Without | When an Audit Is a Great Thing
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In the 1950s and 1960s, roughly 90 percent of the market value of public companies could be directly attributed to the earnings and book value reported in their financials. By 2013, that percentage had dropped to just 50 percent. Personally, I’m surprised it’s even that high. The historical financial statement does not serve the needs of the users of those statements.
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Rosenberg MAP: Partner Incomes Surge 11.4%

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On revenue gains of 11.8%

By Charles Hylan
Rosenberg MAP Survey 

It’s been another amazing year for the accounting profession! But – it comes at a price. As we look at the firms in our survey with revenue greater than $2 million, income per partner was up 11.8%, and revenue was up 11.4%.

MORE in SURVEYS & RESEARCH: Firms Rev Up Expansion Plans | Overcoming the Five Hurdles to Advisory Services | Research: Accounting Pros Cautiously Optimistic about Generative AI | Why Compliance Still Matters. But It’s Not Enough. |  New Businesses Mean New Business | How to Transform Your Team into Trusted Advisors

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This is the second year in which profits grew faster than revenue.

This new revenue and additional profits are occurring amidst a severe staffing shortage, resulting in people being stretched to their limits.

So, how do we keep this going at less of a “price tag?”

Doing nothing is not an option, and hope is not a strategy.

Our profession is experiencing unprecedented pressure from the economy, staffing shortages, technology, and competition. READ MORE →

‘Uncharted’ Economic Outlook for Accountants

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Gustonomics’ Liz Wilke “Bullish on a Soft Landing.”

By Blake Oliver

It’s been a wild ride that past 12 months with the regional banking crisis, the Fed raising rates to the highest level in two decades, not to mention AI disrupting accounting and other professions, and the constant threat of recession.

MORE BLAKE OLIVER: Four Simple Game-Changers to Modernize Your Practice | Why Tax Work Yearns To Be Free

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If you’re wondering how to advise your clients with so many conflicting signals on the horizon, you’re not alone. To help make sense of it all, I spoke with Liz Wilke, Chief Economist at Gusto, on an episode of The Accounting Podcast.

“Honestly, I’m pretty bullish on a soft landing for the economy,” shared Wilke. “If we have a recession, it will most likely be a mild one in the minus 1 percent to zero percent growth range. And I don’t think it’s coming till 2024 if it’s coming at all,” added Wilke, host of the Gustonomics Podcast.

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Staff Need Good Pay and TLC

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They’re scarce. Here’s how to keep them happy.

By CPA Trendlines Research

It’s no news to the accounting industry that staff and professionals are hard to find and hard to keep from wandering off to some other firm.

MORE: SURVEY: Accountants Economic Outlook Brightens | The 7 Categories of Cybersecurity Solutions Firms Need | Understanding the Full Cost of a Data Breach | Research: Accounting Pros Cautiously Optimistic about Generative AI | How Auditors Can Beat AI | Why the U.S. Must Act Now to Protect Our Online Privacy
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And the law of supply and demand hasn’t failed to rule, according to the Global Talent Trends 2023 survey of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants: Scarce employees expect a good salary, good treatment and a chance to work outside the office.

Identifying and dealing with these employees’ expectations is essential to a continuous and successful flow of business. The survey found five challenges to that flow.
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