Loyalty Tax: Accounting’s Lose-Lose Incentive System | Big 4 Transparency
Employees lose stability and firms lose money. So why do we do it?
Big 4 Transparency
By Dominic Piscopo, CPA
For CPA Trendlines
PAY & COMPENSATION
Use Smart Compensation to Drive Partner Performance
Five management objectives to address.
By Domenick J. Esposito
8 Steps to Great
“Show me your compensation plan and I’ll show you your strategy.” – Dom Esposito
As you strive to become a mid-market sustainable brand, your firm needs to become a performance-driven organization if you want to take advantage of future opportunities and drive growth and profitability. An effective performance management and compensation plan (PMCP) is critical to making your firm’s strategic plan a reality.
MORE by Domenick J. Esposito
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The basic premise is that compensation rewards first look to:
- how successful the entire firm is,
Michelle River: The Hidden Data Behind CPA Firm Burnout and Profit Pressure | Gear Up for Growth
How savvy CPAs are unlocking powerful insights buried in their practice management systems. Plus: Download the slide deck.
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Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher
For CPA Trendlines
“What surprised me most isn’t what the data says,” says Michelle Golden River, CEO of Fore LLC, in a new episode of Gear Up for Growth, powered by CPA Trendlines. “It’s that almost every CPA already has it, and it rarely makes it into leadership conversations.”
Download Michelle River’s slide deck here
MORE Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here MORE Gear Up for Growth | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network here
River tells host Jean Caragher, president of Capstone Marketing, that firms are overlooking powerful insights buried in their own practice management data.
River challenges CPA firm leaders to rethink long-held assumptions about growth and sustainability. “There is no reason we should be taking a high volume of low spenders when it’s killing us. It’s ruining our sustainability chances,” she says
River leaves three top takeaways for CPA firms:
Seven Things Your Compensation Model Must Accomplish
Take a hard look at your partners.
By Domenick J. Esposito
8 Steps to Great
Let’s take a deep dive into both a firm’s partner mix and its compensation model.
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In a “Good to Great” research study on high-performing organizations performed by Jim Collins, it was concluded that the method of compensation, as a causal factor for high and sustained performance, is largely irrelevant. The study concluded that whatever system is in use, it simply must be rational and equitably managed and that high sustained performance is largely the result of doing many things well.
READ MORE →
Accounting Enrollment Surges as Profession Rebuilds Its Talent Pipeline
56,000 new accounting majors since 2023.
By CPA Trendlines Research
Accounting programs at U.S. colleges and universities are seeing a resurgence after years of decline, providing fresh evidence that the profession’s talent shortage may be easing.
MORE The Fastest-Growing Jobs in Accounting Are Not Accounting Jobs | Crowdsourced Salary Data Sparks Accounting Change | Retention Isn’t About Perks or Paychecks Anymore | Why CPAs Quit Public Accounting | Students Who Get Ahead Don’t Wait for Graduation | The Staffing Problem Nobody Talks About | New CPA Licensure Pathway Opens Doors to Talent | | Gen Z Surges into Accounting for All the Reasons Your Mother Told You
MORE in Pay & Comp | Staffing & Recruiting
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New data from the National Student Clearinghouse and the AICPA show that accounting is now outperforming most other business disciplines in attracting undergraduate students.
READ MORE →
Dominic Piscopo: Crowdsourced Salary Data Sparks Accounting Change | Accounting Conversations
Unpack how market gaps and transparency revise the recruiting game.
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Accounting Conversations
With Chayton Farlee
Center for Accounting Transformation
In the latest episode of Accounting Conversations, host Chayton Farlee sits down with Dominic Piscopo, CPA, founder of The Big Four Transparency, to unpack compensation transparency and the accounting pipeline — two stubborn bottlenecks many firms still struggle to fix. The conversation centers on how accessible salary data and real-world experiences can illuminate a path toward fairer pay and clearer career ladders for accountants at all levels.
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Piscopo, a Canadian CPA now leading The Big Four Transparency, describes a career that reveals both the promise and the pain points of the industry. He starts in a Big Four firm in tax and quickly encounters a supportive leadership dynamic and a stellar coach, experiences that underscore what’s possible in a healthy culture. Yet even with that backdrop, he confronts a truth many early-career professionals feel but few talk about openly: compensation does not always align with effort or market realities, especially for younger staff trying to break in and prove their value.
The Fastest-Growing Jobs in Accounting Are Not Accounting Jobs
CPAs Not Wanted: Firms Build a New Workforce – without Accountants
By CPA Trendlines
Cornerstone Report
CPA firms are building a new workforce, and they’re doing it without CPAs.
Firms are hiring thousands of new staffers in jobs that look less like traditional accounting and more like sales, systems and management, according to new data parsed by CPA Trendlines.
MORE Private Equity’s Accounting Playbook Is Shifting from Dealmaking to Operating Systems | Why CPAs Quit Public Accounting | Inside Tax Season’s Hidden Shift: Same Work, Fewer People, Higher Cost | MORE Cornerstone Reports | Outlook & Analysis | Staffing & Recruiting | Surveys & Research | Tax | Pay & Compensation |
The public accounting profession has added 3,930 accountant and auditor positions since 2021, which pales in comparison to the 12,250 new sales representatives, 11,140 new financial managers, or 8,130 new computer and information systems managers. Firms added 4,370 new software developers and 4,190 new project management specialists. They also added 2,210 new data scientists. Even the number of chief executives has grown faster.
The pattern shows firms are not simply replacing missing CPAs and CPA candidates. They are building a different kind of firm, with more people assigned to sell services, manage clients, run systems, build software and coordinate projects. CPAs need not apply. READ MORE →
CPAs Regain Upper Hand in Pricing Battles
Advisory and specialty services lead the way.
Tax pricing pulls away from audit, year-over-year percent change. (CPA Trendlines)
By CPA Trendlines
After two years of mostly weak pricing power, accounting firms appear to be regaining the initiative on billing rates, led by tax services with eye-popping 8% increases.
MORE in Pricing: Tax Prep Billing Rates Lift Busy Season | The Hidden Data Behind CPA Firm Burnout and Profit Pressure | Six Steps to High-Value Tax Advisory |
CPAs are raising rates by 4.2 percent year over year, reversing a 2.1 percent decline recorded a year ago, according to new CPA Trendlines findings.
How AI Upends CPA Firm Pay Structures: Bloomberg Talks with Piscopo
Big 4 Transparency founder Dominic Piscopo makes featured appearance on Bloomberg.
By CPA Trendlines
Accounting firms are being forced to rebalance compensation structures—shifting pay and incentives away from entry-level staff and toward managers and reviewers—as artificial intelligence reshapes how work gets done, according to Dominic Piscopo, host of Big 4 Transparency on the CPA Trendlines Streaming Network.
MORE Dominic Piscopo and Big 4 Transparency | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network
Piscopo’s full discussion on AI, compensation trends, and the future of accounting talent is available on Bloomberg Tax’s Talking Tax podcast. His ongoing analysis of salary data and workforce trends is featured on the Big 4 Transparency show, streaming on CPA Trendlines.
“Having transparency in those models and being willing to talk about it with people —not just have this very kind of cold process where a number is thrown out—can make all the difference, even if the number is exactly the same,” Piscopo tells Bloomberg Tax reporter Jorja Siemons.
Tax Prep Wages and Salaries Hit 4-Year High
Even as DIY returns cut into pros’ market share.
By CPA Trendlines
Wages for accountants and tax preparers are rising far faster than hiring as the 2026 filing season begins, even as early filing volumes trail last year’s pace.
Average hourly earnings in the accounting and tax preparation sector rose roughly 4 percent to 6 percent year over year, pushing pay for many accountants above $45 per hour, while employment across the tax and accounting sector is increasing only a few tenths of a percent.
MORE Busy Season
If current trends hold, the accounting industry will process about 150 million individual tax returns in 2026 — roughly 0.4 percent more than last year — with nearly the same number of workers..