OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

What Relevance Means for Staffing in Accounting

By

Five young business people at work in an office setting.

Seventeen ways to improve.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Staff: Managing Your #1 Asset

The business graveyard is littered with major organizations that missed the boat by failing to see cataclysmic game changers happening right before their eyes.

  • Ice companies failed to get into refrigeration because they saw themselves in the ice business.
  • Railroads missed out on autos and aerospace because they didn’t see themselves in the transportation business.
  • A CEO of Digital Equipment Corporation said he couldn’t imagine why people would want a computer in their own house.
  • It took the Wright Brothers five years to get the U.S. government to even talk to them about their invention.

MORE: How Accounting Staffing Has Changed
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

 

In all fairness it’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, to anticipate and accept massive changes like these.
READ MORE →

Ellison-Taylor: Small Firms’ Fix for Talent Crisis | Gear Up For Growth

By

They’re not leaving the firm. They’re leaving you.

Originally published Jan. 10, 2025.
Sponsored by MAX: Maximize Productivity, Profitability, and Client Retention by August J. Aquila  – See Today’s Special Offer

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/Youtube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS.

Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher
For CPA Trendlines

What’s driving talent out of accounting firms? According to Kimberly Ellison-Taylor, CPA, CGMA, CITP, CISA, everything from outdated leadership to untold success stories is pushing promising professionals away. In this episode of Gear Up for Growth, powered by CPA Trendlines, host Jean Caragher sits down with the powerhouse behind KET Solutions to explore how the profession can—and must—change to attract and retain the next generation.

Gear Up for Growth spotlights the best strategies for smart and efficient growth in today’s competitive landscape. More Gear Up for Growth | More Capstone Conversations with Jean Caragher | More Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | More CPA Trendlines videos and podcasts here

Ellison-Taylor, former chair of both the AICPA and the Maryland Association of CPAs, started her journey into accounting as a third grader inspired by a career-day presentation. That spark led to decades of leadership—and now, a mission to transform the narrative around what it means to be a CPA.

READ MORE →

What Empowerment Does for Your Firm

By

two men talking across a table, one holding a sheet of paper, window and brick wall in background

Ten ways to get started.

By Alan Anderson, CPA
Transforming Audit for the Future

Empowerment seems like it would be the easiest attribute to build up in a firm, but it’s actually one of the hardest. Firms go to these Kumbaya events on leadership and trusting your team, but then when they go back to the office the next day, nothing has changed.

MORE by Alan Anderson
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

 

Empowerment is last in my book because it’s the furthest from what clients value most. Clients look at What’s In It For Me – they value what’s relevant to them. But empowerment is the most important attribute in our framework. It’s the key to unlocking the power of your team.
READ MORE →

Is AI Contributing to Burnout?

By

About 71% are feeling overwhelmed by A.I. (via Brainstorm Group, HB Publishing & Marketing Co.)

How you can cope and thrive

By Randy Crabtree

A new Cal Berkeley study of a 200-employee U.S. technology company found that AI didn’t free up workers’ time as promised. Instead, it expanded what workers felt capable of and willing to take on.

MORE Bridging the Gap, July 28-30, Charlotte, N.C.

I suspect we’re seeing the same thing in the accounting profession and other areas of professional services.

My firm’s annual CPA Career Satisfaction survey found that accountants overwhelmingly agreed that AI would benefit their firms long-term. However, most also felt AI would contribute to personal stress and burnout in the short run.

READ MORE →