Ten Services to Offer Tax Clients After Tax Season | Listicle
SURVEYS & RESEARCH
Ashley Kostos: Secret Weapon = Skills Testing? | MOVE Like This
“Accounting isn’t a ‘fake it ’til you make it’ job.”
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MOVE Like This
With Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk
For CPA Trendlines
In a recent episode of Move Like This, Ashley Kostos, sales manager at Accountests, joined host Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk to explore how data-driven assessments are helping accounting firms hire smarter, retain top talent, and create clearer career paths. With ongoing staffing shortages and high turnover across the industry, testing may be the tool firms didn’t know they needed.
Accountests, founded by a former PwC partner and a psychometric testing expert, offers skills, ability, and personality assessments specifically designed for the accounting profession. These tools help employers move past resume claims and polished interviews to evaluate real-world competencies, including things like understanding financial statements, tax knowledge, and software fluency. “Accounting isn’t a ‘fake it till you make it’ job,” Kostos emphasizes. “You need to know how to do the work.”
Tax Season Faceplant: Accountants Overrun by Late Chaos
Technology and the economy threw some wrenches into the mix.
By CPA Trendlines Research
This year’s tax season seems to have been pretty good, according to the latest from the CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer, though not quite as good as expected.
Survey respondents went into the season with cautiously optimistic expectations. The percentage who felt that this year they were better prepared for the three-month grind remains constant at about 46 percent, comparing December/January with early April.
MORE Barometer: Accountants Turn Negative Amid Tariffs, Trade, Uncertainty | What CPA Firms Could Do Better | SURVEY: Which Client Industries Will Grow This Year | Tax Preparers Share Advice for Your Clients | Staffing, Tech, Prices Top Tax Pros’ Concerns | Tax Pros Gear Up for a Better Busy Season | Tax Season 2025 Begins. Ready or Not.
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But many who figured they were as prepared this year as ever were apparently in for a sad surprise. Before the season, 41 percent said they were prepared as well as in 2024, but that number plummeted to 25 percent by April. The shift is toward the “worse” end of the scale, with the “much worse” response doubling from 3 percent to 6 percent, and “somewhat worse” nearly doubling from 11 percent to almost 20 percent.
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Ten Tips for Turning Tax Prep into Year-round Services | Listicle
Accountants Turn Negative Amid Tariffs, Trade, Uncertainty
Survey respondents aren’t shy about placing blame.
By CPA Trendlines Research
If you’re getting a little nervous about the general business environment, you’re not alone.
The 2025 CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer has picked up a serious swing toward pessimism among the professionals who know the numbers.
MORE Barometer: What CPA Firms Could Do Better | SURVEY: Which Client Industries Will Grow This Year | Tax Preparers Share Advice for Your Clients | Staffing, Tech, Prices Top Tax Pros’ Concerns | Tax Pros Gear Up for a Better Busy Season | Tax Season 2025 Begins. Ready or Not. | MORE Surveys & Research
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.
Before the inauguration, the outlook for the nation’s economy was moderately hunky-dory. Almost 60 percent of respondents predicted the economy would get better over the next 12-18 months. Only 26 percent figured it would get worse.
Pessimism Doubles
That was then. This is now. By the Ides of March, 68 percent saw an economic downturn, and only 21 percent were optimistic. Now, by the second week of April, 74 percent are hunkering in the pessimist camp. In fact, the share of those who fear things will get “much worse” has doubled from 14.5 to 29 percent.