MANAGEMENT

The Hidden Factory in Accounting: Why Rework Is Quietly Eating Your Capacity

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The question firm leaders often ask is simple: Where did the capacity go?


By William Englehaupt

Accounting firms rarely struggle because they lack plans, tools, or capable professionals. Most engagements begin with detailed project plans and clear milestones. Yet despite all of that structure, work still arrives late, review pressure spikes at the end, and teams feel chronically overextended.

MORE Productivity | MORE Audit and Assurance

The answer usually isn’t visible on the plan. It sits in what many firms experience but rarely name—the hidden factory.

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Why MAP Programs Are Worth Your Time

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woman speaking to handheld microphone in room full of people

There’s more than CPE to consider.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Call Me Before You Do Anything: The Art of Accounting

I attend Management of Accounting Practice (MAP) CPE programs. In many instances these do not qualify toward the mandatory CPE requirements. Who cares?

MORE by Ed Mendlowitz
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I go because I want to make more money, work more effectively, service clients better, excite and retain staff, and have more fun doing what I love to do and have to do anyway.
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Will AI Make Students Better Learners — or Just Faster Workers? | SLC

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Educators explore ethics, creativity, critical thinking and the future of learning in an AI-powered world.

Sponsored by True Advisor: The Definitive Success Guide for Client Advisory Services by Hitendra Patil |
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The step-by-step operating guide for firms building, pricing, and scaling advisory services that clients value—and pay for.

Student-Led Conversations
With Harshita Multani
Center for Accounting Transformation

Artificial intelligence is no longer a future issue in education. It is already shaping how students study, how teachers prepare lessons, how universities think about access and admissions, and how employers evaluate readiness for the workforce.

MORE SLC: Why the Next Generation May Be Accounting’s Greatest Competitive Advantage | Students Redefine Career Readiness | Savage: Using Your License as a Megaphone |  Baker: Interpreting Pricing Psychology | Royalties, Residuals, and Reality Checks | ARC-SLC 

In this episode, host Harshita Multani, a Center for Accounting Transformation intern and Indiana high school business student, leads a thoughtful discussion on AI in education with Markus Ahrens, Ph.D., CPA, CGMA, FMAA, of the American Accounting Association, and David Wood of Brigham Young University.

What makes this conversation stand out is not just the topic. It is the perspective.

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Tax Prep Wages and Salaries Hit 4-Year High

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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..

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Doubling Up Leads to New Opportunities

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two businessmen looking at documents

Tales of a first trainee.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Call Me Before You Do Anything: The Art of Accounting

I was fortunate early on in my career that I had a boss who gave me responsibility to supervise. On some level I was not really instructed how to supervise, but was told I could use the new person to help me get my work done.

MORE by Ed Mendlowitz
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This was precipitated by an email I received from the first person ever I supervised. I had not spoken to him since working with him in 1968. He emailed me because he read one of my columns and just wanted to say hello. I remembered him and then I recalled how I got started training him – he was the first person I trained.
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