TALENT & CAREER DEVELOPMENT

Loyalty Tax: Accounting’s Lose-Lose Incentive System | Big 4 Transparency

By

Employees lose stability and firms lose money. So why do we do it?

Sponsored by The Balanced Millionaire: The Advisor Edition by Dr. Jackie Meyer | See Today’s Special Offer

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS.
Build a 7-figure firm in just 4 hours a week!
.

Big 4 Transparency
By Dominic Piscopo, CPA
For CPA Trendlines

A growing body of compensation data suggests that accounting firms may be unintentionally penalizing their most loyal employees.

In a recent solo episode of the Big 4 Transparency, founder Dominic Piscopo unpacks what he calls the “loyalty tax” — the pay gap between internally promoted employees and externally hired peers performing the same role. Drawing on 2024–2025 compensation data from thousands of U.S. and Canadian professionals, Piscopo outlines how this structural imbalance is reshaping career incentives across the profession.

MORE Dominic Piscopo | MORE Private Equity | MORE Pay & Compensation

The loyalty tax, as defined in the episode, is the percentage difference in pay where externally hired employees earn more than internally promoted employees at the same level. According to the data, that gap is far from trivial. In the U.S., first-year senior associates hired externally earn roughly 6.3% more than internally promoted seniors, while first-year managers see an 8.9% premium. Even at the senior manager level, the gap persists. Canadian data shows a similar pattern, with especially pronounced spreads at the senior and senior manager levels.

The disparity is even more striking in consulting and advisory roles.

READ MORE →

Create an Accountability Chart for Your Firm

By

It beats an org chart and here’s why.

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

“Getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats – these are all crucial steps in the early stages of buildup…” – Jim Collins, “Good to Great”

When Adam and I first started the company, we didn’t have much organizational structure. We didn’t need it. But as the company grew, it became necessary to develop an organizational structure. There’s a great quote by Michael E. Gerber in his book “The E-Myth Revisited” that says, “Without the Organization Chart, confusion, discord and conflict become the order of the day.”

We got to a point where we realized that Adam and I didn’t have clarity around our individual roles, and we were overlapping one another. We needed to have clearly defined roles for one another, as well as the people who were working for us. Lack of clarity can cause a loss in production.
READ MORE →

When the Profession Changes Faster than Your Plan | Accounting Voices

By

The profession isn’t slowing down, but accountants can build clarity, visibility, and career capital to move forward with greater control.

Sponsored by The Balanced Millionaire: Advisor Edition  – See Today’s Special Offer

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

Build a 7-Figure Firm in 4 Hours a Week! 

Accounting Voices
With Rob Brown

Accountants have spent years preparing for demanding work. Far fewer are prepared for what happens when the nature of that work changes almost overnight.

Artificial intelligence, private equity, mergers, leadership changes, shifting client expectations, regulatory pressures, and persistent talent shortages are reshaping accounting at the same time. The result is not simply a busier profession. It is a profession in which many people are quietly asking a much bigger question: Is this still the career I signed up for?

In this reflective episode of Accounting Voices, listeners are encouraged to pause before charging into another year of goals, deadlines, and transformation projects. The conversation acknowledges something professionals do not always feel permitted to say: An extraordinary level of change takes a personal toll.

Feeling tired, cautious, unsettled, or less fulfilled is not necessarily evidence that someone is failing. It may be a normal response to an abnormal pace of disruption.

READ MORE →

Stop Waiting for the Perfect Time to Get Involved | ARC

By

Even a small volunteer commitment can deliver lasting professional and personal returns.

Sponsored by Radical Pricing by the Radical CPA, Jody Padar | See Today’s Special Offer

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

Optimize Profits, Delight Clients, & Build a Top-Value Firm!

Accounting ARC
With Donny Shimamoto and Byron Patrick
Center for Accounting Transformation

A single meeting changed the trajectory of Byron Patrick’s career.

Early in his career, the owner of Patrick’s firm, who was serving as chair of the Maryland Association of CPAs, invited him to come along to a meeting. Patrick found himself in a room with established leaders discussing the future of the profession.

“I was like, ‘Is it this easy? Can I just show up to this meeting every week and be in this room?’” Patrick recalls. “Because if so, y’all aren’t going to get rid of me.”

Twenty-six years later, Patrick, CPA.CITP, senior product manager for Karbon and founder and part-time educator for TB Academy, can trace much of his professional growth to that invitation.

MORE Accounting ARC: Your AI Agent Should Show Its Work | AI Isn’t Erasing Tax Careers. It’s Rewriting Them. | Accounting Internships Need an Upgrade | The CPA Career Nobody Talks About | Conference Season Exposes Accounting’s Knowledge Gap | The Feedback Mistake That Costs You Your Best People | Is Your Boss Really the Problem? | Most Accountants Are Missing This AI Shift | AI Can Fix Your Workflow—or Break It in Seconds | Efficiency Is the Wrong Goal for AI | Accounting’s Hidden Talent Risk: The Sandwich Generation | Built Fast. Sold Faster. Broken Later? The Truth About Accounting Tech | Recognize When You Need to Recharge Before You Burn Out | Valuing More Than the Balance Sheet

MORE Accounting Opportunities Experience 

In this episode of Accounting ARC, Patrick and co-host Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC and the founder and inspiration architect for the Center for Accounting Transformation, make the case that involvement in state CPA societies and other professional organizations is not an extracurricular activity. It is an investment in a career, a professional network, and the future of accounting.

READ MORE →

Rachel Anevski: Next Leaders Won’t Develop by Accident | The Disruptors

By

Replace informal succession practices with trained mentors and measurable opportunities for growth.

This is a preview. The complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by Radical Pricing: Optimize Profits, Delight Clients, and Build a Top-Value Firm

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

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr
For CPA Trendlines

The Break-Through Blueprint for Revolutionizing the CPA Firm Business Model

For decades, accounting teams have assumed future leaders would emerge through the normal progression of the ranks. The best seniors would become managers, and the best managers would become partners, ready to step into the shoes of retiring leaders.

According to Rachel Anevski, that approach is no longer sustainable.

Anevski, president and CEO of Matters of Management and managing director of leadership and people at Winding River Consulting, says we must become far more intentional about training, mentoring, and retaining their next generation of leaders.

MORE Disruptors with Liz Farr | CPA Trendlines Streaming Network

As she describes in her book, Train Your Successor, the greatest weakness in the traditional model is its lack of deliberate preparation. The book’s title, inspired by her doctoral research on training and retention, comes from advice given by her first mentor, Ted Dudek.

“His talk to everyone was that retention and the future perpetuity of the firm were solely reliant on whether or not you could successfully train your successor,” Anevski tells The Disruptors host Liz Farr.

READ MORE →