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Accounting in Transition: 2024 Reflections & the Road Ahead | ARC

Accounting ARC wraps 2024 with insights and bold 2025 predictions.

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Accounting ARC
With Liz Mason, Byron Patrick, and Donny Shimamoto.
Center for Accounting Transformation

Since its launch in May, the Accounting ARC podcast, hosted Liz Mason, CPA; Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, CGMA; and Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, has quickly gained traction as a thought leader in accounting. As the year concludes, the trio reflects on their journey and the pressing issues reshaping the industry.

MORE Accounting ARC: Ron Baker: Visions for the Accounting Profession | Angie Grissom: Next Gen Inspo for Accountants | Does Accounting Belong in STEM? | Rose Wang: Where Numbers Meet Strategy and Creativity | TikTok Fraud Exposes Gaps in Financial Literacy | How Accounting Pros Own the Stage in Public Speaking | Greg Kyte: Being a CPA Is Like Being the Marie Kondo of Numbers | Rachel Bashore: A Lawyer’s Case for Reinventing Accounting | Beyond the Basics in Ethics Eduction | Bailey Lenart: From Ledger Sheets to Transformational Change | Election Tax Plans: What CPAs Need to Know | Leadership for the Future: Stakeholders, Sustainability, and Strategic Vision |

Mason, CEO and founder of High Rock Accounting, notes that one of the year’s standout discussions centered on ethics. “It’s fascinating to see how ethical theories apply to our decisions as accountants,” she says. “These frameworks aren’t just academic—they directly impact our role as trusted advisors.”

OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Firms Not Keeping All Their Clients

Plus two questions about M&As.

By Carl George
The Rosenberg National Survey of CPA Firm Statistics

My list of predictions for the next 12 months:

Firms will continue to upgrade their client profiles and disengage from clients who no longer fit. The result is more time will be spent on higher-value clients and emerging high-value clients. A strategy long overdue for some.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Every year, The 2024 Rosenberg National Survey of CPA Firm Statistics asks the profession’s top consultants two sets of questions:

- How do you think the next 12 months will unfold? Trends? Predictions? Other thoughts?
- How would you assess the last 12 months? Trends? Observations? Struggles?

MORE: Accounting Still Short on Staff and Students | Artificial Intelligence Plays Role in Analytics, Optimization | Challenges for the Accounting Profession: Private Equity, Offshoring, Training New Hires | Recalibration Is Key for Accounting Profession | People Development Still a Concern | Focus on Intentional Growth | Accounting Firms Upshift to Corporate Model | Tech Anxiety Paralyzing Some Accounting Firms | What’s Going to Happen? Lots, Say Consultants | Growth and Complacency Must Concern Accounting Firms This Year | Solving Staffing Requires Intention
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Firms realize that more training is needed for their staff than ever before. There are two major reasons behind the accelerated and deeper training necessity:

OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Accounting Still Short on Staff and Students

Firms have had to adjust.

By Marc Rosenberg
The Rosenberg National Survey of CPA Firm Statistics

I believe 2003-2007 was the Golden Age of the CPA profession because the robust increases in revenues and profits were never better. The early and mid-2020s will be named by someone much more clever than me, but many of us feel these current years of prosperity have eclipsed the Golden Age.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Every year, The 2024 Rosenberg National Survey of CPA Firm Statistics asks the profession’s top consultants two sets of questions:

- How do you think the next 12 months will unfold? Trends? Predictions? Other thoughts?
- How would you assess the last 12 months? Trends? Observations? Struggles?

MORE: Artificial Intelligence Plays Role in Analytics, Optimization | Challenges for the Accounting Profession: Private Equity, Offshoring, Training New Hires | Recalibration Is Key for Accounting Profession | People Development Still a Concern | Focus on Intentional Growth | Accounting Firms Upshift to Corporate Model | Tech Anxiety Paralyzing Some Accounting Firms | What’s Going to Happen? Lots, Say Consultants | Growth and Complacency Must Concern Accounting Firms This Year | Solving Staffing Requires Intention | How Accounting Firms Are Handling the Staff Shortage | The Future of Fees | As Private Equity Closes In, Firms Seek New Answers to Staffing Problems
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Paradoxically, firms are still frustrated by too much business and with too few staff.

There are three areas currently causing disruption in our industry:
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ADVISORY & CONSULTING

Who Is Ready for Client Accounting Services?

Ten ways to tell.

By Hitendra Patil
Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide

Experience of those offering successful client accounting services shows that the fastest way to start your CAS practice is to provide it to some of your existing clients. If you already have a CAS practice, it is important to periodically analyze which of your clients have become a good fit for CAS. It is important to note that not all of your clients will be good fits for CAS.

MORE: Wants? Needs? CAS Helps Fill Both | Automation Can Be Exciting in Client Accounting Services | Eight Steps for Better Client Accounting Services | Do You Have the Client Accounting Services Mindset? | Four Ingredients to Your CAS ‘Why’ | CAS Clients Are ‘Stickier’
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There are some easy ways to identify which of your existing clients are CAS-fit, i.e., which of your clients will benefit the most from your CAS offering. And then there are some not-so-easy ways to know which are your CAS-fit clients.
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AUDIT & ASSURANCE

What Quality in Audit Leadership Means

You can’t build it in at the end.

By Alan Anderson, CPA
Transforming Audit for the Future

“It takes less time to do things right than to explain why you did them wrong.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Many audit firms think about quality as a task carried out at the end of the audit by the quality control reviewer. The problem with that thinking is that sometimes the QC reviewer misses major problems. For example, I was working with the new QC reviewer at one firm who spent most of the review time looking at the superficial details of formatting and punctuation, but almost disastrously missing a $3 million error that I spotted right away because the relationships between the numbers didn’t make sense.

MORE: Business-minded Approach Helps Build a Better Firm | Are You Looking at the Big Picture? | Meet Your Client All Year, Not Just During Audit | Give Your Audit Teams Tasks That Increase Business Acumen | Are You Using the Right Business Model? | Give Advice While Remaining Independent | Stop Mixing Up Your V’s and Losing Your Best People | Empower Your Team by Dumping C and D Clients | The New Formula for an Accounting Business | How to Upgrade C and D Clients | Eleven Types of Audit Clients and Which to Fire | Don’t Risk Losing Good Employees for Bad Clients
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Quality in audit shouldn’t be just an extra step at the end of the audit, but it should be an approach woven into the fabric of the firm. Quality is an attitude of “first time right” that permeates every task and every step in the audit. If you leave quality for the end, you’ll be challenged at delivering quality in your audits.
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