CPA Trendlines

Today's Features

How to Price, Measure and Fund a Firm Built to Last

There are four numbers worth calculating before you decide anything.

By Hitendra Patil

There is a version of the independence story in which the independent firm is the more affordable alternative to the larger private equity-backed firm. That story is worth examining carefully because, in my experience, it rarely ends the way the firm owner hoped.

MORE by Hitendra Patil
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Competing on price against firms with institutional capital is a long game you cannot win. PE-backed platforms can subsidize below-market pricing during a growth phase in ways that an independent firm’s income statement cannot absorb. If your primary competitive argument is that you cost less, the positioning battle is already lost.
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ABOUT US

Bissett Bullet: What Are Your Clients Working On?

Today’s Bissett Bullet: “There is arguably as big an opportunity for many firms to generate more revenue from their existing client base as there is in seeking new business, although it should not be exclusive or at the expense of the firm’s new client growth.”

By Martin Bissett

How many of your Grade B and C clients have the potential to become Grade A clients? By examining which services your existing clients currently use you for and maintaining dialogue with those existing clients to identify other needs that are not currently being addressed, you may find yourself in a position to introduce additional support.

The key to this approach is investing time and effort into strengthening client relationships and making sure you know what it is those clients are working on at any given time.

Today’s To-Do:

Identify three Grade B or C clients who you believe have the potential to become Grade A clients, given the opportunity. Do you know what they’re working on at the moment? Time to pick up the phone and find out.

See more Bissett Bullets here

ACCOUNTING ARC

The Skill That May Matter More Than Your CPA License | ARC

Connection, community, and trust create opportunities that credentials alone cannot.

Sponsored by True Advisor: The Definitive Success Guide for Client Advisory Services by Hitendra Patil |
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Accounting ARC
With Liz Mason and Byron Patrick
Center for Accounting Transformation

In the accounting profession, technical excellence is expected. However, according to the latest episode of Accounting ARC, relationships — not just work product — often determine who grows, who leads, and who thrives.

In a candid and deeply personal conversation, Liz Mason, CPA, and Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, explore how relationship-building shapes careers, creates opportunity, and provides stability in an unpredictable profession.

MORE Accounting ARC: The Real Problem with AI in Accounting | 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 | Accounting’s “Untalked-About” Frontier | Why Happiness is Hard-Fought for High Achievers | The Fastest Way to Lose Talent Is “Dick Leadership” | Post-Holiday Fatigue Isn’t a Failure; It’s a Signal | OCR, Research Bots & Meeting Assistants: What Actually Helps Now | Return Season is the New Stress Test | Small Firms May Have the Biggest Advantage in 2026 | Downgraded: What the DOE Said About Accounting |

Mason, CEO of High Rock Accounting, opens the discussion by reflecting on how little emphasis the profession places on teaching interpersonal skills. Patrick, senior product manager for Karbon and co-founder and part-time educator for TB Academy, agrees. “You don’t learn it in college,” he says. “There’s no course on building relationships.”

That gap, they argue, becomes especially obvious early in a professional’s career.

CHARTS & GRAPHS

The Accountants Demand Index: How it Works, How to Use It

A new tool from CPA Trendlines for benchmarking and strategic decision-making

Accountants Demand Index, 2006-2026

**Follow the bouncing ball:** The index is an algorithmic composition of four key datasets, refreshed monthly.

The Index Gives Accounting Firms a Monthly Read on Demand Pressure

Built from business formation, employment, wages and hours, the measure is best understood as a cycle gauge, validated against MAP survey reality.

By CPA Trendlines Research

The accounting profession has long had benchmarking surveys, revenue rankings and busy-season anecdotes. What it has not had is a monthly economic signal that shows whether demand pressure on firms is rising, easing or splitting apart across clients, labor, wages and workload.

MORE The latest Accountants Demand Index

Errors and omissions should be addressed to News1 @ cpatrendlines.com

That is the purpose of the index. It is not a sentiment poll and it is not a promise that any particular firm will grow. It is a composite measure built from four public federal data series, each rebased to a 2019 baseline of 100 and updated monthly as new government data arrive. Its intellectual premise is straightforward: accounting demand is derived from the conditions that create work for accountants.

PAY & COMPENSATION

Accounting Enrollment Surges as Profession Rebuilds Its Talent Pipeline

chart — Trends in the number of college accounting majors compared to salaries in the industry. Enrollments are up 5.7 percent so far this year and so is pay. (CPA Trendlines Research)

56,000 new accounting majors since 2023.

By CPA Trendlines Research

Accounting programs at U.S. colleges and universities are seeing a resurgence after years of decline, providing fresh evidence that the profession’s talent shortage may be easing.

MORE The Fastest-Growing Jobs in Accounting Are Not Accounting Jobs | Crowdsourced Salary Data Sparks Accounting Change | Retention Isn’t About Perks or Paychecks Anymore | Why CPAs Quit Public Accounting | Students Who Get Ahead Don’t Wait for Graduation | The Staffing Problem Nobody Talks About | New CPA Licensure Pathway Opens Doors to Talent | | Gen Z Surges into Accounting for All the Reasons Your Mother Told You

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New data from the National Student Clearinghouse and the AICPA show that accounting is now outperforming most other business disciplines in attracting undergraduate students.
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