Gen Z Surges into Accounting for All the Reasons Your Mother Told You
Gen Z’s career outlook: Stability, security and practicality.
By CPA Trendlines Research
staffing shortage
What Other Tax Pros Want to Know About You
What our Busy Season Barometer didn’t ask (but should have).
By CPA Trendlines Research
The annual CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer is one of the most widely researched and respected surveys of trends at accounting firms across the nation.
MORE Barometer: Busy Season Barometer Stats: Who’s Responding and How They’re Doing | Your Colleagues Give Their Best Advice for Clients | Pro Services, Tech and Mining Sectors Most Likely to Thrive | Accountants See a Host of Woes for Businesses | Top Three Issues for Business: Tariffs, Taxes and Inflation | Accountants Reporting a Pretty Good Year | Concerns Take Curious Shifts as Tax Season Closes | Tax Season Faceplant: Accountants Overrun by Late Chaos | 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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As you know if you’re one of the hundreds of Barometer respondents, the survey looks for a wide range of hard data and subjective opinions. Among them:
- How firms are handling the current tax season
- What their chief concerns are
- Success metrics on client lists, revenues, profits and extensions
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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What Struggling Small Businesses Need
Digital apps and credit cards are helping.
By CPA Trendlines Research
Small businesses with one to 100 employees were struggling a bit in the year ending October 2024, according to a survey conducted by Intuit Quickbooks, but may be starting to get back on their feet.
MORE: Five Ways to Head Off Reluctant Leadership | Big Growth Coming for Client Advisory Services | Scams Getting More Sophisticated | You Need Capable Successors for a Seamless Transition | Mark Koziel: The Future of the Profession | Gear Up for Growth | America’s Running Short of Financial Advisors | Maybe the Pipeline Problem Is Technology | What If the Staffing Shortage Is Just a Myth? | Staffing, Tech, Prices Top Tax Pros’ Concerns
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The survey results may be of interest to accounting practices that are advising small businesses in various sectors and regions. In that digital and AI applications are giving advantage to companies that use them, accounting clients may be looking for advice on how to put these tools to work.
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