hint: leadership can avoid these issues.
by ed mendlowitz
call me before you do anything: the art of accounting
i have written about cpas who leave public accounting and go to work in private industry. based upon the comments and emails i’ve received, this is an involved topic and i would like to delve into it further.
more: why cpas should stay in public accounting | when cpas leave to work for a client | when parents, children hit an impasse | how bickering can ruin a family business | one hour a year since 1972
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i was writing about my observations, particularly of many people in their mid-50s i have known who cannot get jobs in private industry after spending a major part of their careers there. obviously, there are many people with extremely successful careers in private industry and i was not addressing them, but i do consider them to be in the minority. also, we are all individuals, and we each decide on how we want to work and what we are comfortable with. no one, including me, has any right to criticize them or tell them they should have done it differently.
here are some reasons why i believe people leave public accounting firms. many of these reasons are caused by the firms’ leadership and can be avoided or mitigated:
- without a doubt the major reason is work/life balance. people feel they cannot have a reasonable work/life balance in public accounting and look to private industry for a better combination.
- another major culprit is tax season hours. many cpa firms have untenable overtime requirements, with some firms requiring staff to work as much as 65 chargeable hours during a tax season that can start in the middle of january and run through april 15. this means no personal life or activities for a quarter of the year.
- regardless of the overtime, at many firms, the payment for that work is either nonexistent or subject to a determination by the owners of what they will pay as a “bonus” as late as june 30th. at least if the payment was made in the next regular paycheck after the overtime, the employees (and their spouses or partners) would see some tangible benefits for the extra hours put in. if people leave because of this and the previous reason, that is the fault of the firm, and shame on them for not recognizing their own narrow-minded management.
- work done by public accountants is demanding. people employed by cpa firms need to be on top of things, continually learning and growing. many do not want to put in the effort. for the cpa firm, these are not losses, but benefits, when they leave. the only criticism i might have is that the hiring process was not as good as it needed to be.
- some leave because they get put to work on very large clients for long periods and either they do not like the client or industry, or they feel they are stuck in a place they do not want to be. they may not get exposed to the range of businesses and industries they believe is necessary for growth. again that’s the firm’s fault for not managing the career of their staff people.
- lousy clients. they can be bad for a number of reasons, and this causes people to want to disassociate themselves from the firm and the profession.
- occasionally you get an outside person and give them an inside job, or vice versa, and the staff person leaves dissatisfied. again this is part of being a good, alert manager.
some leave the profession, and some leave the firm they are working for looking for something more reasonable in another public firm.
those staying in public accounting stay because they really want to be in our profession and are smart enough to recognize they had a bad experience.
those who leave chalk it up to a bad experience and look for something better elsewhere.
5 responses to “why accountants quit”
ca r. venkata subramani
i fully agree with the author when he says “work done by public accountants is demanding” as one the major reasons “why accountants quit”. being an accountant myself, i can say this is certainly true especially in a developing country like india. the corporate laws gets overhauled, gst gets introduced, the accounting standards goes international (ifrs), new insolvency laws promulgated, cyber security becomes such a nightmare, new demands for corporate social responsibilities etc., and all these becoming a really daunting effort by the accountant to learn, know and become an expert in each of these areas, in the midst of a deadly pandemic. we need to keep running just to stay where we are.
judy
i am one of those accountants who left public and did not regret it. i still keep my cpa active but have worked only in industry for decades since leaving public. i gave birth to my first child on an early tuesday morning while in public accounting after having worked a full day on the monday before. numerous co- workers asked if i was in labor while working that monday- seems to me they expected me to say yes! talk about work/life balance being off kilter in a profession. ( no i was not in labor at work and i worked in public another half a year before leaving. ) i work closely with our public accountants in my current high level industry position and i am glad they know what i do not know. but i can say i know my own industry better than they do! both my children got accounting degrees magna cum laude at college so i am not sour on the profession- but neither went into public either.
dave mcintee
more than 20 years ago i predicted that by the time i retire there would be a shortage of cpas in the smaller practice units (aicpa practitioners symposiums – small firm roundtable events – 1999, 2000 and 2001). the shortage would prove so severe that the clients would have trouble retaining a qualified cpa. some scoffed! well we’re here! at that time in the late 90’s, cpas were warned that they needed to exit the filling-out-forms (aka compliance models) and provide value-added service offerings. frankly, not only have many smaller practice units failed to heed that advise, i believe they gone backwards. doing more work for less compensation. i thought most cpas understood that doing more returns was never the answer to practice success. successful small firms must have a culture where the specialty services are offered, and emphasized, and thus providing the next generation with opportunities to provide clients with services they want, not just what they need.
gregg
you would be hard pressed to find any positive reasons to want to stay in public accounting. one could argue the pay or the flexibility in hours (if your a business owner) as being beneficial but these few benefits could be attained in many other career paths. i suppose you have to be a gluten for punishment to stay in the accounting profession. if you like ridiculous hours, large liability, constant changes in tax and accounting law, government ineptitude, constant re-education and the difficulty in managing suitable fees, well have at it. i would highly discourage any young person from entering this field of work. go after the low hanging fruit and find a career that gives you more peace and balance in your life.
dennis rick
as one who nearing retirement as a owner of a small firm, i would suggest a young cpa find a job in a related field. i just finished a yellow audit for a job with less than 1 million in revenue for a small business. i counted up the audit programs and other items that are required for the file and peer review dictated by the aicpa.