jobs

is tech causing both cpa shortage and low salaries?

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dot chart
the number of accounting degree completions from bachelor’s programs from 1994-2021. source: 2023 aicpa trends report

 

there’s a paradox going on.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

a working paper by three academics presents a paradoxical contradiction in the accounting industry. somehow, technology, which is starting to replace some accounting functions, is causing a shortage of accounting professionals. and despite the high demand for the few graduates who major in accounting, starting salaries are lower than in related professions.

more: audit firms nervous about new tech | what accountants can learn from t-ball | staffing tops list of woes at cpa firms | to replenish the talent pipeline, go back to the classroom | beware the work-life/workload doom spiral | why the dry pipeline? it’s about time | business model transformation: do it or die | misperceptions, corrections, accountancy and lemonade | whole person retention: when it’s not just the money | global trends show many dissatisfied cpas | more big firms shut their doors to new college grads
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

and in a related paradox, technology’s most powerful tools may be augmenting the accountant’s workload.

how can all this be concurrent?
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battling the staffing crisis: is a little-known, but controversial, visa program the answer?

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cornerstone report: h-1b hiring and salary trends in tax, accounting and finance

  • the jobs outlook, salary trends, and election year politics.

卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research estimates and illustration

what it is. how it works. and what cpa firms are doing.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

the h-1b visa program is vital for u.s. companies to hire highly skilled foreign workers in specialty occupations, including tax, finance, and accounting.

卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research estimates that as many as 46,000 tax, accounting and finance professionals work at u.s. firms under the h-1b program. this figure has received scant attention in the profession but is critical to its infrastructure.

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overworked accountants are racking up financial errors

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blame understaffing and overwork. and roll in the ai robots.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

eighteen percent of accountants make financial errors at least daily, a third make at least a few financial errors every week, and 59 percent make several monthly errors, according to a new survey that blames “capacity” issues.

related: hiring experience vs. training inexperience | to replenish the talent pipeline, go back to the classroom | beware the work-life/workload doom spiral | why the dry pipeline? it’s about time | business model transformation: do it or die | whole person retention: when it’s not just the money | disruptors: nicole davis & jw davis show how to create your own pipeline | more in staffing & recruiting

goprocpa.com exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

is technology the best answer?

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hiring experience vs. training inexperience

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young woman in job interview

invest your mentoring time where it matters most.

by ed mendlowitz
202 questions and answers: managing an accounting practice

question: we were looking for an additional experienced person since september and hired someone with five years experience in mid-november, but she said she couldn’t start until january. she said she had work she had to finish up.

more: eleven ways new staffers can help bring in business | should you merge? here’s how to chart your path | hold staff accountable if you want them to listen to you | how to raise your rates | higher fees to start: ten ways to make your tax season better | three ways to start an accounting practice | free consultation? not always | referral fee? forget it | how much is your tax practice worth? | merge in lower-priced work without losing out
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

two days before christmas she called to tell me her firm made her a “better” offer and she decided to stay there. it meant we had to enter busy season short a person. this seems to happen a lot. what do you suggest?
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to replenish the talent pipeline, go back to the classroom

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woman lecturing on business

maybe we should front-load the coolest parts of our profession.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

if you’re wondering why it’s so hard to find and hire qualified accounting professionals, think back to your college days … your first class in accounting, probably something like “principles of accounting.”

obviously you, a future accountant, passed the course, and apparently you found it interesting.

more: beware the work-life/workload doom spiral | why the dry pipeline? it’s about time | whole person retention: when it’s not just the money | seven enticements to keep talent on board | disruptors: talent crisis? what talent crisis? | seven steps to a stronger future | auditing standards ‘yellow book’ updated | compensation’s up, but up enough to retain staff? | cpas needed to help small biz adopt ai
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

but that puts you in a minority of students with an interest in business. according to a survey from the center for audit quality, 32 percent of students who chose not to major in accounting said lack of interest or passion was the main reason, and 70 percent said it was at least part of the reason.

no surprise, then, that only one in eight graduates in business areas major in accounting. and that’s down from one in seven in 2016.
read more →

beware the work-life/workload doom spiral

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man on spiral staircase

five strategies for keeping your firm out of it.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

is your firm in a doom spiral?

more: business model transformation: do it or die | misperceptions, corrections, accountancy and lemonade | whole person retention: when it’s not just the money | global trends show many dissatisfied cpas | more big firms shut their doors to new college grads | seven enticements to keep talent on board | employee retention is easier than attraction | let interns fix the staffing shortage? | disruptors: talent crisis? what talent crisis? | three ways to raise the bar for your business | accountants’ advice: be careful, quick, creative … and lean
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

here’s what it looks like:

  1. a cpa quits or retires.
  2. the firm can’t attract a replacement.
  3. the firmwide workload remains constant.
  4. increased workloads get redistributed.
  5. a cpa quits because of stress.
  6. workloads increase again.
  7. someone else quits. no one gets hired.
  8. the firm turns away clients.
  9. revenue drops. salaries stagnate.
  10. uncompetitive salaries hinder hiring.
  11. a cpa quits or retires.
  12. repeat.

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why the dry pipeline? it’s about time

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serious young man studying

and it’s about time the profession took action.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

it’s been with us from the beginning. we can measure it but we can’t see it. it’s our friend and our enemy. it’s infinite, yet we never have enough of it.

and it may be the big leak in the cpa pipeline.

more: business model transformation: do it or die | misperceptions, corrections, accountancy and lemonade | whole person retention: when it’s not just the money | global trends show many dissatisfied cpas | more big firms shut their doors to new college grads | seven enticements to keep talent on board | employee retention is easier than attraction | let interns fix the staffing shortage? | disruptors: talent crisis? what talent crisis? | three ways to raise the bar for your business | accountants’ advice: be careful, quick, creative … and lean
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

yes, it’s time.

so concludes the illinois cpa society’s 2024 “re-decoding the decline” survey and report on why the pipeline of incoming accounting talent has been going from dribble to drip.
read more →

business model transformation: do it or die

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pair of diagrams
adapted from aicpa and other sources.

 

four areas ripe for change.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

five ugly facts your firm may need to deal with:

  1. seventy percent of cpas are at or near retirement age.
  2. the numbers of accounting graduates and cpa exam candidates are both dropping.

more: global trends show many dissatisfied cpas | more big firms shut their doors to new college grads | seven enticements to keep talent on board | employee retention is easier than attraction | let interns fix the staffing shortage? | disruptors: talent crisis? what talent crisis? | accountants’ advice: be careful, quick, creative … and lean | top performers lead in leverage, culling, outsourcing | firms culling clients as staffing woes persist | compensation’s up, but up enough to retain staff? | are accountants charging too little?
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

  1. gen z (ages 20-30) is transforming the labor market with new values on workplace environment, compensation, benefits, leadership, dei policies, culture and corporate mission.
  2. the majority of current cpas have no interest in becoming partners.
  3. roughly half of current cpas might consider finding another firm, and almost 15 percent wouldn’t mind leaving the profession altogether.

read more →

whole person retention: when it’s not just the money

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bar chart

thirty-eight ways to retain personnel.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

a survey conducted by the pennsylvania institute of cpas has come up with some disturbing data.

the survey report almost seems to spin bad news into good. when cpas in pennsylvania who have three to 10 years of experience were asked how strong is their desire to stay in public accounting, 56.7 percent rated their desire at five (out of seven) or higher.

more: global trends show many dissatisfied cpas | more big firms shut their doors to new college grads | seven enticements to keep talent on board | employee retention is easier than attraction | let interns fix the staffing shortage? | disruptors: talent crisis? what talent crisis? | 3 ways to raise the bar for your business | accountants’ advice: be careful, quick, creative … and lean | seven steps to a stronger future
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

is that good news or bad? if about half of cpas are reasonably happy with their jobs … what about the other half?
read more →

disruptors: nicole davis & jw davis show how to create your own pipeline

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change your business model, change your life.

subscribe to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 podcasts anywhere: apple, google, spotify, iheart, deezer, amazon music and audible, player fm, audacy, gaana (india), and boomplay (africa).

the disruptors
with liz farr

what would an accounting firm look like if you had never worked in public accounting? because nicole davis, cpa, and jw davis, a registered investment advisor, didn’t follow the traditional path to firm ownership. they reimagined what a firm could look like, starting from a blank canvas instead of the regimented, structured, paint-by-numbers design of traditional accounting firms.

more podcasts and videos: dawn brolin: grow your firm by shrinking it |jason blumer & julie shipp: move leaders out of client service | james graham: drop the billable hour and you’ll bill more | karen reyburn: fix your marketing and fix your business | giles pearson: fix the staffing crisis by swapping experience for education | jina etienne: practice fearless inclusion | bill penczak: stop forcing smart people to do stupid work | sandra wiley: staffing problem? check your culture | scott scarano: first, grow people. then firm growth can follow |

goprocpa.com exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

nicole is the founder and principal of butler-davis tax & accounting in the atlanta area, while jw is the ceo.

like many disruptor-led firms, jw explains that ”one of the really big things we focus on was work-life balance.” nicole adds, “if your culture is one of stress and long hours, then you really need to rethink your business model.”

read more →

seven enticements to keep talent on board

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bar chart
more than 85% of those surveyed who have a high desire to stay in public accounting responded that their firm actively
supports their career development.

 

time is a concern, and so is performance.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

the pipeline of incoming accounting professionals isn’t exactly gushing these days. to the contrary, it has slowed to an inadequate dribble.

the scarcity of qualified professionals makes talent retention more important than ever. it’s far easier and less costly to keep current people on board than to attract and onboard new people.

more: employee retention is easier than attraction | let interns fix the staffing shortage? | disruptors: talent crisis? what talent crisis? | seven steps to a stronger future | firms culling clients as staffing woes persist | compensation’s up, but up enough to retain staff?
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

but what do they want? what keeps them happily at their current job?

well, for one thing, money.

but these days, that’s not enough.
read more →

more big firms shut their doors to new college grads

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some 88.7% of top firms rate problem-solving skills among the most important criteria in hiring new college grads. technical skills rank fifth, at 67%. (nace)

firms that overhired in the covid-19 boom are now trimming their ranks.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

despite widespread concerns in the profession about a talent shortage, the largest accounting firms in a new survey are cutting back on their hiring of new college accounting graduates by 16.1 percent this year.

more in staffing & recruiting: employee retention is easier than attraction | payroll leads job gains in tax & accounting sector |  disruptors: talent crisis? what talent crisis? |  letting staff go after tax season? bad idea |  firms culling clients as staffing woes persist | compensation’s up, but up enough to retain staff?

goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

reflecting broader economic uncertainties and budgetary constraints, half of all the biggest firms surveyed are gearing down for a recession, marking a sharp turnaround from the hiring spree sparked by a global pandemic that forced industries across the globe into transformational change, often staffed and driven by the biggest accounting and consulting firms.

read more →

employee retention is easier than attraction

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four people seated around table

five conclusions from a new report.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

the accounting talent pipeline problem isn’t going away. it isn’t even improving.

but it isn’t hopeless.

more: let interns fix the staffing shortage? | disruptors: talent crisis? what talent crisis? | 3 ways to raise the bar for your business | accountants’ advice: be careful, quick, creative … and lean | seven steps to a stronger future | accountants bullish locally, bearish nationally | top performers lead in leverage, culling, outsourcing | auditing standards ‘yellow book’ updated | firms culling clients as staffing woes persist | revenue up at 59% of accounting firms … and more good news | compensation’s up, but up enough to retain staff?
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

a recent report from the pennsylvania institute of cpas points out that, though the problem is big and the obstacles many, cpa firms can, with enough effort, hold on to the talent they’ve got.

and retaining talent is a lot less expensive than trying to attract it.
read more →