Good morning and welcome to March! It’s going to be another one of those flew-right-past-me years, isn’t it?
In this news brief
When Getting Stiffed on Your Bonus Goes Wrong
Financial Review tells the sordid tale of an accounting firm CEO who says he had to flee the firm after a promised bonus didn’t materialize. Pretty juicy story:
The former chief operating officer of the country’s largest listed accounting firm, Kelly+Partners, alleges the company’s founder and largest shareholder verbally abused and bullied him so badly that he had to be hospitalised and is suing for $10 million in compensation.
Kristian Haigh alleges he was “forced to resign due to fear for his safety” after a dispute with founder and chief executive Brett Kelly about whether he should be given a $5 million bonus became acrimonious.
The truth or something approximating it will come out in court. In the meantime, the whole thing is worth a read especially if you work at a firm where handshake promises are a thing.
The AICPA Has a New Project
A Journal of Accountancy article asks a question we’ve been asking for a while now, and one that should have been asked years ago before the entry level work got handed off overseas: How will accountants learn new skills when AI does the work?
One of the first things Carl Mayes, CPA, said he did when he started his career as an auditor 20 years ago was to vouch: He examined transactions in a company’s accounting records and compared them to supporting documentary evidence, like invoices and receipts, to ensure they were genuine, accurate, and properly recorded.
Today, much of that time-consuming and repetitive work is being automated.
Commercially available AI-powered platforms for audit and advisory firms “have vouching tools that will do that for you and that is going to save so much time,” said Mayes, vice president—CPA Candidate Quality & Competency at the AICPA. These tools can accelerate vouching and related audit procedures if staff know what information to provide the tool, how it ties to audit assertions, and how to critically evaluate AI-generated work.
Mmm.
Well good news. The AICPA is going to look into it. Better late than never, as they say.
“We just launched an initiative called ‘Profession Ready,’” Mayes explained. “It’s a holistic initiative that is focused on the early-career skills gaps, with a look toward where the puck is going versus where it is today.”
At the heart of the initiative is a research project focused on the roles and required skills of early-career and aspiring CPAs, with an emphasis on identifying current gaps and anticipating future needs. Mayes expects findings to be finalized and shared in 2027.
We look forward to their findings.
They’re Still on That Accountant Shortage Nonsense
I had to check the date on this one to make sure it wasn’t published in 2022: Accountants are desperate for workers — yes, really from The Times. Seriously? We’re still on this?
The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales said in a recent report its members had flagged “maintaining the attractiveness of the profession” as one of the most critical issues facing accountancy over the coming decade, warning that, although the problem is less severe in the UK than in other countries, accountancy is “in danger of losing its appeal to IT and other professional career choices”.
According to the Association of Accounting Technicians, which offers vocational accountancy qualifications, 34 per cent of employers struggled to recruit for finance and accounting positions in the last year.
This quote they got from an accountant at a “major” firm who’s trying to make the jump elsewhere says: “Your older generation were more committed to being loyal … Back then partnership was quite attainable in a relatively short time and that does not exist anymore. For people coming through now, with the cost of living, they want to buy a home, they want to have kids, and everyone recognises that you are going to need to accelerate your income to have those things.”
The Powers That Be burned the ladder to ash and wonder why people don’t want to stay hmm. It’s a mystery!
EY By the Numbers
Financial Times put EY’s business on blast:
EY has cut staff and imposed greater efficiency across its global operations under chief executive Janet Truncale, according to figures from the Big Four accounting and consulting network.
Annual accounts filed at the UK’s Companies House show that EY’s coordinating body levied $1.8bn from the national member firms in the year to June 27 2025, the same amount as the year before despite a 4 per cent increase in revenue across the network.
One of those efficiencies made in 2025 was EY US firing hundreds of executive assistants and replacing them with cheaper talent in the Caribbean and South America. Note though that was in July and EY’s fiscal year ends June 30, meaning that move technically happened this year, fiscally speaking.
And You Thought AI Slop Was the Worst of It
AI scams are hitting companies’ bottom lines, according to a KPMG Canada survey.
AI fraud is quickly emerging as a major threat to Canadian organizations, with nearly three-quarters (72 per cent) losing as much as five per cent of their annual profits to AI-driven scams last year, new research from KPMG Canada shows.
The findings underscore an increasingly complex fraud landscape as 81 per cent of businesses that experienced fraud in the past year say they faced an AI-enabled attack with seven in 10 being targeted more than once.
As a result, nine in 10 (94 per cent) business leaders say they are concerned about encountering AI-powered attacks in the year ahead. Yet despite the risks, only 26 per cent have a comprehensive and tested response plan to defend against AI‑enabled attacks such as deepfakes and voice clones.
Are You Sure You’re Mad at the Right People, My Guy?
Senators Crapo and Wyden want to make things better for taxpayers so they’ve introduced a bipartisan bill that seeks to fix things up at the IRS. Their press release includes this quote:
“One of the most absurd things about our tax system is that its complexity forces millions of Americans to turn to paid tax return preparers ever year, but there are zero minimum standards in place to ensure those paid preparers actually know what they’re doing or follow the law. Crooked tax return preparers are regularly exploiting taxpayers to pad their own bottom lines, and the worst part is, taxpayers might not even realize they’ve been ripped off until it’s too late,” Wyden said.
Tell us your CPA raised their fees last year without telling us, Mr. Wyden.
Alright, that’s it for this news brief. As always, dear reader is encouraged to get in touch via email or text if you have a tip, a story, or any sort of general vent. Now go out there and make it a good week.
