Now the Profession Is Losing Experienced Accountants Too
Here we are again talking about the accountant shortage. Don’t blame me, blame WSJ. Mark Maurer at Wall Street Journal wrote today about a young man named Omer Khokhar who realized after six years in accounting that he was done. The article title: “Job Security Isn’t Enough to Keep Many Accountants From Quitting.” Ruh-oh. The […]
Keeping the 150 Hour Rule Is Making the Profession’s Diversity Problem More Pronounced
by Sharon Lassar, PhD, CPA (Florida) John J. Gilbert Professor and Director of the School of Accountancy, University of Denver The AICPA announced the formation of a National Pipeline Advisory Group, published an article about its focus on the accounting talent shortage, and scheduled a webinar titled “Special Pipeline Series: Path to 150.” All of […]
Research: The Talent Shortage is Starting to Take Its Pound of Flesh From Corporate Tax Departments
This morning, Thomson Reuters released new research that reveals both corporate tax and global trade departments state they are under-resourced for technology and talent. This, naturally, is increasing risk in the form of penalties and audits. The latest research piggybacks a bit on what was revealed in their Future of Professions report released last month. […]
Withum’s Solution to the War on Talent Is to Throw Students Onto the Battlefield
Adamant that there is no way the burden of 150 units for CPA licensure will ever be rolled back to 120, the AICPA and NASBA have scored a second school-firm collaboration for their CPA Pathway Apprenticeship initiative: Seton Hall University and Withum. The program trades work in the field for credits toward 150. From Withum’s […]
The AICPA Has Cooked Up Yet Another Plan to Do F*ck All to Solve the Accountant Shortage
I know you’re as sick of hearing about the accountant shortage as I am writing about it, alas here we are. One group that isn’t sick of discussing it is the AICPA. While all their schemes up until now have done approximately fuck all to fix the issue, there’s now a Pipeline Advisory Group that […]
This Accountant Shortage Nonsense Reeks of Deja Vu
Prior to 2007 I had little idea the accounting profession existed. I mean, I knew it was a thing and it’s possible young me read a story or two on the Yahoo! homepage about Enron but it wasn’t until 2007 that I really knew about it. That was the year I started working in CPA […]
Guy Proposes Not Terrible Ideas to Get People Into Government Accounting
For some time now municipalities have felt the crunch from the accountant shortage and unlike public accounting firms feeling the same, these entities don’t have the luxury of turning down work to ease it nor can they overwork their people with no overtime. In March, Bloomberg reported that city credit ratings are at risk due […]
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy Celebrates Defunding the Agents the IRS Wasn’t Gonna Be Able to Hire Anyway
Last year’s Inflation Reduction Act allotted a whole bucket of cash to the IRS ($80 billion) to modernize its ancient systems and bring on new employees, a lot of employees. At the time, we wondered where the IRS was going to find tens of thousands of people with a bachelor’s degree and 30 units of accounting […]
Here’s the AICPA’s Revised 12-Point Plan to Herd Students Into Accounting
Good news, everyone! The AICPA released an expanded pipeline plan today. If you assumed the plan would revolve around an aggressive effort to bully firms into paying people what they’re worth, you’d be wrong. “The detailed plan features input from a significant set of stakeholders and calls for those stakeholders to work together to […]
Accounting Summer Camp is a Thing in New York
High school students in the state of New York have the chance to participate in the Career Opportunities in the Accounting Profession program this summer, the deadline to apply is Friday, June 23, 2023 at 11:59pm which you can do at this link. Let’s skip the unnecessary commentary and get straight to the details. From […]
The Philippines is Running Low on Accountants and US Firms Should Be Worried
In recent years, US firms have shifted heavily into offshoring and it seems it never crossed anyone’s mind that offshore talent might be a finite resource. So far it seems dwindling accounting graduate numbers in the Philippines are mostly affecting in-country businesses and firms, still something worth keeping an eye on. This is from CNN […]
Integrating Experience and Education is One Way to Ease the Accountant Shortage at Least a Little
There’s a contentious battle raging over the 150 unit requirement for CPA licensure as we speak and in the meantime we have to figure something out to ease the accountant shortage that has a bit more immediate impact (and doesn’t involve paying people more because clearly the firms are not down with that idea). Wherever […]
Number of the Day: 75%
This article was originally published October 2020. That’s how many AICPA members are eligible for retirement this year, according to a 2015 exposure draft [PDF] put forward by the AICPA to add “retired” CPA status to the Uniform Accountancy Act. For several years, there has been discussion as to whether or not there should be […]