firms are hiring, but accounting enrollment has swung widely.
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
there’s disturbing but not disastrous information about the profession’s labor supply.
or, to look at it another way, good news and bad news.
the good news is that accounting firms are optimistic enough to foresee a lot of hiring.
the bad-but-not-disastrous news is that the incoming supply of accounting graduates may not keep up with the demand.
so much for optimism.
since 1971, when the aicpa began its study, “trends in the supply of accounting graduates and the demand for public accounting recruits,” the general trend in graduates with bachelor’s and master’s in accounting degrees has generally risen, but not evenly. growth was steady and steep through the ’70s but then evened off for 20 years. but the new millennium didn’t bring new hordes of cpas. quite to the contrary, graduation with accounting degrees rates declined. by 2006, they were down to the numbers of the mid-70s.
but the trend turned upward again and rose steeply, doubling the number of bachelor’s and master’s degrees by 2012.
and that goes double for cpas. we’ve had it hard. when the recession hit, we lost clients. the clients we didn’t lose couldn’t afford fee increases. but the cost of software increased, and most hardware has had to be replaced twice since the recession first hit. salaries have gone up, too, especially among accountants, whose ranks have thinned in recent years. and the tax regulations get harder, the waiting time on the irs line longer, the reporting lengthier.
at long last, economic conditions seem to be improving enough for widespread increases in billing rates and fees. about 85 percent of respondents to the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 study of pricing strategies and trends see an upward trend underway.
cpa dave murray at his eponymous firm in troy, ohio, is pushing through “significant increases.” he says, “our firm is increasingly being paid for our knowledge.” “yes,” he says, value pricing is becoming an important success strategy. “when it’s worth more to the client we charge more,” he says. and he does it all while maximizing profit margins and retaining clients. “we have a consistent flow of new clients and we no longer have to discount to get them to come in,” he says.
frank stitely, at skc cpas in chantilly, va., and a frequent contributor to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间, is being more careful, with only slight increases. “personal taxes, specifically, are a commodity, and, in general, compliance services are commoditizing,” he says, with his pricing driven my market forces. on the other hand, the firm bills “per form for personal returns and by proposal for almost everything else.”
brian roark in jenison, mich., likes to say integrity tax’s offices have been doing taxes “since dinosaurs roamed the earth.” but today he’s playing catch-up in the wage markets, pushing through moderate billing increases.
at southwest tax & accounting in elkhart, kan., owner terri ryman, ea and quickbooks proadvisor, is going for significant price increases as clients struggle with the affordable care act and repair regs. she says her business is growing every year. ryman is also a prominent member of the national society of accountants and the national association of tax professionals. read more →
for the week ending march 18, 81.96 million returns had been received, down 0.4 percent from the same period last year. of those, 79.63 million had been processed, down 1 percent. read more →
news alert! the internal revenue service is a big mess. its budget cut by congress, it’s underfunded. underfunded, it’s having trouble providing services to its constituents.
drop in audit time and recommended additional tax — big corporations
nation’s biggest companies benefit from congressional budget cuts.
by rick telberg
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
maybe it’s only legend, but if you’re a quotation buff, you’ve probably heard novelist f. scott fitzgerald telling hemingway, “the rich are different from you and me.” hemingway responds, “yes, they have more money.”
the same may apply to giant corporations, at least as far as the irs is concerned. and the consequences are far from amusing.
jody padar and donal de paor to announce strategic alliance at the salesforce world tour in chicago, march 24
chicago – jody padar, cpa, mst, principal of new vision cpa group and author of the radical cpa: new rules for the future-ready firm, published by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间, is partnering with donal de paor and the team at veltig, a salesforce solution consulting and implementation partner to support sage live in the market.
the kick off will takes place march 24, during the salesforce world tour at hyatt mccormick place in chicago. both will be speaking on a panel entitled, “the top challenges with business growth.” the panel will take place at 4pm cst and will be moderated by jennifer warawa, vp product marketing, sage live.
sage live is a cloud-based accounting solution built on the salesforce1 platform designed to break down virtual walls between back-and front-office it systems. an integrated accounting platform that provides one real-time source of information, sage live provides business owners a single view of customer, finance, payroll and accounting data in one place, rather than being stored and managed in separate front- and back-office systems.
with the addition of the salesforce data the business owner will have access to deep analytic and reporting tools, live feeds, prospective forecasts, and other in the moment business intelligence.
have we mentioned it’s a great time to be an accountant?
we have, of course. but the good news shows no signs of slowing. according to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 sources, increases of 5 percent or more were seen in
overall staff employment;
cpa firms, both overall and staff;
payroll, both overall and staff;
women overall, at cpa firms and in payroll;
and tax preparation, which skipped into double digits.
payroll staff saw the steepest decline, in hourly wages. the new 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 careers and hiring outlook survey results come amid a tax season, which by most measures, is much improved over last years.
e-filing receipts overall are up 0.5 percent, to 62.63 million. but while tax pro filings are down 2.5 percent, to 32.6 million, self-preparers are up 3.9 percent, to 30.04 million. the professionals are holding on to 52 percent of the total to date in 2016. read more →
last year’s busy season may go down in the annals of accountancy as one of the worst ever. and let’s hope that’s as bad as it ever gets. remember? the rollout of the affordable care act, the revamped irs forms coming out in february, a widespread need for new software, people getting sick, and then it snowed, and then it snowed some more.
great news! the internal revenue service is planning to raise its user fees! taxpayers may soon have an unprecedented opportunity to not only pay their taxes but pay more for the ability to pay those taxes.
refunds are up a smidgen, while website visits soar.
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
are more e-filers switching to self-preparation, and if so, why?
the “why” unfortunately isn’t told in the data, but the most recent tax filing statistics available show that e-filings by professionals are down 3.6 percent from the same week in 2015, while self-preparation is up 3.8 percent.
e-filing receipts as a whole were flat at 55 million, with 27.7 million coming from tax professionals and 27.37 self-prepared. sure the pros’ number is larger, but we like to look at trends here, and this one causes concern. not to mention that larger number is by a hair’s width of a margin, as pros are handling 50.3 percent of e-filings. read more →
1 in 5 tax professionals report ‘worse’ year. here’s why…
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
it’s painful to think that the 2016 busy season is actually worse than the 2015 season for a large number of tax preparers. last year was bad. how can this year be worse?
the aca called for major overhauls of information technology, the issuing of guidance, collaboration with other federal agencies, and the processing of information from insurers and exchange. generally speaking, the irs handled the thorny can of worms reasonably well. read more →
firms are hiring, but accounting enrollment has swung widely.
verify now or suffer later.
