Hourly earnings and job growth for workers in small businesses remained mostly unchanged last month, according to payroll provider Paychex.

The Paychex Small Business Employment Watch, which includes the Paychex Small Business Jobs Index, showed job growth continued at levels seen over the last several quarters at 99.75 in March for U.S. businesses with fewer than 50 employees. Paychex wage data found the hourly earnings growth rate (2.91%) for workers in U.S. small businesses remained essentially similar in March compared to February.

The national Small Business Jobs Index dipped 0.29 percentage points to 99.75 in March, slightly less than the pace set at the end of the past two quarters. At 2.91%, hourly earnings growth stayed below 3% for the fifth month in a row in March, while one-month annualized hourly earnings growth (3.51%) outpaced annual growth (2.91%) for the fourth consecutive month.

“We don’t see any signs of recession,” said Frank Fiorille, vice president of risk, compliance and data analytics at Paychex. “It looks like they’re still doing OK, not gangbusters, but still keeping up with the range that they have done the past few months.”

The Midwest remained the top region for the 10th consecutive month on small business job growth, despite slowing 0.58 percentage points in March. Texas continued to lead the other states on small business job growth in March, while Minneapolis gained 1.87 percentage points to move into first place in March among metropolitan areas. The manufacturing industry gained 1.05 percentage points during the first quarter of 2025 to perform best among the industry sectors on job growth.

On the wage front, Tampa topped the other metro areas in March in terms of both hourly earnings growth (4.20%) and weekly earnings growth (4.00%).

Fiorille doesn’t see much impact on small businesses yet from the tariffs that President Trump administration has threatened to impose on Wednesday. “My handicapping of this is that it will obviously impact them, but not as much as you’d think,” he said. “I do think a lot of them are service related, but even in the service-related ones, they’ll have some issues if they import stuff as well. Then there might be some indirect inflation costs on them.”

He advises accountants to keep an eye on further developments on tariffs, tax changes and the steady stream of executive orders from the White House.

EisnerAmper, a Top 25 Firm based in New York, combining with Prague & Co. P.C., based in the Boston metropolitan area, with the deal expected to close later this spring.

Prague & Co. was founded in 1988 and has a team of 15 professionals. Its services include accounting, tax and fund administration services to individuals, partnerships and corporations worldwide. 

The firm focuses on high-net-worth individuals and alternative investment vehicles engaged in the real estate, timber, private equity and venture capital sectors. (The law firm of Prague & Peters PLLC is not part of the combination and will remain an independent law firm.)

“With 37 years of dedicated service to our clients, I’m proud of how our tax and accounting practice has grown while still adhering to the highest levels of quality and personal attentiveness. In evaluating the next steps and how to offer even more, combining with EisnerAmper provides the perfect solution. We’re excited about what this means for our clients and our team,” said founder Andrew Prague in a statement Tuesday.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. EisnerAmper’s Eisner Advisory Group ranked No. 15 on Accounting Today‘s list of the Top 100 Firms of 2025, with annual revenue of $1.02 billion. EisnerAmper has 4,500 on its staff, including 450 partners, while Prague’s staff totals 15.

“With each client, Prague & Company works to understand the intricacies and nuances of each situation and then provides tailored guidance,” said Jay Weinstein, EisnerAmper’s vice chair of industries and markets, in a statement. “As we look to the future, the team at Prague & Company will enhance our Boston presence while deepening our expertise in trusts, estates, foundations, nonprofit organizations, and closely held businesses. We warmly welcome them to the EisnerAmper family.”

EisnerAmper has been busy on the M&A front since it received private equity funding in 2021 from TowerBrook Capital Partners, setting the stage for other accounting firms to follow its lead. The firm split into an alternative practice structure with Eisner Advisory Group LLC providing nonattest services and EisnerAmper LLP offering attest services to clients. Last year, EisnerAmper added Tighe, Kress & Orr PC in Elgin, Illinois, Krost CPAs in the Los Angeles area, Edelstein & Co. in Boston, the Tidwell Group in Birmingham, Alabama. In 2023, it merged in Spielman Koenigsberg & Parker in New York, Morrison & Morrison in Chicago, and Postlethwaite & Netterville in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In 2022, it added Lindsay & Brownell in La Jolla, California, Hoffman Group in Baltimore, Lurie in Minnesota and Florida, and Raich Ende Malter  and Popper & Co. in New York.

Builder.ai lowered the sales figures it provided to investors and hired auditors to examine its last two years of accounts, a major setback for the artificial intelligence startup backed by Microsoft Corp. and the Qatar Investment Authority.

The London-based company, which has raised more than $450 million, dropped its revenue estimates for the second half of 2024 by about 25% after some sales channels “did not come through,” according to Manpreet Ratia, the recently appointed chief executive. 

Builder.ai confirmed the adjustment, which it began making last summer but hasn’t previously been reported, in response to questions from Bloomberg News about the sales correction and concerns from former employees that the company inflated sales figures.

“It’s probably time to sit back and take pause,” Ratia said in his first interview as CEO of the nine-year-old company, which helps businesses create customized apps with little to no coding. “We need to do a little bit of work making sure we get our house in order.” 

The company’s missteps show the risks inherent in the rush to back promising AI startups, as investors seek to replicate the success of companies like OpenAI or Anthropic. After the debut of ChatGPT, the company rode investor enthusiasm for AI startups, raising from backers including Microsoft and the Qatar Investment Authority, which led a $250 million financing round in 2023.

Multiple former employees alleged that Builder.ai had inflated sales figures on several occasions by more than 20% than actual bookings. These former employees asked not to be identified discussing private information. 

Ratia said that discounts Builder.ai provides to customers may account for discrepancies in its sales reporting. “For me to come out and say, ‘This is inaccurate’ — I don’t think I’m at the stage to do that,” he said. “When the audit report comes out, it will tell me everything.” The full audit is expected by this summer, he said.

When asked whether the company was treating the discrepancies as a potential fraud, a spokesperson said Builder.ai has “strengthened our internal policies and governance processes to ensure transparency and best practices at every level of the business.” 

“While challenges can arise in any company, what matters most is how they are addressed,” the company said. 

A representative from Microsoft didn’t respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for QIA did not respond outside of regular business hours.

On Feb. 27, Builder.ai announced that its founder, Sachin Dev Duggal, was stepping down as CEO and being replaced by Ratia. The company also cut its board to five seats from nine, and asked Duggal to relinquish four of the five seats he had controlled. A company spokesperson said the recent revenue adjustments were “unrelated” to Duggal’s departure. Duggal, who has retained his title of “Chief Wizard,” did not respond to a request for comment.

Duggal left the same month as the company’s chief revenue officer, Varghese Cherian, who had spent more than nine years at the company. Cherian declined to comment. 

At least five other senior employees including a sales director, a senior engineer and three vice presidents who oversaw revenue, human resources and its European operation, have left since October, according to their LinkedIn profiles. Builder.ai is still searching for a new chief financial officer, a post that’s been vacant since 2023. 

Ratia declined to comment on Cherian and Duggal specifically and described the other departures as “part of a normal evolution of the business.” But the recent exits leave a gap in the company’s management as it’s racing to win customers in the competitive market for AI tools. 

Ratia, who joined from Jungle Ventures, a Builder.ai investor based in Singapore, previously worked as a director for Citigroup Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. He said that Builder.ai has recruited several seasoned leaders over the last nine months, including Vahé Torossian, a former Microsoft executive hired as chief partner officer. Torossian is now taking on the chief revenue officer responsibilities as well, according to Ratia.

Ratia said he is searching for a CFO who has taken a startup public before.  

An incoming financial chief will have to deal with any accounting issues the company uncovers. Ratia said the sales guidance adjustment came after expansion in Australia and Southeast Asia failed to meet expectations. The company moved from reporting finances to investors annually to monthly, in part because the sales had grown more “complicated,” Ratia said. 

Builder.ai has recently hired two auditing firms to comb through its finances from 2023 and 2024. Ratia declined to name the auditors but said they were part of the “Big Four.” The company’s 2024 revenue is likely to come in at $170 million, up from $140 million in 2023, the company said. 

The company relied on an auditor with close ties to Duggal for its U.K. accounts, the Financial Times had reported, citing a review of filings. The startup told the newspaper that its selection of auditors has evolved along with the company’s operational scale and local regulations.

“Are there things that could probably have been done better? Absolutely, I don’t deny that,” Ratia said.