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The 2024 Accounting Today Salary Survey: Increasing transparency

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Increasing starting salaries is the key to recruiting and retaining more young people to the profession — but the first step is boosting salary transparency.

Accounting starting salaries have lagged behind those of neighboring professions and industries, and with the ongoing labor shortage, firms have no time to waste in making the profession more attractive. Accounting Today and its parent company Arizent conducted our first inaugural salary survey, collecting over 560 responses in May 2024 from accountants from firms of all sizes regarding their salaries, benefits and career trajectories. 

“I wish I knew what I was worth and how to determine,” one respondent, an audit manager at a midsized firm, said. “I would say entry level is a different story as you are getting your foot in the door and exploring, but once you have experience it’s hard to know what your worth is without asking around at other firms. Not many people are open about their salaries, so that makes it hard to see if you are being underpaid and undervalued or in a proper range.”

Another respondent, a senior manager at a midsized firm, said: “At every firm I have worked, the partners always allude to how much you can make as a partner, but they never actually tell you how much that is and the path to partner is never clearly defined.”

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Salary transparency is essential to telling a clear message of accountants’ earning potential. In the traditional business model, low starting salaries were accepted because young accountants expected to make it up once they made partner.

“We don’t make it clear how great the money is, and there are a lot of partners in this country making very good money,” said Jennifer Wilson, partner and cofounder at ConvergenceCoaching. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of from that and it should be clear to middle schoolers, high schoolers, college students and early-career people that you can take a lot of paths in this profession and make really good money.”

But young accountants, especially those who are members of Generation Z (younger than age 28), may no longer be willing to stick at a firm at a lower starting salary on the promise of greater compensation down the line. According to the survey data, 47% of respondents said it takes between 10 and 20 years to make partner at their firm. 

“Given the demographic tendencies of the people entering the workforce now, they’re not in a position where they feel like they can defer those big earnings that far out into their career,” Lisa Simpson, vice chair of firm services at the American Institute of CPAs, said.

Promoting open conversation surrounding salary can be a fine line to walk, but doing so can enable accountants to make better informed decisions on their career moves and encourage them to stay in the profession until they reach the partner level. 

“That’s a really delicate balance, I get that,” Simpson said. “But can we give bands? Can we give ranges? Can we give averages over the last three years? What kind of information can we provide that gives some of that transparency that they’re looking for?”

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CrowdStrike says DOJ, SEC sent inquiries on firm accounting

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CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. said U.S. officials have asked for information related to the accounting of deals it’s made with some customers and said the cybersecurity firm is cooperating with the inquiry.

The Austin, Texas-based company said in a filing Wednesday that it has gotten “requests for information” from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission “relating to the company’s recognition of revenue and reporting of ARR for transactions with certain customers.” ARR refers to annual recurring revenue, a measure of earnings from subscriptions.

The company said the federal officials have also sought information related to a CrowdStrike update last year that crashed Windows operating systems around the world.

“The company is cooperating and providing information in response to these requests,” the filing states.

U.S. prosecutors and regulators have been investigating a $32 million deal between CrowdStrike and a technology distributor, Carahsoft Technology Corp., to provide cybersecurity tools to the Internal Revenue Service, Bloomberg News first reported in February. The IRS never purchased or received the products, Bloomberg News earlier reported.

The investigators are probing what senior CrowdStrike executives may have known about the $32 million deal and are examining other transactions made by the cybersecurity firm, Bloomberg News reported in May.

Asked for comment about the filing, CrowdStrike spokesperson Brian Merrill said, “As we have told Bloomberg repeatedly, this is old news and we stand by the accounting of the transaction.” 

A lawyer for Carahsoft previously declined to comment on the federal investigations, and representatives didn’t respond to subsequent requests for comment about them.

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Elon Musk urges Americans take action to ‘kill’ Trump tax cut bill

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Tech titan Elon Musk ratcheted up his offensive against Donald Trump’s signature tax bill on Wednesday, urging that Americans contact their lawmakers to “KILL” the legislation.

“Call your Senator, Call your Congressman,” Musk wrote in a social media post. “Bankrupting America is NOT ok!”

The post came one day after Musk lashed out at the tax bill, describing it as a budget-busting “disgusting abomination” as Republican fiscal hawks stepped up criticism of the massive fiscal package. 

Trump hasn’t publicly responded to Musk’s comments, but the White House put out a statement Wednesday saying the legislation “unleashes an era of unprecedented economic growth.” 

And House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that Musk is “dead wrong” about the bill and that the tax cuts will pay for themselves through economic growth.

Musk’s public condemnation pits him against the president at a critical time as Trump is personally lobbying holdouts on the bill. His campaign against the legislation threatens to stiffen resistance and delay enactment of the tax cuts and debt ceiling increase. 

Musk has attacked the legislation days after leaving a temporary assignment leading the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative to cut federal spending. The Tesla Inc. chief executive officer’s high-profile role in the Trump administration eroded his business brand and sales of his company’s electric vehicles plunged. 

The House-passed version of the tax and spending bill would add $2.4 trillion to U.S. budget deficits over the next decade, according to an estimate released Wednesday from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The CBO’s calculation reflects a $3.67 trillion decrease in expected revenues and a $1.25 trillion decline in spending over the decade through 2034, relative to baseline projections. The score doesn’t account for any potential boost to the economy from the bill, which Johnson and Trump argue would offset the revenue losses. 

Musk, the world’s richest man with a net worth of about $377 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, has become a crucial financial backer of the Republican party. After making modest donations most years, Musk became the biggest U.S. political donor in 2024, giving more than $290 million.

Johnson said Musk had promised to help reelect Republicans just a day before savaging Trump’s bill. Musk did not respond to a request for comment. 

Most of Musk’s giving was aimed at electing Trump but he also supported congressional candidates. America PAC, the super political action committee that Musk largely funded, spent $18.5 million in 17 separate House races. Though that total pales in comparison to the roughly $255 million he spent backing Trump, the spending means a lot in a congressional election, where challengers on average raise less than $1 million.

Control of the House will likely be decided by the outcome of fewer than two dozen close races in the 2026 midterm elections. The GOP’s chances of holding their majority would suffer a major blow if Musk were to withdraw his financial support.

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Accounting

M&A Watch: PE fuels deals for CRI, UHY, Prosperity

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Three private equity-backed firms have made deals: Carr, Riggs & Ingram has expanded into East Texas by merging in Axley & Rode; UHY is continuing its expansion in St. Louis by adding Sabino & Co.; and Prosperity Partners moved into Vermont by adding Danaher, Attig & Plante. Meanwhile, Top 100 Firm Sensiba has acquired Australia-based cybersecurity audit and risk assurance firm AssuranceLab.

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