FloQast, an accounting software developer based in Los Angeles, recently debuted Audit Jamz, an accounting music album that provides an enjoyable way for CPAs to earn continuing professional education credit.

The album, which dropped in October, comes from FloQast Studios, which also produces the YouTube sitcom series PBC, featuring several former cast members of “The Office” working for an accounting department at a tech startup.

The Audit Jamz album includes a compilation of different genres on each track, inspired by the compilation albums of the late 90s and early 2000s, with CPE credit provided by FloQast’s FloQademy. 

“The idea came as we were brainstorming creative ways to get CPE credits out there and make them more fun to get,” said FloQast CEO Mike Whitmire. “That’s really the purpose of our FloQast Studios group. A big part of it is to produce CPE content that’s a little more entertaining while educational at the same time.”

FloQast director of strategic planning Drew Carrick, also known on YouTube as The Rapping CPA, and FloQast Studios head Josh Sims teamed up on the project. 

“Josh Sims is an incredible musician, and he was able to come up with all the music,” said Whitmire. “We wanted to do an album where each song was from a different genre. Josh would create the music, and it’s amazing. You could just be like, ‘Hey, man, make a country song.’ And he could go and make a country song. You can say, ‘Hey, make a rock song.’ And he can make a rock song. We’re able to do all that internally. And then Drew Carrick from the FloQast Studios team went ahead and wrote the lyrics and did all the rapping and singing and all that good stuff.”

Last month, FloQast also debuted a new book, “Shift Happens,” co-authored by Whitmire and  FloQast accounting operations evangelist Stefan van Duyvendijk. Despite the jocular title, it takes a more serious professional approach than Audit Jamz.

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“That’s more about what we see in the industry today, and where we really think it’s going,” said Whitmire. “It’s about the rise of the operational accountant and the operational mindset, thinking really less about numbers and the derogatory beancounting type notion. It’s more about helping the organization drive more operational efficiency. What we found is accountants are really good at process improvement and workflow management, and if they can take that skill set and really drive it across the organization, they’re able to produce really, really big results. That’s more about the professional landscape, how we view the change going forward.”

Meanwhile, FloQast Studios is getting set to debut the third and final season of PBC, a sitcom whose cast has included Danny Trejo from “Machete” and Kate Flannery and Creed Bratton from “The Office.”

The final season is expected to be released by the end of the year, and there may be a wistful note as it concludes. “I would say it’s a very satisfying and melancholy end to the series,” said Whitmire.

He sees an educational role for the series, even though there’s no CPE credit. “On the PBC side, that’s an attempt to really highlight accounting, explain what we do from behind the scenes,” said Whitmire. “I don’t think there’s an actual good understanding of what accountants do on a regular basis, if you ask the average person on the street, and we’ve actually done this before. We sent Drew down to Venice, and we had him ask people what accountants do. The answer you get, time and time again, is taxes. And then the second answer behind that is kind of wealth management, which I found to be an interesting answer that we got on the street there. But the reality is, most accountants work inside corporations. They’re part of the team. They go through various struggles together. There’s a lot of team bonding, and I find that to be one interesting factor of accounting that’s really left out of the equation is how much it is a team sport. You really start to develop relationships with your team. You’re in it together, you’re trying to hit deadlines together. That camaraderie, to me, is one of the more rewarding parts of being in the profession, and that’s just not highlighted. And as you’re going through the series, you’ll see our accounting department going through all those trials and tribulations that a growing accounting department has to go through. It’s about really pulling together as a team to get through it.”

FloQast has also been advancing its software, taking it beyond the close management features it originally highlighted. The company recently showed off its latest offerings at its Take Control user conference. 

“We got to unveil all of our new products that we’ve put out in the last year,” said Whitmire. “2024 was a really heavy year for product investment for us, and we were able to unveil a lot of that at our user conference. The big shift we’re making is we started out with month-end close management, and that was sort of the focus upfront. And we think with the platform that we built out and a lot of the automation capabilities that are now possible because of AI, we’re at a point where we can really help transform accounting departments at large, and so we have broader positioning now. We call ourselves an accounting transformation platform, and our goal is to really help automate a lot of the mundane work and drive big operational efficiencies within an accounting department.”

He sees a significant role for AI in the program. “We think AI is a great tool for automating a lot of this mundane work and puts accounting and accountants in a position to really help close the work-life balance, take care of some of that mundane work and hopefully elevate them to do the more interesting stuff that we really learned about in college when we were taking these accounting courses,” he said. “It’s more the technical side of it, less of the rote work side of it.”

Advanced technology is needed as accounting firms and departments have more trouble filling open jobs amid the shrinking talent pipeline, which is one of the subjects of his book. 

“I do think it’s a really dire situation,” said Whitmire. “We actually are going down in the number of accountants that are able to do this job on a year over year basis, and the demand for accounting is going to continue to go up. So we have to close that talent gap somehow, and we believe technology is the best way to close that talent gap. And so the idea of the talent gap is one of the big discussions within the book. Not only are we going to be losing people in the profession, there’s going to be more standard accounting work to be done, and our role is going to shift to drive more efficiency. And so to do all of that, you simply have to lead with technology, and the people who are able to make that change and adapt to the new technologies that are coming out are really going to be the people who are effective and successful going forward. And that’s one of our goals at FloQast, is to build technology that accountants can leverage to automate their own work. We really want to put the power in the hands of the accounting department, because we think they’re best suited to take a look at how they can optimize and automate their own work.”

Intuit Inc. and H&R Block Inc. shares fell on Tuesday, after the Washington Post reported that the leaders of President-elect Donald Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” discussed creating a new way for Americans to file their taxes.

H&R Block fell as much as 8.7%, dropping to its lowest since August, while Intuit slid as much as 6.8%, erasing much of an advance that had come in the wake of the election. 

Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, and H&R Block dominate the US tax preparation industry, earning billions of dollars a year providing digital and in-person services. The DOGE discussions follow the rollout of a pilot program from the IRS for taxpayers to file their returns for free online as part of the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act.

Eilon Paz/Bloomberg

Jefferies wrote that the selloff in Intuit was “unwarranted,” as an app is “unlikely to be a high priority in a long list of initiatives” to reduce government waste, while the IRS pilot program “had little success.” 

However, KeyBanc Capital Markets wrote that given investor debate around growth in Intuit’s consumer segment, such headlines would continue to weigh on the stock.

The Washington Post report, which cited people familiar with the conversations, said that a “DOGE” panel discussed creating a mobile app for Americans to file their taxes for free. A post from “DOGE” said that the tax code had gotten too complex and “must be simplified.”

Separately, Bloomberg Intelligence wrote that an IRS entry into the tax-prep industry “could, in theory, threaten revenue for H&R Block, Jackson Hewitt and Intuit,” with almost a third of Intuit’s sales at risk. However, analyst Andrew Silverman believes the “Direct File” tool “won’t successfully compete,” as the IRS “can’t devote the resources to it and is ill-equipped to create or maintain the software necessary to appeal to taxpayers.”

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board announced Tuesday it settled disciplinary orders sanctioning five audit firms for failing to comply with PCAOB reporting requirements, the latest in increased enforcement efforts.

The firms are Bush & Associates CPA, Barton CPA, Crowe Hussain Chaudhury & Co., B S R & Co. (“KPMG India”) and RSM Brasil Auditores Independentes Sociedade Simples. 

“Failures to make required disclosures undercut the PCAOB’s ability to protect investors, and firms must not take these obligations lightly,” PCAOB chair Erica Williams said in a statement.

Three of the firms violated PCAOB Rule 3211, Auditor Reporting of Certain Audit Participants, which requires a firm to file a Form AP within a specified time after an audit report issued by the firms is included in a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Barton failed to file multiple required Form APs within the specified time, and Bush and Crowe failed entirely to file the Form APs until they were notified of their delinquency by PCAOB staff.

KPMG India and RSM Brazil violated PCAOB Rule 2203, Special Report, which requires a firm to file a Form 3 disclosing certain reportable events — such as criminal, regulatory, administrative or disciplinary proceedings against a firm or its personnel — within 30 days of their occurrence. KPMG India and RSM Brazil both failed to timely report multiple disciplinary proceedings against the firms, and, in the case of KPMG India, its personnel, by local regulators.

KPMG India and RSM Brazil’s violations were identified through regular monitoring of registered firms’ compliance with Form 3 reporting requirements. Bush, Barton and Crowe’s violations were identified through a sweep.

“Sweeps are a critical aspect of the PCAOB enforcement program,” Robert Rice, director of the PCAOB’s Division of Enforcement and Investigations, said in a statement. “We will continue to use sweeps — and ongoing monitoring — to identify firms that fail to comply with PCAOB reporting requirements.”

Tuesday’s sanctions are the latest in a long line of increased enforcement efforts by the PCAOB, most recently including banning the firm Yusufali & Associates and barring its partner for multiple violations. In September, it settled sanctions against four firms for failing to make required communications with audit committees, as well as one firm for violating reporting requirements. The board previously sanctioned Baker Tilly, Grant Thornton Bharat, Mazars and SW Audit in February, as well as three firms in November 2023 and five firms in July 2023.

Without admitting or denying the findings, all the firms consented to their respective orders, which censure the firms and impose $50,000 civil money penalties on Bush and $25,000 each on Barton, Crowe, KPMG India and RSM Brazil. The orders also require each firm to undertake remedial measures to improve their policies and procedures concerning PCAOB reporting compliance.