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Accounting is ready for its rebrand

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How do we expect more people to join the accounting profession if we don’t brand it properly?

At its core, this is the root of the pipeline crisis. There are already more than enough pieces of thought leadership and industry voices mentioning something related to the pipeline in every conversation; but while these all discuss the assumed causes, the danger of not resolving it, and what potential solutions could be, very few seem to get at the underlying source that these points sit on.

It’s a branding issue. Plain and simple.

Branding … for a profession?

We usually think about branding in terms of how a company that sells a product or service gets their corporate message and image out to the public, but this exercise applies to work disciplines as well.

Let’s look at mainstream finance or investment professionals. Love them or hate them, “Finance Bros” have become an iconic image of the finance profession’s brand — regardless of your opinion on it being a positive stereotype or not, the facts show that it does attract individuals to pursue careers in that industry.

Interestingly enough, I would argue accounting professionals are better suited for these roles; however the masses don’t see that value and often opt to skip straight to pursuing the traditional finance roles.

How about marketing professionals? They’re seen as creative and receive great praise for successfully executing major marketing campaigns. These are campaigns that can create cultural moments in society, making the major and career path very attractive to college students. 

Of course, most of these individuals won’t end up doing the fun, exciting and flashy things that they were inspired by — but again, that’s the power of telling a compelling branding story; it doesn’t actually matter what’s on the other side.

Even lawyers, who debatably have to do even more tedious work and brutal hours than accountants, have adequately branded themselves, with the help of pop culture. Think of every law or crime show, or movie, that showcases the brilliance of a clever lawyer winning a case in remarkable fashion. Outside of Hollywood, though, law firms are known for having elaborate and wild holiday parties, and positioning themselves as the country’s elite workforce.

So what about accounting? Well, sometime over the last century, the stigma that accountants are boring, dull and quirky “number people” took hold as the profession’s identity, and being the risk averse folks that we inherently are, we didn’t push back.

The truth, however, is the exact same types of negative stereotypes that we’ve been labeled with can and should be spun into the positives that each offers. For example, being somewhat of a “nerd” should be positioned as simply being smarter than the rest (we have to try to be a little cocky — not too much, but we’ve earned a little bit) 

All these professions and industries have either intentionally or unintentionally created brand identities that, even if misleading, have been embraced by interested individuals. Our profession actually has so much that is true and valid to be excited about, and we just need to embrace it.

To make it simple for us corporate folks, think of it all as a “recruiting” campaign in the same way that HR does at any business. There are companies that do a better job and have an easier job recruiting because they are a place that attracts top tier talent. This is due to the company being well branded. In our case, the profession is the company.

Becoming better storytellers

Look, there’s a reason we all choose accounting instead of filmmaking. Usually that reason is because we don’t have that same natural creativity that artistic talents have; but that doesn’t mean we have to also be poor storytellers.

When I began working in content with seasoned entertainment and film industry professionals, I got to spend a lot of time in “writers rooms,” wherein you brainstorm ideas, pitch concepts and develop the best storylines for the piece of content you’re going to produce.

Early on, I learned a key lesson that everyone in the entertainment space utilizes when trying to put together a great film: show, don’t tell.

For the accounting profession, we rarely even do the telling part, so let’s break it down.

The self-fulfilling prophecy that we’ve spiraled into is the neverending loop of not being proud to share what we do. This further creates disinterest from unknowing masses who believe the stereotypes (since it’s the only information they have available to go off of) and makes what we do not something that we want to share, and the cycle continues.

We’ll first need to start with talking about the incredible and impressive spectrum of job and career opportunities that exist at all stages and levels of business, which are better enabled by CPA and accounting backgrounds. I’m talking about the traditional stuff such as CFOs who rose through the ranks of accounting, as well as the nontraditional paths such as product developers for accounting software. Heck, even my role as a content producer and strategist is only possible because of my CPA license and accounting experience.

We can’t be afraid to talk about what we do, and in a more exciting way. People read the energy of those they communicate with, and if your energy in telling a story is low, the mood of the receiver will also be low.

Then we can evolve past just telling, but start to create enough buzz for the visual part of the story — after all, our society loves watching content. By showing what we do, which is very much a part of being active online, we’ll foster a deeper connection to the positive and inspiring aspects of the profession.

Rather than trying to convince individuals to join us, we should be inspiring them to seek us out.

Inspiring the future

If you go onto the accounting subreddits, LinkedIn or #TaxTwitter, you’ll find plenty of peers giving their best efforts to proudly tout their CPA license and accounting life, but we need to amplify these voices and galvanize the corporate accounting class, who I would say are the most passive of professionals.

I know this from countless firsthand conversations with colleagues at accounting events who have expressed their interest in and enjoyment of my content, which I would otherwise have had no clue of since they did not re-share, like or comment. There’s nothing wrong with this; however, it does set us up for a losing battle online in a digital world where voice reach and community engagement is everything. 

I know it isn’t going to be an overnight thing, but the excitement that technology and AI bring offers a new chance to spread a positive stereotype around what it means to be an accountant. Nobody needs to singlehandedly shift the perception, but we each can with an immaterial amount of effort impact our circles and spread the word. Our rebranding is something we need to actively focus on — it can’t be a passive “set it and forget it” marketing activity. 

As CPAs and accounting professionals with diverse backgrounds, experiences and positions, we can work together as a collective along with leading CPA organizations at the national, state and local levels to tell a better story and help rebrand the profession.

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Accounting

IAASB tweaks standards on working with outside experts

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The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board is proposing to tailor some of its standards to align with recent additions to the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants’ International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants when it comes to using the work of an external expert.

The proposed narrow-scope amendments involve minor changes to several IAASB standards:

  • ISA 620, Using the Work of an Auditor’s Expert;
  • ISRE 2400 (Revised), Engagements to Review Historical Financial Statements;
  • ISAE 3000 (Revised), Assurance Engagements Other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information;
  • ISRS 4400 (Revised), Agreed-upon Procedures Engagements.

The IAASB is asking for comments via a digital response template that can be found on the IAASB website by July 24, 2025.

In December 2023, the IESBA approved an exposure draft for proposed revisions to the IESBA’s Code of Ethics related to using the work of an external expert. The proposals included three new sections to the Code of Ethics, including provisions for professional accountants in public practice; professional accountants in business and sustainability assurance practitioners. The IESBA approved the provisions on using the work of an external expert at its December 2024 meeting, establishing an ethical framework to guide accountants and sustainability assurance practitioners in evaluating whether an external expert has the necessary competence, capabilities and objectivity to use their work, as well as provisions on applying the Ethics Code’s conceptual framework when using the work of an outside expert.  

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Accounting

Tariffs will hit low-income Americans harder than richest, report says

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President Donald Trump’s tariffs would effectively cause a tax increase for low-income families that is more than three times higher than what wealthier Americans would pay, according to an analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

The report from the progressive think tank outlined the outcomes for Americans of all backgrounds if the tariffs currently in effect remain in place next year. Those making $28,600 or less would have to spend 6.2% more of their income due to higher prices, while the richest Americans with income of at least $914,900 are expected to spend 1.7% more. Middle-income families making between $55,100 and $94,100 would pay 5% more of their earnings. 

Trump has imposed the steepest U.S. duties in more than a century, including a 145% tariff on many products from China, a 25% rate on most imports from Canada and Mexico, duties on some sectors such as steel and aluminum and a baseline 10% tariff on the rest of the country’s trading partners. He suspended higher, customized tariffs on most countries for 90 days.

Economists have warned that costs from tariff increases would ultimately be passed on to U.S. consumers. And while prices will rise for everyone, lower-income families are expected to lose a larger portion of their budgets because they tend to spend more of their earnings on goods, including food and other necessities, compared to wealthier individuals.

Food prices could rise by 2.6% in the short run due to tariffs, according to an estimate from the Yale Budget Lab. Among all goods impacted, consumers are expected to face the steepest price hikes for clothing at 64%, the report showed. 

The Yale Budget Lab projected that the tariffs would result in a loss of $4,700 a year on average for American households.

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Accounting

At Schellman, AI reshapes a firm’s staffing needs

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Artificial intelligence is just getting started in the accounting world, but it is already helping firms like technology specialist Schellman do more things with fewer people, allowing the firm to scale back hiring and reduce headcount in certain areas through natural attrition. 

Schellman CEO Avani Desai said there have definitely been some shifts in headcount at the Top 100 Firm, though she stressed it was nothing dramatic, as it mostly reflects natural attrition combined with being more selective with hiring. She said the firm has already made an internal decision to not reduce headcount in force, as that just indicates they didn’t hire properly the first time. 

“It hasn’t been about reducing roles but evolving how we do work, so there wasn’t one specific date where we ‘started’ the reduction. It’s been more case by case. We’ve held back on refilling certain roles when we saw opportunities to streamline, especially with the use of new technologies like AI,” she said. 

One area where the firm has found such opportunities has been in the testing of certain cybersecurity controls, particularly within the SOC framework. The firm examined all the controls it tests on the service side and asked which ones require human judgment or deep expertise. The answer was a lot of them. But for the ones that don’t, AI algorithms have been able to significantly lighten the load. 

“[If] we don’t refill a role, it’s because the need actually has changed, or the process has improved so significantly [that] the workload is lighter or shared across the smarter system. So that’s what’s happening,” said Desai. 

Outside of client services like SOC control testing and reporting, the firm has found efficiencies in administrative functions as well as certain internal operational processes. On the latter point, Desai noted that Schellman’s engineers, including the chief information officer, have been using AI to help develop code, which means they’re not relying as much on outside expertise on the internal service delivery side of things. There are still people in the development process, but their roles are changing: They’re writing less code, and doing more reviewing of code before it gets pushed into production, saving time and creating efficiencies. 

“The best way for me to say this is, to us, this has been intentional. We paused hiring in a few areas where we saw overlaps, where technology was really working,” said Desai.

However, even in an age awash with AI, Schellman acknowledges there are certain jobs that need a human, at least for now. For example, the firm does assessments for the FedRAMP program, which is needed for cloud service providers to contract with certain government agencies. These assessments, even in the most stable of times, can be long and complex engagements, to say nothing of the less predictable nature of the current government. As such, it does not make as much sense to reduce human staff in this area. 

“The way it is right now for us to do FedRAMP engagements, it’s a very manual process. There’s a lot of back and forth between us and a third party, the government, and we don’t see a lot of overall application or technology help… We’re in the federal space and you can imagine, [with] what’s going on right now, there’s a big changing market condition for clients and their pricing pressure,” said Desai. 

As Schellman reduces staff levels in some places, it is increasing them in others. Desai said the firm is actively hiring in certain areas. In particular, it’s adding staff in technical cybersecurity (e.g., penetration testers), the aforementioned FedRAMP engagements, AI assessment (in line with recently becoming an ISO 42001 certification body) and in some client-facing roles like marketing and sales. 

“So, to me, this isn’t about doing more with less … It’s about doing more of the right things with the right people,” said Desai. 

While these moves have resulted in savings, she said that was never really the point, so whatever the firm has saved from staffing efficiencies it has reinvested in its tech stack to build its service line further. When asked for an example, she said the firm would like to focus more on penetration testing by building a SaaS tool for it. While Schellman has a proof of concept developed, she noted it would take a lot of money and time to deploy a full solution — both of which the firm now has more of because of its efficiency moves. 

“What is the ‘why’ behind these decisions? The ‘why’ for us isn’t what I think you traditionally see, which is ‘We need to get profitability high. We need to have less people do more things.’ That’s not what it is like,” said Desai. “I want to be able to focus on quality. And the only way I think I can focus on quality is if my people are not focusing on things that don’t matter … I feel like I’m in a much better place because the smart people that I’ve hired are working on the riskiest and most complicated things.”

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