Connect with us

Accounting

Four major changes shaping accounting careers

Published

on

Navigating today’s accounting job market comes with lots of decisions. Are you only interested in working at a Big Four firm? Are you hoping to land at a local firm where you can see how a small office runs? Do you eventually want to own your own small firm? Or are you looking for something in between — maybe a regional firm where you’ll work on a few big clients? 

Only you know what truly matters in your employment search and what makes sense for your career. But as a talent acquisition specialist who has worked in this industry for more than a decade, I have many thoughts on how to maximize your potential and opportunities in today’s landscape. I’ve seen the industry continually shift, as demographics change, new technologies emerge, and new models of operation have been created. Here are four dramatic changes I’ve seen that should be taken into consideration as you navigate a job search at any stage of your career.  

New models offer flexibility not previously available in the boutique world

While national, brand-name firms give you a great name on your resume and allow you to immediately specialize in specific industries or entity types, many folks don’t want to work the long hours, feel limited to a handful of clients, and aren’t interested in working in a rigid corporate structure the rest of their lives. While small firms used to have limited opportunities for career advancement, this no longer has to be the case. With the influx of private equity in the space and more and more small firms joining broader collectives or getting bought by larger organizations, the opportunities have opened up immensely. Even if you began at a national firm and gained valuable experience and exposure, shifting to a boutique firm can open up a world of new possibilities.  

Whether you start as a tax manager in Napa Valley or an administrative assistant in New York City, working within an ecosystem at a smaller or midsize firm means there are support systems and resources that can allow you to advance into a leadership role earlier in your career than ever before. Boutique firms that are part of a broader group can often provide vast amounts of flexibility and opportunity, including relocating or specializing in a specific sector. The opportunities, within certain groups, are plentiful and customizable, and may be interesting to job seekers who might wrongly think they will only get this type of flexibility if they go to a big-name firm.

Linear, rigid career paths have been replaced with merit-based opportunity 

Record numbers of accountants are retiring, which means there is a massive need for current and future leadership in the industry. While the industry looks vastly different than it did five or 10 years ago, particularly in smaller firms with a limited number of roles, times have changed. With staffing shortages and firm owners retiring, many firms are looking for staff who can handle their own client accounts, and even help manage and run the firm. As younger generations of workers demand remote work, flexibility and better work/life balance, firms have no choice but to support those needs. 

Some firms might have multiple locations, which means if one office doesn’t have advancement opportunities available, there may be the option to transfer someone into a leadership position within another office, whether it be local or remote. Don’t write off smaller firms before you investigate what working there would actually entail for you. 

Private equity is changing the landscape, but not all firms are created equal 

While the industry looks different than it did five years ago and will continue to change rapidly, that doesn’t mean everything that is happening in accounting is positive. With an influx of private equity and consolidators of small firms, opportunities are shifting for employees and owners … but not every group is invested in ensuring their people are well taken care of and supported the way they should be.

It’s important for those navigating the accounting workforce to really investigate what they’re getting into — if they’re joining a small firm, is the small firm owned by someone else? If they’re leaping into a national firm, who are their clients? Will they actually have client relationships? What will their day-to-day look like? What is the group’s position on AI? Does the firm value more than just billable hours? Joining a firm owned by a consolidator can offer big opportunities and chances for expansion and flexibility, but you first need to make sure the group shares your values, invests in their people, and is building something sustainable.   

Your career is your career you don’t have to try to fit it into a career path that doesn’t work for you.

Don’t let other people decide what your career should look like. Rigid corporate systems, or the idea that “this is the way things should be done,” often don’t serve those who want to design a career that matches their lifestyle needs. Given the immense need for great people in the accounting industry, workers have the upper hand. Think about what you want from your career, what you want your day-to-day look like, and know that in today’s industry you can make it possible. 

I strongly believe there’s never been a better time to be in the industry, regardless of what you seek. Whether you want to work in a small firm, go to a top, national name, or seek out a specific space or expertise to major in, everything is available to you. Just keep your eyes open and know that today’s industry is rapidly changing and it can work in your favor.

Continue Reading

Accounting

IAASB tweaks standards on working with outside experts

Published

on

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.  

Continue Reading

Accounting

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

Published

on

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.

Continue Reading

Accounting

At Schellman, AI reshapes a firm’s staffing needs

Published

on

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.”

Continue Reading

Trending