Today’s young CPAs aren’t just looking for a job or paycheck. They’re looking for purpose, impact and flexibility in their careers, preferably at firms that share their values and mission. 

Unlike previous generations, this new wave of CPAs isn’t satisfied with clocking in, doing the work, and waiting a decade to be recognized. They want growth, mentorship, transparency and a seat at the table from Day One. In the past, our profession encouraged us to stay in our lane and climb the ladder gradually. Now it’s about custom-building the ladder to fit our purpose and lifestyle.

Unfortunately, too many firms are still trying to attract and retain talent with old-school tactics despite the intense competition for talent. Pizza parties, casual Fridays and sign-on bonuses are nice, but they aren’t enough when the job still feels transactional. They don’t want to feel like replaceable cogs in a time-tracking machine. They want to feel that their voice matters at their firm and that they’re building something meaningful in their career. 

When firms aren’t willing to update their tech stack, internal culture or hiring tactics, they’ll be perceived as dinosaurs by potential candidates and the pipeline shortage will continue. That’s where using game-based tactics can help.

Gamification

Forward-leaning firms are increasingly turning to gamification to make accounting more attractive to young professionals. Gamification transforms recruiting and training into an interactive, rewarding experience. 

This has been on my mind lately, as a first-time father. Growing up, I learned so much more about math and finance by playing board games like Monopoly and Cash Flow that I did by reading textbooks. In elementary school, my favorite days were when we got to use the PlayStation to learn our shapes and how to count. That was so much better than sitting at my desk and watching the teacher scribble on the blackboard. Why can’t learning be fun in adulthood? 

For instance, when I was at a Big Four firm, my associate “class” was divided into teams and each team was given a case study. We had to do in-depth research on the fly and then present the case to our peers and superiors. Throughout the process we were asked questions by the “judges,” and we earned points for answering correctly under time pressure. It was a lot of fun and so much better than sitting through a training lecture in a windowless conference room. But the case study competition was only a small part of the overall Big Four training we received.

In college, we played Jeopardy with accounting-specific questions and had to answer the questions in Jeopardy-esque “What is …?” fashion. It was fun and challenging. And since every player got a turn in the “hot seat,” these games gave our quieter classmates a chance to be heard and to contribute to the discussion. It was a great way to level the playing field. 

Using game-based tactics to attract and retain talent

Gamification isn’t just for the younger members of your team. Here are five ways that firms can incorporate gamification for everyone throughout the employee lifecycle at your firm:

1. Recruitment engagement: Firms can reimagine the candidate experience with interactive portals, simulation-based interviews, “loyalty” reward points or “game nights” that reveal both skill sets and cultural fit. This approach helps firms stand out while giving candidates a real taste of the firm’s vibe. At CPAcon, the conference I founded, we don’t hold stale job fairs. Instead, firms engage with talent through firm-vs-firm competitions, sponsor-led activations, and arcade-style challenges in which personality and team dynamics shine.

2. Learning and development: Gamification transforms traditional training and continuing education into dynamic experiences. From live CPE game shows to interactive competitions like The Balance Sheet or Post It! that we do at CPAcon, these methods increase retention and turn learning into something professionals look forward to.

3. Career growth and performance: Level-based progression systems, skill-based tournaments and internal leaderboards help employees track their development in a visual, motivating way. Recognizing achievements with XP points, badges or creative perks fosters upward momentum and a sense of ownership. With CPAcon, professionals get recognized for more than just years of experience — they shine through creativity, teamwork, and strategy in real-time. 

4. Mentorship and community: Gamifying mentorship and onboarding encourages connection and accountability. By turning relationship-building into a shared quest — complete with milestones, feedback loops and recognition — firms foster a stronger sense of belonging and support. Community-building is baked into the games and programming at CPAcon and so can your firm. In this setting, mentorship occurs organically without the awkwardness of a forced pairing.

5. Culture and retention: Daily micro-games, team challenges and firm-wide competitions culminate at CPAcon, which can energize culture and reinforce company values. These small touchpoints help employees feel seen, celebrated and connected — the keys to building long-term employee loyalty. Gamifying the experience of being a CPA reminds participants why they chose their career path — and it makes them proud to stay on it.

If you want to start utilizing game-based tactics to attract and retain talent at your firm, make sure the games are relevant, inclusive and accessible. Make sure the challenge level matches the audience’s knowledge, and that there’s a clear connection between the game and real-world skills and goals. Also, make sure to tie in recognition — people love being publicly recognized for their efforts.

At CPAcon, I’ve seen attendees who barely know each other bond over accounting games and walk away feeling like they were part of something bigger. That’s the magic — turning compliance into community. For example, in the Post It! challenge I mentioned earlier, players must correct accounting entries against the clock to ensure accuracy and integrity of the books. If there are errors in a company’s ledger or misclassified expenses, players must keep their cool and Post It right when it truly counts. Here’s a short video of CPA gamification in action.

Gamification ROI

Since you’re likely to encounter skeptics, here are some good metrics and KPIs to show the benefits of using gamification for your recruiting and retention efforts:

• Retention rate post-engagement: Show how people who participated in gamified onboarding or learning stay longer.
• Time to competency: Show how new hires learned faster through game-based modules than through traditional methods.
• Participation rate: Show how many people opted in to the games or challenges.
• Engagement scores: Use surveys to measure whether people feel more connected, motivated, or excited after participating. 
• Referral rate: Show how participants are recommending gamification experiences to peers after taking part.

You can also compare the number of internal promotions and skills progress between employees who engage in game-based learning versus those who don’t. Gamification transforms accounting — which can feel rigid and isolated into something social, energizing and even fun. Think of team competitions, live events, accounting trivia nights or creative budgeting challenges. You’re not just teaching skills — you’re building camaraderie, improving morale and showcasing people’s strengths in new ways.

When done right, gamification doesn’t replace professionalism — it enhances it. It creates community, inspires growth and proves that accounting can be both rigorous and rewarding. What’s not to like? I’ll be speaking more about gamification for accounting firms at the Firm Growth Forum in San Diego in May. I hope to see you there.

The Internal Revenue Service lost 31% of its auditors from buyouts and layoffs tied to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, departures that are likely to hamper the agency’s ability to go after tax cheats.

More than 3,600 revenue agents — responsible for collecting tax payments — have left the IRS, according to an IRS watchdog report.

In addition, 18% of revenue officers, who oversee challenging tax cases, and 10% of tax examiners — front-line employees who review returns — have also left the agency, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said in a recent report.

The IRS downsizing is due to a series of moves, spurred by Musk’s DOGE, to cut the agency’s workforce. More than 7,300 probationary employees were terminated. More than 4,100 workers took Musk’s “Fork in the Road” resignation offer, followed by a second round of buyouts where more than 13,100 were approved to leave, according to the report.

The IRS had a large number of newly hired probationary auditors due to a funding boost under President Joe Biden, who increased funding for tax enforcement to rebuild the agency’s depleted capabilities. That means the cuts targeting recent hires disproportionately affected those with auditing jobs. 

The terminations have been the subject of ongoing litigation.

The report found that auditors in fiscal year 2023 recommended approximately $32 billion in additional tax assessments. The National Bureau of Economic Research has found that auditors more than pay for themselves, with the IRS collecting $6 for every $1 spent on audits of high-income taxpayers.

The departure of auditors could result in a deeper revenue loss for the government since more people may evade paying taxes if they’re less worried about getting caught.

The Yale Budget Lab forecast that laying off about 18,000 IRS employees would result in a net revenue loss of roughly $159 billion over ten years. That could rise to as much as $1.6 trillion over ten years if non-compliance is high, the group said. 

The White House on Friday released a fiscal 2026 budget requesting $163 billion in non-defense savings that it associates with the DOGE effort. Nearly all of the savings the administration claimed would be plowed into a $119 billion boost in military spending. Adding in the loss of tax revenue could mean the DOGE effort causes a net budget deficit increase.

The report found that just 5% of information technology staff had departed and 10% of customer services agents had left. These groups could soon be targeted for a future round of job cuts that the IRS has said it is planning.

Alphaspirit/alphaspirit – stock.adobe.com

The initial response to artificial intelligence from the accounting community was one of wonder and amazement and, for a while, it seemed like every firm from the smallest storefront to the largest network was eager to demonstrate its embrace of the technology.

But today, as more firms become familiar with AI — especially its generative and agentic variants — firms are focusing less on blanket adoption and more on governance, recognizing both its powerful potential and its very real limitations.

Virtually every firm included in this year’s list has a formal governance policy specifically governing AI use, and the few who do not have already found ways to work AI into already existing frameworks. Further, a rough consensus of what an AI policy should look like has begun to form. Firms in general have implemented strict prohibitions on unloading sensitive client data into public AI tools, require mandatory training on responsible AI use, and regularly monitor and assess their AI activities.

Many others have gone further, doing things like establishing cross-functional AI teams, addressing AI in their written information security plans, educating people on AI’s ethical challenges, or establishing private cloud environments specifically for AI.

(Read more: “AI in accounting: Weighing the pros and cons.“)

Much of this has been done in recognition of AI’s risk and its limitations. It is not 2023 anymore and no one is thinking AI will solve all their problems. Yes, the technology has done many impressive things: Firm leaders report major time savings, deeper analytics, expanded automation, better brainstorming, and incredible efficiencies in software development. At the same time, nearly all the Best Firms for Technology have been frustrated by inaccurate, inconsistent or low-quality outputs, naming this as one of their biggest disappointments with the technology.

Other firms mentioned lengthy and difficult implementations, cybersecurity and data privacy problems, and difficulty working with tools like Excel.

“AI is far from a silver bullet. It’s easy to build something that works in the innovation lab, but it’s much more challenging to build something reliable and scalable across the firm. Even well-trained models can be inconsistent, and costs can rise quickly without a clear return,” said Jonathan Kraftchick, an assurance partner at Top 100 Firm Cherry Bekaert.

These firms’ approach toward AI has much in common with their technology stance as a whole, as every firm in this year’s list also said they have a written technology strategy. Each one is taking a deliberate and intentional approach to their technology infrastructure with the expectation that it will pay dividends in the future.

When asked what they hope AI would be able to do eventually, leaders mentioned not just these problems being solved, but also bots being able to better connect the dots and understand contexts better, which would enable them to become true assistants that can handle complex administrative tasks, as well as better data cleaning capacities and better interoperability with things like Excel or PowerPoint.

(Read more: “AI will replace some accountants using AI: How not to be one of them.“)

Yet these challenges are not preventing firms from continuing major investments in AI; they are, in fact, accelerating them, as tech spending is going up. Of the 10 firms in this list, four said their technology spending has increased significantly since last year, four said it increased slightly, one said it stayed about the same and one said that, while absolute costs have significantly grown, its per-user costs have shrunk. As for why so many firms are spending more on tech, AI was frequently cited, alongside rising service fees and the need to support additional staff.

“We are a digitally determined organization from the top down. We seek to invest in technologies that improve our capabilities, responsiveness, and our quality. Fiscal year 2024 and 2025 has us investing in AI-enabled solutions which support these attributes. Additionally, some core solutions under transition/transformation result in overlapping costs for the duration of the change,” said Peter Sebilian, chief technology officer and chief information security officer for Top 100 Firm AAFCPAs.

This focus on AI plays into other aspects of their technology. For instance, this year’s firms lean heavily on cloud computing, with the majority saying they have no physical servers on site. Even among those that do have at least one, the applications they use are almost entirely cloud-based. Similarly, cybersecurity is a big priority for each of these firms as well, as nearly all of them adhere to at least one recognized cybersecurity standard, such as SOC 2, ISO 27001 or NIST CSF.

Overall, these are firms that take AI seriously in terms of not only adoption but oversight and supporting infrastructure. Given the rapid pace of development in this sector, who knows what we’ll see next year?

With all that in mind, below are this year’s Best Firms for Technology.

(Read more: See the 2024 Best Firms for Technology.)