Accounting
Speakers urge emphasis on wellness for both clients and staff at Xerocon
The accounting profession must address the persistent image problem that, increasingly, is making young people hesitant to enter it in the first place, according to Ben Richmond, managing director for North America for small business accounting platform Xero.
Speaking during the company’s annual Xerocon event this week in Nashville, Richmond noted that accountants don’t really deserve the image that much of the public carries about them, but acknowledged the unfortunate strength of this perception nonetheless.
“We need to address this perception challenge that we’re monotone, that we’re dull, that we’re going to be automated out of existence, because that perception is wrong. You don’t deserve it. The trust our small business clients offer us, the jobs we do, means we don’t deserve it. I am proud of my profession,” said Richmond.
He felt the general public was not aware of all the changes the profession has undergone in the last few years, notably its increasingly tech-driven nature as well as the decline of mundane compliance-based tasks in firms in favor of higher value advisory engagements. While he, himself, is “excited about what the profession has become and where it is going,” many others are not because they’re not aware of either.
“Put yourself in the shoes of a high school student who doesn’t know what it looks like inside this crazy room [at the conference] as they think about what they are inspired to study. Are they really thinking accounting sounds exciting?” he said.
Meeting this challenge means embracing the modern accounting practice and all the ways the profession has evolved over the years. A key part of this is truly defining one’s value as an advisor, capitalizing on the trust clients give to their accountants, something that had been difficult before as professionals were often burdened with “the compliance workload or the never-ending tax season.”
With technology automating many routine tasks today, much more focus can be spent on what he said was the real reason why people hire accountants: peace of mind and wellbeing for clients. He talked about helping his sister find an advisor for her business. They talked to two others before settling on a third, not because of their technical acumen but because they were the ones who truly took time to understand not just her business but herself as a person, including both her aspirations and anxieties. By creating this connection, he said, she let herself be vulnerable, which allowed the advisor to see not just the numbers but the reasoning behind it. More practitioners would benefit from such an approach, he said.
“Too many firms tell me still they’re just number crunchers. But you are a key lever to supporting your client’s wellbeing. You probably don’t wake up and think I’m the supporter of mental health for my small business clients, but think about the impact when you help them understand where they’re going. When clients know they’re talking to someone who relates, who speaks their language, that will make it easier to work with them and make them open and trusting about their fears and their concerns,” he said.
He said emotional intelligence is highly underrated in the profession, but it’s vital if one wants to run a successful firm. There is no amount of technology, he said, that can replace it. Instead, let emotional intelligence be your differentiator, your competitive advantage in order to deepen client relationships.
Demonstrating this kind of commitment is especially important in light of the profession’s persistent talent shortage. Speaking at another panel later in the day, Jeff Phillips, co-founder of recruiting company AccountingFly, noted that the unemployment rate for accountants and auditors in the US is just 1.8%, much lower than the
“So, what does this tell us? Everyone who wants a job has a job. There isn’t a pocket of people where you can just post a job and find them. So what can you do? You have to compete for talent and you have to go out there,” he said.
Beyond higher pay and more support for remote work, however, Phillips noted that there is also the matter of addressing the profession’s culture. While the idea that accounting is monotonous repetitive work with no higher purpose is largely a matter of perception, it is all too true that many firms promote a punishing work schedule with little work life balance or mental health support, at least in North America.
“We work in a profession of very hard workers who are spending so much time at work, and there isn’t much time for physical or mental health and taking care of themselves. I have a friend who owned a firm who, last year, he did not want to tell his clients he was taking vacation because he was worried about how they would feel about him being off. I thought, you’re probably not going to be really on vacation, you’ll hate your vacation with that attitude. That is a problem that needs to be addressed,” he said.
Shayne Dueck, national leader of accounting and bookkeeping services with Canadian firm MNP raised a similar point, noting that while much is said about work life balance today, it is undermined by a certain pride leaders have in working such a schedule, an attitude which then trickles down to the staff.
“The badge of honor is how many hours did I work and how much can I pack into a week or a season. That needs to be outright questioned. … Sometimes it’s about calling it out. I don’t want that job. Who wants that job? We have people leaving the profession because they are overworked and burnt out. We have people not wanting to go into the profession because that’s what they hear,” he said, urging accountants to not be afraid to call out this attitude and provide a better example. “You can model that you can be successful, you can have balance, you can have mental health.”
Kayur Patel, a PwC tax partner and another panelist, said it is largely about taking the same advice they give to their clients all the time.
“For anyone who has had clients like a family business, you’ve probably been in a situation where you advise the client they’re doing alright and they can take the foot off the gas and spend more time with family. But as an industry we don’t do that ourselves. I think we should take some of our own advice in how we run our own practice because sometimes we know what the right answer is for our clients, but we’re not doing it ourselves,” he said.
One example to look towards might be accountants in Australia. Heather Smith, the head of Australian firm Anise Consulting, noted that the work culture is quite different not just in accounting firms but the entire country. Saying Australians are “lifestyle first people” she pointed out that workers in general get four to five weeks holiday every year, plus 10-13 public holidays annually, and a standard 37.5 hour work week. On top of that, Australia allows up to 10% of an accountant’s continuing professional education be about mental health awareness, giving credibility to the topic.
“Australians aren’t perfect, but we are having the conversation, we are actively in communities looking out for each other,” she said.
When she critiqued a UK accounting body she was a member of for only talking the talk about mental health, she noted that they proceeded to roll out an educational platform on the topic as well as put on more events and activities to support the profession; she noted that mental health and wellness doesn’t have to be just rest and relaxation but also nutrition and spirituality and social connectivity that lets people feel stimulated.
Emma Reid, a partner in the UK’s Cotton Group, raised a similar point, noting that it’s okay to take an expansive view on wellness. What is important is not to make some perfunctory measure and call it a day but, rather, find what actually works for people. She noted that, at her own firm, there was little response to things like mental health apps or gym memberships. While certain firms might be tempted to call it a day regardless, her own firm continued experimenting to find something people would actually respond to, which ultimately was fun activities they can take part in.
“It’s finding those things that actually make a difference versus offering something just because it looks good,” she said.
The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents workers at the Internal Revenue Service among 37 federal agencies and offices, has asked a federal judge for emergency relief to preserve the union rights of federal employees while NTEU’s legal challenge to President Trump’s executive order stripping unions of collective bargaining rights can be heard in court.
Trump signed an
NTEU’s
“NTEU seeks emergency relief to protect itself and the workers it represents from this unlawful attempt to eliminate collective bargaining for some two-thirds of the federal workforce,” the request stated.
The NTEU contended that the Trump administration’s executive order claims that allowing workers to join a union was a threat to national security were absurd.
“We all know this has nothing to do with national security and that the true goal here is to make it easier to fire federal employees across government,” said NTEU national president Doreen Greenwald in a statement Friday. “Just five days after declaring the administration would no longer honor our contract with Health and Human Services, thousands of brilliant civil servants who work tirelessly to improve public health were let go for spurious reasons and little recourse to fight back.”
The union pointed out that Congress declared 47 years ago that collective bargaining in the federal sector was in the public’s interest by giving employees a voice in the workplace and allowing labor and management to work together. It acknowledged there is a narrow exemption in the law for groups of employees whose work directly impacts national security, but argued that Trump’s executive order is blatant retaliation against federal sector unions and ignores the laws passed by Congress creating the agencies.
In agencies where a reduction-in-force has been announced, NTEU’s contracts provide time for employees to respond to a RIF notice and explore alternatives to mitigate the impact of the layoffs.
Earlier this week, after two court rulings in California and Maryland, the IRS’s acting commissioner, Melanie Krause, announced the IRS would be
A bipartisan bill has been introduced in Congress to preserve collective bargaining rights for federal employees. The Protect America’s Workforce Act (H.R. 2550), sponsored by Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pennsylvania, would overturn Trump’s executive order stripping collective bargaining rights from hundreds of thousands of federal workers at multiple agencies. Separately,
The political calculus involved with the details of estate planning next year and beyond may be distracting financial advisors and clients from a larger, simpler conversation, one expert says.
On the off chance that the federal estate-tax exemption levels of $13.99 million for individuals (and double for couples) revert to half those amounts when Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provisions expire in 2026, only 0.2% of households would face potential duties upon transfer of assets, according to Ben Rizzuto, a wealth strategist with
With
“For financial advisors and clients, I would expect for many of them not to have to worry about federal estate taxes next year,” he said in an interview. “Even though they may not have to worry about it, there are still a lot of good conversations to be had.”
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The 1%
Trust tools that reduce the value of the assets that will transfer to spouses or other beneficiaries upon a client’s death, combined with the available statistics about the shrinking share of estates subject to taxes, could bring some peace of mind to clients. The 2017 tax law itself pushed down estate tax liability as a percentage of gross domestic product to a quarter of its 2001 level,
At the same time, advisors could raise any number of questions with clients
“We’re seeing a fundamental shift in client expectations,” Trust & Will CEO Cody Barbo said
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Get back to the planning basics
In that context, advisors and their clients should steer clear of trying to make sense of a complicated, ever-changing flow of news from Capitol Hill as Trump and the GOP pursue major tax legislation with a year-end deadline, Rizzuto said. If clients truly could be on the hook for estate taxes, a
“Why not gift them upstream?” Rizzuto said. “My father holds it. I tell him, ‘Dad, you have to do these things: Live for another 12 months, make sure you don’t sell, make sure that you update your will or your instructions to gift it back to me when you die.’ That’s another idea that we’ve been talking about with advisors.”
From another perspective, these possible paths forward may beckon to clients this year, if they are tuning into Beltway news about the progress of the tax legislation, he said. To bypass the risk of client perceptions that their advisor isn’t doing any tax planning at all, Washington’s complex maneuvering around the future rules is, “if nothing else,” a “great opportunity for advisors to bring this up at a very high level,” Rizzuto said.
“Advisors will really need to go back to basics and have some foundational conversations with clients,” he said, suggesting their goals with taxes as one key point of discussion. “‘What is it that we actually control within your financial and tax plan?’ When it comes right down to it, it’s really just incomes and deductions.”
Accounting
Developing future leaders in accounting: the new imperative in an AI and automation driven era
As technology continues to automate routine tasks, the role of finance professionals is evolving, demanding deeper capabilities in critical thinking, communication and business acumen.
Many of PrimeGlobal’s North American firms are focused on cultivating these skills in their future leaders. Carla McCall, managing partner at AAFCPAs, Randy Nail, CEO of HoganTaylor, and Grassi managing partner Louis Grassi shared their views with PrimeGlobal CEO Steve Heathcote on the need for future leaders to balance technological proficiency with human-centered skills to thrive.
AI is transforming the sector by streamlining workflows, automating data analysis and reducing manual processes. However, rather than replacing accountants, AI is reshaping their roles, enabling them to focus on higher-value tasks. In the words of Louis Grassi, AI can be seen as a strategic partner, freeing accountants from routine tasks, enabling deeper engagement with clients, more thoughtful analysis, and ultimately better decision-making.
Nail emphasized the importance of embracing AI, warning that those who fail to adapt risk being replaced by professionals who leverage the technology more effectively. HoganTaylor’s “innovation sprint” generated over 100 ideas for AI integration, underscoring why a proactive approach to adopting new technologies is so necessary and valuable.
McCall advocates for an educational shift that equips professionals with the skills to interpret AI-generated insights. She stressed that accounting curricula of the future must evolve to incorporate advanced technology training, ensuring future accountants are well-versed in AI tools and data analytics. Moreover, simulation-based learning is becoming increasingly crucial as traditional methods of education become obsolete in the face of automation.
Talent development and leadership growth
As AI reshapes the profession, firms must rethink how they develop and nurture their future leaders. To attract and retain top talent, firms need to prioritize personalized development plans that align with individual career goals.
HoganTaylor’s approach to talent development integrates technical expertise with leadership and communication training. These initiatives ensure professionals are not only proficient in accounting principles but also equipped to lead teams and navigate complex client interactions.
Nail underscored the growing importance of writing and presentation skills, as AI will handle routine tasks, leaving professionals to focus on higher-level analytical and decision-making responsibilities.
Soft skills are the success skills
While technical proficiency remains vital, future leaders must also cultivate critical thinking, communication and adaptability — skills McCall refers to as the “success skills.” McCall highlights the necessity of business acumen and analytical communication, essential for interpreting data, advising clients and making strategic decisions.
Recognizing teamwork and collaboration remain crucial in the hybrid work environment, McCall explained in detail how AAFCPA fosters collaboration through structured remote engagement strategies such as “intentional office time,” alcove sessions and stand-up meetings. Similarly, HoganTaylor supports remote teams by offering training for career advisors to ensure effective mentorship and engagement in a dispersed workforce.
McCall emphasized why global experience can be valuable in leadership development. Exposure to diverse markets and accounting practices enhances professionals’ adaptability and broadens their perspectives, preparing them for leadership roles in an increasingly interconnected world.
Grassi reminded us that an often-overlooked leadership skill is curiosity. In his view the most effective leaders of tomorrow will be inherently curious — not just about emerging technologies but about clients, market shifts and global trends. Encouraging curiosity and continuous learning within our firms will distinguish the true industry leaders from those simply reacting to change.
A balanced future
What’s clear from speaking to our leaders is PrimeGlobal’s role in fostering trust, community and knowledge sharing. McCall recommended member-driven panels to discuss AI implementation and automation strategies and share best practice. Nail, on the other hand, valued PrimeGlobal’s focus on addressing critical industry issues and encouraged continuous evolution to meet professionals’ changing needs.
The future of leadership in the accountancy profession hinges on a balanced approach, leveraging AI to enhance efficiency while cultivating essential human skills that technology cannot replicate, which Grassi highlights skills including leadership and building client trust.
As McCall and Nail advocate, the next generation of accountants must be agile thinkers, skilled communicators and strategic decision-makers. Firms that invest in these competencies will not only stay competitive but will also shape the future of the industry by developing well-rounded leaders prepared for the challenges ahead.
By investing in both AI capabilities and essential human skills, firms can not only future proof their leadership but also shape a resilient and forward-thinking profession ready to meet the challenges of the future.
As Grassi concluded, while technical skills provide the foundation, leadership in accounting increasingly demands emotional intelligence, empathy and adaptability. AI will change how we perform our work, but human connection, trust and nuanced judgment are irreplaceable. Investing in these human-centric skills today is critical for firms aiming to build resilient leaders of tomorrow. To remain relevant and thrive, professionals must prioritize developing strong success skills that will define the leaders of tomorrow.
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