The coming year will present a wide range of challenges new and old for accounting firms of all sizes, and while many are taking steps to face them, there are a number of areas where they can do more.
Based on our research, accountants are laying the groundwork for a shift to higher-value advisory services and for greater investment in technology. What they're often not doing, however, is thinking strategically about the future, with the overwhelming majority failing to make any plans around strategic growth, succession, client prospecting, innovation and more.
- Accountants are expecting a somewhat better year in 2023, with a shift upward in their growth expectations, and plans for more hiring and increased technology spending.
- Accounting firms are looking to increase their focus on advisory work – but mainly by streamlining or otherwise lowering the burden of administrative tasks, not by moving away from compliance.
- The new hybrid work environment seems to have stabilized, with roughly half of accounting firm staff either entirely or partly remote. By and large, firms aren't expecting that breakdown to change.
- While accountants are somewhat concerned about inflation and how their clients will weather the economy in the next 12 months, their primary concerns remain the war for talent and keeping up to date on regulatory changes.
Why read this report?
This report examines the growth strategies, service offering plans, practice management goals, major challenges and more of a representative range of accounting and CPA firms to offer useful benchmarks in planning for the next 12 months.