News

With 2024 upon us, it's time — or perhaps past time — to start considering what the new year will bring, and for accounting firms to start making plans about how to grow over the next 12 months.

Three years ago, when COVID-19 shook the world, it also shook up how we work. Gone are the days when a nine-to-five routine inside the same four walls was just how things were done. Fresh and flexible approaches have emerged that address both employee desires and business needs. One of these approaches is the hybrid work model.

No one likes to think about it, but as we age, some of us will become critically ill or injured, and some of us will experience a long-term disability. Family emergencies and obligations can also call CPAs away from their businesses for long periods of time. What would happen to our clients in such a scenario? When a client needs attestation services to obtain financing or satisfy loan covenants, or another client needs to have a tax return prepared by a certain deadline, who will complete the work? Potentially negative effects, such as missed opportunities or damage to a client’s business, are risk exposures that can come into play when a CPA becomes ill or disabled. CPAs who have not yet taken the time to develop a continuation plan may be: 1) inviting future lawsuits against themselves or their estates; and 2) leaving their spouses, families, and heirs with the daunting task of trying to figure out what to do. What kind of contingency plan do you have in place in the event of an emergency? If the answer is “none,” what can you do now to get a plan in development and underway?

Ask yourself the following question: What will my spouse or immediate heirs do with my practice if I die or become disabled? Would your spouse or children be able to take over the management of your practice? What would become of all your hard work and effort with your practice and clients? How can you preserve the value of your professional accounting practice, which may be the largest asset in your estate? In the event of death or temporary or permanent disability, a practice continuation agreement helps protect your practice, the business interests of your clients, and the financial interests of you and your family. It can also be used as a vehicle for retirement.

In late March, a 44-year-old CPA-triathlete was getting ready for a morning run before a busy day at work. While getting dressed, he suddenly had a massive stroke. His wife was able to call an ambulance and get help quickly, but the CPA was in a coma for a week and hospitalized for several months thereafter. The CPA was a sole practitioner, and the April 15 tax deadline was approaching. His wife, who had no prior experience with his business, was thrust into having to address the impending deadline, all while juggling her career, their three children, his care, and her feelings and emotions.

The business world is undergoing a profound transformation that extends far beyond traditional financial statements and profit margins. The pace of societal change and environmental impacts has elevated the focus around the impact of business activities on the environment and society. Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations have often become embedded into the enterprise risk management process, influencing investment decisions, shaping corporate reputations, and impacting regulatory requirements.

Why is retaining talent consistently ranked as one of the greatest management challenges impacting the accounting and finance profession? What really drives the profession's perpetually higher-than-average turnover rates? The 2023 Illinois Society of CPAs Insight Special Feature, "Righting Retention," aims to answer those questions and more.

With 2024 here, finding and keeping talent remains a top priority for many business leaders. That's largely due to lasting impacts on the professional landscape over the past few years: many employees are continuing to reevaluate their priorities and values, emerging Gen Z workers are making business owners evaluate benefits and recruitment strategies, and mass resignations and a highly competitive talent marketplace have created both challenges and opportunities for employers.

In a letter addressed to members of the House Financial Services Committee and Senate Banking Committee, the AICPA and all 54 state CPA societies, including the Connecticut Society of CPAs asked that H.R. 4035 and S. 2623, the Protecting Small Business Information Act of 2023, or similar legislation to delay, be included in any year-end legislative package. The bills would delay the Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reporting requirement until all three rules under the Corporate Transparency Act have been finalized to specify that all such rules would take effect on the same date.

Effective Jan. 1, 2024, an employee’s receipt of severance pay will now result in disqualification from receiving unemployment compensation benefits for the period of time covered by the payment.

Since March, when the weekly Vendor Spotlight feature first launched, we have showcased 34 accounting solutions providers of all shapes and sizes — a wide variety of companies that, despite their differences, all focus on providing the tools that have become a necessity for any professional looking to guide their clients through the slings and arrows of this outrageous modern economy.

Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a final rule (RIN 1506-AB62) Wednesday extending the deadline for companies created or registered in 2024 to file initial beneficial ownership information (BOI) reports to 90 calendar days from the original 30 calendar days.

Human resources (HR) analytics offers the opportunity to evaluate HR strategies using quantifiable metrics. Also referred to as people analytics or workforce analytics, HR analytics collects and examines data to help assess the performance of the human resources functions within a company.

As the busy season lumbers into view, Lucy Cohen offers some practical and effective tips to help you banish burnout.

Connecticut has passed four directives regarding CPA Exam credit retention.

John Raspante, risk management director at McGowan Pro, was featured in the Accounting Today podcast "Emerging risks for accountants." John and McGowan Pro Senior Vice President Stephen Vono spoke with Dan Hood on the new areas that are sparking claims against firms — and the tools they can use to protect themselves.

Mfon Akpan, CGMA, DBA, an assistant professor of accounting at Methodist University, and Scott Dell, CPA, DBA, an assistant professor of accounting at Francis Marion University, explain why CPAs and other professionals can be left behind professionally if they don't spend time learning about tools such as ChatGPT. They talk about productivity gains, the competitive divide that could develop, and how, in the short term, more training is needed to fully harness generative AI.

The number of students earning U.S. postsecondary accounting degrees fell sharply in the 2021-22 academic year, according to a biennial American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) report on trends related to accounting graduation rates, the CPA Exam and hiring demand by accounting firms. Some 47,067 students earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting in the 2021-22 school year, down 7.8% from the previous year, according to 2023 Trends: A Report on Accounting Education, the CPA Exam and Public Accounting Firms’ Hiring of Recent Graduates. The number of students who earned a master’s degree in accounting, meanwhile, fell 6.4% to 18,238. In the previous Trends report, the comparative rates of decline were 2.8% and 8.4%, respectively.

Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on Wednesday that would extend the deadline for companies created or registered in 2024 to file their first beneficial ownership information (BOI) reports. The NPRM (RIN 1506-AB62) would provide 90 days for those companies to file initial reports rather than the original deadline of 30 days from the earlier of the date on which the company receives actual notice that its creation or registration has become effective or the date on which the secretary of state first provides public notice that the company has been created or registered.

In response to significant health, economic, education, and travel disruptions resulting in CPA Examination candidate hardships, the Connecticut Board of Accountancy will extend credit periods through June 30, 2025, for CPA Examination credits that expired from January 30, 2020(1) through May 11, 2023(2), which have not been subsequently replaced by new credits for the same sections. (1) The United States Department of Health and Human Services declared a national Public Health Emergency. (2) The United States Department of Health and Human Services announced the expiration of the national Public Health Emergency.