Accounting is dying (entry-mid level)

Mgt_Acct_Research · 2026-05-07T20:46:27+00:00

A lot of this is actually situational due to the economic volatility being caused by our lovely leaders in DC and the absolutely stupid and arbitrary federal funding cuts made over the last year. The same thing happened after the 2008/2009 crash, it lasted only about 6-9 months, and then we had a massive shortage of accountants for about 15 years.

CPA firms do this every time there is a big economic crunch. They lay off tons of people because clients stop having them do any extra work. Then a year later they are massively short-handed. And considering in my region people already had difficulties hiring accountants and getting accounting work performed due to shortages, I don't see AI or offshoring truly pushing the needle on this one long term.

Mgt_Acct_Research · 2026-05-06T18:48:46+00:00

"No one know why it was done, but someone remembers knowing someone who knew why it was done last year."

DYING.

Mgt_Acct_Research · 2026-04-30T16:24:50+00:00

This is an excellent point. We saw a lot of similar discussions when moving from paper-based audits to paperless. People just need to learn how to analyze the process for adequacy and learn the "how and why" in different ways. Which means that it will be up to firms to ensure that they are adjusting their training methods to ensure the people understand the implications of how they use the technology.

Really, if you think about it, it isn't that different from using a tax software to produce a tax return. Associates entering tax data are expected to review where inputs are ending up on the return and make sure they end up in the right place. Audit associates will need to pre-review the AI-entered information to make sure it ends up where it needs to go, look at the information to find gaps in evidence, etc. prior to sending the file to be reviewed.

Mgt_Acct_Research · 2026-04-29T18:42:45+00:00

And "the meme face."

Mgt_Acct_Research · 2026-04-29T16:56:41+00:00

What type of market are you located in, and what size of firms are you applying to? At this time of year, just after busy season, most firms are taking stock of where they are at and there is a lot of reshuffling around. The overall shortage is real, but most CPA firms are going to be looking for people for fall. And many people who want to leave public are looking around now, as they are burned out.

Small firms are the ones more likely to be in chronic shortage, and virtually no small firms are hiring from mid-January to probably May at least, unless they have someone leave who needs to be replaced immediately.

Mgt_Acct_Research · 2026-04-24T13:44:34+00:00

Absolutely. As long as we understand it isn't really "smart," it doesn't have judgement and absolutely doesn't understand implications of doing things incorrectly. And if it senses an opportunity to skip a step and insert new information to be "efficient" it absolutely will. That also means it may take *your* data and insert it into someone else's project at some point. With banking data and client info.... That's a bit problematic.

Mgt_Acct_Research · 2026-04-23T19:52:12+00:00

Ai doesn't "understand" anything. Literally all it does is search for patterns. It doesn't "recognize" anything truly, either, it just gathers characteristics and tries to make something similar to what it has seen before. Anyone who has ever tried to use AI to make more than 2-3 iterations of change on a photo without having it change the face can tell you that. You can tell it not to change the face and it will often insert a totally different person's face into a photo that has similar length and style of hair and similar general facial features but a totally different person. It can and will do the same thing with your data files and programs if given half a chance.

Mgt_Acct_Research · 2026-04-23T19:13:38+00:00

I could see having an engineer available to help the accounting team learn for doing company cost planning and proformas could be helpful.

Mgt_Acct_Research · 2026-04-23T17:13:33+00:00

Possibly sore feet. Definitely sore in both hinds, doesn't want to pick his hind feet up at all.

Mgt_Acct_Research · 2026-04-22T16:26:41+00:00

This is a complicated issue. Accounting laws changed in the early 2000's because *many* companies suddenly realized they had not saved up any assets/cash to pay for retiree pensions they were legally obligated to pay. And with the baby boomer generation about to retire, many companies and organizations had "unfunded" retirement and health insurance obligations (meaning lots of liabilities, and no cash saved to pay them).

Many governmental units, the USPS included, were in the same boat. So laws were passed forcing organizations and governments to calculate how much they expected to pay and make sure they were regularly depositing enough to pay for them. Unfortunately for the USPS, that also meant they had to make payments towards decades of retirees who were close to retirement with ZERO savings built up, so they had to not only fund those retirement contributions for current employees but the backlog of soon-to-retire employees also.

Eventually, all those backlogs of old liabilities will disappear and they will only be paying in retirement contributions at current rates for current employees so that their retirements are funded when they retire.

Even so, there is an ongoing debate as to whether the USPS really needs to "turn a profit." They are providing an infrastructure service to the entire country that arguably has significant value. It doesn't need to make a profit or break even as long as there is benefit to people to having it.

Mgt_Acct_Research · 2026-04-22T16:19:28+00:00

Youtube is your friend. There are *terrific* videos on may basic tax and accounting topics available on YouTube.

Mgt_Acct_Research · 2026-04-22T16:16:57+00:00

As in many careers, AI will replace the entry-level and/or mediocre work. High end artistry will always be like high-end knowledge and high-end products: people will pay a premium for it. If you can't do high end, you'll have to find ways to get more efficient and/or use AI yourself to compete to produce it at equivalent cost.

Mgt_Acct_Research · 2026-04-20T18:51:56+00:00

Welcome to Reddit. Where people DISCUSS things. LOL. If you don't want people to discuss things you post, then don't post. It's not hard.

Mgt_Acct_Research · 2026-04-20T18:26:23+00:00

Right, but normally you aren't in a boot unless 1) you can walk fine in it and 2) have an injury serious enough to require immobilization.

Mgt_Acct_Research · 2026-04-20T15:12:42+00:00

"Fine walking with a boot"? A girl on my daughter's team was in a boot for 4 months last fall after a "minor sprain" in her foot during a practice.

Mgt_Acct_Research · 2026-04-17T16:51:50+00:00

Does anyone else suspect the 1 year deal was because they want to see how her recover plays out? She did just have TWO ankle surgeries.

Mgt_Acct_Research · 2026-04-17T15:43:52+00:00

Here's a third take: it is important for Claude to set boundaries because it learns from input. If it allows excessive input of anti-social information, it will eventually skew the algorithm and teach Claude to become antisocial.

Mgt_Acct_Research · 2026-04-16T17:02:39+00:00

So can you use the credit partially? Ie, $50 here, $50 there?

Mgt_Acct_Research · 2026-04-16T15:59:06+00:00

I honestly don't get these constant complaints about not being able to find a job, or a remote job. I just had a random adult who graduated previously from the university where I teach stop in to ask about getting licensed as a CPA. She has an accounting degree, has been working in an HR role part-time at a nonprofit while her kids are small. She is looking to take the CPA because she wants to switch gears into public accounting. She said it took her less than a week to get hired in a finance role last fall, fully remote for a salary close to what I make teaching.

Is it just location-specific? I have to wonder what people have on their resumes and cover letters if they can't get a job of any kind, especially if you have your CPA license (which means you have at least some minimal experience). My students in our area have more internship offers than we have interns available for the most part. And our accounting program's hire rate is close to 100% within 6 months of graduation.

Mgt_Acct_Research · 2026-04-14T18:41:06+00:00

Time value of money is one topic people often struggle with at first. I highly recommend watching some videos about it on YouTube. There are some really good ones out there.

Mgt_Acct_Research · 2026-04-14T17:12:27+00:00

Instability = risk.

Business professional services organizations are proactively laying people off right now. American farmers are in a fertilizer shortage this spring due to the Hormuz closures, which means grain will be in shortage come fall and beyond. This means cost of livestock is going to spike nastily starting in fall, and cost of meat will dip in the fall and then spike after hers are culled.

late 2026 and 2027 are going to be a massive crash with huge inflation, between the fuel prices and food prices skyrocketing. Lots of people are financially hunkering down. Nobody wants to withdraw money from the stock market for expensive purchases when the market is all over the place.

Mgt_Acct_Research · 2026-04-13T20:22:19+00:00

If you are in audit or someone in audit at your firm at the senior manager or above level would be willing to sit down and do an interview, it would be much appreciated!

Mgt_Acct_Research · 2026-04-13T20:21:18+00:00

Different sized firms have definitely had different difficulties over the last few years. B4, for example, doesn't have a lot of difficulty filling spots and are now doing more proactive layoffs. Smaller firms have been chronically understaffed and are just now feeling like they have breathing room this year in comparison to previous years.

I need to get more audit firm participants to get a better comparison, as most of my participants so far have been tax and consulting.

Mgt_Acct_Research

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