So for 2020 the volume of work in PA (at least for me) has been the highest I’ve seen. A never ending busy season. Do you feel 2020 set the norm for future years? Will 2021 and onward be the same?

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For our sake, I hope not. This isn’t sustainable and turnover will soar to new heights.

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I think it will be worse in 2021 as the firms scramble to hire more people. There will be a temporary gap that can worsen if people start quitting faster than the firm can replace with new talent. A fair amount of people will quit to industry but you will also see ship jumping as people try to make up for the lack of raises and bonuses.

Meanwhile more COVID impact work will be won, along with regular wins (companies trying to get back to their “normal”), continuous acquisitions as some firms consolidate.

If you love challenge, seeing new things etc it’s surprisingly a good time to stick around.

For me I’m calling it quits after this busy season. Hate every single minute of this as I see my teams being drowned under work without a way to meaningfully help them.

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Spot on!

And they got away without giving raises!

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Turnover already is soaring, and I know a few people leaving without anything else lined up, that seems insane to me but I guess so does working like this forever

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People are finally reaching their breaking point with public accounting that they will sacrifice their savings or their current career path for something else. I don’t blame them, there are so many different opportunities out there to make money for the time being and then go back if they wanted to. I think WFH and not seeing everyone eliminated the competitive advantage of public accounting which is the people and the relationships you build. People are less connected with their coworkers that leaving doesn’t make them feel as guilty.

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My prediction is that it will be the same if not worse in 2021 with the high turnover and new tax law changes. And I also see it still being rough for the next few years as we are still going to be adjusting to the new tax laws and more tax laws may change. On the bright side it makes our profession in high demand so we can command higher salaries! With my 3 years of experience I have been in high demand from recruiters all over the country and I was even approached to take over an existing practice with predominantly individual tax returns. Wherever you are you will most likely work a lot this year too, you might as well make more money and work from home if that’s what you want. Let me know if I can put you in contact with my recruiter.

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I’m switching firms, it’s 100% remote and I’m getting paid CA wages. So I guess if you already live in a HCOL area then it’s the same to you, but if you could be 100% remote then you can move to a LCOL area while keeping your CA wages.

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If last year sets the new normal for busy season, I'm out. I've been doing this for 15 years and I had my first panic attack last year. I cannot do that again. I'm used to overtime and long hours but that was the absolute worst.

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PA (starting with big 4s of course) are shifting their focus towards 1) automation solutions 2) Further integration of India counterparts which should drive down required hours to do the audit.

On paper this is a pretty good and strategic move.
1) Automation drives efficient and more effective audits (removing repetitive audit procedures, getting more assurance from the procedures because you’re able to look at whole set of data - not just sample it, can see trends and thus are able to give better business insights) and also aligns with your client priorities who are also are making similar shift (slight generalization). This type of efficiency of course has an up front investment but overtime should result in the decrease in hours
2) integration of India counterpart (GATAM/GDS etc) has two fold benefit. Generally they are utilized for the low-hanging fruit type of activities or time consuming coachable ones so that the on-shore team can focus on other things. The lower costs associated with that increase the margin. A lot of you will probably say that your India team can’t handle more complicated tasks and the firms continuous push toward integration will hurt budgets and quality due to the training involved and rework etc....seriously though, as long as you keep treating them as if they’re lower than staff you will never benefit from their full potential. These people are smart. More than that they’re loyal and proud of their careers. They’re usually the first ones to learn the tools that you won’t touch for years. The issue has always been in the coaching approach and autonomy. We usually delegate GDS coordination to our own staff and seniors who are already overstretched. Of course they won’t have time and won’t want to spend more time beyond writing email instructions!

Anyway, getting back to the main point - just these two things (with understandable up front time and money investment) should results in audits taking less time.

The thing is....this would only work in isolation or if all other factors stayed constant. Which they definitely will not. I’m taking about regulatory landscape and also just changes in the industry outside of PA. We will always have to adapt and continuously change. This cost of innovation will always be there. One should hope that we will always be able to cover it and hopefully it will be paid from the technology capital and not the human one. In an ideal world that is.

But this leads me to the point I should have probably stated in the beginning: I don’t think we will ever work less even with the shifting priorities of the newer work force.
Because we live in a capitalistic world. And this is the final system we operate under.
Until the companies put their work force at the fore front of the business mode you can forget about real work life balance. We’re at the mercy of regulators and client needs which will always be the driving force behind decision making.
You think people not wanting to do this job will cause companies to change? Hah! They will keep hiring and hiring more people. There will always be others who would rather be doing this than, I dunno, live in poverty or something.
Going back to the system: I theorize that any gains we get from the introduced efficiency solutions will not be pushed down to employee benefit. That’s just how PA operates. It is translated into margin gains and reinvested into the company. What happens more often is that a person works less on an engagement (based on the budget) and thus is under utilized. Which mean they will get more work to cover it on another engagement. And thus they continue to be kept working hard. Ideally, they should be working on stimulating and interesting projects. In real life, they’re probably stretched thin and overworked until they quit or die and are replaced by somebody else.

And maybe this is just how the whole world operates. Who knows. Ugh I guess in summary:
We will never see a shift towards lower working hours even with changing priorities of new work force unless the companies we work for change their business model AND actually care enough to prioritize our well beings.
Which I don’t think they ever will. But I leave it open since I’m a person that still likes to be surprised but the good that people are capable of.
If you actually got to the end of this: sorry about my ramblings and thank you for coming to my TedTalk. I should really get a life

My partners can’t sell work so I’m not even doing much at all

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Which firm is that?

Do people not enjoy their work? Am I a simp? I enjoy my job... I have some days where I'm overwhelmed by the workload, but I I just walk away and take PTO and go at it first thing the next day.

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Agree Manager. I miss the ability to take PTO without knowing I’ll likely have to log back in at night to catch up on emails / may have to do substantial work if something comes up.

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I believe it will be worse. I don’t see any relief for 2021

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