The evolving CPA profession From flex time to high-tech tools, firms are taking steps to make accounting careers more attractive and fulfilling. By Ken Wysocky
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ome Wisconsin accounting firms are adopting more employee-friendly policies and integrating high-tech tools to combat perceptions that the profession is demanding and stressful due to long hours, poor worklife balance and insufficient job flexibility. At the same time, some colleges are working more closely than ever with accounting students to ensure they’re taking courses as efficiently as possible in order to minimize the costs of fulfilling the 150-hour requirement for taking the CPA exam. Industry observers believe that workplace concerns coupled with the higher costs associated with the 150-hour coursework requirement have contributed to recent drops in exam
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candidates and accounting graduates, as well as a decrease in enrollees in bachelor’s and master’s programs for accounting. According to the 2019 Trends report, published by the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA), candidates for the CPA Exam decreased 7% between 2017 and 2018, the latest years for which figures are available (partly explained by the adoption of a new CPA Exam effective in April 2017). And during the same time period, the number of CPA Exam candidates who passed the fourth section of the exam dropped 6%. Furthermore, projected accounting graduates in the 2017–18 academic year were 4% lower at the bachelor’s and
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