Industry Insights

The blog highlights the growing challenge of talent churn in accounting firms and emphasizes the urgency of addressing it. At Accountests, the team is collaborating with the Accounting MOVE Project, the Center for Accounting Transformation, and CPA Trendlines to support a study that aims to provide accounting firms with insights on how to reduce turnover and foster better workplace cultures.

In public accounting, hiring the wrong person doesn't just lead to financial loss—it causes partner stress and harms team morale. Drawing on 25 years of experience, the blog introduces a Bad Hire Calculator, which helps firms quantify the true cost of hiring mistakes based on specific internal practices (e.g., use of recruiters, firing timeline).

This article discusses the challenge of assessing project management skills, particularly for accounting managers handling multiple clients. It suggests that interviews alone are often insufficient for evaluating these skills, as candidates may not provide a complete picture. Instead, personality assessments, specifically those based on the Big-5/OCEAN model, are recommended for a deeper understanding of a candidate's suitability for project management.

An accounting graduate, transparent about their lack of experience, faces overwhelming tasks and no support in a residential remodeling company. This illustrates the repercussions of inadequate hiring practices and the necessity for comprehensive onboarding and training programs to prevent stress on employees and risks to business integrity.

A Disputes Tribunal ruling mandated a company to pay a former accountant $14,000 in wages despite significant financial losses attributed to his performance. The ruling highlights the importance of robust recruitment procedures and pre-employment testing to avoid "bad hire" scenarios.

According to the survey, 52% of applicants say they exaggerate responsibilities and 45% make up details like the number of direct reports - stuff you can't easily double check.

Explore the importance of background screening for CPA firms in this insightful article by Chris Cooley from MyHRScreens. Learn how thorough checks can mitigate risks, verify credentials, maintain trust and credibility, create a safe working environment, and prevent corporate fraud, ultimately securing a firm's reputation and client trust.

Discover how AI is set to impact the education of accountants in this thought-provoking blog. With questions raised about the role of technical knowledge and communication skills, the author proposes changes to the educational system to adapt to the rise of AI and suggests that those who embrace these changes will be in high demand

Unlike other ‘fads’ such as crypto and blockchain, where adoption is slow and patchy, AI is moving fast, of immediate real benefit to public accounting firms, and has possibilities well beyond writing and interpreting emails. Giles discusses where AI is going in accounting on the world's most popular accounting podcast – the Cloud Accounting Podcast

Recent studies have actually put the financial cost of a bad hire in third place for its negative impact on an accounting businesses, behind lower morale and reduced productivity. “Stanley” was recently hired by an accounting firm in Los Angeles. His resume showed the experience he’d had with a reputable medium sized firm in a staff accountant role. He was personable and confident at interview, and was hired. The cracks showed within days...

With the rapid emergence of AI in our daily working lives, we wondered what would happen if we got ChatGPT to sit our CPA Public Accounting Test. You'll be surprised with the results!

In a candidate short market, the increasing time pressures and lack of talent are forcing some quick hiring decisions. But lowering the standards of your selection process is not the solution. Selecting the wrong candidate costs more than time and money. As one firm owner recently found out, bypassing valuable steps in the hiring process cost him not just money, but time, reputation, and even his own wellbeing.