Announcement: Rosenberg Associates Managing Partners Recognized Among AccountingToday’s Top 100 Influential People

AccountingToday recently released their ranking of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting – an annual list featuring thought leaders and change-makers who are shaping the profession.

Marc Rosenberg, CPA, and I were named among the Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting. This is Marc’s 21^st  consecutive year on the list and my third. AccountingToday cited these reasons:

Kristen:

“Accounting firms across the country and of all sizes have benefited from Rampe’s ability to dispense clear, practical advice on the complex subjects and the difficult transformations that they face, and the solutions she designs with them help them grow and remain independent.”

Marc:

“Rosenberg isn’t the man who wrote the book — he’s the man who wrote the books, 16 of them at last count, that represent the distilled wisdom of decades studying how best to manage a CPA firm, and that should be required reading for anyone looking to run an accounting practice.”

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As part of this year’s Top 100 Most Influential People survey, Accounting Today asked, “What is the most important issue currently facing the accounting profession?”

Kristen’s response:

A top issue in the accounting world is competitive wages for entry-level and early-career staff. We are struggling to keep pace with wages in other professions, making accounting more of a last-resort choice for students rather than an optimal choice. Compounding the lower-than-professional-peer wages issue are other unattractive features of our industry, such as being branded as boring and heavy on the hours. In the past, you’d work really hard, but at least you’d feel fairly compensated straight out of college. Now, we ask for hard work while employees struggle to afford a professional lifestyle.

Many employees are asking for generous time off and fewer work hours (e.g., fixed 40 or 30 hours), but it’s up to industry leaders to price right and optimize for profitability. A fair share of the gains from these practices should be passed to professionals in their first ten years to bolster the future of our profession.

Marc’s response:

It sounds like a broken record, but the CPA industry’s dire shortage of staff is at the top of most firms’ problem lists. But this is the tip of the iceberg. The bigger problem is the precipitous drop in college students majoring in accounting. 75% of CPAs today will retire in 15 years. If we don’t find a solution soon, there won’t be enough people to replace those retiring, somewhat of a doomsday scenario. The inevitable result will be that companies and individuals will be unable to find accountants to help them navigate their financial affairs. This has begun to happen already.

Our industry should be ashamed of itself for failing to address this problem, which has plagued our profession for 20 years or more.

Rosenberg Associates aims to help CPA firms build and maintain profitable and successful practices with people who love their work and feel rewarded. We want to thank our clients for providing the opportunities to make a difference in the profession.