Is The Accounting Profession's Sun Rising — Or Setting?

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Differences of perspective are fascinating, frustrating things. They lead people to eat and dress and dance and vote differently than we do; to see a dress as purple and black, when we all know it's white and gold; to think a photo shows a sunset, when it's clearly a sunrise. On the other hand, they make for horse races, and that's surely worth something.

It seemed (and seems) transparently obvious to me that the profession is not in decline in any way; that in fact, it's thriving. Revenues across the field are strong and growing, demand for accountants' services is at an all-time high, and there are major new service areas opening up on a regular basis. New tools are coming online every day to make the work easier and to enable entirely new services.

It's certainly true that the profession faces challenges. Not enough people are coming into accounting to meet the rising demand, and not enough are becoming CPAs to handle the imminent retirement of the oversized cadre of baby boomer firm leaders. Competitors are hungrily eyeing accountants' lunch, and artificial intelligence looms like a specter.

But in all of those challenges lie opportunities — to use capacity crunches to refocus books of business on a small base of ideal clients, for instance, or to look to private equity or other potential partners outside the profession to help secure partners' retirements. There are plenty of professions and industries that would be delighted to have accounting's challenges.

So perhaps I'm wrong to think that accounting is thriving, with a bright future ahead of it; perhaps the slowdown in people entering the profession really is a sign of decline, and not a short-term demographic blip. I'd love to

know what you think — reach out to me at daniel.hood@arizent.com and let me know if you think accounting is in decline or on the rise, and why, and we'll aim to share the results in a future edition.