A deeper look at CPA attrition
By Randy Crabtree, CPA
December 3, 2024
Few will argue that the accounting profession is at an inflexion point. New business school graduates are shying away from the profession. Middle managers are burning out in droves.
Record numbers of partners are expected to retire in the coming decade and there aren’t enough younger colleagues to take over the helm from them.
But new data suggests that long hours, demanding clients, constant deadline pressure and mediocre pay may not be what’s driving so many of our peers toward the exits.
Our firm’s annual
CPA Career Satisfaction Survey, conducted in association with Accountants Forward and HB Publishing & Marketing Company, found a large percentage of CPAs working 60-plus hours a week are still
highly satisfied in their careers. On the flip side, we found an equally large cohort of accountants working less than 40 hours per week who are
highly dissatisfied with their careers.
If it’s not about long hours, then what about stress?
There are also plenty of highly satisfied accountants who told us they feel their jobs are “more stressful” than their professional peers’ jobs. Further, there are plenty of highly satisfied accountants who don’t think they’re being paid as well as their peers in other firms and other professions. That’s right — high stress and uninspiring pay, but still plenty of career satisfaction.
So, what gives?
“A common narrative is that accountants are underpaid compared to their peers in other professions,” observed survey co-author, Seth Fineberg, editor of Accountants Forward. “While other surveys show this may be the cause, our survey found that only one-third of accountants (31%) felt underpaid.”
Fineberg, notes bigger drivers of CPA career dissatisfaction tend to fall into one of four buckets:
- Lack of support from their firm.
- They don’t feel comfortable asking for mental and physical health resources at work.
- Lack of positive work culture.
- Limited variety of work responsibilities and client mix.
By contrast, survey respondents who have (a) interesting and varied work assignments, (b) a diverse portfolio of clients and (c) firm-wide support when working with difficult clients tend to be highly satisfied in their careers.
Career satisfaction also seems to rise for accountants working at firms that provide plentiful career opportunities for staffers who choose not to pursue the partner track. We also found that accountants at all stages of their careers were likely to remain in the profession if they feel both coworkers and clients respect their time and work-life boundaries. They also stay with the profession when working at firms where colleagues and superiors know about their hobbies and passions outside of the office.
You read that right. The more colleagues get to know about your hobbies and passions outside of work, the more satisfied you’re likely to be at work — and the more your colleagues and superiors will support you in those endeavors.
Biggest drivers of CPA career satisfaction
| Attribute |
Score on scale of max = 4.0 |
| Ample career opportunities for those not on the partner track. |
3.73 |
| Colleagues and superiors aware of my hobbies and passions outside of work. |
3.67 |
| Firm takes my side over client's side if it means loss of revanue. |
3.66 |
| Colleagues and co-workers respect my time. |
3.63 |
| I have a good variety of work responsibilities and client mix. |
3.62 |
| My firm speaks to/warns clients about inappropriate language/behavior. |
3.56 |
Sources: Tri-Merit Specialty Tax Services, Accountants Forward, HB Publishing & Marketing Co.
This may be a surprise, but our research found the attributes in the table above seem to drive career satisfaction even more than working for a firm that:
- Promotes work-life balance (3.54).
- Give staff the flexibility to work from home as needed (3.46).
- Has a culture that freely shares knowledge across the organization (3.43).
- Has a diverse and inclusive culture (3.40).
- Does not require staff to track their time (3.37).
- Has a mentor/mentoring program (3.37).
As you can imagine, we’ve received plenty of questions about our findings from accounting firm recruiters, HR directors and partners.
Predicting who’s most likely to leave before they actually do
“While there have been countless efforts to take the pulse of the accounting profession and to determine what's causing the talent pipeline shortage, we wanted to look at the problem the way life insurers or risk management professionals would tackle it,” said HB Publishing founder, Hank Berkowitz, who helped compile and analyze the data. “Could we construct actuarial models to predict sub-segments of the CPA profession most likely to leave and to encourage firms to help those individuals before they enter the ‘high risk stages’ of their career?”
The answer is yes.
One of the most significant findings of our survey was that mid-career middle managers — senior managers and manager level staff — were the accountants
least satisfied with their careers overall. For instance, only one in four senior managers and only one in six manager-level staff were highly satisfied with their work. Verbatim feedback from respondents is still coming in, but one theme that keeps surfacing is that mid-level managers feel squeezed from both ends.
They don’t seem to have enough junior staff to handle basic level work and they have too many partners above them making unreasonable demands on their time, while not providing them with enough mentoring or career support.
Just one in eight respondents with six to ten years of experience told us they felt highly satisfied in their career, compared to half of respondents who had less than five years of experience, or more than 11 years of experience.
CPA career satisfaction by years of experience
| Experience level |
% highly satisfied in their career |
| 5 years or less |
50% |
| 6 to 10 years |
13% |
| 11 years or more |
51% |
Sources: Tri-Merit Speciality Tax Services, Accountants Forward, HB Publishing & Marketing Co.
In addition to mid-career dissatisfaction, we found similar angst at midsize firms (about 25 to 99 employees). According to our survey, just one in three respondents at midsize firms felt satisfied with their career, compared to more than half of respondents at large firms and nearly three in five respondents at small firms.
Need for mental health resources
Finally, the stress on those in the middle seems to be exacerbated at firms that don’t make employees feel comfortable asking for mental health and wellness resources. This gap exists at firms of all sizes but seems most acute in the middle.
Percent of respondants who "strongly agree" they're comfortable asking for mental health resources at their firms
| Resource |
Small firm CPAs |
Midsize firm CPAs |
Large firm CPAs |
| Long-term illness/disability |
44% |
29% |
48% |
| Stress management |
31% |
12% |
15% |
| Mental health |
29% |
12% |
16% |
| Burnout prevention |
20% |
4% |
14% |
Sources: Tri-Merit Speciality Tax Services, Accountants Forward, HB Publishing & Marketing Co.
When it comes to mental health, I’ve found midsize firms are likely struggling with mental health awareness because they're in the awkward teenage stage in which they're not adults yet, but not happy-go-lucky kids either. They’re struggling to find their identity. They're trying to compete with the big firms, but they're losing some of the close-knit culture and nimbleness they enjoyed as a small firm.
As the culture shifts to “just pump out the work” mode, they may be forgetting about the people who helped the firm grow into its current level of size and prestige. They may be forgetting about making mental and physical health resources available for their people as they focus so much on growth and profitability.
Conclusion
Everything about putting your people first leads to increasing the satisfactions of those who work in the profession. If you would like a copy of the summary findings,
please contact me.
Randy Crabtree, co-founder and partner of Tri-Merit Specialty Tax Professionals, is a widely followed author, lecturer and host of “The Unique CPA” podcast.
