Following last month's flicker of hope, our Accountants Confidence Index moved even more firmly into positive territory for both the short-term and the mid-term.

The ACI, created in partnership with ADP, is a monthly economic indicator that leverages the insights of accountants into the strength and prospects of businesses in the U.S. Both the 3-Month and 6-Month ACI readings for this month rose even higher above 50, which is the divider between growth and contraction. The 3-Month ACI came in at 52.39, up from 50.01, while the 6-Month ACI hit 53.47, up from 51.53.

The continued upward movement reflected continued increases in most of the index's components, to the point where the only component that remains below 50 is the short-term expectations for the U.S economy as a whole.

The ACI is created from a monthly poll of the Accounting Today Executive Research Council, an online community of more than 1,500 tax and accounting professionals, who are asked to provide their estimates of the growth prospects of their own firms, their small, midsized and large business clients, and of the U.S. economy as a whole. Their responses are weighted and averaged to produce the ACI.

For more on this month's ACI, watch our Executive Summary.