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Practice management

Accounting in 2024: The year ahead in numbers

By Daniel Hood
December 29, 2023 9:00 AM

With 2024 upon us, it's time — or perhaps past time — to start considering what the new year will bring, and for accounting firms to start making plans about how to grow over the next 12 months.

With that in mind, Accounting Today conducted its annual Year Ahead survey in the late fall to find out firms' expectations for 2024, including their growth expectations, their hiring plans, their growth expectations, how they think tax season will play out and much more. The overall theme: Firms are optimistic about what's ahead, but the year will be marked by ongoing staff shortages and major changes in the way firms operate.

You can see the full report here; a selection of key data points are presented below.

AT-122323- Year Ahead - Growth expectations for 2024
Expectations around growth for 2024 were roughly in line with the expectations firms brought into 2023.
AT-122323- Year Ahead - What percentage of firms are hiring in 2024
Despite persistent staff shortages, firms of all sizes are expecting to add employees in 2024, as client demand and extraordinarily low unemployment rates in the profession create capacity problems.
AT-122323- Year Ahead - How many staff firms are hiring in 2024
While firms are still planning on hiring, the number of staff they plan to hire has dropped significantly from 2023.
AT-122323-Year Ahead - Biggest issues for small firms in 2024
AT-122323 - Year Ahead - Biggest issues for midsized firms in 2024
AT-122323-Year Ahead - Biggest issues for large firms in 2024
AT-122323-Year Ahead - how firms spend their time now
AT-122323- Year Ahead - where firms will spend time in 2024
AT-122323- Year Ahead - Where staff are working in 2024
Firms seem to have settled into a "new normal" in terms of where staff work; they don't expect this breakdown to change much in the coming year.
AT-122323- Year Ahead - Tax Season expectations
Expectations for the coming tax season moderated a bit from last year's survey: A greater number of accountants think it will be the same as 2023 — but then, 2023 was a significant improvement over 2022, so this amounts to a cautious vote of confidence.
AT-122323-Year Ahead - Plans for putting clients on extension in 2024
Nonetheless, the long-term trend of stretching more of tax season beyond April 15 continues, with a third of firms expecting to put a quarter or more of their tax prep clients on extension.
AT-122323- Year Ahead - Making staff work Saturdays in tax season
One aspect of tax season continues to improve: The percentage of firms requiring staff to work every Saturday during busy season dropped again, from 40% last year to 34% this year. (Each year, roughly 35% of staff either don't have to work Saturdays at all, or don't have to work Saturdays if they complete all their work.)
Daniel Hood
Editor-in-chief, Accounting Today
Practice management Tax season Recruiting
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