The Year Ahead: 2022 in numbers

December 2, 2021 9:00 AM

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In order to see what CPAs and accountants believe 2022 has in store for them — and what they have in store for it — Accounting Today conducted its annual survey of firms of all sizes in late October and early November, polling professionals on everything from their growth expectations to their plans for tech spending, their use of social media, the new services they're offering, and what they expect to happen with the pandemic.

In addition, as part of our "Year Ahead" project, a nationwide panel of leaders from across the profession share what they expect 2022 to bring the accounting profession here.

This year's survey reached 325 firms in late October and early November. For the data below, small firms are those with up to $200,000 in revenue; midsized firms have up to $1 million in revenue; and large firms have over $1 million.

AT-120121-Year Ahead - Growth expectations for 2022 CHART

Overall expectations for revenue growth were roughly the same as in last year's survey, though there was a slight shift to optimism, with 18% of firms expecting growth in the high single digits, versus 12% last year, and 20% expecting growth of between 1 and 3%, versus 24% who expected that last year.

AT-120121-Year Ahead - Growth expectations All sizes CHART

Small firms were much more likely to expect flat or declining growth in 2022 — but were also more likely to expect double-digit growth.

AT-120121-Year Ahead - Tax Season 2022 Expectations CHART

Survey respondents were slightly more resigned about the coming tax season, with 42% expecting it to be much the same as the 2021, versus 34% in the previous survey.

AT-120121-Year Ahead - End of COVID Pandemic CHART

Well more than half of accountants expect the effects of the pandemic to continue throughout 2022, versus the 49% who expected it to continue through 2021 in last year's survey.

AT-120121-Year Ahead - Top Issues for 2022 - ALL CHART

"Pandemic-related issues" dropped out of the top ranks of things keeping accountants up at night, but otherwise this year's list was very similar to last year's. The only issue that is size-specific is staffing; it's at the very top of large firms' concerns, but not a worry for small and midsized ones.

AT-120121-Year Ahead - New services for 2022 CHART

Overall, firms seem less interested in adding new services in 2022; only one area attracted double-digit interest — cannabis.

AT-120121-Year Ahead - Time Spent on Clients CHART

For all the talk of the move to advisory services, accountants still spend the least amount of client time working on them — they spend slightly more on administrative work like billing, and gathering data and documents, and almost twice as much on compliance.

AT-120121-Year Ahead - Time spent on clients firm size breakdown CHART

Interestingly, large firms actually a higher-than-average percentage of their time on compliance work, but not at the expense of advisory services — they make up the difference by spending less time on administrative work.

AT-120121-Year Ahead - Time spent on clients INCREASE 2022 CHART

Many firms — particularly large ones — expect to increase their focus on advisory in 2022, but interestingly, many also expect to increase the amount of time they spend on compliance work. To make up the difference, they expect to decrease the amount of time they spend on client administrative work.

AT-120121-Year Ahead - Where staff is working CHART

Far fewer employees are working remotely now than in 2020 — only 14%, versus 37% last year.

AT-120121-Year Ahead - Where staff will be CHART

While the vast majority of firms expect their staff dispositions to remain the same, fully a quarter expect to see an uptick in the number of hybrid workers, as staff are called back into the office for at least some days of the week.

AT-120121-Year Ahead - Unwilling to hire remote workers CHART

While they may be open to hybrid workers, two-thirds of firms reported that they would not be hiring any fully remote staff going forward; even among large firms, which are usually more open to remote staff, 41% ruled out any future remote hires.

AT-120121-Year Ahead - Technology budgets CHART

For small and midsized firms, tech budgets rose by roughly 2 percentage points from last year — but the budget share spent on tech at large firms actually decreased by 1.6 percentage points.

AT-120121-Year Ahead - Tech Budget change in 2022 CHART

Large firms are much more likely to expect to spend more on tech in 2022, versus small firms, who are much more likely to hold the line.