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As health care costs and life expectancy rates rise, CPAs should ensure their clients are preparing for the potential need for long-term care.

Twenty percent of respondents said their firm or company has warned employees against the unauthorized use of generative AI at work.

Accounting and finance departments are hoping to diversify their workforce, especially with the ongoing shortages of young accountants joining the profession, but one segment of the population that's often left out of the discussion on diversity, equity and inclusion is "neurodiverse" or "neurodivergent" people.

Although stress in public accounting is unavoidable, especially during the busy season, excessive amounts can be dysfunctional for both individual CPAs and their firms. Prolonged exposure to high levels of stress can lead to psychological symptoms of depression and anxiety. Stress-related illnesses can decrease performance, generate health problems for individuals, increase group health premiums for organizations, increase absenteeism, and increase turnover. CPA firms can proactively address these stress-related costs by recognizing the drivers of the stress and tailoring responses accordingly.

While women have been making strides in accounting, they still tend to be underrepresented in top leadership roles and face issues related to pay equity and work-life balance. Women leaders have been negatively impacted by a recent decline in public trust, too.

You may have seen a news story about one of the many tax credits that have been proposed during session this year. Maybe it was related to a topic you support and as you read you were surprised to see that the Montana Society of CPAs was the lone opponent to the bill. So why is the Society opposed to tax credit?

It is no secret that nonprofit organizations have historically struggled to recruit and retain quality accountants, controllers, and CFOs. That struggle is about to get worse.

The future of accounting education has been a topic of concern for the profession’s leaders for years in the light of demographic shifts, competition for talent, and declining enrollments. The authors, following up a previous article on the subject, take another look at trends in enrollment, hiring, and sitting for the CPA exam. The authors fear that without major changes—more flexibility in education and licensing, higher salaries, and greater work/life balance—these trends will continue in a negative direction and imperil the future of the profession.

The recent CPA Evolution Project represents the accounting profession’s attempt to transform the CPA licensure model to fit the skills and competencies that new CPAs will require today and in the future. It marks the most significant change to the Uniform CPA Examination in many years. This article describes the changes to the structure and content of the exam, assesses the likely impact of the changes, and discusses how universities will need to adapt their curricula to new exam.

As auditors navigate the financial waters ahead, what challenges might exist and how can you best prepare for 2023? Using a data-driven approach through the Enhancing Audit Quality initiative, AICPA & CIMA have identified possible issues and ways to overcome them in four main topics: risk assessments, single audits, auditor's reports and technology-enabled auditing.

Is your accounting firm taking steps to protect against a cyberattack? If not, you may be putting your firm’s future at risk. On average, cyberattacks cost companies $4.24 million in 2021, up from $3.86 million in 2020. On top of that, an estimated 60 percent of small businesses go out of business within six months of a cyberattack.

It is widely understood that job stress can lower job satisfaction and performance while increasing feelings of stress and burnout. This is especially true in public accounting—a profession notorious for its high levels of job stress. For decades, employers have considered stress management an individual responsibility that employees should handle on personal time. Recent research suggests that there may be a more effective strategy. Active workplace interventions that help employees build resilience may help firms to effectively lower employees’ susceptibility to job stressors, retain valuable staff, and improve productivity. In fact, enhancing employee resilience levels can have a powerful protective effect against three common causes of job stress: role overload, role conflict, and role ambiguity.

With inflation at nearly a 40-year high, the Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday that interest rates will increase for the calendar quarter starting Jan. 1, 2023.

Many initiatives have tried to solve the perennial problem of attracting more students to become CPAs. The author believes more innovative approaches are required, such as the creation of “step” certifications that one could complete on the path to full CPA licensure. The proposal is for creation of two new “pre-CPA” accounting licenses candidates could earn during their college studies. These new licenses would enable candidates to earn formal credentials and work as professionals in CPA firms and elsewhere while completing the requisite 150 college credit hours for full CPA licensure.

In recent years, declining enrollment in accounting programs has made attracting more high-achieving students into the major and then into the professional pipeline a matter of critical importance. To that end, the authors have developed a project to bring practitioners into the classroom where students can get to know them, understand their skills and experiences, and be inspired by all that an accounting career offers. The authors’ experience has indicated that these encounters with practitioners leave a lasting impression on students and can lead more young people into the accounting major and profession.

With new technologies come new forms of assets and, eventually, new rules for the regulation and taxation of such assets. Beyond the current frontier lies the land of the digital assets—cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens, and the like—that have become increasingly popular over the past several years. This article covers the basics of digital assets, with a focus on the valuation and taxation of digital currencies.

The accounting profession is seeing a lot more of Gen Z, the first digital native generation to enter the workforce. These young professionals, who were born after 1996, will make up 30% of the workforce in just a few short years. To successfully attract, recruit, and retain this talent pool, employers need to understand the unique attributes and preferences of these young professionals who have come of age in a rapidly changing and technological world.

Clients who are charitably inclined may have different ideas on giving. Depending on where the funds are coming from, it may impact one or more of the six main areas of a comprehensive financial plan.

We have all been there, stretched to our limit working too many hours trying to accomplish too much. After awhile you get a headache, take some aspirin, and go back to work. Last month MTCPA member Ryan Jordan was having one of those days… but it took a turn for the worse.

Investors, creditors, and other users of financial information are increasingly looking beyond audited financial statements when making investment decisions. The culture in the United States and around the globe is shifting towards environmental and social issues, and reexamining how corporations are addressing these priorities. This and other non-GAAP reporting is expanding, with virtually no generally accepted guidance and little assurance. The reports are not comparable, are prepared using multiple guiding frameworks, and are generally un-audited. The accounting profession must address the relevance of these reports and the reliability of this new information.