By Elizabeth Krisher, CPA

Many industries post-pandemic have been wrestling with staffing shortages. But the accounting profession, particularly CPAs, are at a whole different level of drought. Generational retirements coupled with dropping college enrollments and fewer CPA Exam takers has the profession considering bold actions and collaborative efforts to alleviate the dearth of accounting talent.

On July 31, 2023, the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) formed the National Pipeline Advisory Group (NPAG) to help develop a broad, national strategy to better address the accounting profession’s critical talent shortage. I have the honor to have been named to the group, and I am proud to both serve the profession in building a brighter future and to be the representative of Pennsylvania’s CPAs and make sure your voice is heard at the table.

While only existing now for a few months, with four in-person meetings and numerous video calls, we’ve accomplished a lot of study from more than 800 different stakeholder inputs from across the profession. We presented during the mid-October 2023 AICPA Council meeting, where council members shared their views and encouraged us to think boldly about attempts to define, quantify, and solve persistent talent shortages. Following Council, NPAG also held conversations with other stakeholders, including American Accounting Association (accounting educators), National Association of Black Accountants, the Center for Audit Quality, and nine state society CEOs and chairs. This group of nine included me and Jennifer Cryder representing Pennsylvania. Throughout the process we in the NPAG have been committed to being thorough, unbiased, data-driven, and inclusive.

NPAG has identified five life stages to focus on to help rebuild and repair the talent pipeline:

• Precollege
• College to graduation
• CPA Exam takers
• CPA licensing
• One to five years experience

In these eras along the pipeline journey, the NPAG has identified leak points – those intersections when we lose the most potential talent. Some of these intersections are when younger generations say no to the idea of pursuing accounting, when college majors opt out of accounting in their degree pursuit, when accounting majors fail to sit for or pass the CPA Exam, or when licensed or near-licensed professionals leave the CPA track after beginning work. To date, we have been having honest discussions and tough debates to identify the most impactful leak points and what their root causes might be. By identifying these causes, we are preparing solutions to share with the CPA community.

I can’t say we have any definitive, formal solutions yet, but we are on-track to release our draft report in May. We are discussing concepts to modernize the CPA license, substantial equivalency, and a host of other leak-point fixes.

While the NPAG is a national effort, the PICPA too is focused on repairing and building out the CPA pipeline. In addition to our Pennsylvania CPA Foundation student outreach efforts through Accounting Career Days and our commitment to high school, college, and CPA Exam scholarships, we have done our own research in this area through our Insights program. PICPA members now have access to our Insights white paper on students’ perspectives on the accounting profession. The entire research paper is available online for members to read and use in their talent strategies.

I am excited about the steps we are taking and the willingness of the profession to come together to solve the biggest challenge the profession has faced in our lifetimes, if not ever.

An NPAG-generated national survey regarding feedback and the prioritization of solution ideas is slated to be tested with stakeholder groups beginning in January 2024, with a national launch scheduled for mid-April 2024. We are hoping we can count on all your voices to be heard in this survey.

Elizabeth Krisher, CPA, CGFM, is chair and CEO of Maher Duessel in Pittsburgh and 2023-2024 PICPA president. She can be reached at bkrisher@md-cpas.com.

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^{Statements of fact and opinion are the authors’ responsibility alone and do not imply an opinion on the part of the PICPA's officers or members. The information contained herein does not constitute accounting, legal, or professional advice. For actionable advice, you must engage or consult with a qualified professional.}