As a firm owner, I can honestly say the accounting talent crisis has felt like a swift kick in the teeth these last few years. I remember sitting in college, hearing professors talk about how accounting was a super safe career path – high demand, looming labor shortage, job security for days.
And I thought, “Aww, how cute. I’m gonna be set for life.”
Plot twist: being on the employer side of that “labor shortage” isn’t exactly the fairytale I was promised.
What It Feels Like to Be an Accounting Employer Right Now
Let me paint you a picture. Imagine:
- Watching your best people get poached by tech companies throwing money around like it’s Monopoly cash.
- Seeing competitors get cozy with offshoring while you’re still pacing around the edge of the pool, unsure if you want to jump in.
- Paying skyrocketing wages just to keep people, while clients stare at you blankly when you suggest raising your rates.
It’s terrifying. And expensive. And did I mention terrifying?
But the problem isn’t just that fewer people are going into accounting while the demand keeps climbing. It’s also that the entire accounting world is shifting, and colleges haven’t caught up.
Enter CAS (Client Accounting Services): The Accounting Track No One’s Teaching
CAS is the fastest-growing part of the accounting profession right now. And guess how many colleges in the U.S. have a CAS-focused track?
(crickets) ……… Bueller?
That’s right. None that I know of.
Tax? Yep.
Audit? All day long.
CAS? Not even a whisper.
And for firm owners like me – where CAS is our whole business – that gap hits hard. We can’t recruit from colleges because students have literally never heard of CAS. They don’t know the tech. They don’t have the skills. They haven’t been trained for the jobs that actually exist in the real world.
And let me just say this, loudly, for the people in the back: CAS is what small business accounting looks like everywhere.
I don’t know the exact percentage, but for every tax pro or auditor out there, there are at least 20 accountants running the daily numbers for small businesses.
(Okay, I made that number up on the spot, but it feels right, right?)
I graduated from a top-tier accounting program 14 years ago, and not once did I see QuickBooks.
Not. Once.
What in the muffin were we even doing?
So, I Decided to Do Something About It
After running a CAS firm for 10 years and hiring over 150 accountants, I’d had enough. I knew the skills people needed. I wanted to get to students before they graduated.
(Also, if we’re being honest, I wanted first dibs on the talent pool.)
So, I teamed up with Professor David Waite at Utah Valley University to create a CAS class from scratch.
David is what I’d call a rockstar professor. He cares deeply about adding real value to his students. He hangs out at accounting conferences, which is where I met him, instead of hiding out in his cubicle, languishing in his tenure.
He didn’t just want to tweak an existing class; he threw the whole rulebook out! He formed an advisory board of firm owners (including yours truly) to figure out what the industry actually needs. Then he invited me and Dan Luthi, partner at Ignite Spot, to co-design and co-teach the curriculum.
“The Game of UrbanEdge”: Making Accounting Hands-On (and kinda fun?)
We built the class around a case study we called The Game of UrbanEdge. It spanned the whole semester and walked students through real-life tasks:
- Accounts receivable
- Accounts payable
- Bank feeds
- Prepaid expenses
- Car loans
- Fixed assets
- … the works!
Students had to:
- Set up a QuickBooks file
- Reconcile accounts
- Close the books
- Post closing entries
They also practiced consulting, learned business lingo, and got QuickBooks ProAdvisor and Bookkeeping certified.
And guess what? It worked.
The Results? Honestly, They Were Kind of Amazing
Before the semester was even halfway through, students were already landing clients and new jobs. They were excited about accounting. (Yes, you read that right!)
They talked about discovering a career path they didn’t even know existed. They got real skills. They asked great questions. And they left with actual, marketable experience.
The Bottom Line
Accounting needs a revolution. And it’s not going to come from another tax prep class. It’s going to come from brave collaborations between colleges willing to shake things up and professionals ready to roll up their sleeves and jump in.
Let’s make accounting cool again. Let’s show students that CAS is where all the cool kids hang out. (We have spreadsheets AND snacks.)
Because the future of our profession depends on it, and also because I’d really like to stop getting kicked in the teeth.
Want to collaborate on the next wave of accounting education? Or just want to know more about this class? Let’s chat. I’ll even bring muffins.
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