Financial reporting enters a new age

The Financial Accounting Standards Board Thursday published long-anticipated new guidance on how companies must account for internal-use software costs, with the new rules coming roughly one year after the FASB proposed the guidance on the project that grew out of a 2021 agenda consultation. The new rules are effective for annual reporting periods beginning after Dec. 15, 2027.

The amendment to what is formally known as codification Subtopic 350-40—Goodwill and Other—Internal-Use Software, applies to computer software which is developed or purchased for the organization reporting it. The update guides companies to capitalize software costs in cases where an internal project is both deemed likely to be completed and also is authorized and has funding committed by management.

The changes aim to make the guidance in those scenarios easier to follow by removing previous guidance’s references to project stages. “The new ASU addresses changes in software development methods, increasing the operability of the recognition guidance for improved financial reporting,” FASB Chair Richard R. Jones said in a statement in the release.

The relatively narrow new guidance details when companies should begin capitalizing costs on certain types of software, including software as a service, software for back-office internal systems, or even cloud platforms developed by tech companies, but the grouping would not include licensed software, CFO Dive previously reported.   

Back in March of 2024, the U.S. accounting standards setter backed away from pursuing a more substantial revamp of its existing generally accepting accounting principles that would have created a single model to account for software, instead voting to keep the current optionality and to pursue a more incremental, “targeted” approach to updating the rules. Lack of interest in bigger change from investors and preparers appeared to cool the board’s interest.

The updated rules will carry some additional costs for preparers, including a one-time expense to update systems and processes, but they could also reduce costs for others. 

“The Board expects that the amendments could reduce ongoing costs (as compared with current guidance) because entities that capitalize less software costs under the amendments will not need to track costs at the same level of detail that they do currently,” the standards update states. 

The new standards update comes as the board is currently in the midst of an agenda consultation initiative aimed at getting feedback on new standards updates that investors and financial report preparers would like to see. Stakeholders have identified several new standard-setting areas of interest, including potential projects related to stablecoins, CFO Dive previously reported.  

The rising use of artificial intelligence inside of the finance function, combined with a growing demand for data-driven insights from the team and expanding cybersecurity as well as economic concerns, is putting a spotlight on the importance of financial planning and analysis talent and modernization, according to results from Protiviti’s 2025 Global Finance Trends Report released Tuesday.

AI usage — notably that of generative AI tools — in the finance function more than doubled from last year, the survey of more than 940 global executive and financial leaders found, with 72% of finance organizations reporting that they are currently using AI compared to 34% in 2024. The growing presence of AI is also leading to a corresponding rise in cybersecurity and data privacy concerns among financial leadership, however, which are also still tasked with navigating ongoing economic uncertainty which can impact profitability — areas where a mature FP&A function plays a critical role.

“It is imperative for CFOs to advance the maturity and sophistication of FP&A from an isolated, spreadsheet-laden capability at the basic end of the spectrum to a more defined, collaborative business process support by robust technology ecosystem tools and resources,” the report states.

The importance of the FP&A function has captured greater attention as executive leaders globally continue to navigate a still-murky economic environment alongside the evolution of technologies such as AI.

The focus on FP&A skills and leadership may also be due to the impact of tariffs, which continue to loom large in the minds of finance chiefs: 62% of survey respondents said they believe the finance organization’s ability to prepare reliable financial reporting and forecasting has been “at least moderately impacted” by new and changing tariffs, Protiviti’s survey found.

FP&A also topped the list of areas that require attention due to the impact of tariffs inside the finance and accounting function, indicated by 39% of leaders surveyed. Companies that need to keep pace with changing tariff and trade policies need to be able to access real-time information about their impact, something that puts more pressure on the FP&A team to deliver.

“The need to lock in the talent and secure it so that you can confidently produce the data that's being increasingly demanded from the main finance organization makes that a logical move,” Christopher Wright, global leader of Protiviti’s CFO solutions and business performance improvement practice told CFO Dive in an interview. 

The survey also found the percentage of full-time FP&A employees rose in 2025, growing to comprise 75% of staff compared to 40% in 2024, where it dropped from 78% the previous year, according to the survey. The three years of data show 2024 figures might have been “more of a blip,” Wright said. 

The share of full-time employee figures for areas across the finance function including accounting operations and general ledger, which appear to have dipped in 2024, have risen to normative levels this year, Wright said. He also noted the figures might additionally be impacted by a demographic shift across survey respondents — respondents from U.S. companies made up a larger share of companies this year compared to the previous year, according to survey methodology, and the makeup of public and private company respondents represented has also shifted.

As well as tariffs, access to swift, accurate reporting has become top-of-mind for finance organizations in the AI age — which, while providing new opportunities, also comes with its own set of challenges.

AI, though it only moved up slightly on CFOs’ list of priorities for the year — moving from number 15 last year to number 13 in 2025 —  has a “strong relationship” across all of the top 10 priorities indicated by financial and executive leaders in the survey, Wright said. That includes the security and privacy of data, which was the number one priority indicated across all survey respondents as well as CFOs, according to the survey.

“CFOs, across all forms of organization, realize that cyber is expensive, it's risky and it's interrelated with a number of the other things they do, such as AI or earnings releases or producing information or protecting the assets of the company,” Wright said.

AI, however, is “also becoming a tool that can be used for FP&A, for strategic planning,” Wright said — something that could help to ease some of the “supply and demand” challenges that have cropped up regarding a shortage of talent in the accounting and finance function.

There’s an “inter-generational partnership that's possible when you think about people entering the workforce who maybe know a lot more about how to operate AI, but they'll be working for people who understand what you should and shouldn't do with it,” he said. That partnership, alongside AI itself, will enable companies “perhaps to attract more people to finance, because they can be accountants and data scientists, and also keep them in finance longer than whatever their typical one to two year trajectory might be,” Wright said.

While finance chiefs may be increasingly interested in tapping stablecoins as part of their treasury strategy or as a way to ease some of the struggles with cross-border payments, “the accounting of this is a really important part of the problem,” when it comes to adoption of such assets, Taxbit CEO Lindsey Argalas said.

Many traditional accounting tools simply aren’t equipped for the volatility of cryptocurrency assets, Argalas said in an interview — and the lack of confidence CFOs have in their ability to accurately account for these assets and remain in financial compliance is a significant barrier to adoption.

In a recent survey by Big Four firm Deloitte, price volatility, tax considerations, and “complexities around accounting and controls” were all cited as top barriers to crypto adoptions by CFOs — even as 39% of CFOs at companies with more than $10 million in revenue anticipate using crypto within the next two years.

Opening the gate

Attention on cryptocurrency, particularly stablecoins — digital assets with their valuation tied to that of another asset, typically a fiat currency —  has sharpened this year as the Trump administration has taken numerous steps to cultivate a friendlier relationship with the crypto industry. That includes the ratification of the GENIUS Act, a regulation that creates guidelines for issuers of stablecoins and that many experts have hailed for clarifying regulation of the cryptocurrency industry, CFO Dive previously reported.

That clarity is a critical part of the continued adoption of stablecoins and other crypto assets, Argalas said. Such assets have remained on the fringe in the past because public companies or other highly regulated institutions “don't operate in a state of ambiguity,” Argalas said. “The risks were too high.”

Argalas has served as the CEO for the tax and accounting service since 2022. Before joining San Francisco-based Taxbit, she served as a senior advisor for data networking company Plaid, with previous roles including a four-year span as chief digital and innovation officer, senior EVP for Banco Santander, according to her LinkedIn profile. Her experience also includes a near-decade at software firm Intuit, in roles including SVP, chief of staff to its chairman and CEO.  

The passing of legislation such as the GENIUS and CLARITY Acts has reduced the risk of crypto assets, opening the door for more companies to start experimentation, she said.

“Once you start having institutional adoption — very trusted institutions, whether it be large banks, large payment companies, what have you — as they start leaning in, then obviously that gets the flywheel going,” she said.

Accounting and tax questions still linger, with regulations and reporting standards surrounding cryptocurrencies still taking shape.

In July, the Financial Accounting Standards Board identified stablecoins as a topic of interest for future projects, CFO Dive previously reported. Meanwhile, the next set of rules developed by regulators will likely focus on accounting guidance determining “what is legal tender, what is not, what is treated as cash and cash equivalent, what is not,” Nassim Eddequiouaq, CEO and co-founder of stablecoin issuance platform Bastion previously told CFO Dive. 

Looking ahead to future industry oversight, “I do see the regulators also trying to take lessons learned from the traditional financial services framework,” Argalas said.

For example, looking to tax information reporting, the global standard for digital assets — the Crypto Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), created by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) — is similar to, and taking lessons from, the OECD’s Common Reporting Standard (CRS) which is its fiat equivalent, she said.

Green shoots appear  

Argalas expects CFOs will approach crypto adoption methodically — as will the financial institutions that will help facilitate cross-border payments via crypto.

“So many of these financial institutions are very complicated, multifaceted” and have multiple lines of business, she said. “So I think [adoption] will not be wholesale; it will be very, very calculated moves.”

As more top executives begin to examine the potential uses of cryptocurrencies, “we’re starting to see the green shoots” of an expected convergence between traditional finance and the cryptocurrency space, Argalas said.  

“There's growing enterprise adoption on crypto as an alternative investment strategy,” she said.

Also, the promise of stablecoins for uses such as cross-border payments is now beginning to line up with the maturity of the industry, with more established infrastructure — creating more opportunities for adoption, Argalas said.

The historic inefficiencies of cross-border payments mean stablecoins are “gaining good traction” as a new method among finance leaders, she said, many of which are looking to modernize the whole of the finance function itself.

Balancing growth against risk is nothing new to finance chiefs, but as CFOs look to navigate continuing economic uncertainty, alongside regulatory change, it’s a costly challenge that’s only grown more complex. The size of the governance, risk and compliance solutions market jumped over 14% to reach a valuation of $51.5 billion as of early 2025, as companies seek to hedge against regulatory and economic shifts as well as technology changes and risks, according to an April article by Securify.

In this environment, many finance chiefs are also being asked to cut down on costs amid ongoing pricing pressures, while at the same time, to find the space and resources needed to integrate emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence into their businesses.

That puts many finance chiefs in a bind: while “every CFO wants to leverage the savings associated with enhanced productivity through AI,” they also have to account for the risks that come alongside the technology — which are “enormous,” Raul Villar Jr., CEO of audit and compliance platform AuditBoard told CFO Dive.  

Such risks include everything from false positives or “hallucinations” generated by AI tools, to fraud and cyberattacks utilizing the technology to unsafe practices by employees using the technology. As such, the “number one component of risk that CFOs are looking at today” surrounds where AI sits inside of their organization, Villar Jr. said in an interview.

Unraveling the AI risk tangle

Business and technology leaders have continued to shine a spotlight on AI’s potential, with many looking to tap the technology to help solve some of the challenges faced by continued economic headwinds. AI spending, especially on solutions like “agentic AI” tools that can perform tasks with little or no human supervision, has continued to jump in recent months, with a growing number of companies investing $10 million or more in the tool, CFO Dive previously reported.

In the face of all that attention, there’s “so much pressure for every CFO to be leveraging AI,” Villar Jr. said. If you’re a CFO at a public company, “it comes up on every public call. If you're [in] a private company, your board is definitely asking you. It's top of mind,” he said.

Villar Jr. has served as CEO for the Los Angeles, California-based AuditBoard — which offers audit and compliance software — since July of this year, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to the platform, he served as CEO for Paycor and also serves as executive chair for business management software provider Simpro. Past roles also include a 21-year span at human resource software company ADP, where he held a number of positions including serving as its SVP, sales, major account services.

As finance chiefs mull the potential return on investment of AI, however, the risks — and potential costs —associated with the technology are looming large in their minds as they seek to navigate a host of economic and regulatory challenges, including potential shifts to how AI itself is regulated.

That means CFOs have to strategically “pick their spots” when it comes to investing and integrating AI tools into their organizations, Villar Jr. said. To do so effectively, they don’t need to just understand AI capabilities and their associated risks, but the data that is being fed into the technology and the risks associated with those data sources, he said.

Keeping the focus on data

As AI becomes more commonplace inside of businesses, CFOs will face a twofold challenge: they will need to ensure the security of the data being fed into emerging AI tools, while also being able to quickly parse the insights they need from that data, he said.

“Protecting your data is critical, but turning data into insights is probably the most important thing a CFO has to learn to do because we've all gotten accustomed to a certain data layer…that [companies] report on,” he said.

As the technology matures, CFOs should approach their AI investment decisions similarly to how they approach headcount decisions: “It’s just another lever to pull from a productivity perspective, but each function is different and you're going to have to pick winners and losers within your firm and test and manage quickly,” Villar Jr. said.

A California bill (AB 1175) which creates an alternative path to getting a certified public accountant license, is headed to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk after the state’s Senate passed it on Tuesday, according to a social media post made by the California Board of Accountancy which also said the governor now has 30 days to sign the bill into law. 

The legislation drew unanimous support from the Senate floor, passing after the third reading, according to the California legislature’s site. The legislation was previously passed by the State Assembly on May 5, with 70 votes in favor, zero opposed and two legislators listed as NVR, which stands for “no vote recorded.”  

In keeping with the surge of CPA licensure reform laws adopted this year, California’s new rules would enable applicants to satisfy licensure requirements via a new route which includes completing a bachelor’s degree, two years of work experience and passing the CPA exam. If signed into law, the new requirements are set to go into effect Jan. 1, 2027, while the existing pathway that includes 150 college semester hour credits, a year of experience and passing the CPA exam would sunset on Jan. 1, 2029, according to a July analysis of the bill. 

The number of state legislatures that have acted to provide alternative routes to obtaining a CPA is inching close to the halfway mark. 

By year’s end, California along with Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York are among those that have been considered likely to put similar CPA pathways legislation on the books, bringing the total number of states with the new laws from the current 21 to 25 by year’s end. Like California, New York’s law gained legislative approval but awaits signature by the governor. 

California’s bill has been closely watched by advocates of the licensing policy initiative because the state’s laws are expected to impact many companies and candidates there and help boost the momentum of the licensing changes.   

“It’s exciting to see,” Eric O’Link, board chair of the Minnesota Society of CPAs, which helped lead that state’s early championing of the licensing change as a solution to the accounting talent shortage, said in an interview Wednesday. “It helps to have big states.” 

The bill will not only remove the 150 hour college credit rule, which is effectively a fifth year of post-secondary education that some candidates don’t have: O’Link said it also will make it easier for CPAs to work across state lines if more states have aligned with the new rules.

California’s new legislation would also change the requirements that out-of-state CPAs need to meet to allow them to practice in the state. 

“This bill revises the current practice privilege in California by eliminating the current requirement for the [California Board of Accountancy] to determine that a CPA whose principal place of business is not in California have ‘substantially equivalency’ with educational requirements along with the practice experience, and instead simply accept a license issued in another state as authorization,” an August analysis of the bill states. At the same time, CPAs practicing in California will still be required to be employed through a company registered with the California Board of Accountancy and meet certain other requirements. 

The California Board of Accountancy and the California Society of CPAs did not respond to requests for comment.  

The state’’s bill made it through the senate in the nick of time. If it had not done so by Sept. 12, the legislation would have had to have been reintroduced next year, CFO Dive previously reported. 

Keep up with CPA licensure changes with CFO Dive’s tracker on the topic here.

Colorado is delaying — by about five months — implementation of its comprehensive artificial intelligence law, which was enacted last year and originally set to go into effect on Feb. 1, 2026.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, signed a flurry of bills on Aug. 28 including one that changed the effective date of the controversial Colorado Artificial Intelligence Act to June 30 of next year. Passage of the bill came after state lawmakers failed to reach agreement on changes to the law during a special legislative session.

“This delay gives Colorado lawmakers another chance to amend the law in the 2026 regular legislative session, which starts in early January,” attorneys at global law firm Reed Smith said in a blog post. “Whether the legislature will be able to reach a consensus on amendments in 2026 remains to be seen, as stakeholders intended to amend CAIA in the 2025 regular legislative session in time for its original effective date.”

The move comes amid a growing national debate over AI laws that are piling up at the state level, creating a complex patchwork of requirements for businesses.

“CAIA has been the subject of fierce debate since its passage, with four different amendments proposed just during this summer's special legislative session,” according to the blog post, which was penned by Abigail Walker, a Reed Smith associate, and Tyler Thompson, a partner at the firm. “In addition to local disagreement about how CAIA would impact businesses, Colorado lawmakers have also been feeling pressure at the federal level.”

The Trump administration is threatening to withhold federal AI funding from states with burdensome rules on the technology.

An AI action plan unveiled by the White House last month calls on the Office of Management and Budget to work with federal agencies that have AI-related discretionary funding programs to ensure they consider a state’s AI regulatory climate when making funding decisions.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has gone further than his own plan, calling for a federal AI standard that “supersedes all states.” 

Last month, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce released survey findings showing that nearly two-thirds (65%) of small businesses were worried about compliance and litigation costs that could result from being subject to different state laws on privacy, AI and technology, an increase of 14 percentage points compared with a 2024 poll.

Colorado AI’s statute stands out for its breadth and comprehensiveness, analysts say. The law requires businesses to adopt risk management programs for high-risk AI systems, including impact assessments, oversight processes and mitigation strategies.

A central goal is to mitigate the risk of algorithmic discrimination caused by the use of AI resulting in “unlawful differential treatment” of individuals or groups based on a protected class such as age, race or religion.

According to Reed Smith’s blog post, the law’s biggest impact will be on human resources departments that have integrated AI tools into hiring processes, “a practice that has permeated all industries.”

“With the delayed effective date, businesses have more time to develop a compliance strategy, and may see some relief in the form of an amendment if lawmakers and stakeholders can reach a consensus in 2026,” the attorneys wrote.

The accounting talent shortage that has hamstrung the industry and many finance teams in recent years — and sparked a nationwide groundswell of support for Certified Public Accountant licensing reform — is showing some signs of easing.

The rising use of automation and generative artificial intelligence that make it easier for finance teams to complete work faster and with fewer people, along with companies’ growing appetite for outsourcing accounting to firms in such countries as the Philippines, are driving the shifts in the accounting labor landscape, according to Jack Castonguay, an associate professor of accounting at Hofstra University in New York. 

“We started to see easing within the last 12 months,” Castonguay said in an interview, noting he had incorrectly believed that the shortage would persist longer but AI adoption has progressed faster than anticipated.

Layoff angst

Signs that the power may be beginning to shift toward accounting employers have bubbled up even as the most recent data available on U.S. accounting employment show slight gains in the workforce: As of May 2024, the number of workers employed as accountants and auditors in the U.S.rose to 1.448 million, from 1.435 million in 2023, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

But sentiment gauges of the industry outlook are gloomier. Layoffs are looming larger in the minds of workers in accounts payable departments, according to a survey of 588 AP professionals conducted in May and released Tuesday by AvidXchange and the Institute of Finance and Management.

Nearly half (45%) of respondents said they fear layoffs compared with 27% in 2024. In preparation for potential job loss, 59% of respondents said they were learning new skills including technology, while 53% are taking on “stretch” projects and 33% are earning an advanced degree.

Separately, a report from the Controllers Council on the findings from a survey of finance and accounting executives conducted from May to July states that “despite the hype about accountant shortages,” just over half (53%) of respondents reported no shortages. One third (33%) reported minor shortages, while only 10% saw “significant” shortages. 

The survey also found that overall pay increases during the past 12 months fell to 3.5%, one percentage point below the year-over-year rate in 2024. 

Meanwhile, there’s concern that there will be fewer lucrative jobs at a Big Four firm that many accounting graduates pin their hopes on landing right out of college. PwC plans to cut college graduate entry-level hiring of tax and assurance associates and auditing over the next three years, Business Insider reported Aug. 21. A PwC spokesperson declined to comment on the report.

Word of the forward-looking cutbacks comes on the heels of a steady drip of layoffs by some of the largest accounting firms during the past two years or so. For example, in June of 2023, KPMG said it was laying off about 1,950 employees, or roughly 5% of its workforce, with cuts extending across all of its business, including, tax, auditing and advisory services, CFO Dive previously reported. 

“I think the biggest takeaway...is PwC's intention to hire less straight out of college in 2028,” Omar Roubi, an instructor of accounting at the University of Colorado Denver, said in an email. “This could mean a tightening of the accounting labor market or it could mean they are looking for more experienced individuals early on and becoming less dependent on new hires with the advent of AI.” 

Countervailing supply-side winds

In addition to technology’s impact on the demand side of the talent equation, there’s a supply-side driver that could whipsaw the workforce in the coming years: longstanding concern around a shrinking pool of college students choosing to major in accounting and enter the profession has led to a push to change CPA licensing requirements to make the process less onerous.

This year to date, at least 22 states have passed laws that provide alternative paths to becoming a licensed CPA that don’t require 150 hours of college credit, typically offering optional routes that substitute extra professional experience for a fifth year of post-secondary education.

By year-end, half of all states are expected to do so, and experts forecast most states will be on board within roughly two years. The countervailing forces have some in the industry scratching their heads. 

“I’m still struggling with the bigger picture...Automation and offshoring are handling more of the routine in financial reporting, leaving American CPAs responsible for the complex, judgment-heavy work,” Jeffrey Hulett, a part-time faculty member who teaches personal finance at James Madison University wrote on LinkedIn Wednesday. “Yet current proposals to reduce licensing requirements seem to lower the bar for knowledge and competence —precisely when the market most relies on it.”

Industry-wide shortage gives way to pockets

To be sure, the accounting shortage remains a real concern for many employers and certain spaces in the accounting market. 

“I don’t think we have an industry-wide shortage, I would say we have more of a role-based shortage,” Castonguay said, noting that financial reporting analysts at companies seem to be in short supply and that small- and medium-sized accounting firms are still reporting difficulties finding staff. 

In addition, government entities report continued difficulty filling accounting roles. Cities and towns in states like Minnesota are still struggling to hire staff to complete audits as a shrinking pipeline of new accounting graduates have fallen short of what is needed to replace retiring baby-boomer CPAs, CFO Dive previously reported.

The Controllers Council survey underscored how today’s hiring challenges fall across a spectrum. The roles most difficult to fill were controller and assistant controllers (cited by 34% of respondents), with bookkeeper/financial reporting ranking second (27%) followed by what the report termed a “second tier” of titles including accounts payable (22), technical accountant (19%) accounts receivable (19%) and FP&A (18%).     

The funnel

Still, technology is a demand-side force to be reckoned with in the accounting labor equation. As in many industries across the board, accounting firms and corporate accounting teams have leaned on AI and that has enabled them to shrink their workforce, Roubi said. 

For example, accountants deploying generative AI can upgrade the level of detail of financial reports by 12% and cut 7.5 days off the time needed to complete a monthly close, a study from researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management and Stanford University Business School found, CFO Dive previously reported.

“There is no longer a ‘shortage’ of talent,” Roubi said in an email. “We have grappled for years [with] a pipeline issue in the accounting industry. Now, the funnel at the end of the demand-side is going to shrink due to this leveraging of AI.” 

Looking ahead, Castonguay is optimistic that the accounting labor market will even out. He expects accounting shortages at small- and medium-sized firms to wane as they adopt AI and ultimately pick up the graduates that the constrained Big Four may miss. 

At the same time, he doesn’t expect a glut stemming from the licensing changes. Given that universities are bracing for a demographic-driven "enrollment cliff” as the number of high school graduates declines from its 2025 peak, Castonguay believes the changes in the CPA licensing process are needed and will help build a robust accounting labor pipeline while opening the field to a wider array of students, including minorities that have been shown to be disporportionately affected be the 150-hour rule.

“We’re approaching equilibrium but a lot of levers are being pulled at the same time,” he said. 

To keep up with CPA licensure changes go to CFO Dive’s tracker on the topic here.

Laura LaPeer got bit by the finance bug early, loving the first accounting class she took in eighth grade before going on to hold summer jobs at local accounting firms and then landing a coveted auditing spot at the Big Four accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers right out of college. 

Now LaPeer, a certified public accountant who holds a bachelor’s in accounting from University of Michigan-Flint, is taking her second consecutive CFO seat at an accounting firm, joining the fast-growing UHY after serving as finance chief of Southfield, Michigan-based Plante Moran last month.  

Being a CFO for a group of CPAs who are laser focused on numbers and reports can be a little bit daunting at times, she said in an interview. But in each role she’s taken over her career she’s learned to adjust financial reports to meet the needs of executives where they are. 

For example, while working for nearly 13 years for ProQuest, an information content and technology company, LaPeer focused on translating financial issues so that non-accountants could understand them. “I got very good at not having number-heavy financial updates,” LaPeer said. “At Plante Moran they said, ‘this summary is good but we still need numbers, we’re still CPAs.’”

Working in the finance department for accounting firms, LaPeer has returned to her roots. At PwC, she relished many aspects of public accounting, as an auditor always getting a chance to learn about new companies. Now, taking the top finance role at UHY gives her a chance to return to examining new companies, in UHY’s case looking at companies targeted through mergers and acquisitions.

In December, UHY announced that it had secured an investment from the private-equity firm Summit Partners, which will support its continued expansion that it said would accelerate both its organic and acquisition driven growth. The company at the time was ranked 29th on Accounting Today’s list of top 100 firms. 

Looking ahead, the New York-based UHY, which is at nearly the half billion mark in revenues and has a staff of about 2,000 across the Eastern half of the U.S., has aspirations to rise up the rankings to be in the top 15-20 tier in terms of revenue, LaPeer said. Part of that growth is to be conducted through acquisitions of smaller firms where older CPAs are looking to retire. So far this year, UHY has done three deals.  

While there’s already been a lot of consolidation in the accounting industry, LaPeer, who said she has a seat at the table to pursue the company’s growth strategy, says there’s more to come. “Within five years we want to be peaking over the billion mark,” LaPeer said. “We have a lot of geography left to cover.”

LaPeer is ready to focus on that scaling, while prioritizing centralizing the operations of the growing firm. After operating for years with a regional model, for example areas like payroll need to be addressed so that the pool of dollars for merit raises are linked to rewarding what makes the firm, rather than a given region, profitable. 

“We need to start moving toward the firm’s merit approach ... and getting our partners to be focused more on the firm,” she said. 

Editor’s note: Laura LaPeer will be a panelist at CFO Dive’s upcoming CFO Live 2025 virtual event on Sept. 24. You can register for the free event here.