By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | Skillability for Accounting Firms Last updated: 2026 | 14-minute read The Short Answer (TL;DR) Advanced tax planning seminars are worth attending — for the right reason, which is rarely the reason firms send people. A good seminar (Thomson Reuters TaxWatch University, AICPA conferences,
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By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | Skillability for Accounting Firms Last updated: 2026 | 15-minute read The Short Answer (TL;DR) For a century, accountants learned the profession by doing the grunt work — reconciliations, transaction coding, trial balances — and developing judgment through thousands of hours of hands-on repetition.
12 Jun
How to Reduce Staff Turnover at Your CPA Firm: Why It’s a Training Problem, Not a Salary Problem
By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | Skillability for Accounting Firms Last updated: 2026 | 13-minute read TL;DR — The Short Answer Public accounting firms lose 15% to 22% of their staff annually, and first-year accountants leave at rates of 25% to 35% — the highest of any tenure group.
By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | Skillability for Accounting Firms Last updated: 2026 | 14-minute read TL;DR — The Short Answer The shadowing method — sitting a new hire next to a senior CPA to “learn by watching” — costs accounting firms approximately $9,500 per hire in lost billable
By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | Skillability for Accounting Firms Last updated: 2026 | 16-minute read The Short Answer (TL;DR) Accounting is not a dying profession. It is a splitting one. Three forces are colliding at once — a collapsing talent pipeline (300,000+ accountants left the profession between 2019
09 Jun
How to Turn Order-Taking Tax Staff into High-Ticket Advisory Engines (Without the Recruiting Tax)
By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | Skillability for Accounting Firms Most accounting firm owners are trapped in an expensive, defensive talent game. We look at our existing team and see compliance processors who require constant oversight. Then, when we want to expand our firm’s capacity to deliver lucrative advisory
By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | Skillability for Accounting Firms Last updated: 2026 | 13-minute read The Short Answer (TL;DR) General HR research says a new employee takes 6 to 12 months to reach full productivity — Gallup puts it at around 12 months, other studies at 8 months
By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | Skillability for Accounting Firms Last updated: 2026 | 22-minute read | The definitive guide The Short Answer (TL;DR) Training accounting staff effectively requires a complete system, not a collection of courses: (1) pre-employment skills testing before any offer letter, (2) structured, gated onboarding
04 Jun
How to Hire a Bookkeeper for Your Accounting Firm (Without Paying the Resume Embellishment Tax)
By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | Skillability for Accounting Firms Last updated: 2026 | 12-minute read The Short Answer (TL;DR) The standard bookkeeper hiring process — resume screen, interview, reference check, offer — verifies presentation skills, not bookkeeping skills. That’s why firms keep hiring candidates who “know QuickBooks” on
By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | Skillability for Accounting Firms Last updated: 2026 | 15-minute read The Short Answer (TL;DR) Accounting firms shopping for staff development run into four categories that look interchangeable and aren’t: an LMS (a delivery container you fill with your own content), CPE (license-maintenance education),
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