Although the traditional skills of CPAs are still essential and are keeping most Mississippi CPAs very busy, technology and globalization, as with other professions, is having a substantial impact. It s an exciting, yet apprehensive time, for CPAs. Until recently, accounting has been a male-dominated profession, Levens said. Based on the increase in the number of females in our profession, combined with a declining number of accounting graduates, employers have had to be more flexible in accommodating the needs of employees, he said. Moms may want to work around school schedules, for example, and we ve had to be more responsive with flex-scheduling.
Some firms allow employees to telecommute.
Our firm has 40 employees, so we ve experience in a little bit of all of this. So far, we re very pleased with the results. The American Bar Association made a decision last summer not to endorse or allow MDPs, he said. But it is our understanding that the governing of the bar association is dealt with at the state, not national, level. There s some belief that we ll see accounting and law firms combine practices since national CPA firms are some of the largest employers of lawyers.