Where Did All the Auditors Go?
Understanding the CPA Capacity Challenge and Its Impact on Illinois School Districts
By Matthew A. Geerdes, CPA, MBA
Principal,
Sikich CPA LLC
Many Illinois school districts face challenges hiring accounting and audit staff in their business offices. That shouldn’t be a surprise—it’s tough to find people with the skills applicable to the K–12 industry. That challenge hasn’t diminished over the years of this certified public accountant’s (CPA) 25-plus-year career. What has changed, though, is the number of issues compounding today’s talent troubles.
Have you ever thought about how school districts navigate hiring and retaining staff accountants, be it licensed and experienced CPAs or new staff straight out of college? The reality is that the CPA profession faces a prolonged pipeline and capacity challenge. On top of this, pandemic era funding and recent Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) pronouncements have increased the complexity of auditing school districts. These effects linger as school districts close out audits, resolve prior year findings and adapt to requirement changes. Across Illinois, school districts’ audit requests for proposal (RFPs) are receiving fewer bids or even none at all. Fewer CPA firms bidding, longer engagement timelines and rising costs for financial statement and single audits are just some of the direct impacts school districts are seeing from these challenges.