This Month
Accounting, audit and finance roles added to fast-track visa list
Jobs and Skills Australia has added a range of accounting, audit and finance roles to its list of occupations eligible to apply for new fast-track visas.
- Edmund Tadros
Staff got a nine-day fortnight, but still waste time on one thing
Grant Thornton CEO Greg Keith doesn’t like to see staff, who work a nine-day fortnight, wasting time waiting for everyone to get their coffee before they go back to the office.
- Updated
- Sally Patten and Lap Phan
November
This accounting firm trusts AI only when it’s double-checked
Data experts at Vincents say they need 100 per cent accuracy when it comes to extracting financial data from documents.
- Edmund Tadros
Revealed: Australia’s best accounting firms in 2024
The Financial Review list shows that mid-tier accounting firms reached an unprecedented size as revenue at the big four consulting firms fell to a two-year low.
- Updated
- Edmund Tadros
The big winners as scandal forces big four into retreat
Mid-sized firms such as those run by Steve Meyn of PKF, Jamie O’Rourke of RSM and Annabelle Clare of Walshs had their best year on record as clients move away from out-of-favour big players.
- Updated
- Edmund Tadros
Deloitte made me do it: CEO throws auditor under the bus
A weekend call from the auditors sent the $1.7 billion Web Travel into a spin.
- Anthony Macdonald
Web Travel restates earnings two months after WebJet spinoff
Company boss John Guscic says he’ll explain to investors next week at a postponed results briefing why margins on its global WebBeds business are falling.
- Jenny Wiggins
The fastest-growing firms have one thing in common: AI
BlueRock’s Peter Lalor says the firm is using generative AI across the firm, while McGrathNicol’s Jason Preston is using the machine learning to identify patterns that humans would overlook.
- Updated
- Edmund Tadros
- Opinion
- Top 100 Accounting Firms
Accounting firms bullish about the future
Automation technology and ever-growing demand for advice are keeping the top firms optimistic about the years ahead.
- Theo Konstantas
October
Why accountants won’t become ‘AI’s lapdog’
It was a daunting brief: create a 60-second social media clip that makes accounting great again.
- Edmund Tadros
This top accountant doesn’t eat in airport lounges, with one exception
Tony Schiffmann, chief executive partner at accounting firm BDO, reveals why he schedules all his meetings in the morning, why he doesn’t lunch, and the airport lounge he likes to eat in.
- Sally Patten
AI comes with risk for auditors: report
Artificial intelligence can help auditors in the search for trends and anomalies – but its limitations mean professional judgment is more important than ever.
- Edmund Tadros
- Breaking
- PwC tax scandal
Rules to rein in rogue tax agents poised to become law
The laws are designed to prevent a repeat of the PwC tax leaks scandal and tighten self-regulation of the sector.
- Edmund Tadros
Slow ASX is an insult to traders
Readers’ letters on tardy trade times for investors; outdated management styles at Qantas; Peter Dutton and the ABC; non-uni pathways to accounting; and AUKUS decisions.
Chartered Accountants demands changes to revised tax agent rules
The accounting body fears that proposed laws to rein in rogue tax agents would erode “the relationship between a taxpayer and their agent”.
- Edmund Tadros
September
Cettire gets auditor’s tick of approval, adding $247m to valuation
A month after the online luxury retailer delivered unaudited accounts, worrying investors, Grant Thornton have signed off, sending the share price surging.
- Updated
- Jonathan Shapiro, Joshua Peach and Carrie LaFrenz
The most powerful people in the consulting sector in 2024
As the fallout from the PwC scandal still looms large, smaller operations are moving in on the big four’s turf.
- Edmund Tadros
PwC banned from China for six months and fined record $92m
Chinese authorities imposed a huge fine on PwC and suspended the accounting firm from operating over failures in auditing the collapse of real estate giant Evergrande.
- Trista Xinyi Luo
Degree-free accountants risk undermining profession, unis warn
A proposal to let school-leavers with no degree become chartered accountants risks tarnishing the profession’s reputation, warn leading accounting professors.
- Euan Black
Deal struck on laws to rein in rogue tax agents
The government and accounting industry have agreed to new wording for laws to rein in rogue tax agents to quell industry fears they would have to disclose mental health information to clients.
- Edmund Tadros
