A survey of more than 200 accounting firm leaders across 31 states, conducted by the Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs in 2025, found a tension that most managing partners recognize immediately: 75% believe their firms will need the same or more staff to meet future demand, while 52% simultaneously expect their firm to be at least 20% smaller in the next five years. Both things can be true. The profession is not contracting. It is restructuring, and the regional accounting firm that understands what that means for its talent model is better positioned than the one still trying to win the old game.
The managing partners who navigate this well are not simply hiring faster or paying more. They are rethinking what their firm needs, what makes it worth working for, and how to reach the professionals who belong there. Here is what that looks like in practice.
What the Regional Accounting Firm Is Actually Competing Against
The competitive landscape for a regional CPA firm has changed in ways that require an honest accounting of what you are up against. At the top end, national and super-regional firms are acquiring market share through consolidation. BDO’s acquisition of Horne LLP added 1,300 employees and significant geographic reach, per Bloomberg Tax’s October 2025 analysis. Forvis Mazars, created through the BKD and Dixon Hughes Goodman merger, instantly became a top-ten firm. These combinations are not just about revenue. They are about talent acquisition. Every time a regional firm merges into a larger platform, the local talent pipeline that firm was feeding narrows.
At the bottom end, the corporate finance market competes for the same accountants your firm recruits. A tax manager at a regional CPA firm is a credible candidate for a tax director or controller role at a mid-size private company. Those companies often offer higher base salaries, better work-life balance during off-peak periods, and equity or profit-sharing that public accounting cannot match.
In the middle, Winding River Consulting’s 2025 analysis of accounting firm leadership challenges identified the strategic position clearly: with consolidation moving firms upstream, many mid-market businesses lack a trusted advisor as large firms increasingly prioritize enterprise-level clients. That gap is the opportunity. But capturing it requires a firm that can staff the client work, which requires a talent strategy that is working.
The Regional Accounting Firm Talent Problem Is Structural, Not Cyclical
The CPA firm talent shortage that managing partners are navigating is not a temporary hiring cycle. The PICPA’s 2025 workforce report found that 71% of firms only have a basic training and development program or none at all, and only 6% rate their advisory training programs as highly effective. Those firms are not just underprepared for today’s market. They are actively creating the conditions for continued attrition.
The CPA pipeline problem is well documented. The AICPA’s 2025 Trends Report found that accounting degree completions have fallen significantly over the past decade. First-time CPA exam candidates dropped from 42,626 in 2023 to 28,082 in 2024. The professionals most likely to leave public accounting are often the ones regional firms most depend on: tax managers and seniors in their fourth and fifth years who have enough experience to move into a corporate role and enough frustration with busy season to consider it.
The PICPA data makes this tension visible: 75% of firm leaders expect the same or greater staffing demand, while 52% expect to be at least 20% smaller. Both of those things can be true simultaneously if firms shift from volume hiring toward precision hiring, developing staff more intentionally, and keeping the people who are already there.
The article on what the CPA shortage means for your accounting firm’s hiring strategy covers the supply-side dynamics in depth. The shortage is not going away. The question for managing partners is whether their firm is adapting to it or waiting for conditions to improve.
CPA Firm Staffing Model: What a Regional Firm Actually Needs to Build
The CPA firm staffing model that fits a regional accounting firm in the current market looks different from the one most managing partners inherited. The old model was built around volume at the entry level and promotion through an attrition-based pyramid. The new model that firms are moving toward, which the PICPA describes as an inverted pentagon structure, emphasizes precision hiring at every level, specialization that retains people by giving them meaningful work, and technology integration that reduces the volume of repetitive work that drives burnout.
For a managing partner thinking practically about what this means, it breaks into three decisions. The first is the entry-level approach. Firms that are succeeding are not just hiring accounting graduates. They are bringing in candidates from adjacent disciplines who can contribute specialized skills as the firm moves toward advisory services. The PICPA report found that the most critical skills for entry-level staff to develop are financial data analytics and visualization, followed by proficiency with AI and cloud-based accounting platforms.
The second decision is mid-level retention. This is where most regional firms hemorrhage talent and where the firm’s culture, career pathing, and comp structure determine whether it can hold onto people past year four.
The third decision is senior hiring. This is where the article on how to evaluate CPA recruiting firms becomes directly relevant. When you need a senior manager, practice leader, or experienced tax professional who is currently employed elsewhere, finding them requires a recruiter who knows the passive candidate pool in your market.
Regional Accounting Firm Hiring: What Gets the Right Candidates to the Table
Regional accounting firm hiring that works in this market requires the firm to have something worth talking about and to communicate it specifically rather than generically. The managing partner who tells a recruiter to find a tax manager without articulating what makes the firm worth a move is asking the recruiter to do a job the firm has not done.
The brief has to answer the questions a qualified passive candidate actually has. What is the firm’s niche and market position? What does the career path look like for a tax manager who performs? What does busy season look like, and how does that compare to peer firms? What is the compensation structure, including path to partnership?
The accounting firm retention data reinforces this. CPA Practice Advisor’s November 2025 research found that for the 73% of public accounting professionals planning to stay in their current roles, work flexibility is the primary reason, followed by positive culture and manager relationships, professional fulfillment, and compensation, in that order. A firm that cannot compete on flexibility or culture is starting the conversation at a disadvantage that additional salary does not fully offset.
I put together a full breakdown of how managing partners at regional firms can build a recruiting and retention approach that fits the current market in the CPA Firm Talent Playbook, available for download at insidefinancesearch.com/cpa.
The Build-or-Merge Question and What It Means for Talent
The regional accounting firm decision that sits behind every hiring conversation in 2025 is whether to build independently or merge into a larger platform. Bloomberg Tax’s October 2025 analysis found that growth-minded regional firms face two options: invest in new technology and people, or partner with a firm that has already done that. For many managing partners, the choice between those two paths is not purely financial. It is a talent question.
A firm that cannot hire and retain the people it needs to grow its advisory practice will find the merger path increasingly attractive, because the talent problem does not solve itself. A firm that invests in a clear career path for staff, a competitive comp structure, and a recruiting model that reaches passive candidates in its market has more options, including the option to grow independently.
Winding River Consulting’s 2025 analysis found that the $50 million regional firm is in a genuinely difficult position: too big to stay small but too small to compete with billion-dollar PE-backed consolidators on compensation, technology infrastructure, or brand recognition. The firms in that position that are winning are the ones that have defined a clear strategic niche and built a talent strategy around that niche rather than trying to compete broadly.
CPA Firm Growth Hiring Strategy: The Decisions That Actually Move the Needle
The managing partner who is serious about building a regional accounting firm that can compete for talent over the next five years has a finite list of decisions that actually matter. The compensation structure has to be current. Public accounting salaries for tax, audit, and assurance roles rose 3.7% year over year according to Robert Half’s 2026 Salary Guide, well above the 2.1% average increase across the broader finance and accounting field. A firm that has not updated its pay bands in two years is offering 2023 comp in a 2026 market.
The career path has to be explicit and honest. High performers in their third and fourth year are evaluating whether partner is realistic for them at your firm, on what timeline, and under what conditions. Firms that can have that conversation specifically keep more of their mid-level talent than the ones that leave it vague.
The public accounting talent shortage means that passive candidate outreach is the primary sourcing strategy for senior hires. A managing partner who needs a senior manager or practice leader cannot afford to wait for applications. The right person for that role is currently employed at a competitor and selectively taking calls from people they trust. The article on what regional accounting firms are doing differently to win the talent war covers the specific differentiation strategies that are working in this market right now.
Conclusion
The regional accounting firm in 2026 is navigating a more complicated talent market than it has faced in a generation. Consolidation is reshaping the competitive landscape. The CPA pipeline is contracting. Corporate employers are recruiting the same mid-level professionals your firm needs. And the traditional hiring model is no longer adequate.
The PICPA’s 2025 data captures the tension: 75% of firm leaders say they need the same or more staff, and 52% expect to be significantly smaller. Resolving that tension does not require more hiring. It requires better decisions about who to hire, how to develop them, how to keep them, and how to reach the senior professionals who can lead the firm’s growth.
If you are working through a staffing or hiring strategy decision at your CPA firm right now, Royal Search Group places senior accounting professionals at CPA firms on a direct-hire basis. Reach Michael Hill directly at michael@royalsearchgroup.com.