How Healthy is the Economy? Ask a CPA

Source: The CPA Journal

According to Joanne S. Barry, publisher of The CPA Journal, company leaders often overlook an important “economic bellwether” – their own CPAs. Through their work with clients and businesses, she says, “CPAs are uniquely equipped to provide insight into the health of the larger economy.” To tap these insights, the New York State Society of CPAs recently surveyed almost 600 of its members to ask for their perspectives on the national, state, and local economies. Here are some of the highlights:

• According to respondents, the industries that will play the biggest role in the regional economic outlook are finance (22.0 percent), healthcare (17.9 percent) and high tech (14.8 percent).
• When asked about IT advancements they will take advantage of this year, respondents ranked cloud computing (32.3 percent), securing/improving their companies' database and services (18.5 percent), and remote access (17.0 percent) among their top answers.
• Nearly 74 percent of respondents are familiar with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) – 14.7 percent say they are “very familiar” with the act and 59.2 percent say they are “somewhat familiar” with it. Of these respondents, 67.3 percent believe the ACA will have a negative impact on small businesses, while 52.9 percent believe the act will have a negative impact on large businesses.
• Around one-third of respondents (32.1 percent) reported no change in their clients' ability to pay for services. Almost half (46.8 percent) said that clients are slow to pay.
• More than one-quarter of respondents (26.9 percent) said they expected business conditions in New York State to be better in six months. Well over half (57.1 percent) felt that business conditions would stay the same.
• Sixty-four percent of respondents said they were either “not very satisfied” or “not at all satisfied” with President Obama's economic policies. Twenty-eight percent were “somewhat satisfied,” and eight percent were “very satisfied.”

Click here for an overview of the survey results and here for the complete results tables.

For the complete article, read “CPA Outlook Serves as Economic Bellwether.”

From The CPA Journal, A Publication of the New York State Society of CPAs, December 2012, http://www.cpajournal.com.