A Snapshot of our Australian Accounting Profession’s Performance in 2022

This year’s cohort of participants in our June 2022 Charge Rates & Salaries Report, released earlier this month, gave us some real hope for improved performances in some of the regularly monitored benchmarks, although there still does remain some challenges.

Some highlights from this report include:

• Profitability has continued to improve, most notably in QLD Suburban and WA City firms, although NSW City and SA Suburban practices reported lower profitability on the prior year
• Notional productivity was mostly on the climb with the exception of SA Country, as well as WA City and Suburban firms
• The magnitude of proposed salary increases was higher than the prior year, but unlikely to meet staff expectations
• Raw growth remains negative for most regions, but some slight improvements were found, most noticeably in WA City firms
• WIP and debtors ageing has continued the trend of improvement, although VIC Country and SA Suburban firm continue to lag behind with 100+ days lock up
• Earn and recovery rates remain strong, despite increased write offs in WA, QLD and NSW City firms, as well as SA Suburban practices
• Average hours worked per week continues to decline
• Average staffing numbers are quite mixed across the regions with some reporting negative changes in staffing, whilst other regions report some more significant increases
• Probably not surprisingly, but most definitely unfortunately, average staff costs continue to rise
• Typical fees for most common services continue to increase somewhat, particularly in WA City firms, with the exception of SMSF audit fees
• Average tax lodgement size was generally higher in most regions

To obtain your copy of this report, and these latest results for use within your EOFY reviews, click here. It remains possible to participate to receive your personalised individual report, or simply purchase the report without having to provide data.