The Accounting Podcast by Blake Oliver & David Leary

May 02, 2026 KPMG Lays Off 10% Audit Partners, Best AI Still Fails 1/5 Accounting Tasks

What does it mean when Big Four partners can be demoted—and AI still gets 1 in 5 accounting tasks wrong? Blake and David unpack KPMG’s audit partner cuts, EY and KPMG’s quiet partner demotions in the UK, PwC’s return-to-office push, and why firms like Decimal are rethinking tech-driven bookkeeping. They also debate AI’s limits in accounting, explore the future of CPE after a surprising Nasba warning, and explain what these shifts mean for accountants building their careers.

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Chapters

(00:00) - TAP 485

(01:47) - Bookkeeping Market Shakeup

(02:38) - Decimal Pivots to Franchising

(05:31) - AI Accuracy Reality Check

(07:57) - Inventory Counts Still Human

(10:28) - H&R Block Goes Year Round

(11:55) - AI CEO Experiments and Limits

(16:34) - Earmark Sponsor and NASBA Letter

(21:37) - Context and CPE Reform Debate

(26:11) - CPE Checkbox Culture

(28:11) - Fixing CPE With AI

(32:07) - Live Chat and Teams CPE

(34:37) - Sponsor OnPay Break

(35:51) - Big Four Partner Cuts

(41:27) - AI Predicts Misstatements

(43:31) - Sponsor Fishbowl Break

(44:55) - Where Accountants Are Missing

(48:39) - 150 Hour Rule Changes

(49:19) - Wrap Up and Thanks

Show Notes

The Best AI Model Still Fails 1 in 5 Accounting Tasks

https://www.cfo.com/news/the-best-ai-model-still-fails-1-in-5-accounting-tasks-Claude-Opus-OpenAI-GPT/818100/

DualEntry AI Accounting Benchmark (Claude Opus 4.7 Results)

https://www.dualentry.com/blog/claude-opus-4-7-accounting-ai-benchmark-results

The Least Glamorous Side of Accounting That Still Can't Be Automated

https://controllerscouncil.org/the-least-glamorous-side-of-accounting-that-still-cant-be-automated/

Decimal Sells Its Accounting Firm to Franchise the Operating System Behind It

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/decimal-sells-its-accounting-firm-to-franchise-the-operating-system-behind-it-302753690.html

Collective Acquires Open Ledger to Accelerate All-in-One Financial Solution for Solopreneurs

https://www.axios.com/pro/fintech-deals/2026/04/22/collective-open-ledger-acquisition

H&R Block Wants to Be More Than a Tax Company

https://fortune.com/article/hr-block-tax-year-round-financial-adviser-fintech-innovation/

An AI Agent Takes Over a Store and Orders Too Many Candles

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-23/an-ai-agent-takes-over-a-store-and-orders-too-many-candles-mobwrfw2

Customers Bank CEO Uses AI Clone on Earnings Call, Signs OpenAI Deal

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/27/openai-partners-with-customers-bank-in-push-to-automate-finance.html

KPMG Lays Off 10% of US Audit Partners

https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/kpmg-lays-off-10-of-us-audit-partners

KPMG and EY Demote Partners in End of Job-for-Life Model in UK

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/work/2026/04/24/kpmg-and-ey-demote-partners-in-end-of-job-for-life-model-in-uk/

PwC Tells Remote Tax Staff to Get Their Butts Into the Office

https://www.goingconcern.com/pwc-tells-remote-tax-staff-to-get-their-butts-into-the-office/

PwC Pays $166 Million to Settle HK Evergrande Audit Probe

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-23/pwc-agrees-to-pay-166-million-to-close-evergrande-probe-in-hk

Predicting Material Misstatements Using Machine Learning (Phys.org summary)

https://phys.org/news/2026-predicting-material-misstatements-machine-learning.html

Is Your State Running Low on Accountants? (Sam's List Accountant Shortage Index)

https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2026/04/21/is-your-state-running-out-of-accountants/181991/

Kentucky Passes CPA Licensure Modernization Bill

https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/kentucky-passes-cpa-pathway-bill

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Get in Touch

Thanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.

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