Have there been any significant regulatory developments in Brazil over the last 12 months?

No. There were no significant regulatory developments in Brazil over the last twelve months.

How would you describe the health of the accounting industry in Brazil in terms of customer demand, fee pressure, and staff recruitment and retention?

Over the past few years, we’ve had development on professional regulation and monitoring of best practices, continuing education, and digitalization of accounting information. But, there is still a lack of regulation and monitoring of the professional practices, as most of the companies are not obligated to have an audit review of the information and so the accounting professionals of such companies do not practice best practices in delivering a service that is informational/strategic driven, but only driven for fiscal purposes, so, we see a lot of errors and misstatements on accounting information and advisory for companies. This way, there is a huge demand, but this demand has been picked up by unprofessional/low-standard firms, which causes fee pressure. Staff recruitment and retention have been also facing difficult times, as we’ve seen a decrease in the number of students (caused by the economic crisis after the pandemic and on diverging of interest for the profession).

Are there any service areas where demand has grown over the last 12 months?

We have noticed an increase in the demand for mid-sized companies that are looking for more professionalized services such as BPO, ERP implementation, mapping of internal controls, and audit reviews.

Has there been any significant consolidation or merger activity in the accounting profession?

No. There has not been such movements in Brazil as the economic situation is still facing the results of the pandemic, so there is a retraction of the strategies of consolidation and merging for accounting firms.

What are your expectations for the next 12 months - are there any potentially significant developments in the pipeline?

In Brazil, after the election, we are expecting to see growth in the agricultural industrial and commercial markets, as well as the return of the consuming power of the population. It will result in more investment, more transactions, and increased development of new companies, markets, the commencement of start-ups and the need to develop the areas of finance, accounting, and audit projects on the growing companies.