Accenture allows carryover of vacation days to boost Q4 sales
Accenture is letting employees carry forward unused vacation days into the next fiscal year, a temporary move starting September 1, 2026.
The idea is to keep more people working as the company tries to push up sales before its fiscal year wraps on August 31.
CEO Julie Sweet put it simply in a memo: "Our shareholders are counting on us to deliver a strong quarter in Q4, everyone can contribute," and "This means we all need to find more ways to serve clients that create more revenue in the quarter and to originate more sales (small, large, mega) to finish strong."
Accenture shares plunged 18% after forecast
This change comes after Accenture saw a 2% drop in new bookings last quarter and forecast revenue of between $17.75 billion and $18.4 billion in the three months through August, missing Wall Street's hopes.
Investors reacted fast. Shares dropped 18% in one day, one of the company's biggest slides ever.
There's also some anxiety about how AI could shake up consulting, even though Sweet called AI a "tailwind" for the business.