Today's Features
OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

PE, M&A Will Change Local Accounting Firms

Every year, the 2025 Rosenberg MAP Survey asks the industry’s top consultants to share their observations from CPA firms across the country: How do you think the next 12 months will unfold? Trends? Predictions? Other thoughts? Also, how would you assess the last 12 months? Trends? Observations? Struggles?

Staff and partners are ready to move around.

By Art Kuesel
 The Rosenberg Survey

The landscape in public accounting will continue to rapidly evolve as more firms merge upstream or take private equity investments. The next several years will see considerable change in our profession as local firms merge with regional and national firms or take private equity money.

MORE: The 2025 Rosenberg MAP Survey is available from CPA Trendlines here.

And, as outsourcing and artificial intelligence continue to establish and take hold, the training, development and recruitment of talent will evolve.
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PRO Member Exclusive

Five Areas to Make Inroads with WealthTech

portrait of David Knoch
Knoch
 David Knoch has 20+ years of high-profile leadership in the financial advice industry. He joined Docupace as CEO in April 2020 and has spearheaded the company’s strategic transformation – marked by double-digit revenue growth, product/capability expansion, multiple acquisitions and numerous industry accolades.

It’s reshaping the future of holistic advice.

By David Knoch and Ryan George
The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management

Leveraging the power of technology has never been more accessible, or more important, for wealth management firms. As client priorities and goals shift, old delivery models and outdated tools are no longer enough to keep up in the current market.

So how does a wealth management firm differentiate itself? They lean toward technology and embrace the right WealthTech solutions to deliver holistic advice.

MORE Rory Henry and The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management
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portrait of Ryan George
George
 Ryan George is the chief marketing officer at Docupace and a leader in both financial services and marketing communications. He is a member of the Forbes Communications Council, an invitation-only, fee-based organization of senior-level communications and public relations executives and the CMO Council.

 

Read on as we break down the context, problems and solutions of WealthTech in the financial services space.

Why WealthTech?

The last few years have brought a world of change to the financial advice and investment industry. Between volatile markets, shifting client demands and an ever-growing technology landscape, the entire wealth management ecosystem is evolving. READ MORE →

FEATURED VIDEO

Grunt Work Is Dead | It’s Not Just the Numbers

…And accounting careers are better for it. 

This is a preview. The complete 1-hour video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by Poe Group Advisors: Helping accountants buy, build, and sell exceptional firms. See Today’s Special Offer
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Poe Group Advisors consistently excels in helping our clients find the right accounting practice sales opportunity.

It’s Not Just the Numbers
With Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead
For CPA Trendlines

For decades, accounting careers followed a familiar script: grind through repetitive work, earn your stripes, and maybe—eventually—get to the interesting stuff.

That script is officially broken.

In this episode of It’s Not Just the Numbers, hosts Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead tackled one of the most misunderstood shifts in the profession: how artificial intelligence and outsourcing are reshaping early-career accounting work—and why that’s actually good news for graduates and firm leaders.

MORE Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead | MORE Advisory & Consulting | BUY “It’s Not Just the Numbers”

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The big question isn’t whether AI and outsourcing are here to stay. They are. The real question is whether firms will use them to strip away opportunity—or to finally fix a broken talent model.

Let’s be honest: repetitive data entry, reconciliations, and manual cleanup were never great learning tools. They were time-consuming, error-prone, and often disconnected from how firms actually create value.

Yet for years, they were treated as a rite of passage.

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ACCOUNTING INFLUENCERS

The Dark Side of AI No Firm Can Ignore | Accounting Voices

Trust remains the profession’s currency, even in an automated future.

Sponsored by The Balanced Millionaire: The Advisor Edition by Dr. Jackie Meyer | See Today’s Special Offer

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS.
Build a 7-figure firm in just 4 hours a week!

Accounting Voices
With Rob Brown

Artificial intelligence is transforming accounting at breakneck speed. It writes reports, summarizes research, drafts client communications, and accelerates analysis. But when AI gets it wrong, it does not whisper. It declares falsehoods with confidence.

That is the warning at the center of a new episode of Accounting Voices, which pulls back the curtain on real-world AI failures that have already shaken the profession — and explains why no firm can afford to treat AI as a neutral back-office tool.

This is not about hypothetical risk. It is about documented failures, public apologies, reputational damage, and a hard truth every leader must confront: Technology does not absolve responsibility.

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BUSY SEASON MANAGEMENT

Does AI Belong in Tax Practice?

Burnett Says Maybe — If You Know the Rules.

Bradley Burnett: ‘Like handing a loaded gun to a monkey.’

By CPA Trendlines Research

Generative AI is no longer optional for tax professionals—but neither is skepticism.

Veteran tax attorney and educator Bradley Burnett is urging CPAs and tax professionals to engage with AI now, warning that delay carries its own risk. Don’t, he says, “get left behind at the train station,” he says.

LIVE WEBINAR: Is AI Fit for Tax? with Bradley Burnett, Mon, Dec. 29. Register | Learn more

Still, Burnett is unequivocal that AI must be handled carefully. He cautions that tools like ChatGPT amplify the user’s competence—or lack thereof. “ChatGPT in the hands of someone without proper experience and training is like handing a loaded gun to a monkey,” Burnett says, underscoring the professional liability risks of blind reliance. READ MORE →

ADVISORY & CONSULTING

Expertise Turns Suggestions into Decisions

Woman's hand pressing words "ASK AN EXPERT"

The fourth requirement to make clients value your advice.

By Hitendra Patil
Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide

In Advisory-CAS, providing value to clients goes beyond the usual. It involves cultivating a thoughtful and ongoing relationship that’s founded in trust, credibility and tangible results/outcomes.

MORE by Hitendra Patil
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As we have learned so far, as an accountant, you must work diligently to provide advice that is not only timely but also relevant and usable. It’s an absolute must. After all, advice that arrives too late to be useful, does not fit the client’s unique situation, or is overly complicated to put into practice, simply isn’t effective, no matter how well-meaning it may be.

Yet even when advice meets all these criteria, i.e., timeliness, relevance, and usability, there still remains a hidden pitfall that can quietly undermine its value.
READ MORE →

PRO Member Exclusive

True Story: When the Feds Came Knocking

Three tech solutions for protecting client data.

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

Have you ever been contacted by the IRS with the FBI involved? I can tell you from firsthand experience that it’s a bit alarming when that happens!

MORE by Jody Grunden
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We were once contacted by the IRS because they thought our server had been compromised. When the field officer who came to our office asked to see our server, we explained that we didn’t have a server.
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FEATURED VIDEO

Grassi: “How the Hell Did This All Happen?” | Gear Up For Growth

Here’s what it takes to grow a CPA firm from zero to the Top 100—without losing your soul.

This is a preview. The complete episode is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by The Balanced Millionaire: The Advisor Edition by Dr. Jackie Meyer | See Today’s Special Offer

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS.
Build a 7-figure firm in just 4 hours a week!
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Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher
For CPA Trendlines

When Lou Grassi started his firm at age 24, he couldn’t afford to pay himself. There was no client base, no safety net, and no guarantee it would work.

More than four decades later, Grassi is the 56th largest accounting firm in the U.S., with $146.5 million in revenue, seven offices, 58 partners, and more than 560 employees. And yet, as Grassi tells host Jean Caragher on Gear Up for Growth, the most important lessons from that journey have very little to do with size.

They have everything to do with intention.

More Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | More Gear Up for Growth

More CPA Trendlines videos and podcasts here

In this conversation, Grassi reflects on what it takes to build a firm that grows sustainably, treats people like owners, and stays independent in a profession reshaped by private equity, talent shortages, and rapid change.

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GROWTH STRATEGIES

Make Processes Your Superpower

Woman drawing flowchart on a blackboard

Priority codes, onboarding and more ways to standardize your operations.

By Jackie Meyer

Systems and processes are the unsung heroes of any successful business. They bring order to chaos, ensure consistency and free up your time to focus on high-value activities.

MORE: Maximize Impact with Tiered Service Packages | Eight Steps to ROI Pricing | Shift Your Value Proposition from Compliance to Advisory | How Niches Lead to Growth | Vision vs. Mission, and Why You Need One | Ten Questions to Check Your Entrepreneurship | More Revenue in Fewer Hours
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

 

Why Systems and Processes Matter

First, you must build the foundation for a thriving advisory practice, define your vision, identify your ideal client, implement value-based pricing with the ROI Method, and explore the power of tiered service packages. Then, you can focus on the backbone of a scalable practice: systems and processes.
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ABOUT US

Bissett Bullet: Find Common Ground

Today’s Bissett Bullet: “When it comes to meeting with a prospective client for the first time, there is only one way to approach the conversation. As a fellow business owner and human being.”

By Martin Bissett

Your prospect is a business owner, just like you. They have cash flow problems and sleepless nights and clients to service, just like you. This meeting with them is, after all, simply a human interaction between two people. So, be you. Be sincere, be genuine, be empathetic. If you are interested in them and aim to serve them, not to sell to them, then that will resonate and they will reciprocate by opening up and giving you the information you need to find the right solution for their business.

Today’s To-Do:

Prepare a more informal agenda for your next meeting. Have questions that you know you need to ask and the means to record the answers to those questions but remember that a more natural, relaxed interaction will build better rapport.

See more Bissett Bullets here

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ACCOUNTING ARC

Students Redefine “Career Readiness” | ARC – SLC

…And it has less to do with technical skills than firms expect.

Sponsored by The Balanced Millionaire: The Advisor Edition by Dr. Jackie Meyer | See Today’s Special Offer

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS.

Accounting ARC – Student-Led Conversations
With Arpan Grewal and Harshita Multani
Center for Accounting Transformation

Build a 7-figure firm in just 4 hours a week!

As the accounting profession continues to grapple with talent shortages, shifting expectations, and generational change, one podcast is addressing those challenges from a rarely centered perspective: students themselves.

In an end-of-year episode of Student-Led Conversations, hosts Arpan Grewal and Harshita Multani reflect on a year of interviews alongside Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, founder and inspiration architect of the Center for Accounting Transformation. The episode serves as both a retrospective and a case study of what happens when students are entrusted with real platforms and real responsibility.

MORE Accounting ARC: Downgraded: What the DOE Said About Accounting | Savage: Using Your License as a Megaphone |  Baker: Interpreting Pricing Psychology | Don’t Get Fired by Your Own Automation | What Amazon Doesn’t Tell You | Royalties, Residuals, and Reality Checks | ARC-SLC | Free Speech Is a Right; Respect Is a Responsibility | Cash Bags, Casinos & Audits: How First Jobs Shape Us | Gen Z Redefines Careers | Bootleggers, Baptitsts & CPAs: Rethinking Licensure

The idea for Student-Led Conversations emerged after Grewal appeared on an episode of Accounting ARC, where she interviewed seasoned professionals about their careers. What surprised her most was not the technical content, but the personal stories.

“I realized accounting isn’t just about numbers,” Grewal says during the episode. “It’s about people.”

That realization became the foundation for a student-hosted series that explores career paths, mental health, failure, advocacy, and professional identity — topics often absent from traditional recruiting or classroom discussions.

READ MORE →

PRICING, FEES & BILLING RATES

The Three-Step Formula for Setting Your Monthly Fee

Hand moving triangle along beam to indicate balance between price and value

How to create price packages.

By Jody Padar
Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA

Packages are the first step toward productizing your services. Your packages define your services as discrete offerings with defined parameters around what they include and what’s excluded.

MORE by Jody Padar
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The secret sauce to creating a fixed price package with a value add consists of combining several variables:

Deliverables + Client Persona = Well-Priced Packages

Client-Specific Price Point + Market Price Point = Well-Priced Packages

READ MORE →

MARKETING & SALES

The Four Steps of the Personal Marketing Process

Remember we’re in a service business.

By August Aquila
MAX: Maximize Productivity, Profitability and Client Retention

Most new business comes about because of personal marketing efforts. There is a process that your personal marketing efforts need to follow.

MORE by August J. Aquila
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

 

In fact, the only way you will get different results is to change your current marketing process. Let’s look at the four steps in the personal marketing process. READ MORE →