Today's Features
SPECIAL

The CPA PE Playbook: Private Equity 2026 Outlook & Strategy Guide

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The Definitive Guide to Private Equity’s Transformation of the CPA Profession

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By CPA Trendlines Research

The accounting profession is changing faster than at any time in its modern history—and private equity is driving the shift. More than $30 billion in new capital has entered CPA firms since 2020, igniting a powerful wave of consolidation, modernization, and strategic reinvention. Firms that once relied on incremental growth and traditional partnership structures are now operating as high-performance platforms built for scale, technology adoption, and national reach.

The CPA PE Playbook is the most comprehensive analysis available today on this historic transformation.

If you want to know where the profession is heading, how PE-backed firms are competing, and what it will take to thrive in the next decade, this is the report you need.

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ACCOUNTING INFLUENCERS

Small Firms Can Outsmart the Big Four on AI | Accounting Voices

Agility, transparency, and judgment matter more than billion-dollar platforms.

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

The Big Four are spending billions on artificial intelligence, cutting thousands of jobs, and reshaping how accounting work gets done. That scale can feel intimidating—especially if you’re running or working inside a small or mid-tier firm.

But here’s the counterintuitive truth explored in a recent episode of Accounting Voices:
The Big Four aren’t winning because of their budgets. They’re winning because of their discipline.

This episode breaks down what smaller firms and ambitious professionals can borrow from the AI strategies of PwC, KPMG, Deloitte, and EY—without trying to copy their scale.

The lesson is clear: clarity beats capability, and governance beats gadgets.

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GROWTH STRATEGIES

How Your Tech Stack Fuels Your Growth

Key components and how to optimize them.

By Jackie Meyer

We have discussed how solid systems and processes can streamline your operations and boost efficiency. Now, it’s time to delve into the specific technologies and software that can truly transform your advisory practice and propel your growth. We’re going to talk about building your tech stack – the collection of tools that work together to support and automate your workflows.

MORE by Jackie Meyer
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Embracing the right technology can elevate your one-person or small firm into a powerhouse that feels much larger. When done right, tech removes drudgery, reduces errors and creates a client experience that’s smooth and modern. On the flip side, ignoring tech or using outdated tools can hold you back, limit your growth and eat away at your time. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen!
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CLIENT SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES

Process Is Key to Remote Work

Woman leading meeting, flipchart in background

Your team and your clients both win.

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

With the right people in place, empowered to work independently, and proper access to the tools that are necessary to get the work done, process comes next.

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Creating process is important in any business if you want to scale, but it is imperative when it comes to remote work. Process helps streamline things, reduces confusion and makes your team more efficient and productive.
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FEATURED VIDEO

Kepczyk: Technology IS the New Business Model | Gear Up For Growth

Firm leaders can no longer ignore this conversation.

This is a preview. The complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, 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!

Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher
For CPA Trendlines

Technology is no longer something CPA firms use to get work done. It’s what defines how firms compete, scale, attract talent—and increasingly, how they’re valued.

That was the clear, unambiguous message from Roman Kepczyk, director of Firm Technology Strategy at Rightworks, during his recent appearance on Gear Up for Growth, hosted by Jean Caragher.

Gear Up for Growth spotlights the best strategies for smart and effficient growth in today’s competitive landscape. More Gear Up for Growth every Friday here.|  More Capstone Conversations with Jean Caragher every Monday | More Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | More CPA Trendlines videos and podcasts here

With nearly 30 years spent advising CPA firms of all sizes, Kepczyk didn’t mince words: firms that fail to standardize, automate, and strategically invest in technology are already falling behind—whether they realize it or not.

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ABOUT US

Bissett Bullet: Rapport Is The Ultimate Tool

Today’s Bissett Bullet: “How easy or difficult it is for an accountant to write a powerful proposal document is often dependent on how well the initial meeting with the prospective client went.”

By Martin Bissett

If I had a penny for every time somebody had reported a new business meeting they had attended and said to me, “Martin, you don’t understand, there was just no client need. I’m not sure why I was there, I could see no opportunity.” All these three phrases are code for “I did not find the need,” “I did not create strong empathy and rapport,” “I did not put together a compelling commercial argument for that business to work with our accounting firm.”

If this is true of your client meeting, you will find a proposal very difficult to write because you will be competing on the fronts of price, geography and likeability rather than a return on investment, which is the front we should be fighting on.

Today’s To-Do:

When reviewing your next quote or proposal document read it from the client’s perspective before you present it to them and see if YOU would buy from you. If not, can you identify an opportunity you missed to build rapport? Bear it in mind for the future.

See more Bissett Bullets here

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ACCOUNTING ARC

Return Season is the New Stress Test | ARC

E-commerce growth forces firms to rethink accruals, margins, and sustainability.

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
With Liz Mason, Byron Patrick, and Donny Shimamoto
Center for Accounting Transformation

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

Holiday shopping has never been easier. With a few taps on a smartphone, consumers can buy gifts from bed, track deliveries in real time, and return unwanted items with minimal friction. But behind that convenience lies a complicated accounting reality—one that came into sharp focus during a recent episode of Accounting ARC.

MORE Accounting ARC: Small Firms May Have the Biggest Advantage in 2026 | 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

Hosts Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA; Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP; and Liz Mason, CPA, examine the financial, operational, and environmental consequences of e-commerce returns, using the holiday season as a lens to explore broader shifts in consumer behavior and business sustainability.

Industry research shows that nearly 25% of e-commerce purchases are returned after the holidays, compared with less than 9% of in-store retail purchases. For accounting teams, that disparity introduces volatility into revenue recognition, inventory valuation, and profitability forecasting—often at the worst possible time of year.

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OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Outlook 2026: Can Tax & Accounting Payrolls Keep Surging to New Highs?

Record High: Tax and accounting industry hits 1,163,600 jobs, an annualized growth rate of 2%, and a new all-time high.

By CPA Trendlines Research

The full tax and accounting industry—which includes accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll services—has hit a new record high with 1,163,600 jobs, representing an annualized growth rate of 2%, which is measurably stronger than the year-over-year 1.23% gain, according to new data examined by CPA Trendlines. But a choppy economy and political volatility have accountants and observers alike wondering if the trends can continue in 2026

MORE Staffing and Pay Trends

CPA offices managed to add 1,700 jobs over the past year, keeping the segment on a slow but positive trajectory. Employment at offices of certified public accountants is holding steady at 544,300 positions, matching the month-before figure. The revision from the previous estimate of 544,600 marks a modest 0.06% downgrade. The year-over-year trend improved slightly to 0.3%, up from 0.2% in the prior report. READ MORE →

SPECIAL

Outlook 2026: Higher Tax Prices, Rising Strains, and a Widening Gap Among Firms

The 2026 filing season will have an increasingly uneven pricing structure.

Busy Season Barometer: Most tax practices remain clustered below $1,500 in typical annual client fees. A smaller, higher-priced tier is emerging, characterized by minimum fees, selective client retention, and a stronger willingness to raise rates. Dig deeper, and the reality is even more nuanced.

By CPA Trendlines

Top-priced tax practices are driving typical annual client fees toward $3,000 and above this year, according to the CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer survey, underscoring how rising costs are pressuring most firms even as a smaller group gains pricing power through scale, selectivity, and tighter engagement control.

JOIN the Busy Season Barometer survey. Get the results. | MORE TAX and PRICING

One CPA respondent put it bluntly: “We are raising rates again this year. Some clients will leave. That’s fine. We can’t keep doing $400 returns when staff wages keep rising.” Another practitioner described a more selective approach: “We didn’t raise everyone equally. We raised prices where the work was painful and left simpler clients mostly alone.”

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MARKETING & SALES

Seven Questions for Making Your Practice Better

Older businesswoman pondering, seated by window

If you’re not the best, what are you?

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

There is only one person who can make your practice better. That person is you if you are a sole practitioner. If you are a multipartner firm, then it’s up to all the partners and senior staff. Let’s explore how you get your firm to the next level.

MORE by August J. Aquila
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Do you tolerate mediocrity? Tolerating mediocrity is the death of many good firms. Whenever and wherever you see it in your firm, stamp it out fast. Here are some questions to ask yourself and your partners to see if you are hanging on to what’s comfortable rather than stretching yourself and your partners to truly excel.
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CLIENT SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES

Blake and Pryor: From a $550K Tax Bill to Near $0 | Big 4 Transparency

Integrated planning, not heroics, creates life-changing outcomes for clients.

This is a preview. The complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, 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!
.

Big 4 Transparency
By Dominic Piscopo, CPA
For CPA Trendlines

What happens when you fuse a CPA firm with a wealth advisory under one roof and design the operations from a blank page? In this two-guest episode of the Big 4 Transparency, host Dominic Piscopo sits down with Owen Pryor and Steve Blake, managing and senior managing advisors at Evans May Advisory, the sister firm to Evans May Wealth Advisory. Their premise is simple and radical: serve the client with unreasonable hospitality, align wealth and tax strategy, and deliver family-office convenience to high-net-worth families and growing owner-operated businesses. 

MORE Dominic Piscopo | MORE Private Equity | MORE Pay & Compensation

Pryor and Blake describe a system built on proactive data sharing (with client consents in place) so the firm, not the client, chases documents, coordinates advisors, and executes. The impact shows up in small, high-leverage wins (e-paying taxes and killing paper vouchers, physically banking clients’ mailed checks twice a week, fully recording receivables) and in headline outcomes (structuring a family-farm sale from an estimated $550,000 tax bill to near $0 through planning; spotting missed depreciation and back-catching via Form 3115; introducing lesser-known international strategies like ICDIS where relevant). The result is relief for clients and measurable ROI that converts conversations into scope. 

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ABOUT US

Advisory Opportunities Expand as FICA Tip Credit Rules Shift

Advisory Revenue Strategies: Navigating the New FICA Tip Credit Landscape with Jody Padar – Register | Learn more

Webinar with Jody Padar, Jan. 16 – Register | Learn more

By CPA Trendlines

A major shift in the federal FICA Tip Credit framework is opening new advisory revenue opportunities for accounting firms, as lawmakers and regulators move to redefine who qualifies for the long-standing payroll tax incentive.

CPE Webinar: “Advisory Revenue Strategies: Navigating the New FICA Tip Credit Landscape.” With Jody Padar. Jan. 16, Noon ET. 1 CPE. $49.50. Register | Learn more

Those changes will be the focus of a Jan. 16 webinar led by Jody Padar, CPA, titled “Advisory Revenue Strategies: Navigating the New FICA Tip Credit Landscape.” The one-hour session runs from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. ET.

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MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Negotiating a Merger? Remember These Three Factors

Hand drawing a rainbow-colored 3

BONUSES: Smaller firm to larger, 25 questions to ask and 17 data points to request.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Mergers: Your Complete Guide

There are always three intangible factors that greatly influence the extent to which merger terms and issues are negotiable:

MORE by Marc Rosenberg
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1. Negotiation ability of each firm. Some people are “tough” negotiators, continuously trying to impose their will on the merger partner, while others are more malleable and tend to go along with whatever the other side wants.
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MARKETING & SALES

Why You Might Struggle with Selling

Businessman with head in hands

Accountants need to reframe their thinking.

By Martin Bissett
Business Development on a Budget

Let’s take a look at the last 20-plus years of my experience and my research as to where new clients come from in an accounting practice. I don’t think there are going to be too many shocks here.

MORE by Martin Bissett
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What I’ve found is that 82 percent of all new clients in a given year who come into an accounting firm come in from a referral source. This may be a bank or a lawyer or some other source, perhaps an existing client, who has recommended that a particular business meet with your firm and come on board as a client.
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