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The 45-Minute Problem Scaling Across Tax Teams

These workflows quietly erode firm margins.

By CPA Trendlines

The biggest cost of K-1 inefficiency isn’t always visible on a timesheet. It shows up in missed opportunities, compressed timelines, and rising pressure on already stretched teams.

WEBINAR June 3: From K-1 Chaos to K-1 Capital: Turning Compliance Bottlenecks into Advisory Opportunities

FREE EBOOK Break the K-1 Bottleneck

Consider this: Manual extraction of a single K-1 takes an average of 45 minutes. Multiply that across dozens—or hundreds—of K-1s, and the impact becomes clear. But the real issue goes deeper.

Because K-1 data often arrives late and in inconsistent formats, firms are forced to: reassign senior staff to low-value tasks, rework data multiple times, and delay higher-level analysis and planning

In many cases, the most experienced (and expensive) professionals end up doing manual, administrative work simply because timelines leave no alternative. That dynamic doesn’t just affect efficiency. It affects profitability. Budgets stretch. Margins shrink. And the ability to deliver proactive advisory services disappears under the weight of compliance demands.

PRO Member Exclusive

New Data: K-1 Workloads Reach a Breaking Point

K-1 season isn’t what it used to be.

By CPA Trendlines

What was once a defined window during busy season has quietly expanded into a months-long operational challenge—stretching well into summer and fall for many firms.

New data from K1x highlights just how concentrated—and disruptive—the workload has become.

MORE: Join the June 3 webinar: From K-1 Chaos to K-1 Capital: Turning Compliance Bottlenecks into Advisory Opportunities

Break the K-1 Bottleneck: Download the full guide.

More than 52% of K-1 aggregation work now happens within a three-month window, with over 80% completed within six months. That compression creates a cascading effect: workloads spike unpredictably, timelines shrink under pressure, and teams are forced into reactive mode.

At the same time, delays across the broader K-1 ecosystem—many outside firms’ control—make it nearly impossible to smooth workflows or plan capacity effectively.

The result: A growing mismatch between how firms are structured to work… and how K-1 data actually arrives. That disconnect is becoming one of the defining operational challenges in modern tax practices.

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Bissett Bullet: Three Little Words

Today’s Bissett Bullet: “Which three words would you use to describe your firm and the work you do for clients? If you struggle to give an immediate and instinctive answer, then this would suggest an onward problem in articulating it to clients.”

By Martin Bissett

Why not ask for this input from existing clients? Asking clients what it is you do for them in terms of outcomes will enable you to understand their perception of the firm and what they might say to a potential referral.

This also provides insight into what they value about the service you provide, which is a critical retention tool, especially if they are themselves what you would consider to be your ideal client. Their story and how you’ve helped them can then be leveraged within your marketing messaging to help you attract more Grade A clients.

Today’s To-Do:

Pick up the phone to a Grade A client. Ask them how they would describe you in three words to a fellow business owner and find out which they feel is the most valuable outcome you have achieved for them.

See more Bissett Bullets here

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PODCAST

The Google Playbook for Young Accountants | Accounting Conversations

Networking, timing, and intentional career planning help candidates stand out in competitive hiring processes.

Sponsored by True Advisor: The Definitive Success Guide for Client Advisory Services by Hitendra Patil |
See Today’s Special Offer

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS.
The step-by-step operating guide for firms building, pricing, and scaling advisory services that clients value—and pay for.

Accounting Conversations
With Chayton Farlee
Center for Accounting Transformation

For many accounting students, the profession can seem narrowly defined by tax returns, audit rooms, and busy season deadlines. But according to Mike Manalac, CPA, accounting can also become a pathway into some of the world’s most innovative companies and industries.

In a recent episode of Accounting Conversations, host Chayton Farlee speaks with Manalac about how young accounting professionals can strategically leverage public accounting experience to build careers at companies like Google, Tesla, Uber, and Salesforce. 

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Manalac, an accounting manager at Google, currently leads a distributed team working on Google Search and YouTube advertising contracts. His role involves collaborating with engineering, legal, sales, finance, and compliance teams across the organization.

Farlee, an assurance associate at CliftonLarsonAllen, says conversations like these are important because many students are not exposed to the full range of accounting career opportunities.

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MARKETING & SALES

Eleven Pitfalls of Mergers

two men standing and shaking hands

And three steps for success.

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

The trend for small and midsized CPA firms to merge is accelerating as the competitive environment becomes even more demanding. While hundreds of firms merge every year, history continually shows that at some point in the future, things don’t always work out. Like marriage, some mergers are successful while a great majority fail. Many of the reasons for failure can be avoided if firms do their homework at the front end before entering the merger.

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

 

The merger and acquisition drivers are constantly changing. Some of the drivers we see today are a constantly changing marketplace, the creation of megafirms beyond the Big 4, the sophistication of clients, the high demand for qualified people, technology, the cost of acquiring new clients, and finally, the accounting industry being in a mature market.
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MANAGEMENT

Seven Reasons People Quit Public Accounting

man in suit exiting office building

Better leadership could change this.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Call Me Before You Do Anything: The Art of Accounting

I have written about CPAs who leave public accounting and go to work in private industry. Based upon the comments and emails I’ve received, this is an involved topic and I would like to delve into it further.

MORE by Ed Mendlowitz
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

I was writing about my observations, particularly of many people in their mid-50s I have known who cannot get jobs in private industry after spending a major part of their careers there. Obviously, there are many people with extremely successful careers in private industry and I was not addressing them, but I do consider them to be in the minority. Also, we are all individuals, and we each decide on how we want to work and what we are comfortable with. No one, including me, has any right to criticize them or tell them they should have done it differently.
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PRO Member Exclusive

Who Will Do What by When?

six people around work table

How to implement your firm’s strategic plan.

By Matt Rampe

After laying out major strategic priorities for how the firm can move toward its vision, the natural next step is to refine and define those plans. This is the beginning of the Implement stage, perhaps the most important stage of all.

MORE by Matt Rampe
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

 

FORTUNA ACCOUNTING CHECK-IN

Sal had been at Fortuna Accounting since the beginning, and Bill knew he wasn’t great at accountability. It wasn’t that Sal didn’t want things to be better; it just seemed like he would do a lot of talking without a lot of acting on the things expected of him. With all the work and hopes that had been invested into their strategic planning so far, Bill wanted to make sure it didn’t all go to waste in the execution phase.

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