Today's Features
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The 42 AI Firms with $1.23 Billion in New 2026 Funding

Wall Street places big money on both sides of the bet for and against accounting firms.

The top ten of 42 firms identified by CPA Trendlines raise 75% of the new money so far this year.

By CPA Trendlines Research

With $1.23 billion invested so far this year, 42 new AI-powered tech companies, from pre-seed startups to growth-stage platforms, are vying for a place at the table where the future of tax and accounting will be decided.

MORE AITech and Adoption: Buying AI Is Easy. Rebuilding the Firm Is Hard. | Trent Yesberg: How AI Re-Builds Accounting Firms | The AI Demo Is Easy. The Rollout Gets Complicated. | If AI Is Saving Time, Why Are You Still Working Late? | Intuit, Thomson, Wolters Kluwer: Accountants Question AI Promises | David Marquis: AI Can Do More Work but Auditors Must Make the Call | AI Accountants Cut Costs per Task to 21 cents from $10.35 | Your Next Hire Might Not Be an Accountant | “Set It and Forget It” Is Not an AI Strategy | Kenji Kuramoto: When AI Does the Work, What Are Firms Selling?

They’ve captured the serious attention of both the fintech cognoscenti and the tax and accounting avant-garde. Some build the tools that help tax and accounting firms handle more work. Others are taking the other side of the bet, selling tax and accounting services themselves, rolling up firms that do, or selling bookkeeping with no human bookkeepers.

To be sure, the bets are anything but certain.

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ADVISORY & CONSULTING

The Cycle of CAAS-Chasm

silhouette of man leaping from one cliff to another

Client needs evolve with their businesses.

By Hitendra Patil
Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide

Again, what is the difference between CAS and CAAS? Many firms feel stuck in the middle, offering advisory in theory but not in execution. That gap is the CAAS-Chasm. This article outlines the cycle that causes advisory initiatives to stall and helps you recognize the signs in your own firm. It’s the first step to breaking through.

MORE by Hitendra Patil
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Client accounting and advisory services (CAAS) is a fusion of traditional accounting services with advisory services that emerge from core accounting work. Think of CAS as a self-study course and CAAS as a guided workshop, but not necessarily in-person events.

CAAS is (needs to be) customized to individual client needs. CAAS must cater to the evolving demands of businesses in a changing economic, regulatory and technological landscape.
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ADVISORY & CONSULTING

If AI Is Saving Time, Why Are You Still Working Late?

How fast (or slow) are accountants adopting AI? Depends on whom you ask.

Six Surveys. Eleven Answers.

By CPA Trendlines Research

Hourly billing is fading. Advisory is spreading. Artificial intelligence is freeing accountants to do more valuable work.

But agreement may end there.

The meanings of adoption, advisory and the AI dividend are leaving firm leaders with sometimes clashing pictures of how far the change is going.

MORE AI: Gen AI in Accounting: Epic Transformation, or Overheated Hype? | Intuit, Thomson, Wolters Kluwer: Accountants Question AI Promises | Caseware’s David Marquis: AI Can Do More Work but Auditors Must Make the Call | AI Accountants Cut Costs per Task to 21 cents from $10.35 | Your Next Hire Might Not Be an Accountant | It’s Not Just the Numbers

The problem surfaces again in a fresh series of surveys that tell different, even confusing, versions of the same story. One study finds advisory in 57 percent of surveyed U.S. practices. Another puts advisory or consulting at 94 percent in its U.S. sample. A pricing-platform survey finds little hourly billing for particular services. A broader practice-management benchmark finds most responding firms still use hourly billing.

Firm leaders are being shown evidence of progress, but the evidence does not consistently measure the same progress. READ MORE →

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Intuit, Thomson, Wolters Kluwer: Accountants Question AI Promises

At the big three user conferences, AI is changing the rules… again.

Vendors take center stage at user conferences. Logos: Thomson Reuters, QuickBooks, Wolters Kluwer

By CPA Trendlines Research

Over the next few weeks, Intuit, Wolters Kluwer and Thomson Reuters will be gathering their users in Las Vegas and Orlando, each bringing software and strategies that accountants fear could encroach on a firm’s client relationships.

Intuit Connect – Oct. 26-28, Aria, Las Vegas. Client books, monthly close, advisory, agents and the accountant relationship. More than 100 breakouts. Up to 12 CPE credits. Learn more
CCH Connections (Wolters Kluwer) – Oct. 25-28, Grande Lakes, Orlando. Tax and audit production, review, migrations and quality management. More than 90 sessions. Up to 19 CPE. Learn more
Thomson Reuters Synergy – Nov. 16-19, Fontainebleau, Las Vegas. Research, preparation, document workflows and engagement evidence. Combined professional audiences; separate general sessions. Learn more

The gap between firms and vendors provides a lens into the season. Intuit Connect, Wolters Kluwer’s CCH Connections and Thomson Reuters Synergy are pairing agentic AI demos with sessions on pricing, review, staffing and leadership. READ MORE →

CHARTS & GRAPHS

CPA PE Deal Tracker™: The Next Deal Cycle Comes into View

By CPA Trendlines Research

Going into the fourth quarter of 2026, Wall Street’s buying spree for accounting firms is cooling as platform firms digest a two-year surge of acquisitions and the earliest investors, from three to five years ago, begin to cash out, according to the CPA Trendlines CPA PE Deal Tracker™.

MORE Private Equity: Michael Hoover: Growth Without Discipline Comes at a Cost | Big 4 Transparency | CBIZ Told Grant Thornton No, No, No, Before Saying Yes | PE Already Knows Your Price. Do You? | How Private Equity Turns CPA Loyalty into Legal Risk | Ira Rosenbloom: PE Forces Firms to Pick a Future | The Disruptors | Allan Koltin: What Elite CPA Firms Do Differently | Gear Up for Growth

The October 2026 edition of the CPA PE Deal Tracker™ shows accounting’s private-equity deal flow easing in the third quarter, with 37 acquisitions in the U.S. and Canada, down from 42 a year earlier and a far cry from this year’s first-quarter surge of 58. The Tracker now counts 400 such deals in the U.S. and Canada since its records began in December 2016, plus 87 it has found elsewhere, for 487 worldwide, although its coverage outside North America is not systematic.

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SPECIAL

The Hidden Costs of the Virtual Accounting Firm

Happy business professionals giving high five hand slap

Save by combining a retreat with CPE.

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

With a brick-and-mortar company, there are a number of standard costs that you would expect to have, such as rent or mortgage, utilities, building repairs, furniture, technology, etc. The total amount of these kinds of costs typically falls in the range of 3-4 percent of the company’s annualized revenue. That amount can be pretty significant for a lot of companies.

MORE by Jody Grunden
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Some business owners may think they can save the company all of that money by going remote, but I personally believe that’s a terrible idea. While it’s true that a distributed company doesn’t have the costs that come with having a physical space, the very nature of a remote work environment results in a completely different and unique set of needs that should be considered in the company’s annual budget.
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ACCOUNTING VOICES

Buying AI Is Easy. Rebuilding the Firm Is Hard. | Accounting Voices

Leaders reveal a widening gap between adopting new capabilities and building firms that can use them effectively.

Sponsored by True Advisor: The Definitive Success Guide for Client Advisory Services – 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 CPA firms building, pricing, and scaling advisory services that clients value—and pay for.

Accounting Voices
With Rob Brown

A firm buys powerful technology, announces ambitious growth plans, and asks an already stretched team to deliver more. The tools change. The way the business operates barely moves.

Accounting Voices explores the strain inside that scenario. Drawing on reflections from 48 firm leaders, consultants, media professionals, technology experts, and other industry voices, it examines what their observations reveal about accounting’s direction.

In the episode, host Rob Brown identifies a “velocity gap”: the distance between firms talking about change and firms making it part of their daily operations. AI, outside investment, shifting professional identities, and talent pressures all contribute to that gap. Together, they raise a practical question for leaders: Can the organization absorb the change it pursues?
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ADVISORY & CONSULTING

The Six-Stop Road Map to Your Freedom Formula

Here’s an action plan for your own journey.

By Jackie Meyer

By now, you’ve read about the mistakes I made, the strategies I discovered, the value of leading with advisory, the power of technology, and even the ultimate exit strategy. You’ve learned how to build, scale and eventually sell a high-value tax advisory firm that works for you, instead of the other way around.

But knowledge alone isn’t enough. The real magic happens when you take what you’ve learned and turn it into action.

MORE: The Future of Tax Advisory | Five Common Pitfalls and How to Overcome Them | Four Practical Case Studies of Real Advisory Success | Your Balanced Millionaire Journey Begins Now | How to Cultivate Holistic Wealth | Five Hard-Earned Lessons from Exiting an Accounting Firm | It’s Never Too Early to Plan Your Exit Strategy | Hiring Strategies for Your Dream Team | Leverage Technology for Growth | Streamline Your Operations with Systems and Processes | Craft Tiered Service Packages for Maximum Impact | Master the ROI Method: Price for Value, Not Time | From Compliance to Advisory: Shifting the Value Proposition | How I Became an Accidental Entrepreneur | Build a Seven-Figure Firm in Four Hours a Week
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This article is designed to be a clear, actionable road map that helps you take each concept and turn it into results. We’ll break down the steps you need to take – one by one – so that you can create your own transformation. Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been running your practice for years, this action plan will help you move toward the freedom formula: more value, less stress and a firm that can thrive without you.
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