Today's Features
CHARTS & GRAPHS

Profit Squeeze: Billing Rates Rebound, but Staff Costs Are Rising Faster

Accountants show renewed pricing power as rates gain 5.7%.

Mind the gap: CPA firms are raising billing rates at about a 6% rate, not quite enough to match the rising costs of staff.

By CPA Trendlines

CPA firms are raising prices again as they enter 2026, even as hiring remains weak and wage pressures show little sign of easing. The combination is tightening margins across the profession.

MORE Outlook 2026, Pay, Hiring, Pricing

A CPA Trendlines analysis of new pricing data shows that billing rates for core CPA firm services are rebounding sharply, reversing an earlier soft patch and vaulting fees to near record highs. At the same time, employment growth across accounting firms has stalled, while wage growth remains elevated, underscoring the growing imbalance between pricing power and labor costs.

Taken together, the data point to an industry that is regaining some pricing power but still struggles with structural labor pressures that pricing alone cannot fix.

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BUSY SEASON MANAGEMENT

Busy Season 2026: Firms Look to Pricing for Growth

Revenues and client rosters outpace profit gains as firms battle cost pressures.

On the front lines (clockwise from left): Clockwise from left: Hall, Langworthy, Lenz, Kwiecinski, Dickerson

By CPA Trendlines

Join the survey. Get the results.

CPA firms heading into the 2026 tax season expect revenue gains driven primarily by higher prices, not by adding clients, even as a majority anticipate another heavy extension season.

JOIN the Busy Season Barometer survey here.
MORE TAX, PRICING, and THE 2026 OUTLOOK

According to the CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer, about 6 in 10 firms expect total revenue to increase this year, while roughly one-third expect revenue to hold steady. Profit expectations trail revenue slightly, a pattern that points to continued cost pressure even as clients and would-be clients clamor for more, and more high-end, services

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BUSY SEASON MANAGEMENT

Busy Season 2026: IRS Problems, Staffing Issues and Client Wrangling Emerge as Top Pressures

IRS dysfunction replaces OBBBA as top concern.

On the front lines (clockwise from top left): Woodard, Dienhart, Volk, Stitely, Tejero, Brady, Svihla.

By CPA Trendlines

Join the survey. Get the results.

With only a week to go before the opening of filing season 2026, tax practitioners are focusing on IRS dysfunction as their biggest potential problem this year

And no wonder. The agency was already chronically underfunded, buried under a mountain of overdue paperwork, and crippled by ancient computer systems when it lost 25% of its workforce in early 2025.

JOIN the Busy Season Barometer survey here.

MORE TAX, PRICING, and THE 2026 OUTLOOK

Today 63% of tax professionals say a beleaguered IRS poses the single biggest risk to this year’s tax season, up from 54% just a couple of months ago, according to the CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer.

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BUSY SEASON MANAGEMENT

Busy Season 2026: How Ready Are You? It Depends

The answers track firm size and practice focus.

On the front lines (clockwise from top left): Winke, Sosinski, D’Angelo, Parent, Kaplow, Gehring

By CPA Trendlines Research

Across the profession, accountants heading into the 2026 Busy Season are not sounding alarms, nor are they celebrating breakthroughs. Instead, they are settling into a steady, almost restrained confidence.

JOIN the Busy Season Barometer survey here.

MORE TAX, PRICING, and THE 2026 OUTLOOK

The latest Busy Season Barometer reveals that firms’ sense of readiness bears a striking resemblance to where they stood a year ago. For some, this signals resilience. For others, it signals stagnation. The portrait that emerges is a profession caught between incremental improvements and persistent operational friction.

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ADVISORY & CONSULTING

Outlook 2026: Accountants Brace for a Rough Economy

Expect strong demand for tax planning, business advisory and bookkeeping cleanup work. 

By CPA Trendlines Research

The CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer indicates that tax and accounting leaders anticipate growth in their own firms, even as they prepare for anxious business clients, persistent inflation, and a policy environment that keeps planning on edge.

MORE Busy Season and 2026 Outlook

BUSY SEASON BAROMETER: Join the survey. Get the results

About half of all accountants in the survey are bracing for a deteriorating economy, with a third expecting rosier scenarios, for a net negative 17.2 percentage points. For small and mid-sized businesses, accountants are at a negative 9.3 points.

Closer to home, they’re more confident, with a positive (barely) 1.7 points for their own clients and a whopping 57.5 points for their own firms.

Tax and accounting professionals describe small and mid-sized business owners as navigating an economy that appears strong on paper but is treacherous in reality. They face higher prices, higher borrowing costs, and less room for error.

Accountants see strong demand for planning, advisory and cleanup work. However, they also observe clients delaying hiring, pressuring vendors on price, and asking more rigorous questions about cash flow and taxes.

In the CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer 2026 survey, firm leaders expect growth inside their own four walls—more clients, higher revenue, and higher profits—while simultaneously bracing for a chillier outlook among small and mid-size businesses.

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CHARTS & GRAPHS

Outlook 2026: The Painful Paradigm Shift in Staff Pay and Hiring

Pivoting with the Paradigm: Staff salaries are rising sharply even as job growth plateaus.

New jobs data signal fundamental pivot for accounting firms.

By CPA Trendlines Research

The year 2026 may be long remembered as the paradigm-shifting moment when accounting firms were forced to pivot everything from their business models to their budgets.

MORE Outlook 2026, Pay, Hiring

The reason: Salary and pay increases are accelerating even as hiring momentum stalls.

Going into 2026, labor costs have been cleaved from labor supply. The new, structurally higher staffing line is forcing firms to rewrite their budgets as well as business models.

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Cornerstone

Outlook 2026: Agentic AI Reaches the Tipping Point in Tax and Accounting Firms

AI-powered firms are closing books faster, reallocating staff time to higher-value work, and widening the competitive gap with slower adopters.

By CPA Trendlines Research
Cornerstone Report

As artificial intelligence transitions from a buzzword to a business imperative, CPA firms across the U.S. are quietly beginning to deploy generative AI assistants, machine learning tools, and “agentic” AI platforms to automate audits, prepare taxes, and provide financial insights.

With the astonishing surge in AI adoption, firm leaders say we’ve reached a tipping point where those not investing in AI risk being left behind.

MORE CPA Trendlines Cornerstone Reports

In this Cornerstone Report, accounting firms show how they are leveraging AI to transform their operations, the benefits and challenges they are encountering, and what it all means for the future of the profession, including:

  • Why AI adoption in CPA firms has hit a tipping point
  • How agentic AI is transforming tax, audit, and advisory work
  • The real productivity, ROI, and revenue gains firms are reporting
  • What AI means for staffing, skills, and firm economics
  • The risks, governance challenges, and regulatory implications ahead
  • How firm leaders can deploy AI without falling behind

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PRO Member Exclusive

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

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[PRO Members-Only Bonus]

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

Exclusively for PRO Members Only, here

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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.

Exclusively for PRO Members Only

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Cornerstone

PE Deal Tracker: 147 Deals Build $200 Billion in New Value

The surge: 105 deals in 2025 alone.

100 deals a year: the new normal?

By CPA Trendlines Research
Cornerstone Report

Private equity-backed and PE-adjacent deals start the new year on a roll, with dozens of new combinations racing to year-end closes, driven by some of the biggest rollup platforms.

CPA Trendlines Research is adding 29 newly captured deals to the tracker, lifting the total to 147 deals since 2020 with more than $10 billion in new funding. The continuation of transactions into early 2026 suggests that 2025 was not a peak but a new normal, with deal flow stabilizing at a higher level than in the pre-2020 period.

MORE Cornerstone Reports | MORE Private Equity

To submit updates, additions, or additional information, contact CPA Trendlines here

CPA Trendlines estimates that today’s private-equity-driven revenue multiples imply an aggregate enterprise value of more than $400 billion for the Top 500 CPA firm sector as a whole — a valuation reset of more than $200 billion. READ MORE →

GROWTH STRATEGIES

Who to Hire First

Woman and man shaking hands across a desk

Strategies for building your dream team.

By Jackie Meyer
The Balanced Millionaire: Advisor Edition

“A team is not a group of people who work together. A team is a group of people who trust each other.” – Simon Sinek, “Start with Why”

Building a successful advisory practice isn’t a solo endeavor. Yes, you might start as a one-person shop, but to truly scale your business, reclaim your time, and achieve the Balanced Millionaire lifestyle, you’ll eventually need a strong, capable team. Otherwise there’s a cap, or ceiling, on your revenue generation while you also burn all of your time.

MORE Jackie Meyer
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This article focuses on the critical process of hiring a team that aligns with your vision and values. We’ll explore how to identify what roles to hire for, craft compelling job descriptions to attract the right talent and conduct effective interviews to vet candidates.
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MARKETING & SALES

Put Trade Shows to Work for Your Marketing

woman holding tablet and smiling, talking to man at trade show

They can be great tools but you have to use them properly.

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

Trade shows have once again become popular since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. They are great marketing opportunities, but you need to know how to work them. I recently attended a trade show, and it amazed me how “un-marketing” many of the people behind the booths were. What a waste of time and money for their companies!

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

 

Just like any other marketing activity, you need to know how it works to make it work for you. Here are seven benefits and eight tips for trade show marketing.
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MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Merging Up? Settle These Twenty Items

green marker checking boxes

 

The smaller firm gets a say, so decide what you want.

By Marc Rosenberg
The Rosenberg Practice Management Library

When a small firm considers merging upward, they listen to the terms offered by the larger firm and decide whether they can accept them. Through a combination of face-to-face meetings, negotiation sessions, telephone calls and review of materials, the seller should be comfortable with each of the following:

MORE by Marc Rosenberg
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1. Hopefully, you have identified the problems and the goals you have for the merger (retirement, access to staff, technical expertise, management capabilities, etc.). Do you see each of these problems and goals actually being addressed and resolved with the merger?
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MARKETING & SALES

Three Things That Rich Accountants Do

woman using calendar planner on tablet

Make them second nature.

By Martin Bissett
Business Development on a Budget

You may be thinking right now, “Well, very good, Martin, but we have finite time. We’re very, very busy people and we need to get business in the door, and therefore creation of opportunity becomes the issue.”

MORE by Martin Bissett
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Regardless of whether we’ve got 20 opportunities on our plate today or none, when the next one comes along we can’t afford to be anything other than confident, comfortable, assured relationship builders who have tremendous value to offer. Because people will see that body language, those voice tones and hear those words and it will be attractive. They will want to get to know more – they’ll want to be able to look at options. They’ll want to know what you’ll charge, and they’ll want to know what they’ll get for what you charge.
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FEATURED VIDEO

Brannon Poe: What Private Equity Really Wants From CPA Firms | The Disruptors

Beyond revenue and margins, buyers are scrutinizing teams, culture, and operational health.

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 The Balanced Millionaire: The Advisor Edition by Dr. Jackie Meyer | See Today’s Special Offer
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Build a 7-figure firm in just 4 hours a week!

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Brannon Poe, founder of Poe Group Advisors, says the key to a successful firm transaction is fit.  

“I think having a good deal is really about having a good fit,” he says. Besides technical skills, “you have to have management styles that mesh well, you have to have client service philosophies that are aligned,” he explains.  

MORE STREAMING:MORE STREAMING: Oliver: Build a Biz that Runs Without You | Daiber: Use Succession as a Growth Strategy | Cannon: Busy Season is Self-Inflicted | Carroll: When One Person Can Break the Firm |  Rampe: Build a Roadmap Even When the Road’s Not There | Chang: Killing SALY, One Agent at a Time | Vanover: 5-Star Firms Don’t Bill by the Hour | Kless: Profit Is a Result. Flourishing Is the Purpose | Whitman: Build Culture on ‘Progress,’ Not Change | Shein: No PE? No M&A? No Problem | Hood and Weber: Time to RISE | Proctor: Turn Dumb Ideas into Brilliant Solutions | Carter-Gray: How 1 Poor Review Strengthened the Firm | Hartman: Upwork to “40 Under 40” in 3 Years |

GoProCPA.com Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

For sellers, choosing the right buyer matters as much as the price. “I find that the sellers in particular, who keep their focus on fit and choose the right buyer, usually are the happiest with their exit.” 

The last few years have created favorable conditions for accounting firm sales, but not for everyone.  

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ADVISORY & CONSULTING

How to Price and Package Advisory Services

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

Three reasons that hourly billing fails.

By Hitendra Patil
Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide

For decades, hourly billing was the primary pricing method in the accounting industry. Charging based on time seemed fair and simple. However, as your firm shifts into Advisory-CAS (Client Accounting Services), that model starts to show its flaws.

MORE by Hitendra Patil
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

 

Why? Advisory services focus on the impact and outcomes they provide, with time becoming less of a priority. If a CPA firm partner spends 45 minutes advising a business owner and that conversation prevents a six-figure mistake, what is that advice worth? Much more than what a typical $200/hour rate suggests. In this case, the time spent is less important than the value provided.
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PRO Member Exclusive

Close Performance Gaps with a High-Performance Business Framework

Businessman holding word "success" and upward arrow in hands

BONUS: Sample client feedback letter.

By Domenick J. Esposito
8 Steps to Great

The high-performance framework is a description of how middle-market companies can identify the components of high performance, assess their present position relative to high-performance benchmarks, and then create a plan of action to close any performance gaps.

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

 

The framework is essentially a set of models and common language that help communicate with a client. It provides the basis for developing an action to assist a client in a systematic and thoughtful way.
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FEATURED VIDEO

Neil Gordon: The Most Powerful Sentence You’ll Learn | The Concierge CPA

The silver bullet technique can transform messaging and persuasion.

This is a preview. The complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by CPA Trendlines Go PRO – Get More! Go PRO!  See Today’s Special Offer

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS.
Get free gits, exclusive access, and more! Get more! Go PRO! 

The Concierge CPA
With Jackie Meyer
For CPA Trendlines

Most accounting professionals do extraordinary work—and still struggle to explain why it matters.

That tension sits at the heart of a standout episode of The Concierge CPA, where host Dr. Jackie Meyer is joined by messaging strategist Neil Gordon for a wide-ranging conversation on persuasion, clarity, and the future of tax advisory in an AI-driven world.

The result is an episode that feels less like a marketing lesson—and more like a wake-up call for tax professionals who know their value but haven’t quite figured out how to communicate it.

More Jackie Meyer

Early in the episode, Meyer names a frustration that resonates across the profession: most tax professionals create real value, yet struggle to articulate it in a way that inspires action.

That gap isn’t about intelligence or effort. It’s about messaging.

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FEATURED VIDEO

Art Werner: Avoid Tax Surprises for Clients | Quick Tax Tip

Unexpected tax bills erode trust fast. Most are preventable—if CPAs spot the warning signs early enough.

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!

Quick Tax Tip
With Art Werner
CPE Today

Surprise tax bills remain one of the most common—and avoidable—sources of client frustration. In most cases, the issue isn’t aggressive planning gone wrong, but passive assumptions left unchecked throughout the year.

Tax attorney Art Werner, JD, points to predictable triggers: income that rises while withholding stays flat, investment activity that isn’t incorporated into estimates, and planning decisions made without coordination across the return.

Click here for more Art Werner

Variable income is a frequent culprit. Bonuses, equity compensation, retirement withdrawals, and side-business earnings can easily push clients into higher brackets or trigger phaseouts.

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CHARTS & GRAPHS

How Private Equity Created $200 Billion in New Riches for CPAs

The math is simple, even if the implications are not.

By CPA Trendlines

For decades, the value of a CPA firm was constrained by one simple fact: partners had to buy each other out with their own money. That reality imposed discipline, but it also capped valuation. Firms were priced to be affordable, not aspirational.

That changed when private equity arrived.

MORE Private Equity

Over the past five years, private equity funding has fundamentally altered how CPA firms are valued — not by changing what firms do, but by changing how the market prices scale, recurring revenue and growth potential. The result has been a sharp, uneven reset in firm values, with some practices worth 2 to 4 times what similar firms would have commanded just a few years earlier.

Before private equity entered the market, the top 500 CPA firms, which generate roughly $146 billion in annual net revenue, would have been valued at roughly $170 billion using traditional pricing norms. Applying today’s private-equity-driven revenue multiples implies a total enterprise value of more than $400 billion — a valuation reset of more than $200 billion without any change in underlying revenue. Even the smallest firms may rise with the tide. The 500th largest firm runs about $6 million a year.

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