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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.
READ MORE →

FEATURED VIDEO

Lou 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.

READ MORE →

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
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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.
READ MORE →

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

READ MORE →

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
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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 →

MANAGEMENT

Five Simple Controls to Prevent Fraud

Businessman holding up magnifying glass

Strengthen your processes and your deterrence.

By Ed Mendlowitz
77 Ways to Wow!

I’ve talked about fraud in not-for-profits, but it is also a serious issue for business firms. Here are some cash fraud scenarios and prevention techniques that can apply to all types of organizations.

MORE by Ed Mendlowitz
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SCENARIO: One employee who is responsible for, or has access to, the handling, recording and mailing of cash disbursements creates a non-existing vendor who sends the company invoices, which are paid.
READ MORE →

FEATURED VIDEO

Brown: Employer Brands Talk Even if You Don’t | MOVE Like This

Real employee stories, not polished slogans, are winning the war for talent.

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! 

MOVE Like This
With Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk
For CPA Trendlines

In this episode of MOVE Like This, host Bonnie Ruszczyk sits down with Rob Brown, founder and host of Accounting Voices and previous host of Accounting Influencers, to talk about what’s really driving change in the accounting profession.

Speaking from the UK with deep experience across the U.S. and global markets, Brown shares what he’s seeing in firms of all sizes: pressure from talent shortages, shifting expectations from younger professionals, and the growing importance of a strong employer brand rooted in real stories, not slogans. 

MORE MOVE

Brown starts by outlining three major workplace trends. 
READ MORE →

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Eight Questions for Assessing Merger Compatibility

Overhead view of people solving a large jigsaw puzzle

Plus 23 issues to negotiate.

By Marc Rosenberg
The Rosenberg Practice Management Library

These questions can be explored via interviews or group sessions. But they are all great questions that will give insight into each firm’s culture and personality.

MORE by Marc Rosenberg
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  1. Why do the firms really want to merge? After the merger, will the firms have the commitment and wherewithal to realize their expectations? Acid test: If some of the main reasons for doing the merger are clearly not realized 12 months later, which issues and failures would make you the most upset and frustrated?
  2. How would the new firm be better than the sum of the two individual firms?

READ MORE →

OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Tech, Talent, Advisory Will Fuel Growth

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?

Accounting firms are finding themselves in one of two camps.

By Scott Moore
 The Rosenberg Survey

Growth-oriented firms will continue to explore their options to sustain their longevity and competitiveness. Whether they remain independently owned or become investor-backed, key areas of focus will be to seek ways to harness technology, optimize their talent strategies and elevate client value with advisory models.

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

A renewed focus on growth has gained momentum, fueled by investor interest, technological advancements and the adoption of advisory models.
READ MORE →