Accounting Internships Need an Upgrade | ARC

As AI handles more routine work, how do young accountants develop judgment, communication and leadership?

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Accounting ARC
With Donny Shimamoto and Liz Mason

Center for Accounting Transformation

The accounting internship is due for an upgrade.

For decades, internships often give aspiring accountants their first real taste of the profession by dropping them into the work: Learn the process, complete the assignment, survive busy season and figure out the unwritten rules along the way.

But as artificial intelligence takes over more of the entry-level work traditionally assigned to new accountants, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, and Liz Mason, CPA, argue the profession needs to reconsider what an internship is actually supposed to teach.

MORE Accounting ARC: The CPA Career Nobody Talks AboutConference Season Exposes Accounting’s Knowledge GapThe Feedback Mistake That Costs You Your Best People | Is Your Boss Really the Problem? | Most Accountants Are Missing This AI ShiftAI Can Fix Your Workflow—or Break It in Seconds | Efficiency Is the Wrong Goal for AI | Accounting’s Hidden Talent Risk: The Sandwich GenerationBuilt Fast. Sold Faster. Broken Later? The Truth About Accounting Tech | Recognize When You Need to Recharge Before You Burn OutValuing More Than the Balance Sheet

In this episode of the Accounting ARC podcast, Shimamoto, founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC and founder and inspiration architect for the Center for Accounting Transformation, and Mason, CEO of High Rock Accounting, explore why tomorrow’s accountants need more than technical proficiency.

They need what Shimamoto calls “power skills.”

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Rachel Farris: The CPA Career Nobody Talks About | ARC

The next generation is blending entrepreneurship, AI, and advisory into careers that barely existed a few years ago.

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Accounting ARC
With Donny Shimamoto

Center for Accounting Transformation

For decades, the accounting profession has followed a familiar script: earn a CPA license, join a firm, climb the ladder and perhaps become a partner.

Rachel Farris, CPA, MBA, is proving there is another way.

After building a highly specialized tax advisory practice serving U.S. citizens relocating to Puerto Rico, Farris launches Tax Stack AI, a company that helps accounting firms implement artificial intelligence securely and strategically.

MORE Accounting ARC: Conference Season Exposes Accounting’s Knowledge GapThe Feedback Mistake That Costs You Your Best People | Is Your Boss Really the Problem? | Most Accountants Are Missing This AI ShiftAI Can Fix Your Workflow—or Break It in Seconds | Efficiency Is the Wrong Goal for AI | Accounting’s Hidden Talent Risk: The Sandwich GenerationBuilt Fast. Sold Faster. Broken Later? The Truth About Accounting Tech | Recognize When You Need to Recharge Before You Burn OutValuing More Than the Balance Sheet

She has since sold her CPA practice to focus on AI consulting and education, demonstrating that today’s accounting professionals can create careers far beyond traditional public accounting.

In this episode of Accounting ARC, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC and founder and inspiration architect for the Center for Accounting Transformation, sits down with Farris to explore entrepreneurship, AI, networking and the expanding possibilities available to CPAs willing to embrace change.

Their conversation becomes less about one accountant’s journey and more about the profession’s future.

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Conference Season Exposes Accounting’s Knowledge Gap | ARC

From vendor demonstrations to hallway conversations, this year’s conference season highlights both excitement and uncertainty across the profession.

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Accounting ARC
With Liz Mason, Byron Patrick, and Donny Shimamoto

Center for Accounting Transformation

Every summer, accounting professionals pack conference centers looking for the next big idea. They attend breakout sessions, visit vendor booths, compare notes with peers and return to their firms with pages of ideas.

This year, however, the conversations feel different.

Artificial intelligence still dominates the agenda, but the Accounting ARC hosts notice a subtle shift beneath the excitement. The biggest takeaway isn’t simply that AI is everywhere. It’s that many accountants are struggling to separate innovation from marketing, capability from hype, and opportunity from risk.

MORE Accounting ARC: The Feedback Mistake That Costs You Your Best People | Is Your Boss Really the Problem? | Most Accountants Are Missing This AI ShiftAI Can Fix Your Workflow—or Break It in Seconds | Efficiency Is the Wrong Goal for AI | Accounting’s Hidden Talent Risk: The Sandwich GenerationBuilt Fast. Sold Faster. Broken Later? The Truth About Accounting Tech | Recognize When You Need to Recharge Before You Burn OutValuing More Than the Balance Sheet

In this episode of Accounting ARC, hosts Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, senior product manager for Karbon and co-founder and educator for TB Academy; Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC and founder and inspiration architect for the Center for Accounting Transformation; and Liz Mason, CPA, CEO of High Rock Accounting, reflect on what they observe during this year’s conference season—and what those observations reveal about the profession’s next challenge.

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William LeFew: The Best AI Professionals Think Like Humans | ARC

 Technology changes quickly, but critical thinking remains the most valuable skill accountants can develop. 

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Accounting ARC
With Donny Shimamoto

Center for Accounting Transformation

Artificial intelligence is changing accounting faster than almost anyone predicted. But according to William LeFew, Ph.D., the professionals who benefit most from AI are not necessarily the ones with the strongest technical skills—they are the ones who know how to think.

In this episode of Accounting ARC, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC and founder and inspiration architect for the Center for Accounting Transformation, welcomes LeFew, chief technology officer at FirmPro, for a conversation that goes beyond software features and into the mindset required to succeed in an AI-enabled profession.

MORE Accounting ARC: The Feedback Mistake That Costs You Your Best People | Is Your Boss Really the Problem? | Most Accountants Are Missing This AI ShiftAI Can Fix Your Workflow—or Break It in Seconds | Efficiency Is the Wrong Goal for AI | Accounting’s Hidden Talent Risk: The Sandwich GenerationBuilt Fast. Sold Faster. Broken Later? The Truth About Accounting Tech | Recognize When You Need to Recharge Before You Burn OutValuing More Than the Balance Sheet

LeFew approaches accounting from an unusual perspective. Trained as an applied mathematician with experience at NASA and multiple technology startups, he intentionally looks for industries where technology can remove friction instead of creating it. Accounting, he says, stands out because of the people.

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True Grit: Recognizing Struggles That Shape Our Successes | ARC

The ARC team spills their messiest moments and why grit—not perfection—matters most. 

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

More ARC: Analysis, Reaction, Comedy

In the latest episode of Accounting ARC, hosts Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA; Liz Mason, CPA; and Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, CGMA, lay down their professional armor to explore one central theme: grit—what it means, when it matters, and how it shows up in real life. 

MORE Accounting ARC: More Admins, Fewer Students, No PlanWhat Career Advice Gets Wrong for Gen Z – And How to Fix It |Your Identity is Not a LiabilityWhat Happens in Vegas… Gets Reported on a Tax ReturnBurnout, Be Gone: Accounting Needs a Boundary BreakthroughThe Ultimate Business Hack You’re Probably IgnoringResilience, Real Talk, and the Road to Mental WellnessBlockchain Could Still Reshape AccountingWhat Gen Z Wants from Business | Firm Differentiation Depends Upon Client Service |

“This episode was about being honest,” says Patrick, CEO of VERIFYiQ and co-founder of TB Academy. “There are moments in everyone’s career where it all feels like too much.”  READ MORE →