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Conference Season Exposes Accounting’s Knowledge Gap | ARC

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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 Shift | AI Can Fix Your Workflow—or Break It in Seconds | Efficiency Is the Wrong Goal for AI | Accounting’s Hidden Talent Risk: The Sandwich Generation | Built Fast. Sold Faster. Broken Later? The Truth About Accounting Tech | Recognize When You Need to Recharge Before You Burn Out | Valuing 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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The Feedback Mistake That Costs You Your Best People | ARC

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Intent, tone and delivery matter just as much as the message itself. 

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Originally published Feb. 5, 2026
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Accounting ARC
With Liz Mason, Byron Patrick, and Donny Shimamoto
Center for Accounting Transformation

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One poorly handled conversation can undo months—or years—of trust. In this episode of Accounting ARC, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, and Liz Mason, CPA, unpack why difficult feedback often fails, how leaders can communicate with greater intention, and what separates constructive coaching from conversations that send employees looking for another job.

The conversation starts with a story familiar to anyone who has ever hovered over the “Send” button on a difficult message.

MORE Accounting ARC: Is Your Boss Really the Problem? | Most Accountants Are Missing This AI Shift | AI Can Fix Your Workflow—or Break It in Seconds | Efficiency Is the Wrong Goal for AI | Accounting’s Hidden Talent Risk: The Sandwich Generation | Built Fast. Sold Faster. Broken Later? The Truth About Accounting Tech | Recognize When You Need to Recharge Before You Burn Out | Valuing More Than the Balance Sheet | Accounting’s “Untalked-About” Frontier | Why Happiness is Hard-Fought for High Achievers | The Fastest Way to Lose Talent Is “Dick Leadership” | Post-Holiday Fatigue Isn’t a Failure; It’s a Signal | OCR, Research Bots & Meeting Assistants: What Actually Helps Now | Return Season is the New Stress Test | Small Firms May Have the Biggest Advantage in 2026 | Downgraded: What the DOE Said About Accounting |

Mason, founder and CEO of High Rock Accounting, recalls proposing a conference talk with a deliberately provocative title — a reminder that most professionals feel the tension between holding the line and keeping the peace. The point, she says, is not to sanitize reality. It is to learn how to hold people accountable without turning it into a personal attack.

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What Happens in Vegas… Gets Reported on a Tax Return | ARC

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You can serve brothels, cannabis firms, and poker pros—just don’t cross the legal line.

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Accounting ARC
With Liz Mason and Byron Patrick
Center for Accounting Transformation

Accountants are often seen as the gatekeepers of financial integrity, but what happens when the client operates a strip club, sells cannabis, or works in legal sex work?

In the latest episode of Accounting ARC, Liz Mason, CPA, and Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, CGMA, challenge the idea that “sin” industries are off-limits for ethical professionals. Their message: legality, transparency, and harm reduction matter more than personal judgment.

MORE Accounting ARC: Burnout, Be Gone: Accounting Needs a Boundary Breakthrough | The Ultimate Business Hack You’re Probably Ignoring | Resilience, Real Talk, and the Road to Mental Wellness | Blockchain Could Still Reshape Accounting | What Gen Z Wants from Business | Firm Differentiation Depends Upon Client Service |

More ARC: Analysis, Reaction, Comedy

Mason, founder and CEO of High Rock Accounting, has worked with legal sex workers and cannabis companies. She says she doesn’t shy away from these clients. “All companies have a right to good advice,” she says, stressing that ethical boundaries depend more on legality and transparency than personal judgment.

Patrick, CEO of VERIFYiQ and educator and co-founder of TB Academy, echoes the sentiment. “Is it legal, or is it not?” he asks. “That’s a pretty clear ethical line.”

But not all ethical questions are so simple. Mason shares a cautionary tale about walking away from a FinTech client offering predatory lease agreements. “It was all legal,” she says. “But it was abusive. And that crossed a line for me.”

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The Right Kind of Lazy: Innovative Approaches to Streamlining Workflows | Accounting ARC

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ARC hosts discuss redefining efficiency in the accounting profession and when it pays to ‘slack off.’ 

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

In a recent episode of the popular Accounting ARC podcast, hosts Liz Mason, CPA, and Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA; and Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, CGMA; discussed an unconventional yet powerful concept: the right kind of lazy. This idea, which involves strategically optimizing workflows to eliminate non-value-adding tasks, offers a fresh perspective on efficiency and productivity in the accounting profession.

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Mason, founder and CEO of High Rock Accounting, shared an anecdote from her early career at Grant Thornton. Faced with the monotonous task of processing paper tax returns, Mason decided to automate the process. She spent over 100 hours developing a script that streamlined data entry and document generation. Although initially time-consuming, the solution saved significant time when implemented across multiple offices. “It was fun and a great learning experience,” Mason remarks. “At scale, it saved a ton of time for people.”

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