INNOVATION & CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Don’t Get Fired by Your Own Automation | ARC

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“Waiting this one out is not an option. The rate of change is too fast.”

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

Artificial intelligence is not replacing accountants; it is replacing the parts of accounting that accountants least want to do. That is the consensus of Liz Mason, CPA; Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, CGMA; and Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, who devote the latest Accounting ARC to reframing AI as an accelerant for professional judgment rather than a threat to jobs.

MORE Accounting ARC: 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 | CPA Firm Ownership Under Fire | Walking Violation: When Showing Your CPA Gets You in Trouble | Audit Bags to TikTok Tags, Gen Z Talks Success | Students Challenge Accounting’s Traditional Career Path | True Grit: Recognizing Struggles That Shape Our Successes |More Admins, Fewer Students, No Plan | What Career Advice Gets Wrong for Gen Z – And How to Fix It | Your Identity is Not a Liability | Burnout, Be Gone: Accounting Needs a Boundary Breakthrough

Patrick, CEO of VERIFYiQ and founder and instructor for TB Academy, begins with a familiar refrain from social media: AI will put accountants out of business. Mason, CEO of High Rock Accounting, answers with little patience. If a practitioner’s value is “typing numbers into a screen,” she says, then replacement is inevitable. The hosts argue that firms win when they let technology handle the typing and redeploy human time to analysis, communication, and decision support.

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Proctor: Turn Dumb Ideas into Brilliant Solutions | The Disruptors

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Reward curiosity, encourage experimentation, and involve the team in every step of firm transformation.

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The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Like many guests on The Disruptors, Tony Proctor didn’t start out as an accountant. His firm, Proctor and Associates, started as a side hustle in 2007 when he was working in IT management. As a testament to the client service focus of his tech-forward firm, his very first paid client remains his customer. 

“They are actually still on the roster, and so I’m very excited about that, and I’m excited that they are still willing to pay what today’s price is, and they are not stuck on what the price was in 2007, so I love that,” Proctor says.  

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MORE STREAMING: Carter-Gray: How 1 Poor Review Strengthened the Firm | Hartman: Upwork to “40 Under 40” in 3 Years | Telka: Transform Fear into Fuel | Woodard: Move Past Reports; Deliver Results | Baker: Find True Purpose to End Burnout | Brolin: The W.I.N. Leadership Formula | Gertrudes: How EOS & “Unreasonable Hospitality” Reshaped GrowthLab | Vilms: The Power of People in a Tech-Driven World | Dickerson: From Diagnosis to Disruption | Kapilovich: Treat People Like People | Martha Yasso: From Wall Street to Main Street | Jackie Meyer: Tax Plans in 90 Seconds? Believe It  | Erica Goode: Build a $200K Firm in 15hrs/Week |

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Proctor, like many of today’s forward-thinking accountants, thinks like an entrepreneur. As he explains, accountants are “usually very risk averse and very honed in on the details, and it’s like compliance first,” while entrepreneurs are “what I would call risk tolerant, and so they usually are seeking the risk and figuring out what opportunities are presented from that.” 

Thinking solely like an accountant, Proctor says, can lead to paralysis.

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Eames: Status Quo Kills Innovation | The Disruptors

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Short-term thinking and rigid hierarchies stifle experimentation across the profession.

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The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

K.C. Eames, Director of CAS at Dark Horse CPA, sees the traditional partnership model as a barrier to innovation and experimentation. First, the incentives are set up to guide people toward specific behaviors, which are “rewarding to those at the top of the pyramid. And once they’re there, their incentives are kind of to maintain the status quo.”  

CPA TRENDLINES CELEBRATES:The 100th Episode of The Disruptors

MORE STREAMING: Carter-Gray: How 1 Poor Review Strengthened the Firm | Hartman: Upwork to “40 Under 40” in 3 Years | Telka: Transform Fear into Fuel | Woodard: Move Past Reports; Deliver Results | Baker: Find True Purpose to End Burnout | Brolin: The W.I.N. Leadership Formula | Gertrudes: How EOS & “Unreasonable Hospitality” Reshaped GrowthLab | Vilms: The Power of People in a Tech-Driven World | Dickerson: From Diagnosis to Disruption | Kapilovich: Treat People Like People | Martha Yasso: From Wall Street to Main Street | Jackie Meyer: Tax Plans in 90 Seconds? Believe It  | Erica Goode: Build a $200K Firm in 15hrs/Week |

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Second, the consensus model for decision-making makes it challenging to implement change. “When you’re trying to make decisions based on consensus, based on people who are maybe trying not to rock the boat too much, because they might be retiring soon, there’s not a lot of chance that they’re going to vote for those really bold, risky ideas,” she says.   READ MORE →

Gocke: Operations Overhaul Doubles Firm Rev | It’s Not Just the Numbers

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Structured operations freed partners to focus on clients and doubled revenue in six years.

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It’s Not Just the Numbers
With Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead
For CPA Trendlines

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Running a modern accounting firm requires more than technical expertise. Partners must balance client relationships, business development, and administrative responsibilities, often leaving firms stretched thin.

In a recent episode of It’s Not Just the Numbers, Doug Gocke, chief operations officer at a mid-sized California firm, describes how restructuring responsibilities and focusing on operations helped his firm double revenue in six years without significantly increasing staff or client count.

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Gocke, who refers to his role as “chief of all trades,” said growth came from building teams before taking on new clients, creating clear accountability, and relentlessly reviewing procedures.

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