STRATEGY

Tax Season Winds Down and Strategic Planning Season Begins

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Coffee cup by napkin with words including "action plans."

Take your firm from good to great.

By Domenick J. Esposito
8 Steps to Great

It is often said that leading a CPA firm is like herding cats (everyone going in different directions), because many firms are very good at talking and planning about their future (it’s in their DNA), but terrible at execution and implementation.  It’s a little like the shoemaker’s shoes. Partners get distracted with client service or low-hanging fruit and give up too quickly in creating change within their own firms.

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If you are ready to take the first big step of moving from a merely good firm to a mid-market sustainable brand, then a strategic plan, with specific implementation tactics and accountability measures, is the absolute first step.  I would encourage you to begin the process with your partners as soon as possible.

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Why Strategic Planning Matters More Than Ever

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Ten benefits and ten challenges.

diagram
Based on a concept by Eric Teller, director of Google X

By Matt Rampe

Our world is changing at an increasing rate.

Eric Teller, CEO of Google X research and development lab, says that “even though human beings and societies have steadily adapted to change, on average, the rate of technological change is now accelerating so fast that it has risen above the average rate at which most people can absorb all these changes.”

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This probably will not come as a surprise. Artificial intelligence, cloud-based solutions, automation and data analytics are rapidly advancing and changing the way accountants work forever.

And the rate of change is not limited to just technology. Barry Melancon, former CEO of the AICPA, said, “We faced a level of disruption none of us had ever experienced before,” at the end of 2020, but the changes have not stopped or slowed. Similarly, in an Accounting Today article, current AICPA CEO Mark Koziel said, “You’re going to hear, ‘Disrupt, disrupt, disrupt.’ I hate that word. How many people want to be disrupted? How many people want a root canal? But the whole marketplace is being disrupted – it’s not just us.”
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Is Your Non-Billable Time Working for You?

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Time is money : clock hands on $100 bills

Make sure that business development is part of your firm DNA.

By Domenick J. Esposito
8 Steps to Great

Today, at many smaller firms, client service partners (defined as partners who devote 100 percent of their time on clients with no firm administration responsibilities), generate, on average, about 1,500 to 1,600 billable hours per annum.

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At most of the Top 100 CPA firms, client service partners generate about 1,200 billable hours per annum. That should be the absolute minimum at the Top 100 firms. Without breaking much of a sweat, client service partner billable hours at the Top 100 could and should easily reach 1,300 to 1,400 billable hours per annum.
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PE Wars: The CPA Platform Economy Is Concentrating Fast

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After hundreds of deals, the data show a gravitational pull toward a handful of buyers now driving the profession’s future.

Five Top Power Players

CPA Trendlines chart showing PE-backed accounting platform power players

CPA Trendlines PE Deal Tracker: Mega-aggregators dominate the money flow as the race tightens between Ascend, Aprio, Crete, Eisner and Ryan. (Data: March 31, 2026)

By CPA Trendlines Research

The frantic pace of deal-making this past March marks a turning point. What had been described as a consolidation phase has matured into something more defined and more consequential: a platform-driven market in which a relatively small number of repeat acquirers are shaping the profession’s future.

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As the first quarter of 2026 closes, the story is no longer simply about transactions. It is about structure. The question has shifted from who is buying whom to which investment models, operating systems, and capital strategies will define the next decade of accounting.

For years, the prevailing narrative held that private equity would democratize the profession. Capital, it was said, would spread broadly across hundreds of firms, opening access to institutional funding that had never before been available. But the data tells a different story.

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Why an Independent Executive Committee Member Is So Valuable

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Handshake at an office meeting; five people in photo

Five considerations for bringing in an outside perspective.

By Domenick J. Esposito
8 Steps to Great

Managing partners and other senior management at small and mid-sized CPA firms are known for their entrepreneurial spirit, independent thinking and their desire to call their own shots. At the same time, firm leadership recognizes that they have developed their leadership and management skills from the school of hard knocks and their experiences at firms a good number of them joined directly upon graduation from college.

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While these skills are critically important, they are, in fact, limiting as they draw upon a very narrow knowledge base and don’t draw upon a much broader universe of knowledge that is out there. How often do you hear “I wonder how other firms do this or do that?”
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