STAFFING & RECRUITING

Rachel Farris: The CPA Career Nobody Talks About | ARC

By

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

Sponsored by Radical Pricing by the Radical CPA, Jody Padar | See Today’s Special Offer

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS.

Optimize Profits, Delight Clients, & Build a Top-Value Firm!

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 Gap | 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

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.

READ MORE →

How Accounting Staffing Has Changed

By

Businesswoman sitting on table while talking with four coworkers

And two major drivers of that change.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Staff: Managing Your #1 Asset

“Treat people as they are and they will remain as they are. Treat people as they can be and should be and they will become as they can and should be.” – Goethe

“You see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up, such as dressing and the proper way of speaking and so on, the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she’s treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he always treats me as a flower girl. But I know I can be a lady to you, Colonel Pickering, because you always treat me as a lady and always will.” – Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady”

MORE: Thirteen Traits of Partners You’ll Want to Keep | Six Rules for Keeping Partners Happy and Productive | Why Strategic Thinking Impacts Your Firm’s Future | Seven Things Good Firms Must Do | Five Ways to Separate Accounting Winners from Losers | Two Factors Determine Firm Profitability | Don’t Make Firm Profitability a Goal | Core Values: Why Your Firm Needs Them | Five Keys in Compensating New Managing Partners | Top 20 Tough Choices for the Partner Comp Committee | Voting on Ownership Basis? Three Better Methods | What Partners Do and Don’t Deserve
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

 

The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus said: “There is nothing permanent except change.” People fly and drive cars instead of using horses and carts. Technology has replaced calculators, slide rules and the process for writing books. Food is purchased at grocery stores instead of grown on farms.

Drastic changes have occurred in the CPA industry as well. One of the biggest areas of change is how staff are managed and treated, as shown by this chart.
READ MORE →

Peter McCarroll: Rethink the Ladder | MOVE Like This

By

AI changes how pros gain experience, forcing teams to reinvent leadership development.

This is a preview. The complete 1-hour video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by Radical Pricing by Jody Padar, CPA | See Today’s Special Offer

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines Research podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS.

Optimize Profits, Delight Clients, & Build a Top-Value Firm!

MOVE Like This
With Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk
For CPA Trendlines Research

Artificial intelligence has dominated conversations throughout the accounting profession, but much of the discussion remains focused on efficiency. In this episode of MOVE Like This, Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk sits down with Peter McCarroll, founder of The AI Accountant and partner at Fuel Accountants, to explore a much bigger question: How will AI reshape careers, leadership, and the future of accounting firms?

MORE MOVE Like This | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network

McCarroll argues that many firms are looking at AI through too narrow a lens. While automating routine work will certainly improve productivity, efficiency alone will not be enough to remain competitive. Firms that thrive will use AI to strengthen strategic thinking, develop new services, deepen client relationships, and create additional value rather than simply reducing costs. Waiting for technology to stabilize or treating AI as just another software implementation may leave firms behind as change accelerates over the next few years. READ MORE →

The Feedback Mistake That Costs You Your Best People | ARC

By

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

Sponsored by The Balanced Millionaire: The Advisor Edition by Dr. Jackie Meyer | See Today’s Special Offer
Originally published Feb. 5, 2026
Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS.

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

Build a 7-figure firm in just 4 hours a week!

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.

READ MORE →