VIRTUAL CFO

Ladd: Start Advisory with Empathy | It’s Not Just the Numbers

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By starting with conversations and clean books, accountants can deliver clarity, confidence, and real results.

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

4ImpactData: 10X Your Advisory.
Not Your Headcount

When accountants and advisors talk about “advisory services,” the conversation often drifts toward models, frameworks, and numbers. Advisory is explained through dashboards, KPIs, forecasts, and ratios. However, sometimes in our focus on data, we forget the human side —the fact that behind every balance sheet is a business owner who is stressed, overwhelmed, and often lonely. 

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That’s where voices like Steven Ladd’s come in. In a recent It’s Not Just the Numbers podcast “After Hours” session, Ladd shares his journey from engineer to entrepreneur to trusted advisor for small business owners. His insights reveal why advisory services are more than just financial analysis. They’re about empathy, connection, and equipping business owners with clarity. 

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How DiSC Profiles Help Remote Teams

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Overhead view of five people in a meeting

Work together effectively with better understanding. 

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

Working in a remote environment can be great, and it can also have its challenges. Communication is one of the biggest hurdles distributed companies have to overcome. To tackle this issue head on, Summit CPA has implemented many initiatives.

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One of our favorites is the DiSC profiles. Let me start off by telling you a little bit of the background on the DiSC profiles.
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Lang: The Right Clients > Revenue | It’s Not Just the Numbers

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Tough client calls, tax planning, and better leadership turned hard knocks into growth.

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 “It’s Not Just the Numbers: How to Move Beyond the Numbers and Deliver Real Value for Your Clients”
by Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead – See Today’s Special Offer

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

When Lang launched Upside CFO, he didn’t set out with a grand blueprint. “If we’re being honest, we started off with simple bookkeeping,” he says. Over time, his firm evolved into a multi-faceted practice offering fractional CFO services, tax planning, and even financial planning partnerships. Along the way, he admits to trial and error. “Sometimes I do smart stuff. Sometimes I don’t,” Lang laughs.

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Yet from that messy middle came clarity: the future of advisory services lies in translating numbers into strategy, choosing the right clients, and building processes that can scale without sacrificing value.

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Four Approaches to Billing

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two women shaking hands across desk

Do you know your break-even point?

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

When I attend CPA conferences across the United States, I often hear from CPAs: “I don’t want to bill for my time.”

So, how do you bill your clients?

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Client billing can include hourly billing, but it can also include flat-fee, retainer-based and/or value-based billing. Most people use one of these four methods. Some use all of them or even a hybrid.
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Build a CAS Practice that Works | It’s Not Just the Numbers

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The debut episode reveals why half-built CAS divisions fail and what to do instead – Plus 12 key takeaways! 

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 “It’s Not Just the Numbers: How to Move Beyond the Numbers and Deliver Real Value for Your Clients”
by Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead – See Today’s Special Offer

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music and Audible, Player FM, Audacy, Gaana (India), and Boomplay (Africa).

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

In the inaugural episode of It’s Not Just the Numbers, hosts Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead deliver a candid, experience-driven conversation aimed at accounting and bookkeeping firm owners seeking to move beyond compliance work and grow successful Client Accounting and Advisory Services (CAS) practices.

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The duo, who have worked together for over two decades, including hosting one of the first CAS workshops in 2013, are well-known voices in the evolution of cloud-based accounting and outsourced advisory services. Their show—named after their 2019 book—digs into the practical, strategic, and often messy realities of transitioning to advisory work. And for Breslin and Greathead, the key message is clear: building a sustainable CAS practice starts with intentionality.

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AI Is Not Your Enemy; Here’s Why

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Clients will always need context.

By Penny Breslin
It’s Not Just the Numbers

In 1994, in a small hotel meeting room in Colorado Springs, 50 accounting firms were up in arms when the presenter mentioned QuickBooks. They shouted angry comments: “QuickBooks is destroying my business.” “They want to take my clients.” “They are giving people a false sense of security with their commercials that say, ‘If you can write a check, you can do QuickBooks.’”

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The presenter was nervous and asked me what he was to do. I said I use QuickBooks for your company, and I have no idea what I am doing, and I could use an accountant to teach me.

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Automation Is Key to Accounting

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Humans remain best for critical thinking.

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

There’s no doubt that advancements in technology are changing the world, and the accounting industry is no exception. Technology is making us more productive, more efficient and more connected.

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On the flip side, it’s also taking over some of our jobs. This is a reality in the accounting industry that we cannot ignore. Technology is driving major changes for the future of the accounting world. We need to be aware of what’s happening and take strategic steps to advance along with these changes. Otherwise, we are going to be left in the dust.
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Big Four Vets Launch $300M PE-Backed, AI-Powered CFO Advisory Firm

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Born for scale, built to sell, and run like a tech company.

Unity Advisory: Ex-PwC UK Managing Partner Marissa Thomas and former EY UK Chair Steve Varley.

By CPA Trendlines Research

A new $300 million entrant is challenging the Big Four’s lock on Fortune 500 advisory—and it may be the next big thing.

MORE Private Equity in Accounting | Private Equity Update: 52 Deals, $28 Billion | Xero Buys Melio for $3 Billion in Race for ‘The Active GL’ | Brannon Poe: PE Drives Prices–And Change | Accounting Influencers | Behind Sorren’s Roll-Up: $170 Million, 1,000 Employees, 85 Partners

Unity Advisory, a London-based firm launched by former EY UK chair Steve Varley and ex-PwC UK managing partner Marissa Thomas, is taking direct aim at the CFO suite with a venture capital mindset, AI at its core, and no legacy constraints.

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You, a Virtual CFO? Why Not?

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Accountants are perfect for the role and CAS helps drive up the demand.

By Hitendra Patil
Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide

Tom, a CPA, has always been a curious person. For over 15 years, his tax “practice” was doing well. During the tax season, he had no time to think. But, oblivious to himself, with each tax return, he was depositing new questions in his subconscious.

He is now a shared CFO of 12 companies. But he took up the CFO work accidentally.

How?

MORE: Who Is Ready for Client Accounting Services? | Wants? Needs? CAS Helps Fill Both | Automation Can Be Exciting in Client Accounting Services | Eight Steps for Better Client Accounting Services | Do You Have the Client Accounting Services Mindset? | Four Ingredients to Your CAS ‘Why’ | CAS Clients Are ‘Stickier’
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Tom believed that it was his thinking power – armed with the CPA education, years of experience, and knowing which tools to use effectively to produce the impeccable tax returns – that could help him make a meaningful positive difference to clients’ businesses, and hence lives.
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Steve Rosvold: What Makes the Best CFOs? | Accounting Influencers

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Move from being just an accountant to a successful finance leader using these four pillars of success.

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Accounting Influencers
with Rob Brown

Rob Brown and Steve Rosvold discuss whether accountants and CPAs make the best CFOs, CFO.University, and the four competencies of top financial professionals.

More Accounting Influencers with Rob Brown here

Steve Rosvold is the Founder of CFO.University, a professional development platform for finance leaders. He spent 20 years leading corporate finance teams honing his ability to drive change, improve profitability and ensure long-term financial health for businesses before creating an advisory practice that grew into CFO.University.

Jody Grunden: Be Different. Make More Money

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Prove the naysayers wrong.

This video is a preview. The complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members. The podcast version becomes available in a few days everywhere you get your podcasts.

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

In 2013, Jody Grunden’s firm, Summit Virtual CFO, became one of the first financial firms in the world to go fully remote. At the same time, they narrowed their focus to creative agencies. Those two changes, combined with a weekly subscription pricing model they’ve been using since 2007, resulted in a “hockey slope type ramp up.”

JODY GRUNDEN, PART 2 of 2: See Part 1, June 20 – Jody Grunden: Subscription Pricing Is a Game Changer

MORE PODCASTS and VIDEOS: Dawn Brolin Says Grow Your Firm by Shrinking It | Jason Blumer & Julie Shipp: Move Leaders Out of Client Service | James Graham: Drop the Billable Hour and You’ll Bill More | Karen Reyburn: Fix Your Marketing and Fix Your Business | Giles Pearson: Fix the Staffing Crisis by Swapping Experience for Education | Jina Etienne: Practice Fearless Inclusion | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Sandra Wiley: Staffing Problem? Check Your Culture | Scott Scarano: First, Grow People. Then Firm Growth Can Follow |

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Since then, they’ve been doubling in size every three years, reaching $10 million in revenue by 2022 while maintaining a profit margin of 10-25%. They also ditched the suits and ties back in 2004 and “decided to go against the norm…it really changed the way that people thought about accounting,” Grunden says. He is the author of the best-selling Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud.

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Jody Grunden: Subscription Pricing Is a Game Changer

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Get rid of the noise of hourly billing and create value.

This video is a preview. The complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members. The podcast version becomes available in a few days everywhere you get your podcasts.

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music and Audible, Player FM, Audacy, Gaana (India), and Boomplay (Africa).

The Disruptors
Part 1 of a two-part episode.
With Liz Farr

For over a decade, Jody Grunden, CPA, has been doing things that many firms are just now discovering. Summit Virtual CFO (now part of Anders) offers weekly subscription-based pricing as a fully remote firm, and their main offering is virtual CFO services or, in today’s parlance, CAS 2.0 services. He’s also the one you might spot at accounting conferences in his signature Tommy Bahama shirts instead of a suit and tie, not quite what you might expect from the leader of a $10 million firm.

JODY GRUNDEN, COMING IN PART 2, June 27: Be different. Make More Money
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Grunden, the partner and co-founder of Summit Virtual CFO, got his start as a thought leader and virtual CFO (as well as his signature wardrobe) when he was invited to speak at a conference in New Orleans. At the conference, he used an easel and pad of paper to walk a roomful of successful creative agency owners through the way they made money and how their decisions impacted the bottom line. He is the author of the best-selling Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud.

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