Today's Features
CLIENT ACCOUNTING SERVICES

Woodard: Move Past Reports; Deliver Results | The Disruptors

Dashboards and statements aren’t enough—accountants must help clients turn data into action.

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Not Your Headcount

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Joe Woodard sees a disconnect between what accountants think they’re selling and what clients want to buy. Many accountants still believe they are selling time, but as Woodard points out with a vivid analogy, that’s not what clients care about.

CPA TRENDLINES CELEBRATES:The 100th Episode of The Disruptors

MORE STREAMING: 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 | Randy Crabtree: Live at the Intersection of Passion & Skill |McClelland and Telka: Women Ready to Rewrite the Rules of Accounting | Jacob Schroeder: AI Won’t Replace Accountants—But It Will Reveal Who’s Replaceable | Ditching Corporate America: The Bold Story Behind PBS Accounting’s Rapid Rise | Jean Zick: Happy Team = Happy Clients | Breslin & Greathead: Be a Client Advocate | Dominic Piscopo: Clear Pay=Bargaining Power | Debbie Kilsheimer: Stop Thinking Small |

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“If I’m going into CVS and I need Tums,” he explains, imagine if CVS charged you more because “I hung around in their store for twice as long to buy the Tums as I needed to, I took a circuitous path. Maybe I looked at some of the kids’ toys for an upcoming birthday party where they’re going to charge me twice as much for the Tums.”

This absurd scenario mirrors what accounting firms do to clients when the cost of delivering the service depends on the time it takes to do the work, so “the value of the product changes based on some arbitrary time metric,” Woodard says. “As long as that’s the case, there’s always going to be a resistance to the billing for selling the wrong product.”

However, even among firms that have adopted value pricing, a disconnect remains because the focus is on deliverables rather than outcomes.

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PRICING, FEES & BILLING RATES

Profit Sharing Can Boost Your Accounting Firm

Pay for performance.

By Jody Padar
Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA

As long as you’re changing how your firm operates, you should also look at how your staff is compensated. If your customers are paying for value, shouldn’t your teams be paid on the same basis? Once your firm turns to a value paradigm, the people delivering the knowledge work – your staff – are your most valuable asset and should be compensated as such.

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It’s all about alignment. Clients pay on value. Staff should be compensated on value. There are proven ways to make sure this alignment takes place.

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CLIENT SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES

How to Disengage Clients

woman speaking and giving direction to subordinate

BONUS: Two sample letters.

By August Aquila
MAX: Maximize Productivity, Profitability and Client Retention

Disengaging clients in a professional services firm is a sensitive process that requires careful consideration to maintain positive relationships and uphold your firm’s reputation. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do it professionally:

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  1. Review Contracts and Agreements: Begin by reviewing the terms of your engagement contracts or agreements with the client. Understand any clauses related to termination or disengagement and follow those guidelines.

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MANAGEMENT

When ‘the Way It’s Always Been Done’ Makes No Sense

businessman reading documents

Are your priorities backward?

By Ed Mendlowitz
Call Me Before You Do Anything: The Art of Accounting

When I was a junior accountant an eon ago, my boss would always give me the cash to reconcile or audit, the minutes to “abstract,” and the internal control questionnaire to go over with the controller or bookkeeper.

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Then when I became a manager, I continued this practice of having lower-level staff perform these procedures. I now consult with many accounting firms and find it is still being done that way. I stopped it many years ago and wonder why it’s still widespread.
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GROWTH STRATEGIES

Petrey: Ditch Old Models for Good | Big 4 Transparency

“You can’t ask people to act like partners and then treat them like employees.” 

This is a preview. The complete 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.”
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Big 4 Transparency
By Dominic Piscopo, CPA
For CPA Trendlines

In an industry marked by incremental change and cautious tradition, Tim Petrey, managing partner at HD Growth Partners, is going all-in on a radical reimagining of what an accounting firm can be. Speaking on the Big 4 Transparency Podcast, Petrey shares how his firm has abandoned the tired trappings of the old model – mandatory billable hours, rigid promotion timelines, and siloed service delivery – in favor of a more dynamic, entrepreneurial approach.

And he isn’t just talking about change, he’s living it. 

MORE Dominic Piscopo | MORE Private Equity | MORE Pay & Compensation

The episode dives deep into how HD Growth Partners embraces a consulting-first approach, using accounting services as a wedge rather than a foundation. The firm encourages team members, even juniors, to build one-on-one relationships with clients. Petrey believes the best learning happens on the job, with mentorship layered into real-world client work. This, he argues, is what keeps staff engaged and clients loyal. 

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