Today's Features
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Billions in Debt Decisions Dog CBIZ-Grant Thornton Deal

CBIZ latest quarterly report

Grant Thornton plans $2 billion in junk bonds at a steeper price than CBIZ was paying.

By CPA Trendlines Research

After a mountain of debt sent tax and accounting consolidator CBIZ looking for a suitor, Grant Thornton stepped up. Now Grant Thornton itself is looking to place $2.25 billion in junk bonds to help pay for the $5 billion deal.

MORE Special Report on the CBIZ-Grant Thornton Deal: 

GT’s new junk-bond load comes on top of more than $7 billion the firm is reportedly already carrying and costs about 4 points more than the CBIZ bank debt it’s replacing.

The CBIZ saga, begun in the first rollup era of the 1990s, comes to a head next week when shareholders vote on the $55-a-share cash offer from Grant Thornton Advisors, the private equity-backed nonattest platform.

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ADVISORY & CONSULTING

What’s Your Return on Relationships?

Clients need empathy.

By Rory Henry
The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management

In his iconic work, “Meditationes Sacrae” (1597), Sir Francis Bacon wrote that “knowledge itself is power.” Many scholars believe Bacon wanted to further the idea that having and sharing knowledge is the cornerstone of reputation and influence – and therefore power. All achievements emanate from this philosophy.

MORE: Advisory Includes More Than You Might Think | Wealth Management: Can You Afford Not to Provide It?

But in many areas such as business, finance, sports and the military, knowledge can be a competitive advantage. Therefore, many are reluctant to share their knowledge with others.
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GROWTH STRATEGIES

Nick Boscia: More Clients. More Hours. Less Happiness. | The Disruptors

Burnout pushed him to rethink growth, rebuild his processes, and make room for a better life.

This is a preview. The complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first and always available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by Radical Pricing: Optimize Profits, Delight Clients, and Build a Top-Value Firm

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The Disruptors
With Liz Farr
For CPA Trendlines

The Break-Through Blueprint for Revolutionizing the CPA Firm Business Model

When Nick Boscia joined his father’s accounting firm in 2013, it was like stepping back in time.

“When I joined, we were still using like the green ledger sheets,” he recalls. “I started in 2013, and it was like it was 1980.” Today, Boscia is known as the Balanced CPA and is co-owner, with his brother Joe, of Boscia and Boscia PC, the firm their father founded in 1975.

Working for his father was difficult.

“He didn’t really value going on vacations or taking time off,” Boscia recalls. Adopting new technology was out of the question.

MORE Disruptors with Liz Farr | CPA Trendlines Streaming Network

“I’ve been doing this for 40 years, and it works, so we’re not changing things,” his father would say. But when Boscia and his brother took over, things changed dramatically.

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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

42 Hot AI Firms Raise $1.23 Billion in New 2026 Funding

Wall Street places big money on both sides of the bet for and against accounting firms.

The top ten of 42 firms identified by CPA Trendlines raise 75% of the new money so far this year.

By CPA Trendlines Research

With $1.23 billion invested so far this year, 42 new AI-powered tech companies, from pre-seed startups to growth-stage platforms, are vying for a place at the table where the future of tax and accounting will be decided.

MORE AITech and Adoption: Buying AI Is Easy. Rebuilding the Firm Is Hard. | Trent Yesberg: How AI Re-Builds Accounting Firms | The AI Demo Is Easy. The Rollout Gets Complicated. | If AI Is Saving Time, Why Are You Still Working Late? | Intuit, Thomson, Wolters Kluwer: Accountants Question AI Promises | David Marquis: AI Can Do More Work but Auditors Must Make the Call | AI Accountants Cut Costs per Task to 21 cents from $10.35 | Your Next Hire Might Not Be an Accountant | “Set It and Forget It” Is Not an AI Strategy | Kenji Kuramoto: When AI Does the Work, What Are Firms Selling?

They’ve captured the serious attention of both the fintech cognoscenti and the tax and accounting avant-garde. Some build the tools that help tax and accounting firms handle more work. Others are taking the other side of the bet, selling tax and accounting services themselves, rolling up firms that do, or selling bookkeeping with no human bookkeepers.

To be sure, the bets are anything but certain.

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ADVISORY & CONSULTING

Crossing the Chasm from CAS to Advisory

silhouette of man leaping from one cliff to another

Client needs evolve with their businesses.

By Hitendra Patil
Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide

Again, what is the difference between CAS and CAAS? Many firms feel stuck in the middle, offering advisory in theory but not in execution. That gap is the CAAS-Chasm. This article outlines the cycle that causes advisory initiatives to stall and helps you recognize the signs in your own firm. It’s the first step to breaking through.

MORE by Hitendra Patil
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Client accounting and advisory services (CAAS) is a fusion of traditional accounting services with advisory services that emerge from core accounting work. Think of CAS as a self-study course and CAAS as a guided workshop, but not necessarily in-person events.

CAAS is (needs to be) customized to individual client needs. CAAS must cater to the evolving demands of businesses in a changing economic, regulatory and technological landscape.
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SPECIAL

The Hidden Costs of the Virtual Accounting Firm

Happy business professionals giving high five hand slap

Save by combining a retreat with CPE.

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

With a brick-and-mortar company, there are a number of standard costs that you would expect to have, such as rent or mortgage, utilities, building repairs, furniture, technology, etc. The total amount of these kinds of costs typically falls in the range of 3-4 percent of the company’s annualized revenue. That amount can be pretty significant for a lot of companies.

MORE by Jody Grunden
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Some business owners may think they can save the company all of that money by going remote, but I personally believe that’s a terrible idea. While it’s true that a distributed company doesn’t have the costs that come with having a physical space, the very nature of a remote work environment results in a completely different and unique set of needs that should be considered in the company’s annual budget.
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ACCOUNTING VOICES

Buying AI Is Easy. Rebuilding the Firm Is Hard. | Accounting Voices

Leaders reveal a widening gap between adopting new capabilities and building firms that can use them effectively.

Sponsored by True Advisor: The Definitive Success Guide for Client Advisory Services – See Today’s Special Offer

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The step-by-step operating guide for CPA firms building, pricing, and scaling advisory services that clients value—and pay for.

Accounting Voices
With Rob Brown

A firm buys powerful technology, announces ambitious growth plans, and asks an already stretched team to deliver more. The tools change. The way the business operates barely moves.

Accounting Voices explores the strain inside that scenario. Drawing on reflections from 48 firm leaders, consultants, media professionals, technology experts, and other industry voices, it examines what their observations reveal about accounting’s direction.

In the episode, host Rob Brown identifies a “velocity gap”: the distance between firms talking about change and firms making it part of their daily operations. AI, outside investment, shifting professional identities, and talent pressures all contribute to that gap. Together, they raise a practical question for leaders: Can the organization absorb the change it pursues?
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ADVISORY & CONSULTING

The Six-Stop Road Map to Your Freedom Formula

Here’s an action plan for your own journey.

By Jackie Meyer

By now, you’ve read about the mistakes I made, the strategies I discovered, the value of leading with advisory, the power of technology, and even the ultimate exit strategy. You’ve learned how to build, scale and eventually sell a high-value tax advisory firm that works for you, instead of the other way around.

But knowledge alone isn’t enough. The real magic happens when you take what you’ve learned and turn it into action.

MORE: The Future of Tax Advisory | Five Common Pitfalls and How to Overcome Them | Four Practical Case Studies of Real Advisory Success | Your Balanced Millionaire Journey Begins Now | How to Cultivate Holistic Wealth | Five Hard-Earned Lessons from Exiting an Accounting Firm | It’s Never Too Early to Plan Your Exit Strategy | Hiring Strategies for Your Dream Team | Leverage Technology for Growth | Streamline Your Operations with Systems and Processes | Craft Tiered Service Packages for Maximum Impact | Master the ROI Method: Price for Value, Not Time | From Compliance to Advisory: Shifting the Value Proposition | How I Became an Accidental Entrepreneur | Build a Seven-Figure Firm in Four Hours a Week
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This article is designed to be a clear, actionable road map that helps you take each concept and turn it into results. We’ll break down the steps you need to take – one by one – so that you can create your own transformation. Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been running your practice for years, this action plan will help you move toward the freedom formula: more value, less stress and a firm that can thrive without you.
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Trent Yesberg: How AI Re-Builds Accounting Firms | It’s Not Just the Numbers

Nontechnical teams can use AI-built scripts to automate repetitive work, reclaim valuable time, and turn an accounting firm’s operational problem into a marketable product.

This is a preview. The complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by Radical Pricing: Optimize Profits, Delight Clients, and Build a Top-Value Firm

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS.
The Break-Through Blueprint for Revolutionizing the CPA Firm Business Model

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

Most accounting firms talk about AI automation in the future tense. They’re waiting for the right tool, the right vendor, or the right moment to start using it seriously.

Trent Yesberg didn’t wait. As director of Regional Business Services in Townsville, Australia, he started asking Claude and ChatGPT to write scripts that run his firm’s internal workflows directly, with no ongoing subscription or per-task cost attached.

MORE Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead | MORE Advisory & Consulting

JOIN From Scorekeeper to Strategist CAS Workshop | BUY “It’s Not Just the Numbers”

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What began as a way to save his own team a few hours a week turned into Twine Biller, a tool now used by other firms to fix one of accounting’s quietest profit leaks: subscription rebilling that slips through the cracks month after month.

His approach cuts against a common assumption, that AI automation in a firm has to mean either building an entire internal platform from scratch or renting one from a big software vendor. There is a middle path, and Yesberg has been living in it for the better part of a year.

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LEADERSHIP

How to Assess Your Firm’s Performance

Seven key filters to use.

By Anthony Zecca
Leading from the Edge

Now that we have completed an assessment of your leadership team and your leadership, the third leg is assessing the overall performance of the firm. This assessment, coupled with the assessment of the leadership team and your leadership, provides a strong foundation upon which to build the roadmap (strategies) for moving the firm from where it is today to a standout, high-performing firm. The underlying objective for this assessment of the firm is to have a factual basis for establishing a myth-free and accurate baseline of the firm by analyzing a number of key characteristics.

MORE by Anthony Zecca
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What are the major areas of focus for the firm assessment? In center-led firms, the assessment of how well the firm is doing is generally focused around financial metrics. How much profit did we make? What was our growth? What was the change in average partner compensation? What profit percentage to revenue did we achieve?
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