Today's Features
AUDIT & ASSURANCE

The Post-Audit Debrief Most Teams Get Wrong

Why most debriefs fail to change the next audit—and how to turn them into real design inputs

By William Englehaupt

As one audit cycle closes and the next begins, most teams go through some form of debrief. In theory, this is where learning happens, where teams step back, reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and carry those insights forward.

In practice, it rarely works that way.

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Debriefs are often rushed or treated as closure rather than input. The questions are familiar—what went well, what didn’t—but the discussion stays at the surface. Late nights, difficult clients, tight deadlines. The symptoms are easy to identify. The underlying causes are not. READ MORE →

PODCAST

Sharrin Fuller: Build It Better, Then Let It Run Without You | The Disruptors

Freedom comes from systems.

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The Disrupters
With Liz Farr
For CPA Trendlines

Sharrin Fuller isn’t your typical accountant. For one, she’s not a CPA. She doesn’t have an accounting degree. She didn’t even go to college. But despite lacking what most consider the usual credentials and following “the most unconventional and broken path possible,” she managed to build and sell two successful accounting firms. Fuller recounts this story in her new book, Unfollow the Rules: The Messy Truth About Burnout, Bad Decisions, and Building Until It Works. 

MORE DISRUPTORS: Candy Bellau: The $350 Pricing Mistake that Nearly Broke this Boutique Firm | The Disruptors | Poe: What P.E. Really Wants from Firms | The Disruptors  | Blake Oliver: Build a Biz that Runs Without You | Daiber: Use Succession as a Growth Strategy | Cannon: Busy Season is Self-Inflicted | Carroll: When One Person Can Break the Firm | Rampe: Build a Roadmap Even When the Road’s Not There | Chang: Killing SALY, One Agent at a Time |

MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network

Fuller wrote this book to help entrepreneurs see behind the social media images of success. “All you see are their wins and their glorified wins, but you don’t know what it took to get them there,” she explains. Her book was originally intended to be a how-to guide, but halfway through the process, she changed her mind. “I don’t want to write this book telling people this is how you should do it,” she explains. “I needed to be vulnerable so people could understand how I got to the point that I got to.” 

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OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Red Flag Warning: Accountants Lose Faith in the Economic Outlook

A turn for the worse: Accountants’ outlook on the economy takes a tumble with the end of busy season. (CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer)

Two-thirds now see tough times ahead.

By CPA Trendlines Research

After processing hundreds, if not thousands, of tax returns for wage earners and small business owners, U.S. accountants’ confidence in the nation’s economy is in a state of collapse, according to the latest CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer.

While practitioners entered the winter with relatively stable expectations, the reality of “busy season”—which provides a granular look at the financial health of American businesses—has apparently triggered a sharp reversal.

MORE Busy Season Barometer Join the survey. Get the results

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With the end of the 2026 filing cycle, roughly two-thirds of CPAs are predicting that national business conditions will worsen over the next 12 to 18 months, a startling increase from the beginning of the cycle, when only half held a negative outlook. Conversely, the number of optimists dwindled to about 18%, down from nearly 30 points from earlier in the year.

“We’re looking at higher costs and too much uncertainty for our small-business clients,” one sole proprietor noted in the survey, shifting his rating to “much worse.”

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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Tipping Point: Accountants Scramble for AI Tech

New workflow systems expected to cut labor problems and shore up profit margins.

Coming out of tax season, more than 55% of firms are looking for new artificial intelligence solutions, up 10 points from before the season. The scramble for practice management and workflow solutions has almost doubled. (CPA Trendlines Research)

By CPA Trendlines Research

The CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer shows accounting firms are already planning changes to their technology and workflows, aiming to address the same pressures that defined this year’s busy season.

The research points to a profession broadly aligned with what needs to change, but much less aligned with how quickly those changes can be put into practice.


MORE Busy Season Barometer Join the survey. Get the results. | MORE Busy Season | MORE Tech and AI

Firms across the spectrum, whether reporting a better or worse tax season, identify similar priorities: improving efficiency, reducing manual work and making better use of technology.

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LEADERSHIP

Tax Season Winds Down and Strategic Planning Season Begins

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.

MORE by Domenick J. Esposito
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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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