Today's Features

Savage: Use Your License as a Megaphone | ARC – SLC

Small acts of involvement add up to big wins for the profession and the public.

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Is your firm truly ready for tax season—or just hoping to survive it? Join this 90-minute webinar featuring an Accounting ARC Live panel with thought leaders who know what it takes to optimize performance under pressure. 

Accounting ARC – Student-Led Conversations
With Arpan Grewal
Center for Accounting Transformation

Advocacy often appears on television as protest marches, campaign rallies, or contentious debates. But in a recent Accounting ARC – Student-Led Conversations episode, host Arpan Grewal and guest ZeNai Savage, CPA, recast advocacy as something more grounded and accessible: a series of everyday decisions about when to speak up, who to invite in, and how to use professional skills for public good.

MORE Accounting ARC: Baker: Interpreting Pricing PsychologyDon’t Get Fired by Your Own Automation | What Amazon Doesn’t Tell You | Royalties, Residuals, and Reality Checks | ARC-SLC | Free Speech Is a Right; Respect Is a Responsibility | Cash Bags, Casinos & Audits: How First Jobs Shape UsGen Z Redefines Careers | Bootleggers, Baptitsts & CPAs: Rethinking LicensureCPA Firm Ownership Under FireWalking Violation: When Showing Your CPA Gets You in Trouble | Audit Bags to TikTok Tags, Gen Z Talks Success | Students Challenge Accounting’s Traditional Career Path | True Grit: Recognizing Struggles That Shape Our Successes |More Admins, Fewer Students, No PlanWhat Career Advice Gets Wrong for Gen Z – And How to Fix ItYour Identity is Not a LiabilityBurnout, Be Gone: Accounting Needs a Boundary Breakthrough

Savage is not a typical accountant. She is the founder of The Savage Advantage, a consulting firm that provides outsourced controller work, budget development, governance support, and board training to nonprofits and civic organizations. She also writes and speaks through Blurred Lines, a personal platform built on the belief that people do not have to separate their faith, professional life, and community service into neat compartments.

For Grewal, a Gen Z student leader, Savage’s path offers a concrete example of how young professionals can blend technical careers with civic engagement.

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When Tax Meets AI, Savvy Tax Pros Turn to ‘Tax Platforms 2026’

Tax Platforms 2026: Request your FREE ebook today

Your 2026 Roadmap for the Tax Tech Transformation

Planning, Research, and the Rise of Intelligent Automation.

Artificial intelligence is moving beyond the testing phase. It’s now powering the everyday workflows of tax professionals. Tech providers are racing to integrate AI. And new startups are reshaping how firms research, plan, and deliver advice.

DOWNLOAD: Get the free ebook here

This report by CPA Trendlines Research and powered by the Center for Accounting Transformation breaks down the changing landscape across two essential areas

1 – Tax Planning and

2 – Tax Research

This report reveals where innovation meets efficiency and where reliability matters most.

Marketing Information Is at Your Fingertips

Latina woman working on laptop

Chatbots can get you started.

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

A lot of marketing doesn’t work because accountants and consultants just don’t do any or enough market research. Unfortunately, many people think they know their markets and what they want and need, but most don’t have enough information about their target markets. In today’s world, finding information is often just a keystroke away and it won’t cost you anything.

MORE by August J. Aquila
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Most of your market research can be accomplished through secondary research – sources that are already available as opposed to primary research that consists of studies done just for your firm. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to get good market information if you know where to look, especially today.
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Four Things to Learn When Assessing Clients

Businesswoman using calculator while reviewing something on laptop screen

Seven steps to setting your price.

By Jody Padar
Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA

How much would you pay for a bottle of water in the checkout line of a grocery store? Maybe $2 or $3, right? You know it costs more per unit than buying a case of water, but at that moment it’s worth it even though it’s the same bottle of water. Now, let’s assume you just made the long trek back to your hotel room in Las Vegas. They have the same bottle of water sitting there for $10. You’re thirsty and don’t want to walk to find a store, so you pay $10 for that bottle conveniently located in your room. The water isn’t different, but the value at that moment in time is subjective.

MORE by Jody Padar
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When we think about price, we really need to think about worth. What actually are you bringing to the table? Lots of training. Many years of experience. Vision into similar businesses. It took you years to get here; don’t sell an answer to a question the client asks for the three minutes it took to answer.
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1099 Chaos Averted? | Quick Tax Tip

The OBBBA just reset the rules.

Sponsored by Tax Season Readiness: Practical Steps for a Smoother Busy Season, Dec. 10, 2 pm, 1.5 CPE  –
See Today’s Special Offer

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: AppleGoogle/YoutubeSpotifyiHeartDeezer, Amazon Music, AudiblePlayer FMAudacy, RSS.

Is your firm truly ready for tax season—or just hoping to survive it? Join this 90-minute webinar featuring an Accounting ARC Live panel with thought leaders who know what it takes to optimize performance under pressure. 

Quick Tax Tip
With Art Werner
CPE Today

For the last several years, tax professionals, small businesses, and even casual online sellers have been living through what Quick Tax Tip host Art Werner calls “a fun roller coaster ride”—if you think tax compliance roller coasters are fun.

In this episode, Werner breaks down the whiplash-inducing changes to Form 1099-K and the brand-new thresholds for 1099 reporting, and explains how Congress, the IRS, and a long list of confused taxpayers all contributed to the mess.

Click here for more Art Werner

If you accept payment cards or use third-party payment processors such as PayPal, Venmo, Square, or Stripe, you may already know this story.

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Letters of Intent Require More Than ‘Good Faith’

Generic business letter of intent

Fourteen provisions to include.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Mergers: Your Complete Guide

Letters of intent should be drafted cautiously and with as much detail and precision as possible. This avoids potentially fatal misunderstandings or disagreements around key terms later in the process.

MORE by Marc Rosenberg
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An LOI is too often seen as a non-binding jumping-off point, with no real consequences. This is not exactly true. For starters, an attempt by one party to change a material term in the LOI can be characterized by the other party as an act of bad faith or a breach of trust, which can

  • derail an otherwise healthy merger,
  • give a party excessive or unwarranted leverage or
  • reopen the entire negotiation.

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Accounting Firms Must Stop Charging for Time

Every year, the 2025 Rosenberg MAP Survey asks the industry’s top consultants to share their observations from CPA firms across the country: How do you think the next 12 months will unfold? Trends? Predictions? Other thoughts? Also, how would you assess the last 12 months? Trends? Observations? Struggles?

We need more revenue per person, and private equity alone won’t solve that.

By Michelle Golden River
The Rosenberg Survey

Fee increases and higher minimums will continue, but incremental 5-10 percent hikes simply won’t close the massive revenue-per-person gap (our big proportion problem) or allow firms to pay salaries competitive with other emerging professions. The firms that make real progress will untether pricing from time, secure current revenue levels before implementing efficiency gains, and position prices around the buyer’s perceived worth rather than costs.

MORE: The 2025 Rosenberg MAP Survey is available from CPA Trendlines here.
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Charging for time creates an artificial cap on revenue because time is finite. Beyond a certain point, an hourly rate can also be perceived as unreasonable. The sooner firms learn to price using other revenue models, the better.
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Believe in Yourself to Sell

young businesswoman looking in mirror

Perception, even your own, is reality.

By Martin Bissett
 Business Development on a Budget

“No man has the ability to step outside of the shadow of his own character.” – Robespierre

As far as our potential clients are concerned, how they perceive us is how we really are to them, regardless of the truth of the matter.

MORE by Martin Bissett
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Because of this, it’s important to realize that when we are meeting a new potential client who has not been referred to us, it does not matter what the reality of our value proposition is; it matters how that potential client perceives our value proposition. Therefore, to be effective in winning work, we must understand how we can positively influence their perception of us at each stage of the relationship-building process.
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Horton: Burnout Isn’t Inevitable in Audit | The Disruptors

Analytics, automation, and AI will reshape audit roles—and that should excite CPAs.

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 Tax Season Readiness: Practical Steps for a Smoother Busy Season, Dec. 10, 2 p.m., 1.5 CPE  | See Today’s Special Offer

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: AppleGoogle/YouTubeSpotifyiHeartDeezer, Amazon Music, AudiblePlayer FMAudacy, RSS
Is your firm truly ready for tax season—or just hoping to survive it? Join this 90-minute webinar featuring an Accounting ARC Live panel with thought leaders who know what it takes to optimize performance under pressure.

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Audit is notorious for long hours, terrible work-life balance, reliance on endless checklists, and repeating the same mind-numbingly tedious procedures year after year. But some, like Kathryn Horton, are creating a different path for success as an auditor.  

 At her solo firm, Kathryn K. Horton CPA, she provides outsourced audit and analytics consulting services to firms nationwide. As “auditor on call,” she steps into manager and senior manager roles for local, regional, and national firms, helping them increase capacity while reducing staff burnout. 

MORE STREAMING: Chang: Killing SALY, One Agent at a Time | Vanover: 5-Star Firms Don’t Bill by the HourKless: Profit Is a Result. Flourishing Is the Purpose | Whitman: Build Culture on ‘Progress,’ Not Change | Shein: No PE? No M&A? No Problem | Hood and Weber: Time to RISEProctor: Turn Dumb Ideas into Brilliant SolutionsCarter-Gray: How 1 Poor Review Strengthened the Firm | Hartman: Upwork to “40 Under 40” in 3 YearsTelka: Transform Fear into Fuel | Woodard: Move Past Reports; Deliver Results | Baker: Find True Purpose to End BurnoutBrolin: The W.I.N. Leadership FormulaGertrudes: 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 |

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During her eight years in public accounting, Horton says,I did struggle with burnout at various times, where the worklife balance really wasn’t a balance anymore.” A significant factor was the hyper-connectedness of today’s technology, where “we’re essentially on call 24/7” responding to emails and calls, which made it “really hard to unplug and just recharge the batteries.” 

Another factor was demanding clients. “I realized that 80% of my stress was coming from 20% of my clients,” Horton recalls.  

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Five Procedures to Simplify Your Tax Season

Three young businessmen in office training session

Yes, there are checklists.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Tax Season Opportunity Guide

One way to guarantee extra work is to have everything always done differently each time it is done.

MORE by Ed Mendlowitz
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Not establishing uniform procedures is bad business and unnecessarily consumes part of your life. Consistency in performance reduces work and review time and creates a greater reliance on the staff people.
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Are You Overlooking These 36 Consulting Services?

business meeting of a woman and two men

Watch for the 38 events that trigger those needs.

By Domenick J. Esposito
8 Steps to Great

In today’s business world, the greatest growth and margin opportunities for a CPA firm are in the consulting area, as clients outsource specialized skills to deal with business challenges that they cannot handle internally.

MORE by Domenick J. Esposito
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Presented below is a summary of the most typical CPA firm service offerings, together with opportunity triggers and market trends.
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Stein Smith: Blockchain, AI, and the Future of Advisory | Holistic Guide to Wealth Management

Firms that translate AI-driven data into clear insight will lead the next era of advisory. 

Sponsored by Tax Season Readiness: Practical Steps for a Smoother Busy Season, Dec. 10, 2 pm, 1.5 CPE  | See Today’s Special Offer

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: AppleGoogle/YouTubeSpotifyiHeartDeezer, Amazon Music, AudiblePlayer FMAudacy, RSS
Is your firm truly ready for tax season—or just hoping to survive it? Join this 90-minute webinar featuring an Accounting ARC Live panel with thought leaders who know what it takes to optimize performance under pressure.

By Rory Henry CFP®, BFA™
For CPA Trendlines

Few people have been able to bridge the gap between emerging technology and the accounting profession the way Dr. Sean Stein Smith does. A CPA, researcher, Forbes contributor, and professor at Lehman College, Stein Smith serves on the advisory board of the Wall Street Blockchain Alliance and has spent more than a decade helping practitioners make sense of blockchain, crypto, and artificial intelligence. 

MORE Rory Henry and The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management

BUY the Holistic Guide to Wealth Management

MORE Dr. Sean Stein Smith | Crypto Tax Planning – Beyond the Basics & What Practitioners Need to Know Going Forward | Dec. 11, 12:30 p.m. ET | On-Demand

“The whole blockchain conversation has moved from the back burner to the front [burner],” he says. “Every major financial institution is entering the on-chain space.”

And CPAs can no longer afford to ignore it.  

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