Today's Features
FEATURED VIDEO

Brolin: Blueprint for Empathetic Leadership | The Disruptors

Embracing empathy helped build a healthier, more profitable firm with a smaller, stronger team.

This is a preview. The complete 1-hour video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Originally published Aug. 19, 2025
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The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

After decades in public accounting, years emceeing national conferences, and a long stretch coaching college softball, Dawn Brolin has learned something most leadership books bury in footnotes: empathy drives performance.

“Empathy is, to me, the number one characteristic that a leader should follow,” she told host Liz Farr in her return to The Disruptors. Her latest book, The Elevation of Empathy: Leading for the W.I.N., digs into why the accounting profession needs a different kind of leadership—one rooted in awareness, humanity, and intentional care.

MORE STREAMING: Chang: Killing SALY, One Agent at a Time | Vanover: 5-Star Firms Don’t Bill by the Hour | Kless: 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 RISE | Proctor: Turn Dumb Ideas into Brilliant Solutions | Carter-Gray: How 1 Poor Review Strengthened the Firm | Hartman: Upwork to “40 Under 40” in 3 Years | Telka: Transform Fear into Fuel | Woodard: Move Past Reports; Deliver Results | 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 |

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Accounting firms often reward technical strength or revenue generation with leadership titles. But Brolin argues those metrics don’t create leaders; they create what she calls “appointed leaders.”

“You could be appointed a leader because of a skill or the amount of revenue you bring in. That doesn’t mean you are one,” she says.

Real leadership, in her view, has less to do with credentials and more to do with emotional intelligence, personal responsibility, and daily behaviors that elevate the people around you.

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MARKETING & SALES

Personal Accountability Moves You Forward

Young man facing image of himself

Eight questions to ask yourself.

By Martin Bissett
Business Development on a Budget

The secret to overcoming failure to correctly implement a successful business development strategy is by “winning your first client” and this starts by being accountable to someone for your performance.

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Now that “someone” may be your fellow partners in the firm. If you are a senior manager, that may be the partner to whom you report.
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SPECIAL

Use Industry Practice Groups to Create Value

Portrait of a thoughtful businesswoman looking away in office

Employ best practices and benchmarking.

By Domenick J. Esposito
8 Steps to Great

You know you need marquee clients, but how do you attract, develop and retain them? You do it by attracting, developing and retaining partners with industry, consulting and technical skills.

MORE by Domenick J. Esposito
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My basic belief is that accounting and auditing partners are the principal relationship partners in a CPA firm. They are the key to your business and the key to becoming a mid-market sustainable brand.
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FEATURED VIDEO

Kwaiser: The Real Reason People Stay—or Leave | MOVE Like This

Culture isn’t an initiative—it’s a strategy that drives retention and results.

Originally published Oct. 13, 2025
This is a preview. The complete 1-hour video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
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MOVE Like This
With Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk
For CPA Trendlines

In this episode of MOVE Like This, host Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk talks with Stacie Kwaiser, CPA and CEO of Rehmann, about the firm’s nearly three-decade journey toward building a culture where people stay, grow, and lead.

MORE MOVE

Kwaiser began her career in public accounting at Coopers & Lybrand before joining Rehmann, a firm that now employs more than 1,100 professionals across 22 offices. She rose through the audit practice and into firmwide leadership roles, ultimately becoming CEO in 2023. Along the way, she experienced—and helped shape—Rehmann’s evolution into one of the profession’s most recognized firms for women and equity leadership.
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CLIENT ACCOUNTING SERVICES

Why Policies, Processes, and Procedures Make or Break CAS | It’s Not Just the Numbers

Get more value from the technology you already own. 

This is a preview. The complete 1-hour video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
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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.

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

When accountants and bookkeepers talk about building a scalable, profitable firm, the conversation often jumps straight to technology. Which workflow app is best? Should we move payroll into a dedicated platform? Is our practice management system due for an upgrade? 

But as Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead emphasize in the latest episode of It’s Not Just the Numbers, software is only as good as the processes that support it. Without consistent policies and documented procedures, even the most advanced tech stack will fail to deliver efficiency or profitability. 

MORE Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead | MORE Advisory & Consulting | BUY “It’s Not Just the Numbers”

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This lesson is especially crucial for firms offering Client Advisory Services (CAS). Advisory work depends on reliable, timely data and standardized outputs. If every accountant on the team closes the books differently, it doesn’t just create inefficiency; it undermines the consistency and trust that clients rely on.  READ MORE →

OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

PE, M&A Will Consolidate Accounting Profession

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?

Move to more corporate culture helps ease staffing shortages.

By Terry Putney
 The Rosenberg Survey

I expect to see at least 100 to 150 acquisitions made by private equity or PE-backed CPA firms in the next 12 months. I expect to see as many as 15 to 20 of the Top 100 firms either be acquired by a PE-backed Top 100 firm or take investment from PE and remain independent.

MORE: The 2025 Rosenberg MAP Survey is available from CPA Trendlines here.
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I think we will see between two and five of previous investments made in CPA firms by PE change hands in the next 12 months. Up to now, only one major flip has occurred, the New Mountain Capital sale of their interest in Citrin Cooperman to Blackstone. Incidentally, New Mountain Capital reinvested those proceeds to a great extent with an investment in Wipfli and still holds an investment in Grant Thornton.
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ADVISORY & CONSULTING

Seven Focuses for Your Firm’s Evolution

portrait of Susan Bryant
Bryant
 Susan Bryant is a Certified Public Accountant and Certified Tax Strategist. She has earned widespread recognition, including honors as a Woman of Empowerment, Enterprising Woman of the Year, and being named among the Top 50 Women in Accounting.

Work toward a dynamic vision of a 21st-century CPA.

By Susan Bryant
The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management

As the old saying goes: “Everyone wants an accountant; no one wants to be an accountant.” Whether that saying is true or not, the future of our profession hinges upon casting a new vision.

MORE Rory Henry and The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management
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Accounting has been many things over the years, but “exciting” is not an adjective you hear often to describe it. Reliable. Dependable. Necessary. Sure, but rarely exciting.

However, we live in fast-moving and volatile times. Everything is changing rapidly. The aftermath of the pandemic, and the seismic shifts it caused in the global and local economies, have upended nearly every aspect of business. Sector after sector is scrambling to adapt to our fast-changing world. It’s a world in which the stock market is volatile; inflation is high; war, recession and weather events loom; and millions of Boomers are exiting the work force and surging into retirement. With the world changing so fast, every aspect of business services needs to change with it, including accounting.
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ACCOUNTING INFLUENCERS

The Smart Accountant’s Guide to Choosing the Right Podcasts | Accounting Influencers

Podcasts now serve every level of the profession, and intentional listening helps professionals grow faster.

This is a preview. The complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
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Accounting Influencers
With Rob Brown

The accounting podcast world is no longer a niche corner of the internet. It is a sprawling ecosystem of news briefings, exam prep guides, leadership conversations, and tech trend breakdowns. For today’s professionals—from students to senior partners—the shows they follow influence how they think, how they show up, and how they lead.

In this episode of Accounting Influencers, host Rob Brown breaks down the types of accounting podcasts in the market today and explains why some help you grow while others simply drain your time.

Not all accounting podcasts are built for the same audience. Some exist to help students pass exams. Others help partners stay current on regulatory changes. Some deliver tech deep dives. Others humanize the profession with personal stories.

Understanding these differences helps listeners choose wisely and avoid content that feels irrelevant or repetitive.

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ADVISORY & CONSULTING

Advice Must be Timely to be Valuable

Meditative businessman is pondering time management while surrounded by alarm clocks

Five real-world examples plus four key elements for implementation.

By Hitendra Patil
Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide

Good-fit clients who hire professional accountants usually expect more than just basic bookkeeping or tax preparation. They seek deeper, more strategic value.

What they truly value is advice that is specific, insightful and actionable, which helps them:

  • Make better business decisions
  • Reduce financial risks
  • Grow with confidence

MORE by Hitendra Patil
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However, even the most brilliant advice can become irrelevant if it comes too late. More than the brilliance of the advice, the value of advice is often judged by its timing. In the world of advisory, insight delivered too late might as well not be delivered at all.
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SPECIAL

Creative Perks Your Remote Employees Will Appreciate

remote worker at computer types on phone with dog nearby

Stipends for tech and education? Why not?

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

In addition to the more traditional benefits, we also offer a few creative perks that I think our employees really appreciate, including an education stipend and a technology stipend.

MORE by Jody Grunden
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Education Stipend

We believe that continuing education keeps our team members sharp and ahead of the game. One of our core values is “curiosity” because we want our employees to always be thinking about how we can improve our services, become more efficient and do things better. We want people to think outside the box because we’re not a typical accounting firm, nor do we ever want to be one.
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FEATURED VIDEO

Majchrzak: Marketer-Turned-CEO Redesigns the Modern CPA Firm | Gear Up For Growth

Collaboration, transparency, and independence drive BeachFleischman’s growth.

This is a preview. The complete episode is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
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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. 
.

Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher
For CPA Trendlines

When most people picture a CPA firm CEO, they don’t envision a former marketing director in the big chair.

That’s exactly what makes Eric Majchrzak worth listening to.

Majchrzak, CEO and Principal of BeachFleischman—Arizona’s largest locally owned CPA firm and a Top 200 firm in the U.S.—has been named multiple times to Accounting Today’s “Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting” and is an Association for Accounting Marketing Hall of Fame inductee.

More Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | More Gear Up for Growth

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On Gear Up for Growth, hosted by Capstone Marketing president Jean Caragher, Majchrzak pulls back the curtain on how his growth-minded, marketing-first lens is reshaping BeachFleischman’s strategy, culture, and business model—and what other firms can steal from that playbook.

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LEADERSHIP

Why Leaders Should Focus on Talent

red rocket rising above white hot air balloons

Are you acquiring or recruiting? There’s a difference.

By Anthony Zecca
Leading From the Edge

In my recently published book, “Leading From the Edge – Creating a Standout, High-Performing Organization,” I focus on the leadership accounting firms need to succeed in a future driven by seismic disruptors.

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Leadership has a responsibility and impact on creating the standout, high-performing talent necessary to drive the firm’s long-term strategy. We all understand and believe that at the end of each day, the firm’s greatest asset walks out the door (or in today’s world, disconnects). The quality of a firm’s talent directly relates to the success and performance of the firm.
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