What’s Your Return on Relationships?
Think about a return on relationships.
By Rory Henry
The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management
AI
The AI Demo Is Easy. The Rollout Gets Complicated. | Innovation Insights
Building an accounting tool with AI is only the beginning of making it useful, secure, and sustainable.
Innovation Insights
With Donny Shimamoto and Byron Patrick
Center for Accounting Transformation
David Marquis: AI Can Do More Work but Auditors Must Make the Call | The Disruptors
A five-layer “AI trust stack” helps auditors put AI to work while keeping professional judgment at the center.
The Disruptors
With Liz Farr
For CPA Trendlines
Your Next Hire Might Not Be an Accountant | It’s Not Just the Numbers
An AI engineer can help accounting teams tackle bottlenecks, streamline workflows, and build capacity.
It’s Not Just the Numbers
With Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead
For CPA Trendlines
How to Survive Tax Season Without Burning Out Your Teams | It’s Not Just the Numbers
The expectation that tax preparation can happen instantly is creating real pressure.
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
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It’s Not Just the Numbers
With Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead
For CPA Trendlines
Tax season is supposed to be predictable. The work comes in, the work goes out, the deadlines hold. But this year, something broke for accounting firms across the board — and it wasn’t the tax code.
The culprit wasn’t client volume or staffing shortages. It was prioritization and communication, specifically, the gap between where priorities were being set and where the people doing the work were actually looking.
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JOIN From Scorekeeper to Strategist CAS Workshop | BUY “It’s Not Just the Numbers”
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If your firm made it through but felt like you were always reacting, always chasing, always a step behind — this breakdown is for you.
Advisory Opportunities Emerge from Core CAS Offerings
Think about where your insights originate.
By Hitendra Patil
Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide
“We want to offer outsourced CFO and advisory services.”
It has become an increasingly common intent of accounting firms of all sizes.
MORE by Hitendra Patil
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This article demonstrates how compliance, accounting and reporting can serve as doorways to deeper insights, more strategic conversations and higher-value advisory relationships.
Technology automation, artificial intelligence and more innovative solutions seem to make it even more logical for accountants to feel that the future is more about advisory services than ever before.
READ MORE →
“Set It and Forget It” Is Not an AI Strategy | It’s Not Just the Numbers
Accounting teams must ensure their people can recognize anomalies, challenge outputs, and apply sound judgment.
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.
It’s Not Just the Numbers
With Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead
For CPA Trendlines
AI is everywhere in accounting right now.
It’s in your inbox, on the Super Bowl, and probably inside at least one tool your firm uses for tax prep. But there’s a conversation happening inside serious accounting firms, the ones processing thousands of returns, managing global teams, and serving clients who expect more than a spreadsheet, that the vendor demos don’t cover.
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JOIN From Scorekeeper to Strategist CAS Workshop | BUY “It’s Not Just the Numbers”
That conversation is about critical thinking.
It may be the most important skill your firm could be developing right now, precisely because AI is making it easier to stop using it.
Five Common Pitfalls and How to Overcome Them
Transitioning isn’t always smooth sailing.
By Jackie Meyer
When I made the decision to shift from a compliance-heavy firm to an advisory-first firm focused on delivering measurable ROI, I wish I could say it was seamless. It wasn’t. This kind of transformation brings new opportunities, but it also brings challenges – some that you can anticipate, and others that take you by surprise. The key to success isn’t avoiding challenges altogether (that’s impossible); it’s learning to navigate them when they arise.
MORE: Will Your Success be Incremental or Exceptional? | 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 | Beyond Blocking: More Time Management Strategies | Reclaim Your Hours with Time Management and Productivity Hacks | How to Bring Core Values into Your Accounting Firm | Ten Key Guidelines for Accounting Staff | Hiring Strategies for Your Dream Team | The AI Revolution: Embracing Artificial Intelligence in Your Practice
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In this article, I want to help you understand the common pitfalls that can derail your progress and the practical steps you can take to overcome them. Whether it’s dealing with clients who are stuck in the old model, learning to price confidently or avoiding burnout, there are solutions to keep you moving forward.
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Win at M&A Without Overpaying
Seven tips for being a strong acquirer.
By Ira Rosenbloom
In today’s hyperactive CPA firm M&A market, buyers are circling many of the same opportunities. Private equity and alternative investors can often offer more cash but that doesn’t mean they always win – or that the highest offer does.
MORE by Ira Rosenbloom
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.
Securing the deal you want depends on the right ingredients for a strong outcome. Based on our knowledge of the success factors for winning, we offer the following recommendations – especially if you are a more traditional acquirer:
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Kenji Kuramoto: When AI Does the Work, What Are Firms Selling? | The Disruptors
Intelligent agents will reshape accounting workflows, pricing models, employee development, and the value firms deliver to clients.
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 Disruptors
With Liz Farr
For CPA Trendlines
Kenji Kuramoto says accounting firms will be changing how they work — and even who does the work.
“The future of accounting firms,” Kuramoto says, “is going to be made up of a workforce that has two components. It’ll have people and agents.”
His current company, Basis, where he serves as managing partner in residence, is building those agents. Kuramoto says approximately 30% of the top 25 accounting firms are using them across client accounting services, tax, and audit. The agents perform multistep workflows such as reconciliations, account categorization, and first-pass tax return preparation, including work on complex partnership returns.
MORE Disruptors with Liz Farr | CPA Trendlines Streaming Network
By the end of the year, Kuramoto expects some practice lines to achieve efficiency gains of 60% to 80% by using agents. Within a year, “we should probably be able to see agents working and collaborating together, overall, being directed and architected by people,” he says.