AI

Private Equity’s Accounting Playbook Is Shifting from Dealmaking to Operating Systems

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Prove It: PE-Backed Firms Must Now Deliver on Their Big Strategies

CPA Trendlines CPA-PE Deal Tracker™ — May 2026

Target Platform/Buyer Sponsor Funding Strategy
Jackson Thornton Ascend Alpine Investors PE-backed Wealth management, Gulf Coast expansion
Jefferson Wells U.S. Sikich Bain Capital involvement Institutionally backed Consulting and staffing capabilities
Copeland Buhl Frazier & Deeter — Conventional M&A First Midwest footprint
Price Kong Aprio Charlesbank PE-backed Arizona and cannabis specialization
SWKJD Citrin Cooperman Blackstone PE-backed South Florida expansion
Gorfine Schiller & Gardyn Sorren DFW Capital PE-backed Mid-Atlantic expansion
Gordon Advisors Cohen & Co. Lovell Minnick PE-backed Michigan expansion
ArightCo Abbott Stringham & Lynch — Conventional M&A CAS and fractional CFO scaling
ASO Advisors Windsor Path Family-office backed Private capital Platform’s second deal
GBC Advisory Springline Advisory Trinity Hunt Partners PE-backed Oklahoma expansion
MCA Connect Grant Thornton Advisors New Mountain Capital PE-backed AI and digital transformation
Burke & Associates Platform Accounting Group / Shoreline Cynosure Group Private capital Massachusetts expansion
Of the month’s notable deals, 10 are funded by outside capital, led by Grant Thornton’s deal for a tech consultancy and Sikich’s for a staffing service.
Half “decidedly opposed” and the other half in favor, in talks or done. (CPA Trendlines Research)

By CPA Trendlines

Marking a new phase in the private equity takeover of the CPA business, the next test for accounting platforms will be proving that serial acquisitions can be converted into integrated firms, not just larger collections of offices, partners and legacy systems.

MORE CPA-PE DEAL TRACKER™: How Big Buyouts Are Turning the Profession into a Platform |  PE Wars: The CPA Platform Economy Is Concentrating Fast | Alan Whitman: Why the Next Big CPA Firms Won’t Look Like CPA Firms | The PE Takeover: Audit Problem? What Audit Problem? | 1,000 Deals Show Where PE Money in Accounting Really Goes. | The 7.6x Machine: How Grassroots Firms Are Taking Private Equity for a Ride | Deal Tracker(™): PE Platforms Accelerate the Grab for CPA Firms | With Apax Sale, CohnReznick Starts Building a National Platform | PE Deal Tracker™ for Feb. 2026: 57 deals in 60 days | PE Deal Tracker™ Update: Alan Whitman Plants a Flag in the Private Equity Landscape | Alan Whitman: Breaking the Mold with PE Backing
MORE Private Equity

Call it: The Implementation Imperative. It’s the place where grand schemes on paper meet the concrete realities of running a business. The first phase was acquisition. The second was consolidation. The next is all about making it work.

The May 2026 edition of the CPA Trendlines CPA-PE Deal Tracker™ illustrates the change. And a CPA Trendlines survey in April shows 44% of accountants are eager, open or already closed on a deal.

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The Real Problem with AI in Accounting | ARC

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Technology is advancing faster than the profession’s ability to rethink its workflows.

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

Accounting ARC
With Donny Shimamoto
Center for Accounting Transformation

In a profession often defined by structure, standards, and well-worn career paths, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, opens a different kind of conversation in a recent Accounting ARC episode—one that challenges assumptions about what it means to build a career in accounting.

His guest, Danielle Supkis Cheek, embodies that challenge.

As senior vice president of AI, analytics and assurance at CaseWare, Supkis Cheek operates at the intersection of technology, methodology, and human judgment. But her path there was anything but linear—and that, Shimamoto suggests, is exactly the point.

MORE Accounting ARC: AI Can Fix Your Workflow—or Break It in Seconds | Efficiency Is the Wrong Goal for AI | Accounting’s Hidden Talent Risk: The Sandwich Generation | Built Fast. Sold Faster. Broken Later? The Truth About Accounting Tech | Recognize When You Need to Recharge Before You Burn Out | Valuing More Than the Balance Sheet | Accounting’s “Untalked-About” Frontier | Why Happiness is Hard-Fought for High Achievers | The Fastest Way to Lose Talent Is “Dick Leadership” | Post-Holiday Fatigue Isn’t a Failure; It’s a Signal | OCR, Research Bots & Meeting Assistants: What Actually Helps Now | Return Season is the New Stress Test | Small Firms May Have the Biggest Advantage in 2026 | Downgraded: What the DOE Said About Accounting |

Supkis Cheek describes her role less as a technologist and more as a translator. “I like to think of myself as someone who translates across domains,” she says, explaining how she helps software companies understand how accountants actually work—and how technology can reshape those workflows.

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Ellen Choi: It’s ‘Go Time’ for AI | Gear Up for Growth

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AI Readiness Gap Threatens CPA Firm Competitiveness.

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

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS.

Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher

“This is a make-or-break year for AI in accounting,” says Ellen Choi, a co-founder of Aiwyn.ai, the AI-powered practice management platform. “Firms that don’t move now will start to see a widening gap between themselves and competitors who have already begun building these capabilities,” Choi tells Jean Caragher in the new episode of Gear Up for Growth.

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

The serial entrepreneur and early-stage investor warns that timing is critical: Firms that delay risk falling behind. With even basic AI tools capable of delivering immediate productivity gains, firms that act quickly can improve efficiency, enhance client experience, and create capacity for growth. Choi identifies two additional critical issues firms must address now to remain competitive: AI readiness and workforce upskilling.

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AI Can Fix Your Workflow—or Break It in Seconds | ARC

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Deliberate experimentation can unlock value—without creating costly mistakes. 

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

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS.
The step-by-step operating guide for firms building, pricing, and scaling advisory services that clients value—and pay for.

Accounting ARC
With Liz Mason and Byron Patrick
Center for Accounting Transformation

Artificial intelligence is moving fast—fast enough that even the people experimenting with it daily admit they’re still figuring it out in real time. On the latest episode of Accounting ARC, Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, and Liz Mason, CPA, take listeners inside that reality: a profession eager to unlock AI-driven efficiency, but still learning how to manage the risks that come with it. 

The conversation centers on a deceptively simple idea—just because AI can do something doesn’t mean it should. And in accounting, the consequences of getting that wrong can be immediate. 

MORE Accounting ARC: Efficiency Is the Wrong Goal for AI | Accounting’s Hidden Talent Risk: The Sandwich Generation | Built Fast. Sold Faster. Broken Later? The Truth About Accounting Tech | Recognize When You Need to Recharge Before You Burn Out | Valuing More Than the Balance Sheet | Accounting’s “Untalked-About” Frontier | Why Happiness is Hard-Fought for High Achievers | The Fastest Way to Lose Talent Is “Dick Leadership” | Post-Holiday Fatigue Isn’t a Failure; It’s a Signal | OCR, Research Bots & Meeting Assistants: What Actually Helps Now | Return Season is the New Stress Test | Small Firms May Have the Biggest Advantage in 2026 | Downgraded: What the DOE Said About Accounting |

The discussion begins with a practical example: integrating AI tools like Claude into everyday workflows, particularly in systems such as QuickBooks or Excel. 

What makes these tools powerful is also what makes them risky. 

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Seven Signs Your Firm Is About to Change | Accounting Voices

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The smart move is learning which signals matter and how to prepare.

Sponsored by The Balanced Millionaire: The Advisor Edition by Dr. Jackie Meyer | See Today’s Special Offer

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Accounting Voices
With Rob Brown

The True Adviser: Buy now | Learn more

If you work in an accounting firm today, you can feel the tension in the air. Something is shifting. You sense it before anyone tells you. Leaders start speaking in strange new phrases. Workloads rise without explanation. New people appear in meetings while familiar faces quietly disappear. Rumors travel faster than email. And you begin wondering what everyone else is wondering, Is something happening here?

MORE Accounting Voices with Rob Brown | Why Accounting Firms Feel So Unstable Right Now | Should I Leave Public Accounting? | Visibility Is the New Accounting Authority | How to Outsmart the Big Four on AI | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network

Today, accounting firms feel unstable. The private equity wave. The mergers. The leadership turnover. The technology pressure. The partner exits. The new business models. Today we look at the next step. How to read the signals inside your own firm before anything becomes official.

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