Compensation

Merging in a Smaller Firm: 33 Questions to Ask

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Young businesswoman using smartphone and tablet at outdoor cafe

BONUS: a telephone screening form.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Mergers: Your Complete Guide

Even though these questions are primarily intended for larger firms to ask smaller firms, some of the questions may be appropriate for the smaller firm to ask larger firms. These are general questions; based on your review of the other firm’s data, you will certainly have specific questions to ask in addition to those below.

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An important goal of these interviews is to get open, honest and brutally candid responses. At most firms, this is virtually impossible if you interview two or more partners together. Only rarely, where two or three partners appear to be “joined at the hip,” is it acceptable to do group interviews.

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Fourteen Components to Your Firm’s Strategic Plan

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Execute it; don’t let it sit on a shelf.

By Domenick J. Esposito
8 Steps to Great

Many CPA firms do not have a living, breathing strategic plan that enables them to successfully navigate through their next two or three years.

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That in and of itself is not very surprising because most CPA firms are basically small and midsized businesses with the same generational challenges faced by most small and midsized family and privately owned operating companies. READ MORE →

Jeremy Dubow: Raising the Bar for Talent | Big 4 Transparency

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Why equity is the new standard for talent retention.

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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Big 4 Transparency
By Dominic Piscopo, CPA
For CPA Trendlines

Jeremy Dubow, CEO and co-founder of Chicago-based, private-equity-backed Prosperity Partners, explains how entrepreneurship in accounting has shifted from demand-driven to capacity-constrained, and why transparent equity programs are becoming the new standard for talent retention.

MORE Dominic Piscopo | MORE Private Equity | MORE Pay & Compensation

Dubow joins Dominic Piscopo on Big 4 Transparency to discuss how accounting-firm entrepreneurship and the operating model required to scale have changed since he co-founded NDH in 2003. NDH later sold to private equity and rebranded as Prosperity Partners, which Dubow described as a case study in how firms are adapting to labor constraints, expanding client complexity, and rising expectations around technology and talent strategy.

Quotables
“The demand for accounting services is greater than it ever has been. The challenge is providing the service at a high level in a labor-constrained environment.”
“AI in and of itself is not right now the solution to solve all our problems. Using automation and offshoring gives us the operational leverage to create that capacity.”
“I recognize that my people are being attempted to be poached every single day of the year.”
“Why have a stock price if you don’t disclose what it is?”
“‘’If I worked that 80-hour week, you should too.’ Well, guess what? That doesn’t work anymore.”

Dubow argues the profession has shifted from a demand constraint to a capacity constraint. Client needs continue to expand, but firms increasingly struggle to staff and deliver services proactively at scale.

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Succession Planning? Time Is Running Out

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Businessman running after clock in silhouette

M&A BONUS: A 22-point due diligence kit.

By Domenick J. Esposito
8 Steps to Great

Much has been written and discussed regarding succession planning at CPA firms driven by the vast number of founders, leaders and rainmakers who are retiring at a record pace.

MORE by Domenick J. Esposito
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Key takeaways in this post:

  • Mid-market sustainable brands generally combine practices as opposed to acquiring or buying practices.
  • Spend time to make sure it feels right.
  • The easier part is getting the contract signed; the harder part is the integration of the two practices and to make sure 1 + 1 at least = 3.

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Close Performance Gaps with a High-Performance Business Framework

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Businessman holding word "success" and upward arrow in hands

BONUS: Sample client feedback letter.

By Domenick J. Esposito
8 Steps to Great

The high-performance framework is a description of how middle-market companies can identify the components of high performance, assess their present position relative to high-performance benchmarks, and then create a plan of action to close any performance gaps.

MORE by Domenick J. Esposito
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The framework is essentially a set of models and common language that help communicate with a client. It provides the basis for developing an action to assist a client in a systematic and thoughtful way.
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Nineteen Things to Expect When Merging Up

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Smaller firms should be prepared.

By Marc Rosenberg
The Rosenberg Practice Management Library

The degree to which merger terms are negotiable is often determined by the relative size of the two firms.

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Generally, the larger the gap in firm size between buyer and seller, the fewer the items are open to negotiation. This can be illustrated by the following chart:
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Oliver: Build a Biz that Runs Without You | The Disruptors

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“They get a check every month, and they don’t have to do any work.”

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

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Build a 7-figure firm in just 4 hours a week!

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Blake Oliver noticed a consistent pattern with firm owners. “The hardest part for them, it seems, just based on my conversations, is getting started and then building that initial team, creating that firm from scratch, going from zero to something is really, really, really difficult,” he explains.  

That “hardest part” echoes his own experience. 

MORE STREAMING:MORE STREAMING: 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 | 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 |

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Before he became known to the accounting world as the co-host of the Accounting Podcast and founder of Earmark, Oliver had his own firm. “I spent five years building a firm from scratch…going from zero to a million dollars in revenue in five years,” he says. Because he was largely figuring it out on his own, the process was far harder than it needed to be.  

His new book, “Building a Sustainable Firm: Strategies for the Modern Accounting Practice,” distils the lessons he learned from talking to firm owners and from his own experiences into a blueprint for creating an accounting business that supports your team, your clients, and your own life.

“If you’re going to take the leap to go start your own firm…you should have something that you’re happy with at the end,” he explains.   

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Outlook 2026: The Painful Paradigm Shift in Staff Pay and Hiring

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Pivoting with the Paradigm: Staff salaries are rising sharply even as job growth plateaus.

New jobs data signal fundamental pivot for accounting firms.

By CPA Trendlines Research

The year 2026 may be long remembered as the paradigm-shifting moment when accounting firms were forced to pivot everything from their business models to their budgets.

MORE Outlook 2026, Pay, Hiring

The reason: Salary and pay increases are accelerating even as hiring momentum stalls.

Going into 2026, labor costs have been cleaved from labor supply. The new, structurally higher staffing line is forcing firms to rewrite their budgets as well as business models.

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Cornerstone Report: Tax, Accounting and CPA Billing Rates and Pricing Trends for 2026

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CPA Billing Rates, Tax Return Fees, and Client Accounting Pricing at CPA Firms | 2026
CPA Trendlines Research Cornerstone Reports deliver instant situational awareness on the day’s hottest topics.

By CPA Trendlines Research

Tax return pricing in 2026 is best understood as a structural repricing rather than a routine inflation adjustment. Firms are charging more, charging differently, and narrowing capacity.

MORE on Pricing.

In this Cornerstone Report, CPA Trendlines finds a 45.7% rise in the national average base fee for a 1040 with Schedules 1–3 (2023 to 2025); benchmark add-on prices for common schedules; national averages for entity and fiduciary returns; fee-increase cadence and the dominant 6%–10% increase band; a median typical-client fee level of $1,263; a common unbilled-work leakage estimate of 6%; and large-firm benchmarking metrics that show how higher rates interact with realization and income per partner.

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Eight Questions for Assessing Merger Compatibility

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Overhead view of people solving a large jigsaw puzzle

Plus 23 issues to negotiate.

By Marc Rosenberg
The Rosenberg Practice Management Library

These questions can be explored via interviews or group sessions. But they are all great questions that will give insight into each firm’s culture and personality.

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  1. Why do the firms really want to merge? After the merger, will the firms have the commitment and wherewithal to realize their expectations? Acid test: If some of the main reasons for doing the merger are clearly not realized 12 months later, which issues and failures would make you the most upset and frustrated?
  2. How would the new firm be better than the sum of the two individual firms?

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