CPA Trendlines Podcasts

The Collaboration Room turns online peer networks into practical tools for pricing strategy, tax planning, succession, and psychological safety.Sponsored by The Balanced Millionaire: The Advisor Edition by Dr. Jackie Meyer | See Today's Special OfferFull show notes hereThe DisruptorsWith Liz FarrBefore they co-founded The Collaboration Room, Rebecca Driscoll and Mike Sylvester, CEO of SBS CPA Group, had both been helping accountants with challenges on an informal basis. “It felt kind of like disorganized, and we just needed one place,” Driscoll explains.IN THIS EPISODE: The Collaboration Room | Brenda Cannon | Mike Sylvester | SchedulEase | Take Your Life Back Tax Pro Community | Tax Retreat |After Brenda Cannon, co-founder of Cannon & Associates and founder of SchedulEase and the Take Your Life Back Tax Pro Community, connected them, they spent months testing ideas, questioning assumptions, and allowing the concept to grow organically before launching in the fall of 2024. “It doesn't have to be perfect, and we'll let it evolve and see what it becomes,” Driscoll says.  Driscoll and Sylvester “are completely different people from completely different planets,” Driscoll notes. She's a Millennial. He's a Boomer. She lives in Charlottesville, VA. He's in Fort Wayne, IN.  “Even to the extent of: I'm on Team Waffles, and he's on Team Pancakes. We can't even agree on breakfast.”While she initially wondered whether the generational and other differences would be a problem, Driscoll has learned “that partnering with someone who is very different from you can be incredible, because the character flaws that I have, he doesn't have.”  Their generational diversity also serves the larger purpose of modeling collaboration across age groups. “It's so important for the younger generation and the older generation to be in a room together talking about accounting,” Driscoll explains.  The Disruptors _Ep 133

Rural communities offer meaningful work — and a chance to build a practice on purpose. Accounting ARCWith Donny ShimamotoCenter for Accounting TransformationIn an era when private equity rollups and “bigger is better” narratives dominate accounting headlines, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, returns to a quieter question: What does it look like to build a firm — and a career — around serving the places that rarely get the spotlight?  MORE Accounting ARC: 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 | Savage: Using Your License as a Megaphone |  Baker: Interpreting Pricing Psychology | Don't Get Fired by Your Own Automation | What Amazon Doesn't Tell You | Royalties, Residuals, and Reality Checks | ARC-SLC  In this episode of Accounting ARC, Shimamoto sits down with two practitioners who live that reality every day: Shayna Chapman, who runs a practice rooted in a small Ohio community, and Mohan Chirumamilla, who serves clients across Omaha, Nebraska, and Columbia, Missouri. Their conversation is part practical playbook, part gut-check — and it lands on a message that feels increasingly urgent for the profession: small towns still need sophisticated accounting, and accountants still need work that feels meaningful. 

As AI automates compliance, value shifts to measurable outcomes and client aspirations.Full show notes hereGear Up for GrowthWith Jean CaragherFor CPA TrendlinesAuthor and strategist B. Joseph Pine II urges accounting firm leaders to confront a fundamental question: What business are you really in?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 videos and podcasts hereAccording to Pine, the profession is approaching a critical inflection point as the global economy moves beyond goods, services, and even experiences, into what he calls the transformation economy.“You use experiences as a raw material to guide people to change, to help them achieve their aspirations,” Pine tells Gear Up for Growth host Jean Caragher, president of Capstone Marketing. This shift, he explains, requires firms to move beyond simply delivering accounting work efficiently to helping clients achieve meaningful, measurable change.Gear Up For Growth Ep 58 - Joe Pine

How to reset pricing, rebuild margins, and stop “helping” clients into bankruptcy.Full show notes hereThe DisruptorsWith Liz FarrCandy Bellau didn't set out to build a firm that could operate without her. But her hand was forced when her mother became ill. “I kept dropping the ball at my own company and my team, the long-term members kept picking it up, and slowly but surely, they just absorbed the client work I was doing,” Bellau recalls. MORE DISRUPTORS: Blake Oliver: Build a Biz that Runs Without You | 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 | Her team at Kramerica Business Solutions not only maintained the business but made it better. “They did things that were so much better, and they looked out for me,” Bellau says.  Bellau's transition from operator to owner came at a pivotal moment. After working nonstop since age 14, Bellau found herself at 56 needing a change. “I don't even know who I am. I don't know what I like. I don't have any interest outside of work and tasks that have to be done at home," she explains. So she took art classes, improv classes, wrote a book, and launched the Unbalanced Podcast with Sam Hallburn.Disruptors Ep 132

Ex-Baker Tilly CEO takes helm at a new “category” of CPA firm.By Rory Henry CFP®, BFA™For CPA TrendlinesFull show notes hereWhen CPA firms talk about growth, the conversation often centers on acquisitions, headcount, or revenue targets.But Alan Whitman, the ex-Baker Tilly CEO and newly named CEO of a private-equity-backed hybrid, says sustainable growth requires something deeper: clarity of strategy, shared language, and systems that enable people to perform at scale.MORE Rory Henry and The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management | Holistic Guide to Wealth Management

Learn how easily pros tie well-being to success—and how fear of failure can distort self-worth. Accounting ARCWith Byron Patrick and Donny ShimamotoCenter for Accounting TransformationBusy season may still be a days out, but the stress response already starts to hum for a lot of accounting professionals — the calendar fills, the inbox tightens, and the margin for error feels like it shrinks to a sliver. In the latest Accounting ARC, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, and Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, take that reality head-on with a surprisingly practical lens: modern stoicism.  MORE Accounting ARC: 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 | Savage: Using Your License as a Megaphone |  Baker: Interpreting Pricing Psychology | Don't Get Fired by Your Own Automation | What Amazon Doesn't Tell You | Royalties, Residuals, and Reality Checks | ARC-SLC  They start by naming the misconception most people bring to the word “stoic” — that it means emotionless, rigid, “stone-faced.” Shimamoto, founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC and founder and inspiration architect for the Center for Accounting Transformation, admits that's how he learned it, too: a kind of unfeeling resilience. But the article that sparks the episode — a Psychology Today piece on the science of stoicism — reframes it as something more useful (and more human): a set of attitudes and behaviors linked with resilience, lower anger and higher life satisfaction.  

Expanding access while maintaining rigorous standards. Gear Up for GrowthWith Jean CaragherFor CPA TrendlinesFull show notes here “This legislation has real consequences – positive consequences – for the health of firms, corporate accounting departments, and the broader economy,” says Aiysha “AJ” Johnson, CEO and executive director of the New Jersey Society of CPAs, during her appearance on Gear Up for Growth with Jean Caragher of Capstone Marketing. “I like to think that we're opening doors.”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 videos and podcasts hereJohnson highlights New Jersey's new legislation signed by Governor Murphy, creating an additional pathway to CPA licensure, a move designed to expand access while maintaining rigorous standards.

Label intent, clarify tone and choose the right channel so feedback lands as coaching, not conflict.Accounting ARCWith Liz Mason, Byron Patrick, and Donny ShimamotoCenter for Accounting TransformationLeaders in accounting do not need to choose between being “nice” and being effective.In this ARC episode, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA; Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP; and Liz Mason, CPA, make the case that the best bosses aim for something tougher — kindness with clarity.The conversation starts with a story familiar to anyone who has ever hovered over the “Send” button on a difficult message.  MORE Accounting ARC: 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 | Savage: Using Your License as a Megaphone |  Baker: Interpreting Pricing Psychology | Don't Get Fired by Your Own Automation | What Amazon Doesn't Tell You | Royalties, Residuals, and Reality Checks | ARC-SLC  Mason, founder and CEO of High Rock Accounting, recalls proposing a conference talk with a deliberately provocative title — a reminder that most professionals feel the tension between holding the line and keeping the peace. The point, she says, is not to sanitize reality. It is to learn how to hold people accountable without turning it into a personal attack.

Advisory at Scale Requires Systems, Not Heroics. Plus 5 More Takeaways.Complete show notes hereWith Rory Henry CFP®, BFA™For CPA TrendlinesWhen firms talk about innovation in accounting, they often start with technology. But in my conversation with Nick Pasquarosa, founder and CEO of Bookkeeper360, it became clear that technology was never the starting point for his firm. It was the result of listening closely to small business owners and building systems to solve their most persistent problems.MORE Rory Henry and The Holistic Guide | BOLT: Bookkeeper360 Launches Mobile and Web App Featuring AI-Powered Virtual CFOPasquarosa founded Bookkeeper360 in 2012, long before cloud accounting was the norm. What began as a door-to-door side hustle helping local businesses reconcile their checking accounts evolved into a nationwide cloud accounting firm serving nearly 1,000 small business clients with a team of more than 75 professionals across 26 states.“I started this in high school,” Pasquarosa tells me. “It really started with an interest in helping small businesses stop running their business off their bank account balance and [instead] giving them timely, accurate books so they could make real-time decisions.”

Why equity is the new standard for talent retention.Big 4 TransparencyBy Dominic Piscopo, CPAFor CPA TrendlinesFull show notes hereJeremy Dubow, CEO and co-founder of Chicago-based 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 & CompensationDubow joins Dominic Piscopo on the Big 4 Transparency show 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.

Decode your energy signals, redesign your calendar, and stay sharp even when you're running low.Accounting ARCWith Liz Mason, Byron Patrick, and Donny ShimamotoCenter for Accounting TransformationAs the calendar flips and the pace of work accelerates, many accounting professionals find themselves running on fumes. The holidays are over. Travel lingers in the body. Busy season looms. And yet, expectations snap back to full speed almost overnight.In this Accounting ARC, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, and Liz Mason, CPA, take on a topic many professionals quietly struggle with but rarely discuss openly: how to work through fatigue without burning out—or dialing down performance. MORE Accounting ARC: 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 | Savage: Using Your License as a Megaphone |  Baker: Interpreting Pricing Psychology | Don't Get Fired by Your Own Automation | What Amazon Doesn't Tell You | Royalties, Residuals, and Reality Checks | ARC-SLC  Their conversation is refreshingly candid, practical, and grounded in lived experience. And it challenges one of the profession's most persistent myths: that being tired means you're doing something wrong.Both hosts open the episode admitting they are exhausted—but not from overwork. Shimamoto is coming off a stretch of nonstop weekends filled with visitors, events, and travel. Mason is freshly jet-lagged after nearly two weeks in London, balancing client work with museums, family time, and international flights.The point lands quickly: fatigue doesn't only come from too much work. It comes from full lives.And pretending otherwise, they argue, is where professionals get stuck—pushing through exhaustion with guilt instead of strategy.

State societies can evolve into engines of innovation, education, and workforce resilience.Big 4 TransparencyBy Dominic Piscopo, CPAFor CPA TrendlinesAt a time when the accounting profession is undergoing its most rapid transformation in decades, Jen Cryder, CEO of the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA), is quietly redefining what a state CPA society can (and arguably should) become.  MORE Dominic Piscopo | MORE Private Equity | MORE Pay & Compensation In this episode of the Big 4 Transparency Podcast, Cryder joins host Dominic Piscopo to discuss how advocacy, revenue diversification, and technology investment are converging to reshape the future of the CPA profession. Cryder, who spent 15 years in public accounting before joining PICPA more than a decade ago, now finds herself at the center of national conversations around licensure reform, continuing professional education (CPE), and the evolving definition of what it means to be a CPA. While state societies have historically focused on a relatively narrow set of services, Cryder argues that the profession's accelerating rate of change has expanded that mandate dramatically. “For most of our 130-year history, the definition of a CPA was fairly static,” she notes. “In just the last few years, that list of issues has become infinite.” 

Beyond revenue and margins, buyers are scrutinizing teams, culture, and operational health.The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrBrannon Poe, founder of Poe Group Advisors, says the key to a successful firm transaction is fit.  “I think having a good deal is really about having a good fit,” he says. Besides technical skills, “you have to have management styles that mesh well, you have to have client service philosophies that are aligned,” he explains.   MORE STREAMING:MORE STREAMING: Oliver: Build a Biz that Runs Without You | 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 |For sellers, choosing the right buyer matters as much as the price. “I find that the sellers in particular, who keep their focus on fit and choose the right buyer, usually are the happiest with their exit.” The last few years have created favorable conditions for accounting firm sales, but not for everyone. 

The silver bullet technique can transform messaging and persuasion.The Concierge CPAWith Jackie MeyerFor CPA TrendlinesMost accounting professionals do extraordinary work—and still struggle to explain why it matters.That tension sits at the heart of a standout episode of The Concierge CPA, where host Dr. Jackie Meyer is joined by messaging strategist Neil Gordon for a wide-ranging conversation on persuasion, clarity, and the future of tax advisory in an AI-driven world.The result is an episode that feels less like a marketing lesson—and more like a wake-up call for tax professionals who know their value but haven't quite figured out how to communicate it.More Jackie MeyerEarly in the episode, Meyer names a frustration that resonates across the profession: most tax professionals create real value, yet struggle to articulate it in a way that inspires action.That gap isn't about intelligence or effort. It's about messaging.

Unexpected tax bills erode trust fast. Most are preventable—if CPAs spot the warning signs early enough.Quick Tax TipWith Art WernerCPE TodaySurprise tax bills remain one of the most common—and avoidable—sources of client frustration. In most cases, the issue isn't aggressive planning gone wrong, but passive assumptions left unchecked throughout the year.Tax attorney Art Werner, JD, points to predictable triggers: income that rises while withholding stays flat, investment activity that isn't incorporated into estimates, and planning decisions made without coordination across the return.Click here for more Art WernerVariable income is a frequent culprit. Bonuses, equity compensation, retirement withdrawals, and side-business earnings can easily push clients into higher brackets or trigger phaseouts.

Reputation now grows through clarity and communication, not tenure.Accounting VoicesWith Rob BrownAfter two episodes dissecting the Big Four's AI arms race, the final chapter of the mini-series turns the lens inward. This episode of Accounting Voices makes the case that staying competitive in an automated profession has less to do with budgets and bots — and everything to do with judgment, visibility, and trust.AI has changed what clients and employers value. Hours and output no longer differentiate. Clarity, confidence, and credibility do. MORE Accounting Influencers with Rob Brown In accounting, reputation once followed hierarchy. Today, it follows visibility.When a client, prospect, or employer searches your name, they are not just checking credentials. They are looking for proof of thinking. Insight. Perspective. Signals that you understand what the numbers mean — and when they should be questioned.

Training and growth—not just recruitment—will determine the profession's future.Gear Up for GrowthWith Jean CaragherFor CPA TrendlinesWhen Jan Lewis, vice chair of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), says, “The world is a complicated place, and who better than a CPA to help cut through the noise?” she's not offering a slogan. She's issuing a call to action. 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 videos and podcasts here In a wide-ranging and refreshingly candid conversation with host Jean Caragher on Gear Up for Growth, Lewis makes the case that this moment—right now—is one of the most consequential and opportunity-rich periods the CPA profession has ever faced.One of Lewis's strongest messages is also one of the most misunderstood: advocacy isn't theoretical—it's working.

Firms use AI, planning, and “hope” to make tax season more manageable.Accounting ARCWith Liz Mason, Byron Patrick, and Donny ShimamotoCenter for Accounting TransformationAs firms head into tax season, the hosts of Accounting ARC make a case for lowering the temperature — and the workload — with practical tech choices, proactive planning and a stronger focus on people. MORE Accounting ARC: Return Season is the New Stress Test | Small Firms May Have the Biggest Advantage in 2026 | Downgraded: What the DOE Said About Accounting | Savage: Using Your License as a Megaphone |  Baker: Interpreting Pricing Psychology | Don'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 Us | Gen Z Redefines Careers | Bootleggers, Baptitsts & CPAs: Rethinking Licensure In a special Tax Season Readiness episode, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA; joins co-hosts Liz Mason, CPA; and Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, CGMA; to preview new tax platform research, spotlight emerging AI tools and talk candidly about what helps teams sustain momentum from January through April.Shimamoto, founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC and founder and inspiration architect for the Center for Accounting Transformation, sets the tone early. He says he intentionally avoids calling it “busy season,” noting that practitioners tell him the upcoming cycle may feel lighter than the past few years. The conversation that follows keeps returning to the same core question: What, specifically, helps firms reduce friction before deadlines hit?

Paychecks and perks are no longer enough for retention.MOVE Like ThisWith Bonnie Buol RuszczykFor CPA TrendlinesIn this episode of MOVE Like This, Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk sits down with Kristi Epp, a tax partner, and Amber Schrock, an advisory partner and Las Vegas market leader at Frazier & Deeter, to explore how the accounting profession is evolving and what firm leaders can do to better support their people. Both guests share their career journeys and how they found long-term professional homes at the firm, emphasizing mentorship, growth opportunities, and a culture that values people as much as performance.  MORE MOVE Epp and Schrock note that the past five years, particularly the post-COVID period, have fundamentally reshaped accounting. Remote work, automation, and regulatory complexity are now the norm, while consolidation and private equity activity are accelerating change across the profession. Frazier & Deeter's recent growth initiatives, including acquisitions, reflect this shifting landscape and the need for firms to think differently about scale, talent, and integration. 

"They get a check every month, and they don't have to do any work.”The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrBlake 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 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.   

Money conversations need structure, not spontaneity.By Rory Henry CFP®, BFA™For CPA TrendlinesMoney is one of the things that people think about most. Yet most people aren't comfortable talking about it openly.In this episode of Holistic Guide to Wealth Management, I sit down with Erika Wasserman, CFT, a certified financial therapist, keynote speaker, and author of "Conversations with Your Financial Therapist: Stories and Scripts to Grow Your Money Mindset," to talk about why money conversations about are so often avoided and how advisors, families, and individuals can begin to change that dynamic.  MORE Rory Henry and The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management BUY the Holistic Guide to Wealth Management Wasserman's journey into financial therapy was shaped by personal experience. She grew up in a rare household where talking about money was normal. She earned a finance degree from the University of Florida, and began her career consulting with IBM. Over time, major life transitions including international moves, marriage, divorce, and raising three children deepened her understanding of how money decisions intersect with emotion, identity, and relationships. 

Agility, transparency, and judgment matter more than billion-dollar platforms.Accounting VoicesWith Rob BrownThe Big Four are spending billions on artificial intelligence, cutting thousands of jobs, and reshaping how accounting work gets done. That scale can feel intimidating—especially if you're running or working inside a small or mid-tier firm.But here's the counterintuitive truth explored in a recent episode of Accounting Voices:The Big Four aren't winning because of their budgets. They're winning because of their discipline. MORE Accounting Influencers with Rob Brown This episode breaks down what smaller firms and ambitious professionals can borrow from the AI strategies of PwC, KPMG, Deloitte, and EY—without trying to copy their scale.The lesson is clear: clarity beats capability, and governance beats gadgets.

Firm leaders can no longer ignore this conversation.Gear Up for GrowthWith Jean CaragherFor CPA TrendlinesTechnology is no longer something CPA firms use to get work done. It's what defines how firms compete, scale, attract talent—and increasingly, how they're valued.That was the clear, unambiguous message from Roman Kepczyk, director of Firm Technology Strategy at Rightworks, during his recent appearance on Gear Up for Growth, hosted by Jean Caragher. Gear Up for Growth spotlights the best strategies for smart and effficient growth in today's competitive landscape. More Gear Up for Growth every Friday here.|  More Capstone Conversations with Jean Caragher every Monday | More Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | More CPA Trendlines videos and podcasts here With nearly 30 years spent advising CPA firms of all sizes, Kepczyk didn't mince words: firms that fail to standardize, automate, and strategically invest in technology are already falling behind—whether they realize it or not.

E-commerce growth forces firms to rethink accruals, margins, and sustainability.Accounting ARCWith Liz Mason, Byron Patrick, and Donny ShimamotoCenter for Accounting TransformationHoliday shopping has never been easier. With a few taps on a smartphone, consumers can buy gifts from bed, track deliveries in real time, and return unwanted items with minimal friction. But behind that convenience lies a complicated accounting reality—one that came into sharp focus during a recent episode of Accounting ARC. MORE Accounting ARC: Small Firms May Have the Biggest Advantage in 2026 | Downgraded: What the DOE Said About Accounting | Savage: Using Your License as a Megaphone |  Baker: Interpreting Pricing Psychology | Don'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 Us | Gen Z Redefines Careers | Bootleggers, Baptitsts & CPAs: Rethinking Licensure Hosts Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA; Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP; and Liz Mason, CPA, examine the financial, operational, and environmental consequences of e-commerce returns, using the holiday season as a lens to explore broader shifts in consumer behavior and business sustainability.Industry research shows that nearly 25% of e-commerce purchases are returned after the holidays, compared with less than 9% of in-store retail purchases. For accounting teams, that disparity introduces volatility into revenue recognition, inventory valuation, and profitability forecasting—often at the worst possible time of year.

Integrated planning, not heroics, creates life-changing outcomes for clients.Big 4 TransparencyBy Dominic Piscopo, CPAFor CPA TrendlinesWhat happens when you fuse a CPA firm with a wealth advisory under one roof and design the operations from a blank page? In this two-guest episode of the Big 4 Transparency, host Dominic Piscopo sits down with Owen Pryor and Steve Blake, managing and senior managing advisors at Evans May Advisory, the sister firm to Evans May Wealth Advisory. Their premise is simple and radical: serve the client with unreasonable hospitality, align wealth and tax strategy, and deliver family-office convenience to high-net-worth families and growing owner-operated businesses.   MORE Dominic Piscopo | MORE Private Equity | MORE Pay & Compensation Pryor and Blake describe a system built on proactive data sharing (with client consents in place) so the firm, not the client, chases documents, coordinates advisors, and executes. The impact shows up in small, high-leverage wins (e-paying taxes and killing paper vouchers, physically banking clients' mailed checks twice a week, fully recording receivables) and in headline outcomes (structuring a family-farm sale from an estimated $550,000 tax bill to near $0 through planning; spotting missed depreciation and back-catching via Form 3115; introducing lesser-known international strategies like ICDIS where relevant). The result is relief for clients and measurable ROI that converts conversations into scope. 

Firms that wait until a partner is ready to retire have already waited too long, plus 19 more key takeaways.The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrErin Daiber, founder and CEO of Well Balanced Accountants, keeps seeing the same issue in firm after firm. A partner announces their intention to retire within a year or two, and the firm suddenly realizes no one is ready to take over. “Firms are not starting that conversation soon enough,” Daiber says. MORE STREAMING: 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 “They're not thinking about succession planning as a strategy,” she explains. Instead of treating succession as an ongoing process, firms see it as simply the point in time when a partner exits the firm. According to Daiber, succession planning should ideally begin with hiring decisions and culture building so that firms can be confident that they won't lose clients or staff due to uncertainty about what might happen as partners get older.  When succession planning fails, firms lose key employees before they even reach partnership consideration. “We're losing them much sooner than that, which creates a big hole in the pipeline,” Daiber notes. She identifies an inability to have difficult conversations as the root cause, particularly when dealing with founders who view the firm as their legacy. 

A former IRS agent breaks down the red flags, revenue thresholds, and compliance work that advisors can't ignore.The Concierge CPAWith Jackie MeyerFor CPA TrendlinesThe Concierge CPA hosts a deep dive into captive insurance planning this week, as host Dr. Jackie Meyer, CPA, and guest Vardan Pogosian, CPA, unpack both the risk-management foundations and tax-planning implications of small captive insurance companies. The episode clarifies a strategy that many tax professionals find complex or intimidating, with actionable guidance on identifying suitable clients and avoiding compliance risks.More Jackie MeyerCaptive insurance — typically formed under Internal Revenue Code Section 831(b) — allows businesses to establish their own insurance company to cover risks that may be difficult or costly to insure through commercial carriers. Under the provision, small qualifying captives can elect alternative tax treatment, in which premiums paid into the captive are tax-deductible to the operating business but not immediately recognized as income by the captive. Tax is generally deferred until the captive is dissolved, at which point capital gains tax applies.

Transparency, empowered administration, and intentional tech design separate advisory leaders from firms stuck in task work.It's Not Just the NumbersWith Penny Breslin and Damien GreatheadFor CPA TrendlinesClient Accounting Services (CAS) has moved well beyond bookkeeping. For firms serious about advisory, CAS is now a fundamentally different operating model, one that demands new roles, new systems, and a far higher level of internal transparency than traditional tax or audit practices ever required. In this episode of It's Not Just the Numbers, Damien Greathead and Penny Breslin draw on more than two decades of shared experience to unpack what actually makes a modern CAS practice work in the real world. Their discussion goes beyond theory and into the structural, cultural, and operational decisions firms must confront if they want CAS to be scalable, profitable, and sustainable .  MORE Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead | MORE Advisory & Consulting | BUY "It's Not Just the Numbers" Traditional accounting firms are built around specialization and hierarchy: junior and senior accountants, bookkeepers, managers, and partners, each working essentially in isolation on their own client list. That structure works for compliance, but it breaks down in a CAS environment. “CAS requires the team to approach the client holistically,” Breslin explains. “You can't have people operating in silos. Everyone needs to understand the client's goals, not just their individual task.” 

The Big Four pull ahead by treating AI as a system, not a shortcut.Accounting VoicesWith Rob BrownArtificial intelligence is no longer a side project in accounting. It is the main event.The largest firms are moving aggressively, clients are asking sharper questions, and expectations around speed, accuracy, and insight continue to rise. In the latest episode of Accounting Voices, the focus shifts past headlines and hype to examine what the Big Four are actually doing with AI—and why their moves matter far beyond the global giants. MORE Accounting Influencers with Rob Brown Brown does not chase flashy demos or speculative tech. Instead, he breaks down how AI is being operationalized in audit, tax, and advisory work—and how firms without billion-dollar budgets can compete by doing fewer things better.

It accelerates advisory work, but only if firms rethink pricing and risk.Gear Up for GrowthWith Jean CaragherFor CPA TrendlinesOn this episode of Gear Up for Growth, host Jean Caragher sits down with John Higgins, founder and CEO of Higgins Advisory, to explore how ChatGPT and generative AI are reshaping advisory services, pricing models, and the way CPAs work.Higgins is blunt about the opportunity—and the risk. “AI and ChatGPT-type tools can become your advisory services assistant,” he says. “They help CPAs communicate better as advisors and focus on what matters most for each client. But you can't let them turn into a way of giving away your time.” Gear Up for Growth spotlights the best strategies for smart and effficient growth in today's competitive landscape. More Gear Up for Growth every Friday here.| More Capstone Conversations with Jean Caragher every Monday | More Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | More CPA Trendlines videos and podcasts here For decades, CPAs have been told they need to “become more advisory.” The challenge hasn't been belief—it's been execution. Many practitioners equate advisory with answering questions accurately, rather than proactively guiding decisions.Generative AI changes that equation.

Less legacy infrastructure could mean faster adoption and outsized opportunity.Accounting ARCWith Liz Mason, Byron Patrick, and Donny ShimamotoCenter for Accounting TransformationIn their New Year's episode, the hosts of Accounting ARC do something many industry commentators avoid: they revisit last year's predictions, mark what proved accurate, and adjust what did not. Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA — founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies and founder and inspiration architect of the Center for Accounting Transformation— joins Liz Mason, CPA, CEO and founder of High Rock Accounting, and Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, CGMA, senior product manager for Karbon, and co-founder and educator for TB Academy, to grade last year's predictions and discuss what's to come in 2026.  MORE Accounting ARC: Downgraded: What the DOE Said About Accounting | Savage: Using Your License as a Megaphone |  Baker: Interpreting Pricing Psychology | Don'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 Us | Gen Z Redefines Careers | Bootleggers, Baptitsts & CPAs: Rethinking Licensure The episode blends reflective scorekeeping with forward-looking speculation, centering on three forces that continue to reshape accounting: alternative licensure pathways, the pace of AI adoption, and the role of culture in firm competitiveness.

Firms that treat communication as strategy—not admin—move faster, scale smarter, and keep trust intact.MOVE Like ThisWith Bonnie Buol RuszczykFor CPA TrendlinesOn this episode of MOVE Like This, host Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk explores a deceptively simple question with Alice Grey Harrison, founder of AGH Consulting: Why do so many firm transformations stall—not because of strategy, but because of communication?With more than 30 years of experience in strategic communications and change management within the accounting profession, Harrison has seen firms navigate mergers, private equity investments, leadership transitions, system implementations, and cultural shifts.The difference between momentum and misery, she argues, is rarely technical. It's human. MORE MOVE Her core insight is that culture becomes a growth engine only when people understand how their work connects to the firm's mission, vision, and values. That clarity unlocks what she calls “discretionary energy”—the extra effort people put in when they believe in the firm's direction.

SALY isn't useless—but it shouldn't be lazy.The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrAudit has spent decades digitizing the past—paper binders moved to the cloud, workflows wrapped in prettier software, and manual testing dressed up as “innovation.” According to Jin Chang, that's not transformation. It's inertia.Chang knows because he lived it.Early in his career as an auditor, he found himself doing exactly what generations before him had done: matching evidence to samples, racing against the clock, and wondering why a four-year degree was being spent on work that machines should have mastered long ago. MORE STREAMING: 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 | “Why aren't computers doing this better and faster?” he remembers thinking.That question became the seed for Fieldguide—the audit platform Chang says he wished he'd had, powered by AI agents designed to work alongside auditors rather than replace them.

New repayment rules and borrowing caps are forcing a rethink of long-term planning.By Rory Henry CFP®, BFA™For CPA TrendlinesStudent loan debt has quietly outgrown its stereotype.What was once viewed as a challenge for early-career professionals is now showing up in family balance sheets, tax returns, and retirement plans. Parents nearing retirement—and retirees themselves—are increasingly carrying education debt, often on behalf of their children. For CPAs and financial advisors, student loans are no longer a niche planning issue. They're a multigenerational one. MORE Rory Henry and The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management BUY the Holistic Guide to Wealth Management With more than $1.8 trillion in federal student loan debt spread across 42.5 million borrowers, the scale alone demands attention. But it's the shifting who—not just the how much—that makes this moment critical for advisors.That shift is the focus of this episode of Holistic Guide to Wealth Management, featuring Alex Bottom, CEO of Finology, and Ryan Galiotto, CFP®, CSLP®, founder of the Student Loan Help Network. Their conversation unpacks how legislation, demographics, and delayed life milestones are reshaping student loan planning—and why advisors can't afford to sit this one out.

CAS success isn't accidental. It's engineered.It's Not Just the NumbersWith Penny Breslin and Damien GreatheadFor CPA TrendlinesClient Advisory Services (CAS) continue to outperform every other service line in accounting. But firms that treat CAS as “enhanced bookkeeping” quickly hit a ceiling. The firms that scale profitably make harder—and smarter—choices: who they serve, how they staff, how they price, and how they explain their value in a world obsessed with automation. MORE Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead | MORE Advisory & Consulting | BUY "It's Not Just the Numbers" In this episode of It's Not Just the Numbers, co-hosts Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead get refreshingly practical about what actually drives CAS success. Their message is clear: strong CAS practices are built intentionally, not incrementally.One question cuts straight to the tension many firm owners feel: Should teams see profitability numbers?Breslin and Greathead don't argue for radical openness—or secrecy. Instead, they advocate for profit literacy.Teams don't need to know margins by client. They do need to understand three things...

Automation deletes tasks, then dares accountants to create new value on purpose.Accounting VoicesWith Rob BrownArtificial intelligence is no longer a concept that accountants debate in panels or pilot projects. It is actively reshaping how firms hire, train, and define value.In this episode of Accounting Voices, host Rob Brown delivers a blunt assessment of what many professionals are already sensing, but few are saying out loud: AI is not coming for your job. It is coming for what your job does. MORE Accounting Influencers with Rob Brown That distinction changes everything.Brown frames the moment as an AI talent shock—a structural shift that is quietly altering career paths across public accounting, corporate finance, and advisory work. This is not about fearmongering or futurism. It is about reality on the ground.

Stop billing. Start thrilling.Gear Up for Growth With Jean CaragherFor CPA Trendlines In a re-energizing episode of Gear Up for Growth, Paul Dunn makes the case that the billable hour isn't just outdated—it's holding firms back. The four-time TEDx speaker and cofounder of B1G1 challenges accounting leaders to rethink how success is measured and to lead with purpose, not punch clocks.  Gear Up for Growth spotlights the best strategies for smart and efficient growth in today's competitive landscape. More Gear Up for Growth here | More Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | More CPA Trendlines videos and podcasts here Talking with host Jean Caragher, Dunn reframes the profession's obsession with time as a distraction from what clients actually value. “It's not about the inputs,” he says. “It's about the outcomes.” When firms anchor their work to results—and to the human impact behind those results—growth follows naturally.More than two decades after coauthoring "The Firm of the Future," Dunn remains a vocal critic of six-minute increments. While some firms are inching toward value pricing and advisory-led models, he argues the real shift requires courage. Measuring work by time, he notes, is “the opposite of human flourishing.” Measuring by impact, on the other hand, elevates both clients and teams.Originally published May 2025

Break down the new law, the unanswered questions, and why waiting for certainty is a strategic mistake.Big 4 TransparencyBy Dominic Piscopo, CPAFor CPA TrendlinesWhat does it take to turn dense tax law into business wins? In this episode of the Big 4 Transparency, host Dominic Piscopo sits down with Mark Gallegos, tax partner at Porte Brown, to explore how a self-described “tax geek” became an eminence engine by teaching, writing, and speaking across the country while translating the new HR1 legislation into clear moves for clients.  MORE Dominic Piscopo | MORE Private Equity | MORE Pay & Compensation Gallegos serves on the AICPA Strategic Tax Reform Advisory Group (“strike force”), where volunteer experts parse bills, surface practitioner pain points, and help shape the letters and asks that go to Treasury, IRS, and Capitol Hill. That inside track, pressure-testing interpretations with national peers, feeds his day job: delivering 50,000-foot explanations that prompt the most valuable question in professional services: “What should we do next?” Gallegos and Piscopo dive into HR1's planning levers. 

Exhaustion, chaos, and missed lives are the result of design choices—not destiny.The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrBrenda Cannon, co-founder of Cannon and Associates, has been pioneering a creative approach for taming tax season madness: every return is scheduled like an appointment. “We know how long it takes us to prepare a tax return. Why could we not control each week and the number of tax returns we prepare each week?” she recalls thinking after hearing Jason Staats introduce the concept on a podcast in 2022.   MORE STREAMING: 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 Over the last three tax seasons, Cannon and her team, which includes her husband and co-founder, Randy Cannon, have been refining the process. Clients choose a date on a calendar on which they will deliver their documents to her office, with the understanding that their return will be ready three weeks after that date.  

Charitable gift financing has been IRS-validated for decades, yet many still avoid it.The Concierge CPAWith Jackie MeyerFor CPA TrendlinesIn this episode of the Concierge CPA podcast, host Dr. Jackie Meyer, CPA, puts a spotlight on a charitable tax strategy that sounds suspiciously modern — yet has been sitting in the tax code since 1978.The strategy is called charitable gift financing, and, according to Meyer's guest, Aleksander Dyo, founder and managing director of Wealth Excel, it remains largely invisible to many accountants despite decades of IRS validation.More Jackie MeyerDyo frames the idea with a blunt comparison: Americans finance homes, cars, equipment — even vacations. So why not charitable giving?Charitable gift financing allows high-income taxpayers to make significant philanthropic contributions by combining personal funds with borrowed capital, while claiming a charitable deduction for the full amount transferred to charity in the year of the gift.This isn't a loophole or a creative interpretation, Dyo says. It's rooted in long-standing IRS guidance on the deductibility of charitable contributions made with borrowed funds, provided the funds are transferred to the charity in the same tax year.In practice, that timing is everything.

...And accounting careers are better for it.It's Not Just the NumbersWith Penny Breslin and Damien GreatheadFor CPA TrendlinesFor decades, accounting careers followed a familiar script: grind through repetitive work, earn your stripes, and maybe—eventually—get to the interesting stuff.That script is officially broken.In this episode of It's Not Just the Numbers, hosts Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead tackled one of the most misunderstood shifts in the profession: how artificial intelligence and outsourcing are reshaping early-career accounting work—and why that's actually good news for graduates and firm leaders. MORE Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead | MORE Advisory & Consulting | BUY "It's Not Just the Numbers" The big question isn't whether AI and outsourcing are here to stay. They are. The real question is whether firms will use them to strip away opportunity—or to finally fix a broken talent model.Let's be honest: repetitive data entry, reconciliations, and manual cleanup were never great learning tools. They were time-consuming, error-prone, and often disconnected from how firms actually create value.Yet for years, they were treated as a rite of passage.

Trust remains the profession's currency, even in an automated future.Accounting VoicesWith Rob BrownArtificial intelligence is transforming accounting at breakneck speed. It writes reports, summarizes research, drafts client communications, and accelerates analysis. But when AI gets it wrong, it does not whisper. It declares falsehoods with confidence.That is the warning at the center of a new episode of Accounting Voices, which pulls back the curtain on real-world AI failures that have already shaken the profession — and explains why no firm can afford to treat AI as a neutral back-office tool. MORE Accounting Influencers with Rob Brown This is not about hypothetical risk. It is about documented failures, public apologies, reputational damage, and a hard truth every leader must confront: Technology does not absolve responsibility.

The question is: Do you know what it's doing?It's Not Just the NumbersWith Penny Breslin and Damien GreatheadFor CPA TrendlinesArtificial intelligence has arrived in accounting, but not in the way many expected. It's not a single app or a single process. It's everywhere, embedded in workflows, changing how firms scope engagements, price cleanup work, and train their people.  MORE Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead MORE Advisory & Consulting BUY "It's Not Just the Numbers" In the latest episode of It's Not Just the Numbers, co-hosts Damien Greathead and Penny Breslin explore how AI reshapes the day-to-day work of accounting firms. Their conversation moves beyond theory to real-world examples of how AI is being used in client engagements, what it means for team development, and why critical thinking, not coding, is the skill every firm must cultivate next. 

Here's what it takes to grow a CPA firm from zero to the Top 100—without losing your soul.Gear Up for GrowthWith Jean CaragherFor CPA TrendlinesWhen Lou Grassi started his firm at age 24, he couldn't afford to pay himself. There was no client base, no safety net, and no guarantee it would work.More than four decades later, Grassi is the 56th largest accounting firm in the U.S., with $146.5 million in revenue, seven offices, 58 partners, and more than 560 employees. And yet, as Grassi tells host Jean Caragher on Gear Up for Growth, the most important lessons from that journey have very little to do with size.They have everything to do with intention. 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 videos and podcasts here In this conversation, Grassi reflects on what it takes to build a firm that grows sustainably, treats people like owners, and stays independent in a profession reshaped by private equity, talent shortages, and rapid change.

...And it has less to do with technical skills than firms expect.Accounting ARC - Student-Led ConversationsWith Arpan Grewal and Harshita MultaniCenter for Accounting TransformationAs the accounting profession continues to grapple with talent shortages, shifting expectations, and generational change, one podcast is addressing those challenges from a rarely centered perspective: students themselves.In an end-of-year episode of Student-Led Conversations, hosts Arpan Grewal and Harshita Multani reflect on a year of interviews alongside Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, founder and inspiration architect of the Center for Accounting Transformation. The episode serves as both a retrospective and a case study of what happens when students are entrusted with real platforms and real responsibility. MORE Accounting ARC: Downgraded: What the DOE Said About Accounting | Savage: Using Your License as a Megaphone |  Baker: Interpreting Pricing Psychology | Don'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 Us | Gen Z Redefines Careers | Bootleggers, Baptitsts & CPAs: Rethinking Licensure The idea for Student-Led Conversations emerged after Grewal appeared on an episode of Accounting ARC, where she interviewed seasoned professionals about their careers. What surprised her most was not the technical content, but the personal stories.“I realized accounting isn't just about numbers,” Grewal says during the episode. “It's about people.”That realization became the foundation for a student-hosted series that explores career paths, mental health, failure, advocacy, and professional identity — topics often absent from traditional recruiting or classroom discussions.

Real employee stories, not polished slogans, are winning the war for talent.MOVE Like ThisWith Bonnie Buol RuszczykFor CPA TrendlinesIn this episode of MOVE Like This, host Bonnie Ruszczyk sits down with Rob Brown, founder and host of the Accounting Voices podcast, to talk about what's really driving change in the accounting profession. Speaking from the UK with deep experience across the U.S. and global markets, Brown shares what he's seeing in firms of all sizes: pressure from talent shortages, shifting expectations from younger professionals, and the growing importance of a strong employer brand rooted in real stories, not slogans.  MORE MOVE Brown starts by outlining three major workplace trends. 

Firms built on heroics instead of systems eventually crack.The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrAshley Carroll thinks burnout is a design flaw, not a personal failing. “I'm a big believer that burnout is a business model flaw,” she says. In response, Carroll created Operations House to help founders reduce burnout and “step out of that role as the provider, the doer, the practitioner, and into an ownership level role.”  MORE STREAMING: 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 According to Carroll, burnout stems not only from long hours but also from processes that lack four key qualities: reliability, efficiency, integration with existing systems, and psychological safety.

Firms that prioritize, listen, and align position themselves for better long-term outcomes. By Rory Henry CFP®, BFA™For CPA TrendlinesPhil Whitman, President and CEO of Whitman Advisory, works with hundreds of CPA firms and more than 230 strategic investors across private equity, family offices, wealth management aggregators, and publicly traded consolidators. He sees a profession undergoing unprecedented transformation, and Whitman has a front-row seat. In this episode of Holistic Guide to Wealth Management, Whitman shares his observations with me from his unique vantage point.   MORE Rory Henry and The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management BUY the Holistic Guide to Wealth Management Whitman points to 2021 as the inflection point for the profession's transition. That's when EisnerAmper became the first major CPA firm to accept private equity (PE) investment, followed shortly by Citrin and Cherry Bekaert. Those deals opened the gates for capital providers and ignited a wave of consolidation across firms of all sizes. The profession hasn't looked back since. Transaction activity has since accelerated, creating unprecedented competition for deals and pushing accounting firm valuations into territory the profession has never seen before.

AI's already in the workflow. The question is: Do you know what it's doing?It's Not Just the NumbersWith Penny Breslin and Damien GreatheadFor CPA TrendlinesArtificial intelligence has arrived in accounting, but not in the way many expected. It's not a single app or a single process. It's everywhere, embedded in workflows, changing how firms scope engagements, price cleanup work, and train their people.  MORE Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead MORE Advisory & Consulting BUY "It's Not Just the Numbers" In the latest episode of It's Not Just the Numbers, co-hosts Damien Greathead and Penny Breslin explore how AI reshapes the day-to-day work of accounting firms. Their conversation moves beyond theory to real-world examples of how AI is being used in client engagements, what it means for team development, and why critical thinking, not coding, is the skill every firm must cultivate next. 

Influence is becoming career insurance for professionals.Accounting VoicesWith Rob BrownThe accounting profession does not suffer from a lack of technical expertise. What it faces instead is a growing relevance gap. MORE Accounting Influencers with Rob Brown That tension sits at the center of Accounting Voices, the newly launched show formerly known as Accounting Influencers. Episode 1 opens a new season with a sharper focus and a clearer message: competence is assumed, but influence is what now protects careers.This is not a podcast about tax codes, audit standards, or software features. It is a show about the forces reshaping accounting and finance—and what professionals must do to stay ahead as those forces accelerate.

Here's how to label, package, and price the value you already provideGear Up for GrowthWith Jean CaragherFor CPA Trendlines“With AI, we finally have the tools to free up time for advisory, and clients are asking for it,” says Megan Leesley, director of tax at Dark Horse CPAs, during her appearance on Gear Up for Growth, hosted by Jean Caragher of Capstone Marketing. “They want more than a tax return. They want strategic guidance, and they're willing to pay for it.”  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 videos and podcasts here Leesley, a member of the Intuit Tax Council, recently presented at DCPA25 on transitioning from compliance to advisory, sharing practical steps to transform a traditional tax practice while increasing revenue, improving client relationships, and enhancing work-life balance. Leesley shares how she intentionally reduced her client base and tripled fees to focus exclusively on advisory work. “I reduced my book of business from $350K ARR with a plan to bring it down to $50K,” she explains. “I raised prices significantly, required advisory as part of all engagements, and still ended up at over $100K ARR, double my target, even after losing more clients than expected.”