let’s get one thing out of the way: becoming an advisory firm is not a mindset shift. it’s not about “finding your why.” and no, it’s definitely not as simple as bundling your services and slapping a higher fee on them.
we’ve spent the last three years transitioning to an advisory model, and the most accurate description i can offer is this: it’s a three-year construction project that you start without blueprints, building permits or working plumbing – and halfway through, someone hands you a violin and says, “now you’re a musician.”
still want to go advisory? good. you should. but pack lunch, wear boots and bring a violin. read more →
christine simone is the ceo & co-founder of caribou, a software solution for the finance industry to include health care costs and plan optimization in financial plans.
financial advisors are well suited to help clients with all the important decisions in their lives. but that doesn’t mean advisors always recognize the areas in which clients need the most help.
take health insurance, a big concern for people across all income groups. according to a 2021 report from spectrem group (now part of ceg insights), two-thirds of affluent investors (65%) say they want their advisors to help them with health insurance, but only 4 percent said their financial advisors are providing it to them (see bar chart). further, among people who don’t have financial advisors, the top areas for which they would want guidance are retirement income planning, social security planning and medicare advice. read more →
in a striking shift that’s redefining the accounting profession, private equity is no longer circling—it’s landed. on a recent episode of the accounting influencers podcast, host rob brown breaks down what might be the most transformative trend facing accounting firm leaders today: the rapid influx of private equity (pe) into the industry.
“would you sell half of your accounting firm to a private equity firm for a billion dollars?” brown asks. “because some of the biggest names in our industry already have.”
and they’re not small names. baker tilly, the 10th largest u.s. accounting firm, recently sold more than 50% of its business to a private equity firm. grant thornton did the same. the motivations are clear: stay competitive, invest in technology, attract top-tier talent, and survive the pressures of a changing profession.
you will use very similar fundamental steps to generate words and content to express the value of your client accounting services offering. you will focus on each component of your cas offering to do so, e.g., different content to talk about bill payment services, different for advisory and outsourced cfo services, and so on.
you will also use the “contrast principle” to differentiate between your “usual” services and “cas offering.” marketing cas to your existing clients will be different than marketing cas to your prospects. read more →
capstone conversations
by jean caragher
for 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
kristen lewis, managing director of marketing for eisneramper and the 2025 association for accounting marketing (aam) marketer of the year, joins jean caragher on capstone conversations to share lessons from her marketing leadership, insights on post-pandemic strategy shifts, and her vision for the profession’s future. the conversation examines both the tactical and human aspects of cpa firm marketing in an era of rapid change, industry consolidation, and heightened client expectations.
lewis reflects on her oft-quoted phrase from a previous capstone appearance during covid—“building the car while driving it”—as still being true today. she notes that the firm’s post-pandemic agility has become both a strength and a challenge, with the pace of innovation and disruption keeping teams moving at high speed. “we proved to ourselves that we could be nimble and change things on the fly,” she says. “that’s exciting, but also exhausting at times.”
twelve practical ways you can use chatgpt or similar assistants right now.
by jackie meyer
in today’s rapidly evolving landscape, technologies like artificial intelligence (ai), natural language processing (nlp) and advanced large language models (llms, the brains behind tools like chatgpt) are no longer futuristic concepts – they’re here now, and they’re incredibly powerful. integrating ai into your tech stack can revolutionize your practice, freeing up time, enhancing client service, and providing insights that would be hard to get manually.
it might sound a bit abstract or even hype-y, so let’s break it down in practical terms for an accounting and tax advisory firm.
what are ai, nlp and llms?
artificial intelligence: ai is a broad term for machines or software that mimic human intelligence processes. this includes learning from data (so they improve over time), reasoning to make decisions or predictions, and self-correcting when they get things wrong. in practice, ai can be as simple as an email spam filter (which “learns” what spam looks like by example), or as complex as an autonomous vehicle. in our context, think of ai as tools that can analyze data or perform tasks in a humanlike way – but at computer speed and scale.
today’s bissett bullet: “i tweeted once that while gross recurring fees are a reward for hard work, to an extent, they delete hunger. a superior firm markets its business with hunger regardless.”
by martin bissett
a hungry firm wants to continue growing even though its fees are strong. even though it’s worried about capacity and how it’ll service any more clients. a hungry firm knows the improvement it creates in its clients’ lives. hungry firms are the most successful in their growth efforts.
i’ll ask again – are you hungry?
today’s to-do:
be hungry. do not be satisfied with your gross recurring fees; strive for more. pay attention to your pipeline today. what opportunities are there for you to explore?
when cnbc published a video examining why u.s. public schools are facing severe budget shortfalls, it sparked a passionate accounting conversation. on the accounting arc podcast, co-hosts donny shimamoto, cpa.citp, cgma, and byron patrick, cpa.citp, cgma, offer a reaction episode that reframes the crisis through the lens of financial strategy—and accountability.
both cpas were struck by one glaring omission in the original reporting: the absence of accounting professionals in decision-making roles. “where’s the cfo?” asks shimamoto, founder and managing director of intraprisetechknowlogies, and founder and inspiration architect of the center for accounting transformation. “who looked at the time limits on that covid-era grant money and said, ‘hey, this isn’t going to last’?”
patrick, ceo of verifyiq, and co-founder and educator at tb academy, echoes that frustration: “it’s like budgeting on hopes and dreams instead of facts and forecasts.”
avalara has named adrianna burrows executive vice president and chief marketing officer, and shahan parshad senior vice president and chief information officer.
the appointments are part of the company’s push to support international expansion and strengthen its ai-powered tax compliance platform.
burrows will lead global marketing and report to president ross tennenbaum. she most recently served as head of global marketing at shopify. her previous roles include cmo at payscale, cornerstone ondemand, and stack overflow. at microsoft, she managed the global launch of windows 10 as general manager of windows global marketing.
busy season is behind us. year-end reporting deadlines haven’t hit yet. that makes right now the sweet spot for strategic client outreach—and tax professionals shouldn’t waste a second of it.
in the latest episode of the quick tax tip podcast, listeners get an urgent wake-up call: this is the moment to reconnect with clients, reevaluate their entity structures, and prepare them for the potential ripple effects of new legislation.
“this might be the best question any tax pro could ask right now,” werner says in response to a question about how to prioritize client conversations after busy season. “you’ve got breathing room—use it.”
it’s up to you to recognize the client persona most suited for your firm, but you’ll want to start by defining your customers’ needs. so, what do people really want, and how can you figure it out?
certainly, you can engage in expensive research, from questionnaires to focus groups. but, in reality, most of the clues you need will come from your knowledge of the people you work with within that group. read more →
move like this with bonnie buol ruszczyk
for 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
in this episode of?move like this, host bonnie buol ruszczyk talks with jim wallace, ceo of bpm, about how the firm has embedded diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (deib) into the core of its culture and strategy. with more than 40 years in public accounting, jim shares candid insights into how bpm went beyond the “check the box” approach to deib by making it a ceo-led initiative from the start.
wallace explains that bpm’s brand promise, “because people matter,”isn’t just a slogan, but a foundational principle that informs every part of the firm’s operations, from leadership development to firm-wide engagement. deib is not treated as a standalone initiative; it’s part of the firm’s strategic plan and embedded in its values, mission, and even metrics. for example, bpm uses colleague engagement surveys to track employee sentiment, finding that 82% of employees feel they can bring their authentic selves to work. these insights drive changes in programming and support for staff. read more →
in the digital era, your data is your most valuable asset. whether you’re serving clients, analyzing operations, or simply keeping your business afloat, uninterrupted access to accurate data is essential. but what happens when that access is suddenly taken away?
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.
