CPA Trendlines Podcasts

Epizody

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  Would You Fire Your Firm as a Client? | Accounting Voices 03.10.2026 11min

  Technology, consolidation, and changing expectations expose weaknesses in business strategies.Accounting VoicesWith Rob BrownAccountants help clients plan for growth, manage risk, and prepare for uncertainty. But what happens when they turn that same scrutiny on their own firms?The answers may be uncomfortable.In this episode of Accounting Voices, reflections from 48 interviews conducted in late 2025 reveal a recurring concern: The profession’s ability to solve other people’s business problems does not always translate into a willingness to confront its own.MORE Accounting Voices with Rob BrownThe discussion centers on a deceptively simple question: What changes your thinking about accounting? Across conversations with firm leaders, technology specialists, coaches, consultants, and others, familiar assumptions begin to unravel — about who should run a firm, what makes advisory services valuable, and how much protection technical expertise actually provides.One challenge, attributed in the episode to leadership and organizational development specialist Alice Gray Harrison, brings the issue into sharp focus: If your firm were your client, would you fire yourself for lacking a five-year strategic plan?It is a question that makes the episode less a reflection on the past than a test of what leaders are willing to change now.
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  How to Survive Tax Season Without Burning Out Your Teams | It's Not Just the Numbers 02.10.2026 41min

  The expectation that tax preparation can happen instantly is creating real pressure.It's Not Just the NumbersWith Penny Breslin and Damien GreatheadFor CPA TrendlinesTax season is supposed to be predictable. The work comes in, the work goes out, the deadlines hold. But this year, something broke for accounting firms across the board — and it wasn't the tax code.The culprit wasn't client volume or staffing shortages. It was prioritization and communication, specifically, the gap between where priorities were being set and where the people doing the work were actually looking.MORE Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead | MORE Advisory & ConsultingJOIN From Scorekeeper to Strategist CAS Workshop | BUY "It's Not Just the Numbers"If your firm made it through but felt like you were always reacting, always chasing, always a step behind — this breakdown is for you.
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  Who's Qualified to Advise? | ARC 01.10.2026 47min

  ARC hosts debate credentials, accountability, and the risks of advice that exceeds a provider’s expertise.Accounting ARCWith Liz Mason, Donny Shimamoto, and Byron PatrickCenter for Accounting TransformationA business owner asks for financial reports. A bookkeeper delivers them. For years, the arrangement appears to work — until another accountant examines the numbers and discovers that the reports do not add up.The owner receives exactly what he requests. What he misses is someone qualified to question the request.That story, shared by Byron Patrick on the Accounting ARC podcast, captures a problem that reaches beyond bookkeeping: Small-business owners may know they need financial help without knowing how to evaluate the people providing it.MORE Accounting ARC: Stop Waiting for the Perfect Time to Get Involved | Your AI Agent Should Show Its Work | AI Isn't Erasing Tax Careers. It's Rewriting Them. | Accounting Internships Need an Upgrade | The CPA Career Nobody Talks About | Conference Season Exposes Accounting's Knowledge Gap | The Feedback Mistake That Costs You Your Best People | Is Your Boss Really the Problem? | Most Accountants Are Missing This AI Shift | 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 SheetFor accountants, that creates both a responsibility and an opportunity. Explaining professional value requires more than listing credentials or promising accurate books. It means showing owners what an effective accounting relationship can help them understand, decide, and accomplish.
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  Randy Crabtree: What if Vulnerability's What Leaders Need Most? | MOVE Like This 30.09.2026 39min

  When leaders admit they don’t have all the answers, they create room for others to contribute.MOVE Like ThisWith Bonnie Buol RuszczykFor CPA Trendlines ResearchRandy Crabtree founded an accounting firm, then came to a difficult realization: Being its founder didn’t make him the right person to lead it. His decision to step aside as managing partner of Tri-Merit opens a bigger conversation about what happens when leaders admit they don’t have all the answers.On MOVE Like This, Crabtree joins host Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk to explore how vulnerability can build trust, help people find roles that fit their strengths, and give teams the confidence to try something new. Now retired from Tri-Merit and focused on speaking, advising, and The Unique CPA podcast, he challenges a leadership model that asks people to appear invulnerable while carrying more than they can sustain.MORE MOVE Like This | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming NetworkCrabtree’s perspective on vulnerability is deeply personal. Twelve years ago, he suffered a stroke. While his physical recovery was relatively quick, the mental recovery took years as he dealt with panic attacks, PTSD, and depression. That experience forced him to acknowledge something leaders are often conditioned to resist: he couldn’t do everything himself. It also prompted him to question other things he had long accepted as true about work and leadership, including the idea that leaders always need to have the answers, hide weakness, and prove their value by how much they can carry.That questioning eventually led Crabtree to one of the most difficult decisions of his career.
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  Logan Graf: Build a Modern Accounting Business, Not a Job | The Disruptors 29.09.2026 55min

  "People don't want to work themselves to death for a third of the year."The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrFor CPA TrendlinesLogan Graf, owner of The Graf Tax Co and founder of the Counter community, is proof that there’s a better way to run a tax firm. Last tax season, after restructuring, hiring a manager, and implementing a tax scheduling system, neither he nor his manager worked more than 40 hours a week. He believes accounting firms should operate like modern businesses. “We don't have to look at what’s been done in the past and copy them,” he says.Graf, who launched his own firm in 2020, took mental notes of what he liked and what he didn’t like at the firms he worked at. At his last place of employment, Scott & Aderholt near Austin, TX, he was given an unusual level of autonomy. “I was basically running a firm within a firm,” he recalls.MORE Disruptors with Liz Farr | CPA Trendlines Streaming NetworkIn addition to technical work, he also handled client onboarding, return preparation, review, billing, workflow design, and documentation, all of which made going out on his own easier. “It was like a seamless transition,” he says. The extra money as a firm owner was a welcome surprise. “I was basically making double the amount of money and working the same amount of hours, if not less,” compared to his prior jobs.
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  Jaimie Nichols: She Left Firm Life. Two Years Later, She Works Less Than 20 Hours a Week. | Big 4 Transparency 28.09.2026 40min

  "I make more money now, but more importantly, I'm not miserable."Big 4 TransparencyBy Dominic Piscopo, CPAFor CPA TrendlinesJaimie Nichols expected her accounting practice to grow faster. Two years after leaving firm life, she is glad it didn’t.Nichols started the practice around the time she learned she was going to become a mother. Now, she tells host Dominic Piscopo on The Big 4 Transparency that she has earned more than she did at her former job while spending far more time with her young son.“It was the best decision ever,” she says.MORE Dominic Piscopo | MORE Private Equity | MORE Pay & CompensationNichols reports $120,000 in revenue and roughly $10,000 in expenses for 2025. She says she worked fewer than 20 hours a week, even during tax season, and fewer than 10 hours a week outside it. Family members helped with childcare for several weeks during tax season, but she had no paid childcare that year. She estimates that saved her at least $35,000 in infant care costs.The numbers are striking. Nichols is just as interested in what they leave room for.
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  “Set It and Forget It” Is Not an AI Strategy | It's Not Just the Numbers 27.09.2026 40min

  Accounting teams must ensure their people can recognize anomalies, challenge outputs, and apply sound judgment.It's Not Just the NumbersWith Penny Breslin and Damien GreatheadFor CPA TrendlinesAI is everywhere in accounting right now.It's in your inbox, on the Super Bowl, and probably inside at least one tool your firm uses for tax prep. But there's a conversation happening inside serious accounting firms, the ones processing thousands of returns, managing global teams, and serving clients who expect more than a spreadsheet, that the vendor demos don't cover.MORE Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead | MORE Advisory & Consulting JOIN From Scorekeeper to Strategist CAS Workshop | BUY "It's Not Just the Numbers"That conversation is about critical thinking.It may be the most important skill your firm could be developing right now, precisely because AI is making it easier to stop using it.
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  When Accounting Changes Faster Than Your Career Plan | Accounting Voices 26.09.2026 13min

  The profession isn't slowing down, but accountants can build clarity, visibility, and career capital to move forward with greater control.Accounting VoicesWith Rob BrownAccountants have spent years preparing for demanding work. Far fewer are prepared for what happens when the nature of that work changes almost overnight.Artificial intelligence, private equity, mergers, leadership changes, shifting client expectations, regulatory pressures, and persistent talent shortages are reshaping accounting at the same time. The result is not simply a busier profession. It is a profession in which many people are quietly asking a much bigger question: Is this still the career I signed up for?MORE Accounting Voices with Rob BrownIn this reflective episode of Accounting Voices, listeners are encouraged to pause before charging into another year of goals, deadlines, and transformation projects. The conversation acknowledges something professionals do not always feel permitted to say: An extraordinary level of change takes a personal toll.Feeling tired, cautious, unsettled, or less fulfilled is not necessarily evidence that someone is failing. It may be a normal response to an abnormal pace of disruption.
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  Kassi Rushing: Firms that Move First Will Shape Accounting’s Future | Gear Up for Growth 25.09.2026 41min

  AI, talent development, pricing, and advisory services demand action now — even when leaders do not have all the answers.Gear Up for Growthwith Jean Caragherfor CPA TrendlinesThe accounting profession has no shortage of predictions about its future. But RISE2040 is designed to be something different: a future shaped by the profession itself and a practical framework for deciding what to do next.In this episode of Gear Up for Growth, host Jean Caragher, president of Capstone Marketing, welcomes back Kassi Rushing, CEO and owner of Kassi Rushing Consulting and a member of the RISE2040 project team. Their conversation explores what the initiative reveals about the profession’s direction — and why accounting leaders cannot afford to wait for certainty before acting.MORE Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | MORE Gear Up for Growth hereMORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network hereUnlike earlier vision projects built primarily through surveys, focus groups, or the perspectives of a select group of thought leaders, RISE2040 draws from conversations with thousands of professionals across 25 countries. Artificial intelligence makes it possible to synthesize that volume of input while preserving the themes, opportunities, and barriers identified by participants.Rushing describes the initiative as “written by the profession for the profession.”That distinction matters. As advisory groups reviewed the findings, the project team remained committed to what professionals actually said, even when reviewers wanted to introduce additional ideas.“We had to protect the voice of the profession,” Rushing says. “We talked about being defenders of the data.”
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  Stop Waiting for the Perfect Time to Get Involved | ARC 24.09.2026 35min

  Even a small volunteer commitment can deliver lasting professional and personal returns.Accounting ARCWith Donny Shimamoto and Byron PatrickCenter for Accounting TransformationA single meeting changed the trajectory of Byron Patrick’s career.Early in his career, the owner of Patrick’s firm, who was serving as chair of the Maryland Association of CPAs, invited him to come along to a meeting. Patrick found himself in a room with established leaders discussing the future of the profession.“I was like, ‘Is it this easy? Can I just show up to this meeting every week and be in this room?’” Patrick recalls. “Because if so, y’all aren’t going to get rid of me.”Twenty-six years later, Patrick, CPA.CITP, senior product manager for Karbon and founder and part-time educator for TB Academy, can trace much of his professional growth to that invitation.MORE Accounting ARC: Your AI Agent Should Show Its Work | AI Isn't Erasing Tax Careers. It's Rewriting Them. | Accounting Internships Need an Upgrade | The CPA Career Nobody Talks About | Conference Season Exposes Accounting's Knowledge Gap | The Feedback Mistake That Costs You Your Best People | Is Your Boss Really the Problem? | Most Accountants Are Missing This AI Shift | 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 MORE Accounting Opportunities Experience In this episode of Accounting ARC, Patrick and co-host Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC and the founder and inspiration architect for the Center for Accounting Transformation, make the case that involvement in state CPA societies and other professional organizations is not an extracurricular activity. It is an investment in a career, a professional network, and the future of accounting.
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  Blake Christian: Why CPAs, Family Offices, & Investors Are Paying Attention to OZ 2.0 | Holistic Guide 23.09.2026 25min

  Proper entity structure, timing, and compliance are critical to maximizing the next phase of Opportunity Zone benefits.The Holistic Guide to Wealth ManagementWith Rory Henry, CFP®, BFA™A decade ago, federal Opportunity Zones (OZ) were introduced as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts & Jobs act to encourage long-term investment into economically distressed communities through tax incentives. The first phase of the OZ program expires at the end of 2026, but Blake Christian, CPA, says the program is entering a new phase (OZ 2.0) that could dramatically expand its impact across operating businesses, infrastructure, AI data centers, and rural America.MORE Rory Henry | THE HANDBOOK Holistic Guide to Wealth Management | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming NetworkWhile many investors initially focus on the tax deferral aspects of Opportunity Zones, Christian explains that the program delivers three separate benefits.
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  Rachel Anevski: Your Next Leader Will Not Develop by Accident | The Disruptors 22.09.2026 1h 19min

  Replace informal succession practices with trained mentors and measurable opportunities for growth.The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrFor CPA TrendlinesFor decades, accounting teams have assumed future leaders would emerge through the normal progression of the ranks. The best seniors would become managers, and the best managers would become partners, ready to step into the shoes of retiring leaders.According to Rachel Anevski, that approach is no longer sustainable.Anevski, president and CEO of Matters of Management and managing director of leadership and people at Winding River Consulting, says we must become far more intentional about training, mentoring, and retaining their next generation of leaders.MORE Disruptors with Liz Farr | CPA Trendlines Streaming NetworkAs she describes in her book, Train Your Successor, the greatest weakness in the traditional model is its lack of deliberate preparation. The book’s title, inspired by her doctoral research on training and retention, comes from advice given by her first mentor, Ted Dudek.“His talk to everyone was that retention and the future perpetuity of the firm were solely reliant on whether or not you could successfully train your successor,” Anevski tells The Disruptors host Liz Farr.
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  Michael Hoover: Growth Without Discipline Comes at a Cost | Big 4 Transparency 21.09.2026 41min

  Disciplined choices, talent investment, and cultural alignment matter more than chasing every opportunity.Big 4 TransparencyBy Dominic Piscopo, CPAFor CPA TrendlinesAs private equity reshapes the accounting profession, Bennett Thrasher is making a different kind of bet. The top 100 firm intends to remain independent.Michael Hoover, Bennett Thrasher’s chief growth and strategy officer, joins host Dominic Piscopo on The Big 4 Transparency Podcast to explain why the firm considers independence central to its growth strategy—and why saying no may be one of the most important disciplines a growing firm can develop.MORE Dominic Piscopo | MORE Private Equity | MORE Pay & Compensation“The biggest bet,” Hoover says, “is just remaining fiercely independent.”That commitment shapes how Bennett Thrasher approaches everything from new service lines and acquisitions to recruiting and compensation. Rather than pursuing growth for its own sake, Hoover says the firm is working toward a long-term strategy for 2030 and scrutinizing whether each opportunity advances that vision.In a market where firms are searching for new revenue streams, the temptation to pursue the latest “shiny object” can be powerful. But every new initiative consumes capital, leadership attention, and talent. Hoover argues that firms must examine not only an opportunity’s potential revenue, but also what they may have to postpone or abandon to pursue it.
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  Your Org Just Announced a Major Change. Now What? | Accounting Voices 19.09.2026 15min

  Protect your credibility and career options by responding with calm, connection, and purpose.Accounting VoicesWith Rob BrownAn email arrives. A town hall appears on the calendar. Leaders begin using words such as “merger,” “sale,” “new ownership,” “restructuring,” or “strategic reset.”Suddenly, the change that once felt theoretical becomes personal.For accounting professionals, these announcements can trigger immediate questions about job security, leadership, culture, client relationships, and the future of the organization. Some people freeze. Others panic, withdraw, overshare, or rush to update their LinkedIn profiles.MORE Accounting Voices with Rob BrownBut this episode of Accounting Voices argues that change itself does not necessarily damage careers. How people respond to it often matters more.As private equity investment, mergers, leadership turnover, technology pressures, and evolving business models reshape the profession, the ability to cope with uncertainty is becoming a career-defining skill. Professionals who remain composed, connected, and useful during periods of disruption can strengthen their reputations and create new opportunities.The episode outlines four practical moves for navigating the days and weeks after a significant announcement.
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  Calvin Harris: The Future of Accounting Belongs to Those Willing to Rethink Everything | Gear Up for Growth 18.09.2026 41min

  Accounting teams should be intentionally designed around technology, outsourcing, and evolving organizational structures Gear Up for Growthwith Jean Caragherfor CPA Trendlines“We're at a time where we have multiple generational changes happening all at the same time," says Calvin Harris Jr., CEO of the New York State Society of CPAs, during a recent episode of Gear Up for Growth, hosted by Jean Caragher, president, Capstone Marketing, and powered by CPA Trendlines.According to Harris, technology, alternative practice structures, outsourcing and changing workforce expectations are converging to reshape the future of public accounting. Firm leaders must look beyond today's headlines and begin rethinking how their firms operate, develop talent and deliver value to clients.MORE Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | MORE Gear Up for Growth here MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network hereAlthough artificial intelligence dominates much of today's discussion, Harris believes technology is just one piece of a much larger transformation. "You can't be effective in this work anymore without also being effective in technology,” he says. “You will get lapped in terms of how efficient people can be."Rather than viewing AI as a standalone initiative, Harris encourages firms to think strategically about how technology supports new business models, enhances advisory services and improves the client experience.
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  Tony Wilson: Career Options CPAs May Be Overlooking | Accounting Conversations 17.09.2026 34min

  Extraordinary opportunities lie ahead for those who combine accounting knowledge with curiosity, judgment, and business insight.Accounting ConversationsWith Chayton FarleeCenter for Accounting TransformationAccounting students often feel pressure to choose the perfect career path before they have taken their first professional step. Tony Wilson, CPA, CMA, offers a more forgiving — and practical — approach: Choose a direction, start moving, and learn along the way.“Sometimes, just choose the thing,” Wilson says. “Just go after it.”In this episode of the Accounting Conversations Podcast, host Chayton Farlee, an assurance associate at CliftonLarsonAllen, talks with Wilson, founder of Accquip, about building a career that stretches from public accounting and corporate finance to entrepreneurship and fractional CFO services.MORE Center for Accounting Transformation | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming NetworkAlong the way, Wilson shares candid advice for students and early-career accountants who want to gain meaningful experience, prepare for firm ownership, and understand where they can create value in a profession transformed by technology.
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  Donny Shimamoto: Build Careers That Bend, Not Break | MOVE Like This 16.09.2026 38min

  Flexible systems help accounting professionals remain, contribute, and advance when life’s responsibilities change.MOVE Like ThisWith Bonnie Buol RuszczykFor CPA Trendlines ResearchWhen caregiving responsibilities collide with work, even the most committed professionals can find themselves questioning whether their careers are still sustainable.In this episode of MOVE Like This, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies and inspiration architect at the Center for Accounting Transformation, joins Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk to discuss what accounting firms can do to better support employees with caregiving responsibilities. Drawing from his own experience as a caregiver and his firm's long-standing flexible work model, Shimamoto explains why supporting caregivers isn't about creating complicated new policies. Instead, it's about building thoughtful systems, training managers, and planning work in ways that recognize employees have lives outside the office.MORE MOVE Like This | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming NetworkShimamoto shares how becoming a caregiver for his great-aunt changed his own perspective on the issue. While many people associate caregiving with raising young children, his experience highlighted how responsibilities for aging parents, relatives, and others often arrive unexpectedly and affect employees across every stage of their careers. Rather than viewing caregiving as a temporary accommodation for a small group of employees, he believes firms should recognize it as a reality that will affect nearly everyone at some point in their lives. That shift in thinking changes how organizations design policies, manage workloads, and retain experienced professionals. 
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  Kenji Kuramoto: AI Agents Are Coming for SALY — and the Billable Hour | The Disruptors 15.09.2026 1h 15min

  Intelligent agents will reshape accounting workflows, pricing models, employee development, and the value firms deliver to clients.The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrFor CPA TrendlinesKenji Kuramoto says accounting firms will be changing how they work — and even who does the work.“The future of accounting firms,” Kuramoto says, “is going to be made up of a workforce that has two components. It’ll have people and agents.”His current company, Basis, where he serves as managing partner in residence, is building those agents. Kuramoto says approximately 30% of the top 25 accounting firms are using them across client accounting services, tax, and audit. The agents perform multistep workflows such as reconciliations, account categorization, and first-pass tax return preparation, including work on complex partnership returns.MORE Disruptors with Liz Farr | CPA Trendlines Streaming NetworkBy the end of the year, Kuramoto expects some practice lines to achieve efficiency gains of 60% to 80% by using agents. Within a year, “we should probably be able to see agents working and collaborating together, overall, being directed and architected by people,” he says.
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  Jason Ackerman: The Roth IRA Mistakes That Can Cost Clients | The Concierge CPA 14.09.2026 46min

  The strategy may be simple, but the execution is not.The Concierge CPAWith Jackie MeyerIn this episode, Dr. Jackie Meyer, CPA, welcomes Jason Ackerman, CPA, CFP, CGMA, chief financial officer and co-founder of WealthRabbit, to separate practical Roth IRA guidance from the oversimplified advice circulating online. MORE Jackie Meyer | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming NetworkRoth IRAs can provide tax-free growth and qualified withdrawals, but eligibility rules, reporting requirements, and conversion mechanics leave plenty of room for costly mistakes. Meyer and Ackerman examine direct contributions, backdoor Roth strategies, the often-misunderstood five-year rules, and the documentation advisers need to implement these strategies correctly.A central warning: A backdoor Roth is not a product or a one-click transaction. It is a multistep process that requires advisers to examine the client’s existing IRA balances, properly report nondeductible contributions and conversions, and reconcile Form 8606 with Form 1099-R.“Messing up the backdoor Roth is probably the one that can hurt the most,” Ackerman says.
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  Can AI Finally Tame the K-1? 10.09.2026 31min

  K1x Is Betting $175 Million on It.Full show notes hereBy Seth FinebergFor CPA TrendlinesK1x is putting $175 million in new investment behind an expansion of its K-1 technology platform, with plans to accelerate product development, broaden its offerings and build a more standardized system for managing partnership tax data.MORE K1x: K1x Secures $175 Million for Private Markets AI Tax Tech | Private Market Tax Is Heading for a Collision | The 3-Part Framework Firms Are Using to Fix K-1 Chaos | Why the Future of Tax Isn’t Compliance—It’s Timing | AI Tax App Crashes Financial Stocks on Wall Street | MORE A.I. | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network CEO John LaMancuso says the company is pushing beyond automating individual K-1 tasks. K1x wants to connect K-1 creation and aggregation into a unified platform that can move tax data among CPA firms, investment funds and investors with less manual handling.“Start with the bottleneck, not the technology,” LaMancuso says.MORE > > >