Explore every episode of the podcast CPA Trendlines Podcasts
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Quiet Fear Behind Accounting’s Growing Divide | Accounting Voices | 10 Oct 2026 | 00:12:44 | |
Leaders face growing questions about influence, identity, and professional relevance. Accounting Voices An accounting firm can keep its clients, meet its deadlines, and remain profitable while the people inside it quietly wonder whether they still belong in its future. As technology, ownership models, and expectations reshape the profession, Accounting Voices examines the questions that software demonstrations and strategic plans often leave unanswered: Who gets to make decisions? Whose expertise still carries weight? And what happens when the career someone works toward becomes a career they no longer want? | |||
| Your Next Hire Might Not Be an Accountant | It's Not Just the Numbers | 09 Oct 2026 | 00:37:30 | |
An AI engineer can help accounting teams tackle bottlenecks, streamline workflows, and build capacity. It's Not Just the Numbers For years, accounting firm owners have treated the "next hire" question as a simple one: bring on another accountant. However, that assumption is starting to cost firms real time and money. In this recent case study, MoneyPenny, LLC shares what happened when their newest hire wasn't an accountant at all. She was a recent graduate with a degree in AI, and within her first weeks, she had built a tool that solved a problem the whole team had been living with for years.
She graduated in the first AI cohort to come through her university and joined the firm knowing nothing about accounting. What she did know was how to watch a process and ask why it worked the way it did. | |||
| Hannah Hood and Joey Kinney: Your Accounting Career Starts Before Your First Job Offer | Accounting Conversations | 08 Oct 2026 | 00:53:13 | |
Practical experience, thoughtful questions, and strong communication help students build careers that reach beyond the classroom. Accounting Conversations A perfect GPA can open a door. It cannot explain a client’s financial story, replace practical experience, or demonstrate how someone responds when there is no answer key. For accounting students eager to distinguish themselves, that difference matters. On Accounting Conversations, host Chayton Farlee welcomes Hannah Hood and Joey Kinney, co-hosts of The Young CPA Success Show, for a candid discussion about preparing for an accounting career. Drawing on their work in virtual CFO services with Summit Virtual CFO by Anders, the guests challenge students to look beyond familiar recruiting paths and consider what makes an accountant valuable to the people they serve. Their advice starts with a seemingly modest assignment: Get close to the books. Students may picture their future in consulting, financial leadership, audit, or tax. Hood and Kinney argue that those ambitions make understanding everyday accounting more essential. | |||
| Loyalty Tax: Accounting's Lose-Lose Incentive System | Big 4 Transparency | 07 Oct 2026 | 00:12:42 | |
Employees lose stability and firms lose money through churn Big 4 Transparency A growing body of compensation data suggests that accounting firms may be unintentionally penalizing their most loyal employees. In a recent solo episode of the Big 4 Transparency, founder Dominic Piscopo unpacks what he calls the “loyalty tax” — the pay gap between internally promoted employees and externally hired peers performing the same role. Drawing on 2024–2025 compensation data from thousands of U.S. and Canadian professionals, Piscopo outlines how this structural imbalance is reshaping career incentives across the profession.
The loyalty tax, as defined in the episode, is the percentage difference in pay where externally hired employees earn more than internally promoted employees at the same level. According to the data, that gap is far from trivial. In the U.S., first-year senior associates hired externally earn roughly 6.3% more than internally promoted seniors, while first-year managers see an 8.9% premium. Even at the senior manager level, the gap persists. Canadian data shows a similar pattern, with especially pronounced spreads at the senior and senior manager levels. The disparity is even more striking in consulting and advisory roles. | |||
| Karen Reyburn: Use Your Creativity as a Competitive Advantage | The Disruptors | 06 Oct 2026 | 01:05:41 | |
Curiosity, problem-solving, and creative habits help strengthen marketing, improve client experiences, and bring more humanity to an AI-driven profession. The Disruptors Karen Reyburn, managing director of We Are PF and author of the new book Accountants, You Are Creative, wants accountants to embrace their innate creativity. Reyburn's first book, The Accountant Marketer, laid out the building blocks of marketing for accounting firms based on what worked for the firms that she and PF worked with. She noticed that just having a playbook and structure for marketing wasn’t enough. “The accountants who were seeing the greatest success, the greatest transformation for themselves and their clients, were the ones that either knew that they were creative human beings, they knew they had creativity within them, or at least they were open and curious about what that looked like, and willing to try,” she explains. As she watched AI’s rapid advancements over the last few months, she nearly shelved the manuscript. “Is this even relevant anymore? With all this stuff about AI, does anyone care about this mindset of creativity?” she wondered. But as she thought about AI and talked to accountants, she realized she was seeing a “both, and” moment. “You're seeing leaning into AI to help you with tasks and repetition, and you're seeing people want more humanity, more opportunity to trust you, more case studies, more in-person events,” she explains. | |||
| Would You Fire Your Firm as a Client? | Accounting Voices | 03 Oct 2026 | 00:11:55 | |
Technology, consolidation, and changing expectations expose weaknesses in business strategies. Accounting Voices Accountants 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. The 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. | |||
| How to Survive Tax Season Without Burning Out Your Teams | It's Not Just the Numbers | 02 Oct 2026 | 00:41:35 | |
The expectation that tax preparation can happen instantly is creating real pressure. It's Not Just the Numbers Tax 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.
If your firm made it through but felt like you were always reacting, always chasing, always a step behind — this breakdown is for you. | |||
| Who's Qualified to Advise? | ARC | 01 Oct 2026 | 00:47:43 | |
ARC hosts debate credentials, accountability, and the risks of advice that exceeds a provider’s expertise. Accounting ARC A 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.
For 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. | |||
| Randy Crabtree: What if Vulnerability's What Leaders Need Most? | MOVE Like This | 30 Sep 2026 | 00:39:37 | |
When leaders admit they don’t have all the answers, they create room for others to contribute. MOVE Like This Randy 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.
Crabtree’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. | |||
| Logan Graf: Build a Modern Accounting Business, Not a Job | The Disruptors | 29 Sep 2026 | 00:55:03 | |
"People don't want to work themselves to death for a third of the year." The Disruptors Logan 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. In 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. | |||
| Jaimie Nichols: She Left Firm Life. Two Years Later, She Works Less Than 20 Hours a Week. | Big 4 Transparency | 28 Sep 2026 | 00:40:01 | |
"I make more money now, but more importantly, I'm not miserable." Big 4 Transparency Jaimie 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. Nichols 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. | |||
| “Set It and Forget It” Is Not an AI Strategy | It's Not Just the Numbers | 27 Sep 2026 | 00:40:19 | |
Accounting teams must ensure their people can recognize anomalies, challenge outputs, and apply sound judgment. It's Not Just the Numbers AI 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.
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. | |||
| When Accounting Changes Faster Than Your Career Plan | Accounting Voices | 26 Sep 2026 | 00:13:48 | |
The profession isn't slowing down, but accountants can build clarity, visibility, and career capital to move forward with greater control. Accounting Voices Accountants 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? In 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. | |||
| Kassi Rushing: Firms that Move First Will Shape Accounting’s Future | Gear Up for Growth | 25 Sep 2026 | 00:41:21 | |
AI, talent development, pricing, and advisory services demand action now — even when leaders do not have all the answers. Gear Up for Growth The 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.
Unlike 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.” | |||
| Stop Waiting for the Perfect Time to Get Involved | ARC | 24 Sep 2026 | 00:35:45 | |
Even a small volunteer commitment can deliver lasting professional and personal returns. Accounting ARC A 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.
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| Blake Christian: Why CPAs, Family Offices, & Investors Are Paying Attention to OZ 2.0 | Holistic Guide | 23 Sep 2026 | 00:25:32 | |
Proper entity structure, timing, and compliance are critical to maximizing the next phase of Opportunity Zone benefits. The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management 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.
While many investors initially focus on the tax deferral aspects of Opportunity Zones, Christian explains that the program delivers three separate benefits. | |||
| Rachel Anevski: Your Next Leader Will Not Develop by Accident | The Disruptors | 22 Sep 2026 | 01:19:36 | |
Replace informal succession practices with trained mentors and measurable opportunities for growth. The Disruptors For 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. As 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. | |||
| Michael Hoover: Growth Without Discipline Comes at a Cost | Big 4 Transparency | 21 Sep 2026 | 00:41:04 | |
Disciplined choices, talent investment, and cultural alignment matter more than chasing every opportunity. Big 4 Transparency As 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.
“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. | |||
| Your Org Just Announced a Major Change. Now What? | Accounting Voices | 19 Sep 2026 | 00:15:50 | |
Protect your credibility and career options by responding with calm, connection, and purpose. Accounting Voices An 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. But 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. | |||
| Calvin Harris: The Future of Accounting Belongs to Those Willing to Rethink Everything | Gear Up for Growth | 18 Sep 2026 | 00:41:15 | |
Accounting teams should be intentionally designed around technology, outsourcing, and evolving organizational structures Gear Up for Growth “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.
Although 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. | |||
| Tony Wilson: Career Options CPAs May Be Overlooking | Accounting Conversations | 17 Sep 2026 | 00:34:13 | |
Extraordinary opportunities lie ahead for those who combine accounting knowledge with curiosity, judgment, and business insight. Accounting Conversations Accounting 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. Along 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. | |||
| Donny Shimamoto: Build Careers That Bend, Not Break | MOVE Like This | 16 Sep 2026 | 00:38:50 | |
Flexible systems help accounting professionals remain, contribute, and advance when life’s responsibilities change. MOVE Like This When 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.
Shimamoto 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. | |||
| Kenji Kuramoto: AI Agents Are Coming for SALY — and the Billable Hour | The Disruptors | 15 Sep 2026 | 01:15:15 | |
Intelligent agents will reshape accounting workflows, pricing models, employee development, and the value firms deliver to clients. The Disruptors Kenji 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. By 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. | |||
| Jason Ackerman: The Roth IRA Mistakes That Can Cost Clients | The Concierge CPA | 14 Sep 2026 | 00:46:17 | |
The strategy may be simple, but the execution is not. The Concierge CPA In 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.
Roth 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. | |||
| Can AI Finally Tame the K-1? | 10 Sep 2026 | 00:31:08 | |
K1x Is Betting $175 Million on It. Full show notes here | |||
| Agentic AI Needs Guardrails, Not Hype | ARC | 10 Sep 2026 | 00:28:02 | |
Accountants should demand systems that reveal the work, respect boundaries, and produce results humans can verify. Accounting ARC Agentic AI does not have to replace an accountant to transform accounting. Its more practical role may be far less dramatic — and far more useful. In this episode of the Accounting ARC podcast, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA; Liz Mason, CPA; and Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, explore how narrowly focused AI agents can help professionals retrieve information, analyze data, navigate systems, and make better-informed decisions.
Their conversation challenges one of the dominant narratives surrounding agentic AI: that firms should build autonomous digital employees capable of handling everything a staff accountant does. Instead, the hosts envision specialized agents that operate within structured systems, perform clearly defined tasks, and show users how they reach their conclusions. “If you have agentic AI that’s built into an architecture that already exists, there’s a whole lot more that has to happen from a training perspective,” says Mason, CEO of High Rock Accounting. That architecture, she explains, can include multiple agents working together rather than one agent attempting to handle an entire assignment. | |||
| AI Isn’t Erasing Tax Careers. It’s Rewriting Them | ARC | 03 Sep 2026 | 00:45:50 | |
Firms must build new pathways that develop reviewers, judgment and client-facing skills. Accounting ARC Artificial intelligence may not eliminate the entry-level tax professional. But it is dismantling the job that many firms still use to train one. That's the conversation driving a new episode of the Accounting ARC podcast featuring Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC and founder and inspiration architect for the Center for Accounting Transformation; and Liz Mason, CPA, CEO of High Rock Accounting. The conversation begins with a small tax firm that hires six interns each year and teaches them to prepare returns much as earlier generations learned: working from paper documents, identifying relevant numbers, mapping those figures to tax forms, and entering the data into tax software.
The firm owner sees the process as an apprenticeship that helps students bridge the gap between an individual tax course and real-world preparation. Shimamoto sees value in teaching interns how information moves from source documents to a completed return. Mason agrees with the objective but challenges the method. “From a holistic learning exploration, sure, yes, that is a way to learn,” Mason says. “From a where-we-are-today perspective, I think that’s a giant disservice to these interns.” | |||
| Leah Yoneda: Stop Mistaking Networking for Business Development | MOVE Like This | 02 Sep 2026 | 00:45:41 | |
Sustainable growth comes from cultivating trust over time—not collecting contacts, memorizing sales scripts or forcing professionals into uncomfortable networking routines. MOVE Like This In this episode of MOVE Like This, Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk sits down with Lea Yoneda, founder and CEO of Golden Ginkgo Group, to explore why so many talented accounting professionals struggle with business development and why the problem often has less to do with personality than with how firms define, teach, and reward growth. Yoneda argues that firms frequently wait until professionals are on the doorstep of partnership before introducing business development, then expect them to master an entirely different skill set with little guidance or support.
Rather than treating relationship building as a long-term professional competency, many firms reduce it to a one-time training session or a list of networking tactics. She believes this approach sets professionals up for unnecessary stress and overlooks the fact that meaningful business development takes years to develop. A significant portion of the conversation focuses on introversion and the misconceptions surrounding it. | |||
| Erin Pohan: How to Help Your Clients Understand Accounting | The Disruptors | 02 Sep 2026 | 00:55:53 | |
Connect with your clients: "You're an entrepreneur, I'm an entrepreneur." | |||
| Shelly Weir: Florida CPAs Save Their Licenses. For Now | Gear Up for Growth | 28 Aug 2026 | 00:35:09 | |
FICPA CEO Shelly Weir says the profession survived its most serious deregulation fight yet. The threat isn’t confined to Florida. Full show notes here | |||
| Blake Carroll: The CPA Exam Isn’t Testing How Smart You Are | Accounting Conversations | 27 Aug 2026 | 00:47:18 | |
PwC consultant and CPA exam coach says success depends less on being the smartest person in the room and more on managing time, building effective habits, and continuing after setbacks. The greatest obstacle standing between most CPA candidates and their licenses is not intelligence. It is time. That distinction matters, says Blake Carroll, CPA, a deployment consultant with PwC who helps aspiring CPAs develop the plans, habits, and mindsets they need to pass the exam. “I truly believe anyone can pass it,” Carroll tells host Chayton Farlee on the Accounting Conversations podcast. “It’s not a test of intelligence. It is a test of endurance.” In the episode, Carroll and Farlee, an assurance associate at CliftonLarsonAllen, explore what makes the exam so difficult — and why the skills candidates develop while preparing for it can continue serving them long after they earn their licenses. Carroll knows candidates must master a large volume of technical material, often while working full time, attending school, or managing family responsibilities. They must sustain that effort for months and sometimes longer, without the frequent deadlines and feedback that help structure a college course. The resulting pressure can lead candidates to question whether they are smart enough, moving quickly enough, or studying the right way. “Anxiety can kill more CPA dreams than the difficulty of the material,” Carroll says. | |||
| David Podell: The Retirement Plan Provision Most Tax Advisers Overlook | The Concierge CPA | 24 Aug 2026 | 00:31:22 | |
Solo 401(k)s let you think beyond retirement.
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| Jim Metzler: The Profession’s Best Are Walking Away from Partnership | Gear Up for Growth | 21 Aug 2026 | 00:43:45 | |
Firms, not candidates, are to blame for a generation of superstars declining the summons. Few voices carry more weight on the question of who becomes a partner, and why, than Jim Metzler’s. So when the former AICPA vice president and longtime mentor to emerging firm leaders says the profession’s top performers are hesitating at the threshold of partnership, firm owners would do well to listen. | |||
| Can Gen Z and Boomers Speak the Same Business Language? | ARC | 20 Aug 2026 | 00:34:21 | |
As workplace language evolves, effective professionals know their audience and adapt their message. Accounting ARC Every generation enters the workplace speaking a slightly different language. For Generation Z, that language may include phrases such as “delulu,” “mid” and “fire.” For earlier generations, the dated vocabulary might sound different, but the underlying challenge remains familiar: How do people bring their authentic voices to work while still communicating professionally?
In this episode of the Accounting ARC podcast, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA; Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP; and Liz Mason, CPA, examine the supposed language barrier separating Generation Z and baby boomers — and question whether it is really as new or insurmountable as some portray it. Their conclusion is less about memorizing the latest slang and more about developing an essential power skill: adaptability. | |||
| Shannon Stone-Winding: The Workforce Was Built for a Life That No Longer Exists | MOVE Like This | 19 Aug 2026 | 00:39:37 | |
As caregiving responsibilities expand across generations and definitions of family, employers have an opportunity to rethink how work gets done — and keep valuable people in the process. MOVE Like This In this episode of MOVE Like This, Shannon Stone-Winding, President and CEO of the Business Alliance of Colleges and Employers (BACE), joins Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk to explore caregiving through a much broader lens: what does it mean for an organization to truly care for its people? Shannon brings both a professional and deeply personal perspective to the conversation. In addition to her work connecting employers, colleges, and emerging talent, she has spent 20 years as the primary caregiver for her husband, a 100% service-connected disabled Marine Corps veteran.
That experience has shaped how she thinks about caregiving, workplace culture, and what employees need to remain and thrive in their careers. Shannon’s current caregiving research grew from a conversation at a diversity symposium, where accounting professionals began sharing examples of how firms were responding to employees’ changing needs. | |||
| Randy Johnston: Accounting’s Brave New World of MCPs | The Disruptors | 17 Aug 2026 | 01:15:28 | |
If MCPs are the infrastructure, agentic AI is the workforce. Full show notes here Randy Johnston has been in accounting technology longer than many of today’s practitioners have been alive. With more than 50 years in the field, and a hand in designing everything from IBM ThinkPads to Excel’s PivotTables, he has seen more technological revolutions than he can easily count. He even wrote AI code in 1975 in Lisp. Through it all, he has remained true to a singular ideal: “My personal mission has always been to help as many people as possible do the things they want to do with technology.” MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network “It’s making me think we no longer need dashboards. It’s making me think we no longer need user interfaces the way we did,” he says. “I think we’re actually going to wind up talking to a lot of our systems in the very near term.” | |||
| Mark Koziel: The End of Accounting as We Know It | Gear Up for Growth | 14 Aug 2026 | 00:39:42 | |
Koziel Calls for a New CPA Firm Model. Gear Up for Growth Mark Koziel is putting the accounting profession on notice: The business model that sustained CPA firms for generations is running out of time. “The hours-times-rate model is a death knell for the profession,” says Koziel, CPA, CGMA, president and CEO of the AICPA and the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, on Gear Up for Growth, powered by CPA Trendlines and hosted by Jean Caragher, president of Capstone Marketing.
As artificial intelligence accelerates the automation of tax preparation and compliance work, Koziel says CPA firms must fundamentally rethink how they create—and price—value for clients. “There’s still value to that tax return,” Koziel says. “It’s just not based on our inputs.” Rather than charging for the time it takes to complete compliance work, Koziel encourages firms to focus on the insight, judgment and peace of mind they provide through planning, advisory services and proactive client relationships. One of his strongest messages centers on repositioning the profession beyond its traditional identity. “If you ask anybody on the street what a CPA does, they’re going to tell you tax,” Koziel says. “But advisory and planning are the two that we really need to start nailing down.” | |||
| Accounting Internships Need an Upgrade | ARC | 13 Aug 2026 | 00:30:37 | |
As AI handles more routine work, how do young accountants develop judgment, communication and leadership? Accounting ARC The accounting internship is due for an upgrade. For decades, internships often give aspiring accountants their first real taste of the profession by dropping them into the work: Learn the process, complete the assignment, survive busy season and figure out the unwritten rules along the way. But as artificial intelligence takes over more of the entry-level work traditionally assigned to new accountants, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, and Liz Mason, CPA, argue the profession needs to reconsider what an internship is actually supposed to teach.
In this episode of the Accounting ARC podcast, Shimamoto, founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC and founder and inspiration architect for the Center for Accounting Transformation, and Mason, CEO of High Rock Accounting, explore why tomorrow's accountants need more than technical proficiency. They need what Shimamoto calls "power skills." | |||
| Rachel Farris: The CPA Career Nobody Talks About | ARC | 06 Aug 2026 | 00:39:36 | |
The next generation is blending entrepreneurship, AI, and advisory into careers that barely existed a few years ago. Accounting ARC For decades, the accounting profession has followed a familiar script: earn a CPA license, join a firm, climb the ladder and perhaps become a partner. Rachel Farris, CPA, MBA, is proving there is another way. After building a highly specialized tax advisory practice serving U.S. citizens relocating to Puerto Rico, Farris launches Tax Stack AI, a company that helps accounting firms implement artificial intelligence securely and strategically.
She has since sold her CPA practice to focus on AI consulting and education, demonstrating that today's accounting professionals can create careers far beyond traditional public accounting. In this episode of Accounting ARC, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC and founder and inspiration architect for the Center for Accounting Transformation, sits down with Farris to explore entrepreneurship, AI, networking and the expanding possibilities available to CPAs willing to embrace change. Their conversation becomes less about one accountant's journey and more about the profession's future. | |||
| Caregiving Isn’t a Side Issue - It’s a Workforce Issue | MOVE Like This | 05 Aug 2026 | 00:44:05 | |
“Flexibility should be used as a tool for success. It shouldn't be the exception.” MOVE Like This In this episode of MOVE Like This, Mandy Gallagher, lead manager of Women’s Initiatives at the AICPA, joins Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk to discuss why caregiving has become such an important conversation in accounting, what firms may misunderstand about caregivers, and how greater flexibility and support could influence retention and leadership pipelines across the profession. Gallagher’s work focuses on advancing women’s initiatives, supporting professional development, and amplifying women’s perspectives throughout the profession.
One reason caregiving is getting more attention now is that it is both more visible and much broader than many people have traditionally assumed. Demographic shifts mean multiple generations are simultaneously balancing careers with responsibilities for children, aging parents, siblings, partners, friends, and others who rely on them. COVID also changed expectations around where and how work can happen. Employees experienced firsthand that they could remain productive while having enough flexibility to pick up a child or take a parent to a medical appointment. As more organizations return to traditional office expectations, those competing demands have become harder to reconcile. The conversation challenges another long-standing assumption: that caregiving is primarily a women-with-young-children issue. | |||
| Conference Season Exposes Accounting's Knowledge Gap | ARC | 30 Jul 2026 | 00:48:20 | |
From vendor demonstrations to hallway conversations, this year's conference season highlights both excitement and uncertainty across the profession. Accounting ARC Every summer, accounting professionals pack conference centers looking for the next big idea. They attend breakout sessions, visit vendor booths, compare notes with peers and return to their firms with pages of ideas. This year, however, the conversations feel different. Artificial intelligence still dominates the agenda, but the Accounting ARC hosts notice a subtle shift beneath the excitement. The biggest takeaway isn't simply that AI is everywhere. It's that many accountants are struggling to separate innovation from marketing, capability from hype, and opportunity from risk.
In this episode of Accounting ARC, hosts Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, senior product manager for Karbon and co-founder and educator for TB Academy; Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC and founder and inspiration architect for the Center for Accounting Transformation; and Liz Mason, CPA, CEO of High Rock Accounting, reflect on what they observe during this year's conference season—and what those observations reveal about the profession's next challenge. | |||
| William LeFew, Ph.D.: The Best AI Professionals Think Like Humans | ARC | 23 Jul 2026 | 00:24:22 | |
Technology changes quickly, but critical thinking remains the most valuable skill accountants can develop. Artificial intelligence is changing accounting faster than almost anyone predicted. But according to William LeFew, Ph.D., the professionals who benefit most from AI are not necessarily the ones with the strongest technical skills—they are the ones who know how to think. In this episode of Accounting ARC, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC and founder and inspiration architect for the Center for Accounting Transformation, welcomes LeFew, chief technology officer at FirmPro, for a conversation that goes beyond software features and into the mindset required to succeed in an AI-enabled profession.
LeFew approaches accounting from an unusual perspective. Trained as an applied mathematician with experience at NASA and multiple technology startups, he intentionally looks for industries where technology can remove friction instead of creating it. Accounting, he says, stands out because of the people. | |||
| Peter McCarroll: Rethink the Ladder | MOVE Like This | 22 Jul 2026 | 00:41:19 | |
AI changes how professionals gain experience, forcing teams to reinvent leadership development. MOVE Like This Artificial intelligence has dominated conversations throughout the accounting profession, but much of the discussion remains focused on efficiency. In this episode of MOVE Like This, Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk sits down with Peter McCarroll, founder of The AI Accountant and partner at Fuel Accountants, to explore a much bigger question: How will AI reshape careers, leadership, and the future of accounting firms?
McCarroll argues that many firms are looking at AI through too narrow a lens. While automating routine work will certainly improve productivity, efficiency alone will not be enough to remain competitive. Firms that thrive will use AI to strengthen strategic thinking, develop new services, deepen client relationships, and create additional value rather than simply reducing costs. Waiting for technology to stabilize or treating AI as just another software implementation may leave firms behind as change accelerates over the next few years. | |||
| David Cristello: Growth Breaks Things – and That’s Normal | The Disruptors | 21 Jul 2026 | 01:00:51 | |
Build the firm you want by hiring only the best. The Disruptors | |||
| The Feedback Mistake That Costs You Your Best People | ARC | 16 Jul 2026 | 00:34:13 | |
Intent, tone and delivery matter just as much as the message itself. Accounting ARC One poorly handled conversation can undo months—or years—of trust. In this episode of Accounting ARC, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, and Liz Mason, CPA, unpack why difficult feedback often fails, how leaders can communicate with greater intention, and what separates constructive coaching from conversations that send employees looking for another job. The conversation starts with a story familiar to anyone who has ever hovered over the “Send” button on a difficult message.
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. | |||
| Blumer, Vacin: What Only 5% of Firms Get Right | Disruptors | 14 Jul 2026 | 00:52:33 | |
It’s not just growth. Scaling a business successfully usually doesn’t happen automatically when top-line revenue grows, as Jason Blumer and Ian Vacin explain in their new book, “Scale with Purpose: The Service Entrepreneur’s Guide to Intentional Growth.” | |||
| What If the Best Accounting Job Isn't in Tax or Audit? | Accounting Conversations | 09 Jul 2026 | 00:39:27 | |
The profession's fastest-growing opportunities help business owners make decisions—not just balance the books. For many accounting students, the profession appears to offer two primary destinations: tax or audit. But what if that's only part of the story? In the latest episode of Accounting Conversations, host Chayton Farlee, an assurance associate at CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA), welcomes Kaden Cook, CPA, CMA, a virtual CFO with Anders, for a conversation that challenges many of the assumptions students have about accounting careers.
Cook's own career follows a path that many students may not realize exists. He begins with bookkeeping, gains experience in accounts receivable and accounts payable, discovers outsourced accounting and eventually finds his way into advisory services, where he helps business owners make financial decisions rather than simply report financial results. That distinction becomes one of the central themes of the conversation. | |||
| The Most Expensive Promotion Your Firm Can Make | MOVE Like This | 08 Jul 2026 | 00:34:54 | |
It may create costly leadership gaps that affect engagement, retention, and firm performance. MOVE Like This Promotions are meant to strengthen an organization. But when firms elevate top performers without preparing them to lead, those promotions can become some of the most expensive decisions they make. The result is often disengaged employees, overwhelmed managers, and avoidable turnover.
In this episode of MOVE Like This, Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk talks with Megan Robinson, founder and CEO of E Leader Experience, about why leadership isn't a natural next step for every high performer—and what firms can do to build leaders intentionally instead of hoping they'll figure it out. | |||
| Is Your Boss Really the Problem? | ARC | 02 Jul 2026 | 00:53:29 | |
The hardest workplace lesson isn't spotting a bad manager—it's recognizing when you're standing in your own way. Accounting ARC In a candid, unfiltered episode of Accounting ARC, Liz Mason, CPA, CEO of High Rock Accounting, and Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, senior product manager at Karbon and co-founder of TB Academy, confront one of the profession’s most relatable—and uncomfortable—topics: bad bosses. But the conversation goes further than workplace horror stories. Mason and Patrick explore a more nuanced reality: sometimes the boss is the problem—and sometimes it's the employee.
“We wanted to talk about this topic because it’s really important to understand when you’re the problem, when your boss is the problem, and what acceptable boundaries are,” Mason says early in the episode. Unpack real stories about bad bosses, miscommunication, and the career lessons that come with both. This episode challenges how accountants think about leadership, accountability, and growth. | |||
| Denise Froemming | The CPA’s Secret Formula Hiding in Plain Sight | Holistic Guide | 29 Jun 2026 | 00:27:02 | |
Modernizing the Profession Without Losing Its Core. The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management It’s no secret that the accounting profession is undergoing one of the most significant transitions in its history. Firms are more likely to sell to private equity than to other accounting firms. Technology is reshaping workflows. Worker shortages are forcing firms to rethink talent pipelines. But through it all, public trust remains the foundation on which everything rests. That tension — protecting what makes the profession trusted while adapting to what the market demands — defines the moment. Few leaders sit closer to that tension than Denise LeDuc Froemming, President and CEO of CalCPA, the nation’s largest state CPA society. | |||