CPA Trendlines Podcasts

Decode your energy signals, redesign your calendar, and stay sharp even when you're running low.Accounting ARCWith Liz Mason, Byron Patrick, and Donny ShimamotoCenter for Accounting TransformationAs the calendar flips and the pace of work accelerates, many accounting professionals find themselves running on fumes. The holidays are over. Travel lingers in the body. Busy season looms. And yet, expectations snap back to full speed almost overnight.In this Accounting ARC, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, and Liz Mason, CPA, take on a topic many professionals quietly struggle with but rarely discuss openly: how to work through fatigue without burning out—or dialing down performance. MORE Accounting ARC: OCR, Research Bots & Meeting Assistants: What Actually Helps Now | Return Season is the New Stress Test | Small Firms May Have the Biggest Advantage in 2026 | Downgraded: What the DOE Said About Accounting | Savage: Using Your License as a Megaphone |  Baker: Interpreting Pricing Psychology | Don’t Get Fired by Your Own Automation | What Amazon Doesn't Tell You | Royalties, Residuals, and Reality Checks | ARC-SLC  Their conversation is refreshingly candid, practical, and grounded in lived experience. And it challenges one of the profession’s most persistent myths: that being tired means you’re doing something wrong.Both hosts open the episode admitting they are exhausted—but not from overwork. Shimamoto is coming off a stretch of nonstop weekends filled with visitors, events, and travel. Mason is freshly jet-lagged after nearly two weeks in London, balancing client work with museums, family time, and international flights.The point lands quickly: fatigue doesn’t only come from too much work. It comes from full lives.And pretending otherwise, they argue, is where professionals get stuck—pushing through exhaustion with guilt instead of strategy.

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

Beyond revenue and margins, buyers are scrutinizing teams, culture, and operational health.The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrBrannon Poe, founder of Poe Group Advisors, says the key to a successful firm transaction is fit.  “I think having a good deal is really about having a good fit,” he says. Besides technical skills, “you have to have management styles that mesh well, you have to have client service philosophies that are aligned,” he explains.   MORE STREAMING:MORE STREAMING: Oliver: Build a Biz that Runs Without You | Daiber: Use Succession as a Growth Strategy | Cannon: Busy Season is Self-Inflicted | Carroll: When One Person Can Break the Firm |  Rampe: Build a Roadmap Even When the Road's Not There | Chang: Killing SALY, One Agent at a Time | Vanover: 5-Star Firms Don't Bill by the Hour | Kless: Profit Is a Result. Flourishing Is the Purpose | Whitman: Build Culture on 'Progress,' Not Change | Shein: No PE? No M&A? No Problem | Hood and Weber: Time to RISE | Proctor: Turn Dumb Ideas into Brilliant Solutions | Carter-Gray: How 1 Poor Review Strengthened the Firm | Hartman: Upwork to “40 Under 40” in 3 Years |For sellers, choosing the right buyer matters as much as the price. “I find that the sellers in particular, who keep their focus on fit and choose the right buyer, usually are the happiest with their exit.” The last few years have created favorable conditions for accounting firm sales, but not for everyone. 

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

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

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

Training and growth—not just recruitment—will determine the profession’s future.Gear Up for GrowthWith Jean CaragherFor CPA TrendlinesWhen Jan Lewis, vice chair of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), says, “The world is a complicated place, and who better than a CPA to help cut through the noise?” she’s not offering a slogan. She’s issuing a call to action. More Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | More Gear Up for Growth More CPA Trendlines videos and podcasts here In a wide-ranging and refreshingly candid conversation with host Jean Caragher on Gear Up for Growth, Lewis makes the case that this moment—right now—is one of the most consequential and opportunity-rich periods the CPA profession has ever faced.One of Lewis’s strongest messages is also one of the most misunderstood: advocacy isn’t theoretical—it’s working.

Firms use AI, planning, and “hope” to make tax season more manageable.Accounting ARCWith Liz Mason, Byron Patrick, and Donny ShimamotoCenter for Accounting TransformationAs firms head into tax season, the hosts of Accounting ARC make a case for lowering the temperature — and the workload — with practical tech choices, proactive planning and a stronger focus on people. MORE Accounting ARC: Return Season is the New Stress Test | Small Firms May Have the Biggest Advantage in 2026 | Downgraded: What the DOE Said About Accounting | Savage: Using Your License as a Megaphone |  Baker: Interpreting Pricing Psychology | Don’t Get Fired by Your Own Automation | What Amazon Doesn't Tell You | Royalties, Residuals, and Reality Checks | ARC-SLC | Free Speech Is a Right; Respect Is a Responsibility | Cash Bags, Casinos & Audits: How First Jobs Shape Us | Gen Z Redefines Careers | Bootleggers, Baptitsts & CPAs: Rethinking Licensure In a special Tax Season Readiness episode, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA; joins co-hosts Liz Mason, CPA; and Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, CGMA; to preview new tax platform research, spotlight emerging AI tools and talk candidly about what helps teams sustain momentum from January through April.Shimamoto, founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC and founder and inspiration architect for the Center for Accounting Transformation, sets the tone early. He says he intentionally avoids calling it “busy season,” noting that practitioners tell him the upcoming cycle may feel lighter than the past few years. The conversation that follows keeps returning to the same core question: What, specifically, helps firms reduce friction before deadlines hit?

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

"They get a check every month, and they don’t have to do any work.”The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrBlake Oliver noticed a consistent pattern with firm owners. “The hardest part for them, it seems, just based on my conversations, is getting started and then building that initial team, creating that firm from scratch, going from zero to something is really, really, really difficult,” he explains.  That “hardest part” echoes his own experience.  MORE STREAMING:MORE STREAMING: Daiber: Use Succession as a Growth Strategy | Cannon: Busy Season is Self-Inflicted | Carroll: When One Person Can Break the Firm |  Rampe: Build a Roadmap Even When the Road's Not There | Chang: Killing SALY, One Agent at a Time | Vanover: 5-Star Firms Don't Bill by the Hour | Kless: Profit Is a Result. Flourishing Is the Purpose | Whitman: Build Culture on 'Progress,' Not Change | Shein: No PE? No M&A? No Problem | Hood and Weber: Time to RISE | Proctor: Turn Dumb Ideas into Brilliant Solutions | Carter-Gray: How 1 Poor Review Strengthened the Firm | Hartman: Upwork to “40 Under 40” in 3 Years Before he became known to the accounting world as the co-host of the Accounting Podcast and founder of Earmark, Oliver had his own firm. “I spent five years building a firm from scratch…going from zero to a million dollars in revenue in five years,” he says. Because he was largely figuring it out on his own, the process was far harder than it needed to be.  His new book, "Building a Sustainable Firm: Strategies for the Modern Accounting Practice," distils the lessons he learned from talking to firm owners and from his own experiences into a blueprint for creating an accounting business that supports your team, your clients, and your own life. “If you’re going to take the leap to go start your own firm…you should have something that you’re happy with at the end,” he explains.   

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

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

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

E-commerce growth forces firms to rethink accruals, margins, and sustainability.Accounting ARCWith Liz Mason, Byron Patrick, and Donny ShimamotoCenter for Accounting TransformationHoliday shopping has never been easier. With a few taps on a smartphone, consumers can buy gifts from bed, track deliveries in real time, and return unwanted items with minimal friction. But behind that convenience lies a complicated accounting reality—one that came into sharp focus during a recent episode of Accounting ARC. MORE Accounting ARC: Small Firms May Have the Biggest Advantage in 2026 | Downgraded: What the DOE Said About Accounting | Savage: Using Your License as a Megaphone |  Baker: Interpreting Pricing Psychology | Don’t Get Fired by Your Own Automation | What Amazon Doesn't Tell You | Royalties, Residuals, and Reality Checks | ARC-SLC | Free Speech Is a Right; Respect Is a Responsibility | Cash Bags, Casinos & Audits: How First Jobs Shape Us | Gen Z Redefines Careers | Bootleggers, Baptitsts & CPAs: Rethinking Licensure Hosts Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA; Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP; and Liz Mason, CPA, examine the financial, operational, and environmental consequences of e-commerce returns, using the holiday season as a lens to explore broader shifts in consumer behavior and business sustainability.Industry research shows that nearly 25% of e-commerce purchases are returned after the holidays, compared with less than 9% of in-store retail purchases. For accounting teams, that disparity introduces volatility into revenue recognition, inventory valuation, and profitability forecasting—often at the worst possible time of year.

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

Firms that wait until a partner is ready to retire have already waited too long, plus 19 more key takeaways.The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrErin Daiber, founder and CEO of Well Balanced Accountants, keeps seeing the same issue in firm after firm. A partner announces their intention to retire within a year or two, and the firm suddenly realizes no one is ready to take over. “Firms are not starting that conversation soon enough,” Daiber says. MORE STREAMING: Cannon: Busy Season is Self-Inflicted | Carroll: When One Person Can Break the Firm |  Rampe: Build a Roadmap Even When the Road's Not There | Chang: Killing SALY, One Agent at a Time | Vanover: 5-Star Firms Don't Bill by the Hour | Kless: Profit Is a Result. Flourishing Is the Purpose | Whitman: Build Culture on 'Progress,' Not Change | Shein: No PE? No M&A? No Problem | Hood and Weber: Time to RISE | Proctor: Turn Dumb Ideas into Brilliant Solutions | Carter-Gray: How 1 Poor Review Strengthened the Firm | Hartman: Upwork to “40 Under 40” in 3 Years “They’re not thinking about succession planning as a strategy,” she explains. Instead of treating succession as an ongoing process, firms see it as simply the point in time when a partner exits the firm. According to Daiber, succession planning should ideally begin with hiring decisions and culture building so that firms can be confident that they won’t lose clients or staff due to uncertainty about what might happen as partners get older.  When succession planning fails, firms lose key employees before they even reach partnership consideration. “We're losing them much sooner than that, which creates a big hole in the pipeline,” Daiber notes. She identifies an inability to have difficult conversations as the root cause, particularly when dealing with founders who view the firm as their legacy. 

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

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

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

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