Growing Your Firm | Strategies for Accountants, CPA's, Bookkeepers , and Tax Professionals

Are your firm's internal processes starting to creak under the weight of new growth? When scaling a Client Accounting Services (CAS) or advisory practice, standardizing workflows, managing team capacity, and maintaining quality control become the ultimate operational test. In this live panel session from the Growing Your Firm Summit, host David Cristello brings together a "Council of Operations Experts" to discuss how to build sustainable systems that scale without causing team burnout: Amy McCarty – Director of Operations at Dillon Business Advisors (20+ years coaching firm leaders) AJ Zapata – Co-Founder & COO at Maverick (grew his book of business to $1M in 9 months flat) Melanie – Systems & Admin Lead at Soren Whether you are an operations manager driving software adoption, a bookkeeping firm owner, a managing partner, or a CPA starting a firm, this panel provides actionable blueprints to streamline practice management and elevate firm performance. In this episode, we unpack: Identifying Bottlenecks Early: Practical daily and weekly rituals to spot stale tasks and capacity friction in tools like Canopy and Carbon before they derail deadlines. The "Bat Signal" Onboarding Method: How Maverick uses dedicated, loud-and-proud communication channels to keep new client onboarding on track. Frictionless AI Workflows: Real-world use cases for Microsoft Copilot, Claude CoWork, and Notion for automated call summaries, data cleanup, and IRS notice response templates. Gamifying Firm Improvements: How Dillon Business Advisors uses the "Optimus Pessimus" game to get team buy-in on process changes and achieve an 80% on-time financial delivery rate. The "Start When Ready" Onboarding Rule: Why slowing down the onboarding process to ensure complete data collection actually speeds up firm delivery and protects staff sanity. Setting Up Your First Ops Hire: How to delegate authority, clean up baseline data, and "let your operations team cook" so firm leaders can focus on strategy. Key Takeaways & Operational Frameworks: Financial Delivery Incentives: Rewarding teams for delivering monthly client reports by the 15th with clear open-item disclosure rules. Office Hours for Feedback: Holding bi-weekly 30-minute open office hours to uncover hidden software friction points and train staff on quick efficiency wins. Data-First AI Readiness: Why clean, centralized client data is mandatory before deploying automated agents. Featured Guests:  Amy McCarty AJ Zapata Melanie  

Can you run a half-million-dollar accounting practice completely solo without burning out? Most accounting firm owners and CPAs starting firms assume that scaling past $200k or $300k requires hiring a team of employees. But adding headcount often leads to higher overhead, management headaches, and less personal freedom. In this episode of Growing Your Firm, host David Cristello sits down with Angel Zhen, CPA—founder of Angel Zhen CPA and winner of the 2025 Digital CPA Innovative Practitioner Award. Angel shares how he built a single-person practice generating over $500,000 annually while taking 12 weeks of vacation every single year! Whether you're a bookkeeping firm owner, an operations manager, or a firm manager responsible for workflow, this episode offers a masterclass in pricing, positioning, tech selection, and firm design. In this episode, we explore: The Solo Firm Operating Model: How Angel scales past $500k without employees or managing a full-time staff. 12 Weeks of Sabbatical: How Angel designs his firm schedule around long-term travel (including 6-week trips to Asia) without dropping the ball for clients. The "Trusted Advisor" Positioning: Why building a strong online brand and website presence allows you to charge premium prices instead of competing on cost. Value-Based Tax Pricing: Shifting away from hourly billing and "tax prep" to position yourself as an essential tax planner and advisor. The Power of "Doing Less": Why focusing on client outcomes rather than information overload builds stronger client trust. Angel's Practical AI & Tech Stack: How he leverages TaxDome alongside LLMs like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Blue J for research and workflow efficiency. Key Metrics & Firm Benchmarks: Firm Structure: 1-person firm with a lean, flexible contractor model. Revenue Benchmark: $500,000+ gross revenue. Client Count: ~300 nationwide clients managed through hyper-efficient software systems. Time Off: 12 weeks of vacation per year. Featured Guest: Angel Zhen  

Is the billable hour finally dead? While many in the accounting profession expected the competition for talent to end timesheets, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) is delivering the final blow. If your firm is still pricing based on time and effort rather than value and outcomes, you are risking your margins in an AI-driven world. In this exclusive fireside chat from the Growing Your Firm Summit, host David Cristello sits down with Ron Baker, founder of the VeraSage Institute, author of 8 best-selling books, and co-host of The Soul of Enterprise podcast. Ron breaks down the core psychology of value pricing, why firms must transition from selling "services" to guiding "transformations," and how subscription models create predictable recurring revenue. In this episode, we explore: The Death of the Billable Hour: Why AI makes pricing by the hour obsolete—and what firms must do to adapt. Value is a Feeling, Not a Number: The psychological factors behind pricing and why nobody should price themselves. Fixed Pricing vs. Value Pricing: Understanding the key differences and why fixed pricing based on hourly estimates is just the starting point. The Concierge Firm Model: How to eliminate "scope creep" by staying in your lane and offering white-glove, subscription-based packages. AI Beyond Efficiency: Why treating AI like a co-collaborator to create value—rather than just a tool to save time—is the key to future firm growth. Ditching Timesheets: What to measure instead of hours to track performance, accountability, and project success. Bonus Segment: Jetpack Workflow Capacity Management Demo Starting at 33:40, David Cristello gives an exclusive first look at Jetpack Workflow Version 2's Capacity Management View. Learn how operations managers and firm managers responsible for workflow can: Gain full visibility into future team workloads across weeks and years. Prevent staff burnout by identifying over-capacity team members instantly. Filter capacity by role, industry expertise, and client packages. Make one-off or recurring project reassignments with drag-and-drop ease.   Featured Guest: Ron Baker

Is your accounting firm stuck between AI enthusiasts who move too fast and skeptical team members who refuse to adopt new technology? Bridging the gap between enthusiastic leadership and hesitant team members is one of the biggest challenges facing modern firms today. In this episode of Growing Your Firm, host David Cristello sits down with Jan Haugo, founder and AI researcher at smartaccountant.ai and co-author of Intuit's official AI certification curriculum. Jan researches and validates 50+ emerging AI tools annually for controllership, Record-to-Report (R2R), AP/AR, and advisory workflows. Jan breaks down how to bring your entire firm onboard with AI safely, navigate critical security and redaction requirements, and use AI to transform sales, onboarding, and advisory workflows. In this episode, we explore: Bridging the Team Divide: How to align AI enthusiasts and detractors to move the entire firm forward together. The Enterprise Security Advantage: Why staying within Microsoft Copilot or Google Gemini ecosystems solves the PII (Personally Identifiable Information) and redaction hurdles. The Danger of Adobe Redaction: Why blacking out text in PDFs isn't enough to hide underlying metadata from AI models. Mapping Workflows Backward: Why defining the desired outcome before selecting software leads to better automation. Building a Custom AI "Sales Agent": How to train AI on your unique brand voice to research prospects, analyze websites, and guide discovery calls in real time. The Bleeding Edge: How unified AI awareness layers (like Town.io) aggregate transcripts, email, and task managers into an automated personal assistant. Key AI Tools & Solutions Mentioned: Smart Accountant AI: smartaccountant.ai Enterprise AI: Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, and NotebookLM Workflow & Data Aggregation: Town.io, Notion, Asana, and SharePoint Custom AI Prompting: Claude and ChatGPT About Jan Haugo Jan Haugo is a leading AI researcher, trainer, and founder of smartaccountant.ai. She specializes in testing, validating, and deploying practical AI tools for controllership, financial close, and firm operations.   Featured Guest: Jan Haugo  

Is your accounting practice built to scale—or positioned for a high-multiple exit? In this episode of Growing Your Firm, host David Cristello welcomes back Geoff Bruskin, founder and CEO of White Tiger Connections. Geoff pulls back the curtain on the current "white-hot" public accounting M&A market in 2026. From the rise of Fractional COO engagements to 7x+ EBITDA multiples, Jeff breaks down what buyers are looking for and why private equity (PE) plays fail 40% of the time when they ignore the human element of change management. Whether you're an Operations Manager looking to optimize workflow, a Managing Partner eyeing a future exit, or a CPA starting a firm, this episode is packed with real-world deal structures, go-to-market strategies, and tech implementation blueprints. In this episode, we explore: The Fractional COO Model: Why $1M to $20M accounting firms are hiring fractional executive leaders to build infrastructure for scale rather than overpaying for full-time roles. Inside a 7.4x EBITDA Deal: A deep dive into a $2.7M remote, subscription-based micro-platform firm asking $8M. The PE Spectrum (Successes vs. Failures): Why 30–40% of private equity acquisitions fail due to aggressive price hikes, poor software adoption, and staff turnover. The "Solutions Architect" Role: Why every growing practice needs an internal champion to bridge systems like CCH, TaxDome, Carbon, and CRM tools. Offensive vs. Defensive Strategy: How cross-selling Client Advisory Services (CAS) and wealth management can multiply your firm's enterprise value. Agentic AI & Claude CoWork: How modern leaders use AI agents to automate IT mapping, proposal scoping, and client deliverables. Key Deal Benchmarks Mentioned: Average Deal Multiple: 4x to 6x Adjusted EBITDA for traditional practices. Micro-Platform Multiples: Up to 7.4x+ for firms with 100% subscription models and balanced CAS/Tax integration. Solutions Architect Compensation: $60k to $150k annually (domestic or offshore) to eliminate technology friction. Featured Guest: Geoff Bruskin   Take control of your practice: Optimize your workflow with Jetpack Workflow: https://bit.ly/4bj4a0H 🚀 Sign up for a 14-day free trial to Jetpack Workflow! https://app2.jetpackworkflow.com/auth/login 🚀   Stay Connected: Subscribe for bi-weekly stories from firm owners and modern accounting strategies.   👋 Say hi on social   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jetpackworkflow  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/jetpackworkflow  Twitter: https://x.com/jetpackworkflow  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jetpack_workflow/#    🎙 Listen to Growing Your Firm Podcast   Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/growing-your-firm-strategies-for-accountants-cpas-bookkeepers/id923004172 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6MauXYaHFyS0rlb6L3Qb1U Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/jetpack-workflow/growing-your-firm   #accounting #accountingfirm #firmgrowth #accountingworkflow