CPA Trendlines Podcasts

Look at pricing, services, and client relationships to assess whether AI investments are reshaping the business.Accounting VoicesWith Rob BrownA tax return completed in three hours instead of five gives an accounting firm something valuable: time.What happens to those two hours may reveal more about the firm’s AI strategy than the technology that saved them.Does the firm take on more work? Give employees breathing room? Help a client understand an emerging business problem? Reconsider how it prices its services? MORE Accounting Voices with Rob Brown | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network In a solo episode of Accounting Voices, host Rob Brown examines a distinction that can get lost in the enthusiasm surrounding artificial intelligence: Adopting AI and changing a business are different accomplishments.“Efficiency is not reshaping,” Brown says. “A little bit of doing things faster doesn’t change the model.”The episode, part of the "AI Reality Inside Firms" series, offers leaders three ways to examine their progress: Look at the economics, consider the client relationship, and assess whether leadership is deliberately shaping the firm’s direction.Together, those questions move the conversation from what a tool can do to what a firm intends to become.

State-based plans and a newly available AI platform put software costs and accountants' oversight role in focus.By Seth FinebergFor CPA TrendlinesAvalara is making its sales tax pricing easier to see while expanding the work it says artificial intelligence can perform for accounting firms.Its published Avalara Select plans cover businesses with annual revenue below $50 million. Its Aviator AI platform became generally available Oct. 8. Together, the changes address two pressures Evan Wright, general manager of Avalara's global returns business, describes in an interview with CPA Trendlines: clients need predictable compliance costs, and accountants need to show their value as technology takes on more of the work. MORE Avalara: New Guide Shows How Firms Build New Sales Tax Service Lines | MORE A.I. | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network “How do I ensure that my billable hours aren't getting, you know, absolutely eroded in this new world of AI?” Wright says, describing questions he hears from practitioners.The tension runs through Avalara's strategy. The company is trying to simplify buying and using compliance software while asking accountants to trust it with more complicated tasks.

Context, verified sources, and human review remain essential as teams build AI tools.Innovation InsightsWith Donny Shimamoto and Liz MasonCenter for Accounting TransformationA tax firm can build an AI agent to organize documents, flag missing information, and track unfinished returns. The harder assignment is deciding what that agent should never do on its own. That question drives this episode of Innovation Insights, a Center for Accounting Transformation podcast conversation between hosts Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, and Liz Mason, CPA.As smaller firms experiment with building their own tax tools, the two examine what separates a useful automation from a costly lapse in security, accuracy, or professional responsibility.More Donny ShimamotoShimamoto is founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC and founder and inspiration architect for the Center for Accounting Transformation. Mason is co-founder and CEO of TaxFigure, founder and CEO of High Rock Accounting, a member of Intuit’s Partner Council, a board member of AuditMiner, and CEO and founder of Rebel Rock.Their message gives firms room to experiment, but it also gives that experimentation a clear starting point: Understand the data, the workflow, and the professional obligations before building.

The 2026 Accounting MOVE Project report examines how caregiving affects women’s careers. A newly released MOVE Like This episode explores another part of that conversation: whether women’s own healthcare needs are being heard.MOVE Like ThisWith Bonnie Buol RuszczykFor CPA Trendlines ResearchSupporting women’s careers requires understanding the lives they lead beyond work.That connection comes into focus with the release of the 2026 Accounting MOVE Project report, Caught in the Middle: How Caregiving Pressures Are Reshaping Women's Careers in Public Accounting, which examines how caregiving pressures affect advancement in public accounting. Among participating firms, 47% reported seeing caregiving slow progress toward promotion or partnership, and 76% said the career impact falls mostly on women.MORE MOVE Like This | MORE Caregiving Research | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming NetworkReleased alongside the report, this episode of MOVE Like This broadens the discussion to women’s health. Host Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk talks with Michael Annichine, CEO of Magee-Womens Research Institute & Foundation at the time of the recording, about gaps in medical research, the importance of listening, and what happens when women’s concerns are dismissed.The conversation offers a useful perspective for accounting leaders considering the report’s findings: Understanding what people need is only the beginning. Institutions also have to act on what they learn.Editor’s note: This episode was recorded April 16, 2024. References to the president refer to then-President Joe Biden. Discussion of federal initiatives, research funding, and diversity, equity, and inclusion reflects the context at the time of recording.

Accounting firms may offer flexibility, but outdated expectations and missed opportunities can still push experienced professionals out the door.The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrFor CPA TrendlinesAccounting firms have spent years worrying about the front end of the talent pipeline. Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk wants them to look at the other end as well. Ruszczyk, owner and research lead of the Accounting MOVE Project, led this year's MOVE report, Caught in the Middle: How Caregiving Pressures Are Reshaping Women's Careers in Public Accounting. This new report examines what happens when experienced professionals take on care for children, aging parents, spouses and partners, and whether their firms keep them on the path to leadership.  MORE Disruptors with Liz Farr | CPA Trendlines Streaming Network MORE MOVE Like This | MORE Caregiving Research That question matters because of the disparity in women’s representation in leadership at accounting firms. Firms “tend to be pretty much 50:50 gender parity up until you get to the senior director, almost going to go into partnership,” Ruszczyk says. At MOVE firms, women hold about 42% of partner roles. Across all U.S. firms, that ratio drops to around 34%. For women of color, the drop is even sharper. According to Ruszczyk, about 20% of associates are women of color while only 5% of partners are.   Caregiving isn't the only cause for the disparity, but it is “one of the areas where we’re seeing some leaks spring up,” Ruszczyk explains. While caregiving has always been a part of the lives of accountants – men and women – several converging trends are making this a bigger issue today.