Accounting firms planning for future success may want to rethink their approach to new opportunities. In this episode of the Small Firm Philosophy podcast, Elizabeth Hale, founder and CEO of eeCPA, shares with PCPS manager Erin Hartman how her firm is revolutionizing the traditional CPA model by putting people first and driving client success. SFP is produced by AICPA & CIMA’s firm services team, aka the Private Companies Practice Section (PCPS). This episode is part of an ongoing...

This episode of the Small Firm Philosophy podcast features Steve McDonald, CPA, managing partner at Abdo, sharing tips about how he integrated cutting edge data and government consulting services with new technologies to revolutionize his firm's client services.  SFP is produced by AICPA & CIMA’s firm services team, aka the Private Companies Practice Section (PCPS). Lisa Simpson, CPA, CGMA, vice president of Firm Services for AICPA & CIMA, conducted the interview, which is part of...

This episode of the Small Firm Philosophy podcast unveils a pair of powerful toolkits designed to help accounting firms reshape and optimize their business. PCPS manager Erin Hartman, CPA, and Carrie Steffen, the president of growth consulting firm The Whetstone Group, introduce the Revenue Modeling and the Right Sizing Your Client Base toolkits, which are exclusive to PCPS members:  SFP is produced by AICPA & CIMA’s firm services team, aka the Private Companies Practice Section...

From engaging high schoolers to partnering with community influencers, discover how Grossman Yanak & Ford cultivates future accountants. This episode of the Small Firm Philosophy podcast features a discussion with GYF's Colleen Febbraro about the firm's freshman forum program, the importance of promoting the accounting profession, changing stereotypes, and more. SFP is produced by AICPA & CIMA’s firm services team, aka the Private Companies Practice Section (PCPS). PCPS manager Erin...

This episode of the Small Firm Philosophy podcast features an interview with David Wurtzbacher and Erin Stahmer of Ascend, a platform firm that is employing unique strategies in its business model. Join us to discuss people strategy, offshoring tips, and how to own the value of firm services. SFP is produced by AICPA & CIMA’s firm services team, aka the Private Companies Practice Section (PCPS). PCPS manager Erin Hartman, CPA, conducted the interview, which is part of an ongoing series...

This episode of the Small Firm Philosophy podcast features an interview with Dennis Sherrin, CPA, CGMA, chief value officer and strategic consultant at Avizo Group, Inc., an Alabama-based CPA firm with 35 team members in the United States and India. Sherrin discusses how Avizo implemented Lean Six Sigma (LSS) to streamline the firm’s tax practice and slash overtime hours, even during tax season. “Have we eliminated overtime hours? Absolutely not,” said Sherrin. “But have we drastically...

This episode of the Small Firm Philosophy podcast features an interview with Chet Buchman, CPA, CGMA, managing partner of Kansas-based accounting firm Swindoll, Janzen, Hawk and Loyd, LLC (SJHL). In this discussion, Buchman describes his firm’s multi-year journey to offering more advisory services, including the big mistake they made at the beginning and what they learned from it. He also explains SJHL’s strategy for reducing busy season hours for staff and partners.    SFP is produced by...

This episode of the Small Firm Philosophy podcast features an interview with Carl Peterson, CPA, AICPA & CIMA’s vice president of small firm interests. Peterson addresses the new beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting requirements and also shares his biggest takeaways from the 2023 AICPA & CIMA National Management of an Accounting Practice (MAP) Survey. The MAP Survey, like this podcast, is produced by AICPA & CIMA's firm practice management section, better known as...

This episode of the Small Firm Philosophy podcast features an interview with Sandy Johns, owner of Revolution Financial, a small accounting firm based in the Atlanta area. Johns discusses how she culled her firm's client roster to a manageable size and how doing so affected her well-being professionally and personally.  SFP is produced by the AICPA & CIMA's firm practice management section, better known as the Private Companies Practice Section (PCPS). Erin Hartman, a manager with PCPS,...

Nicole Davis isn't your typical CPA firm owner. She has five children, owns three businesses and has crafted a presence on social media including an account with more than 12,000 followers on X, formerly known as Twitter. She also never worked in public accounting before launching her firm, Butler Davis Tax & Accounting.  How has Davis done all of this and what has she learned along the way? She shares her story in this episode of the Small Firm Philosophy podcast, produced by the...

There’s been a buzz around artificial intelligence for years, but nothing like the swarm of interest generated by ChatGPT.   Microsoft-backed research laboratory OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022. By January, the large language generative AI chatbot had attracted more than 100 million users, making it the fastest-growing customer software application ever – but far from the only one.   What makes ChatGPT so compelling and how does it compare to other generative AI chatbots like...

Johanna Sweaney Salt, CPA, CGMA, used to work 100 hours a week during busy season. As the founder and managing partner of Gray, Salt & Associates, LLP, she believed it was her responsibility to put in the time needed to make her small firm a success. Today, Joanna remains a full-time partner at the firm, but her son, Dalton Sweaney, CPA, is now the managing partner. His desire a few years ago to spend more time with his young children prompted him to ask his mother if they could make...

A firm in a box. A franchise on steroids. The Uber (or Lyft) of CPA firms. To say that the business model of Dark Horse CPAs is difficult to describe is an understatement of the highest order. So exactly does Dark Horse do? What makes it unique? And what prompted CEO and co-founder Chase Birky to try a radically different business model? Find out as Lisa Simpson, the AICPA’s vice president of Firm Services, interviews Birky in a special edition of the Small Firm Philosophy podcast,...

Roman Kepczyk, CPA.CITP, CGMA, director of firm technology strategy for Right Networks and author of the AICPA & CIMA’s CPA cybersecurity checklist, joins the Small Firm Philosophy podcast to discuss current cyberthreats and what CPA firms should be doing to protect their data and networks. Host Jeff Drew also asks Roman a fun question about that technology he is most excited about, and Roman respond with an intelligence answer. In this podcast you will learn:      The biggest new...

Incentivize the behaviors you want. That was the theory behind GRF CPAs & Advisors’ decision to change its partner compensation model several years ago. Firm leaders knew that if they wanted their partners to operate as a cohesive team, they needed to stop paying partners in ways that drove individualistic behaviors. More than five years later, GRF President and Managing Partner Jackie Cardello, CPA says that while the process was a lot of work, the results “absolutely” have been well...

Chat bots that can write Excel macros. The internet’s first evolutionary leap since the 1990’s. And whatever happened to blockchain? Those are just a few of the topics covered by three top accounting technology experts during a special edition of the Small Firm Philosophy podcast, produced in partnership with the Journal of Accountancy podcast. This double-length episode features the first gathering of the JofA accounting technology roundtable since the early days of the pandemic....

Many small accounting firms may not have heard much about digital assets beyond bitcoin and the FTX bankruptcy, but accountants have two big reasons to learn more about the topic. First, the acceptance of digital assets as payment has steadily grown among accounting firms and especially their clients. Second, cyberattacks are increasingly targeting digital assets. The combination of these trends means that even small firms should learn about digital assets, gain an understanding of the...

  Orumé Hays, CPA, CGMA, didn’t exactly follow a traditional path to owning an accounting practice. From Africa to the Big Apple, she blazed a trail all her own. Raised in Nigeria, Hays moved to Miami with a college degree in sociology and anthropology and a budding career in modeling and acting. Her pursuit of Hollywood stardom peaked with a couple of appearances in the 1996 movie “The Birdcage”. She then discovered a new passion. Trading in the silver screen for spreadsheets, Hays...

The CPA’s guide to technology (and tech gifts) There are few, if any, people in the accounting space who know more about technology than Inspector Gadget. No, not the cartoon character with the go-go arms from the 1980s. The man wearing the trench coat in this case is David Cieslak, CPA.CITP, CGMA, executive vice president and chief cloud officer for RKL eSolutions and a popular speaker whose Inspector Gadget keynote session has been a highlight of accounting conferences for many years. If...

It's the holidays, that special time of the year when children wish for their dream gift and CPAs pray that the looming busy season won't be another nightmare.  Rabecca Eunis, CPA, knows the feeling. As a new accountant working for her father’s firm, Eunis learned to dread and despise tax season. The mad, miserable dash to Tax Day was so stressful that Eunis launched her own practice vowing that her team wouldn’t suffer the way she did. Fun, she believed, should be a key part of busy...

Ghosts, goblins and ghouls aren't the only scary things to watch out for this Halloween season. Hackers and criminal organizations are up to their old tricks -- and some new ones -- in their tireless efforts to breach your cyberdefenses and treat themselves to your computer networks and data.   So what kinds of spooky schemes are haunting CPA firms? And what can practitioners do to protect themselves and their clients? The Small Firm Philosophy podcast addressed those questions with Sarah...

Launching an advisory firm after 20 years in public accounting requires courage, confidence and commitment. It also helps to get some business coaching and to focus on changing customer needs. Those are some of the lessons Zack Ryan, CPA, shares in this episode of the Small Firm Philosophy podcast. The founder of Value Forward Advisory explains how meeting regularly with business owners on a fixed-fee basis has relieved workload congestion and produced much improved revenue and profit per...

Terrence Putney, CPA, managing director with Whitman Transition Advisors, is among the top advisers on accounting firm mergers nationwide. Over his 44-year career, Putney has been involved with hundreds of accounting firm M&A deals and also co-written more than 20 articles on succession-related issues for the Journal of Accountancy. In this episode of Small Firm Philosophy, Putney addresses succession and related M&A issues including:  Three trends besides succession that are...

The Private Companies Practice Section’s National Management of an Accounting Practice (MAP) Survey gathers key metrics from thousands of U.S. firms of all sizes. In this episode of the Small Firm Philosophy podcast, Steven Bankler, CPA, shares how he and his small firm break down the survey results to build a better practice. Resources mentioned in this episode: National MAP Survey To learn more about Steven, please visit bankler.com.   This episode is brought to you by the AICPA’s...