CPA Trendlines Podcasts
CPA Trendlines
Exclusive information. Extraordinary insight.See all podcast episodes here: https://cpatrendlines.com/category/podcast/ CPA Trendlines is the world’s only research and advisory service focused solely on the tax, accounting, and finance professions. We use a time-tested, quality-proven, proprietary blend of data, analysis, community, experience, and imagination to produce extraordinary value for our clients. Elite decision-makers from all over the world look to CPA Trendlines for trusted advice, bold insights, and confidential access to exclusive intelligence and decision support. You’ll stay more focused, save time, grow revenue in a fast-changing global digital environment, and sleep better at night. Guaranteed. Facts. Figures. Insights. Implications. Here you'll find the data and analysis you can use for your practice and your career, plus exclusive research, insights, and commentary on the most pressing issues and fastest-changing trends. We are dedicated to delivering the actionable intelligence that tax, accounting, and finance professionals need in order to identify and act on emerging issues and opportunities. We specialize in high-quality, concise executive briefings designed to help busy professionals improve their organizations, advance their careers, and enhance their lives. Our reports are relevant, timely, and to-the-point, providing the most essential information, and are digestible often in under an hour.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Nov 7, 2026 • 15min
4 AI Mistakes Leaders Keep Making | Accounting Voices
How accounting teams use the time AI frees up could shape their advice and and prepare the next generation of leaders.Accounting VoicesWith Rob BrownIf AI cuts the time it takes to prepare a tax return from five hours to three, an accounting firm has two hours to work with. It could use them to take on another return, talk with the client about a decision they’ve been putting off, or coach a junior accountant through a tricky review.The software can free up the time. What happens next depends on the firm.
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That distinction runs through this episode of Accounting Voices, part of AI Reality Inside Firms. The episode offers a timely question as firms set their 2027 priorities. Where did the time they saved this year actually go?Host Rob Brown traces the answer to four decisions firm leaders can easily put off while a rollout is going well. The consequences can surface years later, when a firm is trying to grow its advisory practice, explain its value to a potential investor, or find someone ready to take over a retiring partner’s client relationships.
Nov 6, 2026 • 54min
Rebecca Burnick: How to Turn Accountants Into Advisors | It's Not Just the Numbers
Building an advisory practice takes more than freeing up staff time. It requires a deliberate approach to client relationships, training, scope and technology.It's Not Just the NumbersWith Penny Breslin and Damien GreatheadFor CPA TrendlinesAccounting firm owners have heard the message for years: move beyond transactional work and build higher-value advisory relationships.Yet the distance between wanting an advisory practice and developing a team capable of delivering one can be considerable. Outsourcing and automation may free up time, but that capacity only becomes valuable when firms have a clear system for putting it to work.
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JOIN From Scorekeeper to Strategist CAS Workshop | BUY "It's Not Just the Numbers"
Rebecca Burnick, owner and CEO of Office Heads, has taken a process-led approach to that challenge. After 15 years working in strategic management consulting, she founded Office Heads and has spent 18 years developing a structured model for serving clients and helping team members grow into advisory roles. Her experience offers a practical lesson: advisory capability is built through intentional processes, repeated practice and clear client expectations, not simply a change in job title.
Nov 5, 2026 • 59min
Scotty Scarano: Create Your Dream Career - And Make It Fun | Accounting Conversations
Entrepreneurship, community, and a candid look at firm ownership reveal possibilities many never dream of.Accounting ConversationsWith Chayton FarleeCenter for Accounting TransformationScotty Scarano knows how to get accountants talking about something besides deadlines. Give them a bracket, put their favorite software up against an industry personality, and let the campaigning begin.The founder of Accounting High turns professional education and networking into something resembling a school community, complete with friendly rivalries. But beneath the jokes is a question with consequences for the profession: How many potential accountants lose interest before they discover what the work can become?
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On Accounting Conversations, host Chayton Farlee joins Scarano to explore the distance between the accounting industry students encounter in class and the careers they can build. Their discussion connects the appeal of entrepreneurship with the harder decisions behind a growing practice, including when an owner’s enthusiasm becomes a bottleneck.
Nov 3, 2026 • 1h 2min
Anne Napolitano: The Future of Accounting's in Value, Not Time | The Disruptors
Accounting firms may offer flexibility, but outdated expectations and missed opportunities can still push experienced professionals out the door.The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrFor CPA TrendlinesAnne Napolitano used to give advisory-level guidance without charging for it. “I was doing those advisory-type services without really getting compensated for it because I just felt it was what you were supposed to offer to your clients,” she says. But after learning about value pricing from various resources, including Ron Baker and Ed Kless, her thinking changed. “The better we got at something, the quicker we were, the less money we were making because we could do things faster,” she says.
MORE Disruptors with Liz Farr | CPA Trendlines Streaming Network
That realization helped her understand that clients weren’t buying time; rather, they were buying the decades of experience she and her team had as accountants and the value that comes from that experience. And today, she charges a premium for that expertise. “We need to value ourselves correctly and appreciate the fact that we’re really doing some great work for our clients, and we should be compensated for that,” she explains. Her firm, Anne Napolitano Consulting, landed on its niche specialty ofrestaurants, bars, breweries, distilleries, and wineries, partly because of Napolitano’s love of cooking.
Oct 31, 2026 • 14min
What Do You Have to Show for Implementing AI? | Accounting Voices
AI can finish a tax return faster, but speed alone does not transform an accounting firm. This discussion explores how to measure real change through pricing, margins, capacity, staffing, client relationships, and the shift from compliance toward advisory work. It also examines the leadership decisions needed to turn AI tools into a deliberate redesign of the business.
Oct 30, 2026 • 18min
Avalara Simplifies Pricing as AI Changes Compliance Work
Evan Wright, Avalara’s global returns general manager with more than a decade at the company, discusses the fast-changing world of tax compliance. He covers e-invoicing, fiscalization, information overload across 13,000 U.S. tax jurisdictions, and Avalara’s transparent Select pricing. Wright also explores Aviator AI, trusted tax data, automated filings, and how accountants’ roles are evolving.
Oct 29, 2026 • 47min
Before Building with AI, Firms Need a Plan for Client Data | Innovation Insights
Liz Mason, CPA, is a tax technology entrepreneur and CEO of Taxfyle, High Rock Accounting, and Rebel Rock. She explores how firms can build AI tax tools without compromising privacy, accuracy, or professional ethics. Topics include IRS compliance, cyber liability, privacy vaults, model selection, human review, safe automation, environmental impact, and value-based pricing.
Oct 28, 2026 • 26min
Michael Annichine: Women Aren’t Small Men - Why Women’s Health Belongs in the Career Conversation | MOVE Like This
Michael Annichine, healthcare executive and former CEO of Magee-Womens Research Institute & Foundation, explores why women’s health belongs in every career conversation. He discusses research gaps caused by excluding women from clinical trials, the lifelong approach to women’s healthcare, and how listening can rebuild trust. He also addresses gender and racial bias in care, patient advocacy, and the importance of acting on what women say they need.
Oct 27, 2026 • 57min
Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk: Caregivers Caught in the Middle | The Disruptors
Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk, founder of BBR Companies and research lead of the Accounting MOVE Project, examines how caregiving reshapes women’s careers in public accounting. She discusses flexibility without career penalties, rising pressures from childcare and eldercare, men’s expanding caregiving roles, and alternative leadership paths. The conversation also explores why firms lose experienced talent and how better measurement and manager training can help.
Oct 24, 2026 • 11min
How Your Skills as an Accountant May be Undermining Your Firm's Future | Accounting Voices
Why can a technically brilliant accountant become a firm’s biggest bottleneck? This conversation explores the shift from expert practitioner to enterprise leader, covering emotional literacy, storytelling, change leadership, systems thinking, delegation, reverse mentoring, AI fluency, and the courage to rethink outdated services and traditions.
