CPA Trendlines Podcasts

Stop reacting. Start Guiding. Move from Historian to Navigator with an AI-powered Business GPS platform purpose-built for growing CPA firm advisory.The traditional advisory model wasn’t built to scale-- 4impactdata changes that.Client Advisory Services at ScaleStart delivering scalable advisory in weeks — not months — with our 5-step implementation process.4ID is purpose-built to embed codified wisdom into your existing workflow — quickly and seamlessly. With our proven 5-step approach, your team can confidently move from insight to action without complexity or disruption.Advisory Beyond Dashboards.Built for What Comes Next. Old School: Dashboards report what happened. New School: We scale your advisory with recommendations.

Four key strategies show how firms can lead with value, optimize for AI, test strategies, and show more humanity to win clients.Gear Up for GrowthWith Jean CaragherFor CPA Trendlines“Firms can’t afford to hide behind best practices or boring templates anymore,” says Jay Schwedelson, president and CEO of Outcome Media and host of the top-rated marketing podcast Do This, NOT That, during his appearance on Gear Up for Growth, powered by CPA Trendlines, and hosted by Jean Caragher of Capstone Marketing. More Gear Up for Growth here. | 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 “It’s time to be bold, be human, and make sure you’re showing up where your prospects are actually searching, especially in AI,” he adds. Schwedelson shares four urgent takeaways for CPA firm leaders.

The accounting profession faces a reckoning as leaders debate whether CPA licensure protects the public—or stifles innovation and diversity.Accounting ARCWith Byron Patrick and Donny ShimamotoCenter for Accounting TransformationLicensure is one of the bedrock features of the CPA profession. But what if that bedrock is actually quicksand? In a provocative episode of Accounting ARC, hosts Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA; and Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, CGMA,  sit down with noted author and thought leader Ron Baker to ask: Should CPAs even be licensed at all? MORE Accounting ARC: CPA Firm Ownership Under Fire | Walking Violation: When Showing Your CPA Gets You in Trouble | Audit Bags to TikTok Tags, Gen Z Talks Success | Students Challenge Accounting's Traditional Career Path | True Grit: Recognizing Struggles That Shape Our Successes | More Admins, Fewer Students, No Plan | What Career Advice Gets Wrong for Gen Z - And How to Fix It |Your Identity is Not a Liability | What Happens in Vegas… Gets Reported on a Tax Return | Burnout, Be Gone: Accounting Needs a Boundary Breakthrough | The Ultimate Business Hack You’re Probably Ignoring | Resilience, Real Talk, and the Road to Mental Wellness | Blockchain Could Still Reshape Accounting | What Gen Z Wants from Business | Firm Differentiation Depends Upon Client Service Baker begins with a history lesson, tracing professions back to ancient Babylon and the code of Hammurabi. A profession, he explains, rests on three pillars: a common body of expertise, autonomy with exclusion, and a duty of service to the public. By that definition, he argues, not all licensed occupations—such as florists or interior decorators—qualify.

A campaign promise turns into tax code reality—but only for a limited time.Quick Tax TipWith Art WernerCPE TodayOn the latest Quick Tax Tip, tax guru Art Werner unpacks one of the buzziest provisions tucked into the “One Big Beautiful Bill”: the partial exemption of tips from taxation.Click here for more Art WernerDuring their campaigns, both former President Trump and Vice President Harris floated the idea of eliminating taxes on tips. Now, some of that rhetoric has made its way into law—but with caveats that every taxpayer, accountant, and employer in the hospitality sector needs to understand.

Stop reacting. Start Guiding. Move from Historian to Navigator with an AI-powered Business GPS platform purpose-built for growing CPA firm advisory.The traditional advisory model wasn’t built to scale-- 4impactdata changes that.Client Advisory Services at ScaleStart delivering scalable advisory in weeks — not months — with our 5-step implementation process.4ID is purpose-built to embed codified wisdom into your existing workflow — quickly and seamlessly. With our proven 5-step approach, your team can confidently move from insight to action without complexity or disruption.Advisory Beyond Dashboards.Built for What Comes Next. Old School: Dashboards report what happened. New School: We scale your advisory with recommendations. Learn MoreSchedule a Demo

Treating communication as a strategy, not administration, helps firms navigate M&A, private equity, and constant change.MOVE Like ThisWith Bonnie Buol RuszczykFor CPA TrendlinesOn the latest MOVE Like This, host Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk sits down with Alice Grey Harrison of AGH Consulting to talk about the people side of firm transformation. Harrison, a three-decade veteran of strategic communications and change management in the accounting sector, helps firms navigate M&A, private equity, leadership transitions, and system rollouts by focusing on how people experience change.  MORE MOVE Harrison’s central thesis: culture, clearly tied to mission–vision–values, is a growth engine. When people see how their daily work advances firm goals, they give “discretionary energy.” She illustrates this with a pivotal chapter from her big-firm years: after a streak of acquisitions, offices clung to local traditions and bespoke tax methods that trapped capacity. Moving to a true “one firm” model, aligned methodologies, systems, and talent, unlocked scale and accelerated growth that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. 

Stop reacting. Start Guiding. Move from Historian to Navigator with an AI-powered Business GPS platform purpose-built for growing CPA firm advisory.The traditional advisory model wasn’t built to scale-- 4impactdata changes that.Client Advisory Services at ScaleStart delivering scalable advisory in weeks — not months — with our 5-step implementation process.4ID is purpose-built to embed codified wisdom into your existing workflow — quickly and seamlessly. With our proven 5-step approach, your team can confidently move from insight to action without complexity or disruption.Advisory Beyond Dashboards.Built for What Comes Next. Old School: Dashboards report what happened. New School: We scale your advisory with recommendations. Learn MoreSchedule a Demo

From automation to document management, open source solutions can deliver enterprise-level value for free.Quick Tech TalkWith Steve YossCPE TodayWhat if you didn’t have to pay for Adobe Acrobat, Photoshop, or even popular automation platforms like Zapier? What if you could get the same—or even better—functionality for free, while also gaining full control over your data and privacy? That’s the promise of open source software, and it’s more accessible than ever. MORE Steve Yoss here | MORE TECH In the latest episode of Quick Tech Talk, you’ll learn how open source tools are transforming both personal and business technology use. From document management to automation, open source solutions provide cost savings, flexibility, and security—all without the hidden strings of paid SaaS products.Open source software means that the underlying code is publicly available. Anyone can use, modify, or share it. That freedom has given rise to an entire ecosystem of high-quality applications that rival the best-known commercial products.

Dashboards and statements aren’t enough—accountants must help clients turn data into action. The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrJoe Woodard sees a disconnect between what accountants think they’re selling and what clients want to buy. Many accountants still think they’re selling time, but as Woodard points out with a vivid analogy, that’s not what clients care about. MORE STREAMING: Baker: Find True Purpose to End Burnout | Brolin: The W.I.N. Leadership Formula | Gertrudes: How EOS & “Unreasonable Hospitality” Reshaped GrowthLab | Vilms: The Power of People in a Tech-Driven World | Dickerson: From Diagnosis to Disruption | Kapilovich: Treat People Like People | Martha Yasso: From Wall Street to Main Street | Jackie Meyer: Tax Plans in 90 Seconds? Believe It | Erica Goode: Build a $200K Firm in 15hrs/Week |“If I'm going into CVS and I need Tums,” he explains, imagine if CVS charged you more because “I hung around in their store for twice as long to buy the Tums as I needed to, I took a circuitous path. Maybe I looked at some of the kids’ toys for an upcoming birthday party where they’re going to charge me twice as much for the Tums.”This absurd scenario mirrors what accounting firms do to clients when the cost of delivering the service depends on the time it takes to do the work, so “the value of the product changes based on some arbitrary time metric,” Woodard says. “As long as that’s the case, there’s always going to be a resistance to the billing for selling the wrong product.”However, even among firms that have adopted value pricing, a disconnect remains because the focus is on deliverables rather than outcomes.

The PFML federal tax credit is no longer temporary. Here's how to claim it, avoid pitfalls, and support your workforce.Quick Tax TipWith Art WernerCPE TodayIf you’ve been taking advantage of the federal Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) credit, here’s some good news: It’s no longer set to expire. Thanks to recent legislation, the enhancement of this credit is now permanent—a significant win for employers who want to support their staff without taking a major financial hit. Click here for more Art Werner Catch more Art Werner, Wednesday, Sept. 3, for Tax Rumors, Episode 3, with CPA Steve Yoss, and hosted by CPA Trendlines’ Rick Telberg. In the latest Quick Tax Tip episode, tax expert Art Werner breaks down exactly what this means for your business, how you can qualify, and the rules you must follow to keep this benefit in play.