Firms, not candidates, are to blame for a generation of superstars declining the summons.
Show notes here

Gear Up for Growth
with Jean Caragher
for CPA Trendlines

Few voices carry more weight on the question of who becomes a partner, and why, than Jim Metzler’s.

So when the former AICPA vice president and longtime mentor to emerging firm leaders says the profession’s top performers are hesitating at the threshold of partnership, firm owners would do well to listen.

MORE Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | MORE Gear Up for Growth here | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network here

In the new episode of “Gear Up for Growth,” hosted by Jean Caragher of Capstone Marketing, Metzler lays out why – and what separates the firms that keep their stars from the ones that lose them.

“The bigger the superstar in the firm, the more they say, ‘I’m really not sure if I want to be a partner,'” says Jim Metzler, founder of Metzler Advisory Group and author of “The Emerging Partner Playbook: A Complete Guide for Emerging Partners in CPA Firms,” this edition of “Gear Up for Growth,” powered by CPA Trendlines and hosted by Jean Caragher, president of Capstone Marketing.

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As workplace language evolves, effective professionals know their audience and adapt their message.

Accounting ARC
With Byron Patrick, Donny Shimamoto and Liz Mason
Center for Accounting Transformation

Every generation enters the workplace speaking a slightly different language.

For Generation Z, that language may include phrases such as “delulu,” “mid” and “fire.” For earlier generations, the dated vocabulary might sound different, but the underlying challenge remains familiar: How do people bring their authentic voices to work while still communicating professionally?

• MORE Accounting ARC: Accounting Internships Need an Upgrade | The CPA Career Nobody Talks About | Conference Season Exposes Accounting's Knowledge Gap | The Feedback Mistake That Costs You Your Best People | Is Your Boss Really the Problem? | Most Accountants Are Missing This AI Shift | AI Can Fix Your Workflow—or Break It in Seconds | Efficiency Is the Wrong Goal for AI | Accounting’s Hidden Talent Risk: The Sandwich Generation | Built Fast. Sold Faster. Broken Later? The Truth About Accounting Tech | Recognize When You Need to Recharge Before You Burn Out | Valuing More Than the Balance Sheet

In this episode of the Accounting ARC podcast, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA; Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP; and Liz Mason, CPA, examine the supposed language barrier separating Generation Z and baby boomers — and question whether it is really as new or insurmountable as some portray it.

Their conclusion is less about memorizing the latest slang and more about developing an essential power skill: adaptability.

As caregiving responsibilities expand across generations and definitions of family, employers have an opportunity to rethink how work gets done — and keep valuable people in the process.

MOVE Like This
With Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk
For CPA Trendlines Research

In this episode of MOVE Like This, Shannon Stone-Winding, President and CEO of the Business Alliance of Colleges and Employers (BACE), joins Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk to explore caregiving through a much broader lens: what does it mean for an organization to truly care for its people?

Shannon brings both a professional and deeply personal perspective to the conversation. In addition to her work connecting employers, colleges, and emerging talent, she has spent 20 years as the primary caregiver for her husband, a 100% service-connected disabled Marine Corps veteran.

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That experience has shaped how she thinks about caregiving, workplace culture, and what employees need to remain and thrive in their careers.

Shannon’s current caregiving research grew from a conversation at a diversity symposium, where accounting professionals began sharing examples of how firms were responding to employees’ changing needs.

If MCPs are the infrastructure, agentic AI is the workforce.

Full show notes here

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Randy Johnston has been in accounting technology longer than many of today’s practitioners have been alive. With more than 50 years in the field, and a hand in designing everything from IBM ThinkPads to Excel’s PivotTables, he has seen more technological revolutions than he can easily count. He even wrote AI code in 1975 in Lisp. Through it all, he has remained true to a singular ideal: “My personal mission has always been to help as many people as possible do the things they want to do with technology.”

MORE DISRUPTORS: David Cristello: Growth Breaks Things – and That’s Normal | The Disruptors | Blumer, Vacin: What Only 5% of Firms Get Right | Disruptors | Ira Rosenbloom: PE Forces Firms to Pick a Future | The Disruptors | Doug Slaybaugh: How to Define “Values in Motion” | The Disruptors | Nancy McClelland: Bookkeepers Need a Safe Space to Collaborate | The Disruptors | Chase Damiano: Good Operations Means Defining How the Hand-Offs Happen | The Disruptors | Jeff Seibert: Digits Software Moves Toward Real-Time Accounting | The Disruptors |

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Yet Johnston, executive vice president of K2 Enterprises and co-founder of Network Management Group, says the most significant shift is happening right now with Model Context Protocols (MCPs). MCPs are a technical layer that allows multiple systems to be connected and queried through AI. Though he’s spent decades watching technology evolve through mainframes, databases, graphical interfaces, and SaaS, he says MCPs may be the most consequential development he’s seen in years.

“It’s making me think we no longer need dashboards. It’s making me think we no longer need user interfaces the way we did,” he says. “I think we’re actually going to wind up talking to a lot of our systems in the very near term.”

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Koziel Calls for a New CPA Firm Model.
Show notes here

Gear Up for Growth
with Jean Caragher
for CPA Trendlines

Mark Koziel is putting the accounting profession on notice: The business model that sustained CPA firms for generations is running out of time.

“The hours-times-rate model is a death knell for the profession,” says Koziel, CPA, CGMA, president and CEO of the AICPA and the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, on Gear Up for Growth, powered by CPA Trendlines and hosted by Jean Caragher, president of Capstone Marketing.

• MORE Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here
• Gear Up for Growth is tailored specifically for public accounting firms with up to 100 team members looking to expand their practices intelligently and efficiently.
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As artificial intelligence accelerates the automation of tax preparation and compliance work, Koziel says CPA firms must fundamentally rethink how they create—and price—value for clients.

“There’s still value to that tax return,” Koziel says. “It’s just not based on our inputs.”

Rather than charging for the time it takes to complete compliance work, Koziel encourages firms to focus on the insight, judgment and peace of mind they provide through planning, advisory services and proactive client relationships.

One of his strongest messages centers on repositioning the profession beyond its traditional identity.

“If you ask anybody on the street what a CPA does, they’re going to tell you tax,” Koziel says. “But advisory and planning are the two that we really need to start nailing down.”

Throughout the discussion, Koziel emphasizes that while AI continues to reshape workflows, it does not diminish the importance of the CPA. Instead, it elevates the profession’s responsibility to help clients interpret information, make better decisions and navigate increasing complexity.

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As AI handles more routine work, how do young accountants develop judgment, communication and leadership?

Accounting ARC
With Donny Shimamoto and Liz Mason
Center for Accounting Transformation

The accounting internship is due for an upgrade.

For decades, internships often give aspiring accountants their first real taste of the profession by dropping them into the work: Learn the process, complete the assignment, survive busy season and figure out the unwritten rules along the way.

But as artificial intelligence takes over more of the entry-level work traditionally assigned to new accountants, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, and Liz Mason, CPA, argue the profession needs to reconsider what an internship is actually supposed to teach.

• MORE Accounting ARC: The CPA Career Nobody Talks About | Conference Season Exposes Accounting's Knowledge Gap | The Feedback Mistake That Costs You Your Best People | Is Your Boss Really the Problem? | Most Accountants Are Missing This AI Shift | AI Can Fix Your Workflow—or Break It in Seconds | Efficiency Is the Wrong Goal for AI | Accounting’s Hidden Talent Risk: The Sandwich Generation | Built Fast. Sold Faster. Broken Later? The Truth About Accounting Tech | Recognize When You Need to Recharge Before You Burn Out

In this episode of the Accounting ARC podcast, Shimamoto, founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC and founder and inspiration architect for the Center for Accounting Transformation, and Mason, CEO of High Rock Accounting, explore why tomorrow's accountants need more than technical proficiency.

They need what Shimamoto calls "power skills."

The next generation is blending entrepreneurship, AI, and advisory into careers that barely existed a few years ago.

Accounting ARC
With Donny Shimamoto
Center for Accounting Transformation

For decades, the accounting profession has followed a familiar script: earn a CPA license, join a firm, climb the ladder and perhaps become a partner.

Rachel Farris, CPA, MBA, is proving there is another way.

After building a highly specialized tax advisory practice serving U.S. citizens relocating to Puerto Rico, Farris launches Tax Stack AI, a company that helps accounting firms implement artificial intelligence securely and strategically.

• MORE Accounting ARC: Conference Season Exposes Accounting's Knowledge Gap | The Feedback Mistake That Costs You Your Best People | Is Your Boss Really the Problem? | Most Accountants Are Missing This AI Shift | AI Can Fix Your Workflow—or Break It in Seconds | Efficiency Is the Wrong Goal for AI | Accounting’s Hidden Talent Risk: The Sandwich Generation | Built Fast. Sold Faster. Broken Later? The Truth About Accounting Tech | Recognize When You Need to Recharge Before You Burn Out | Valuing More Than the Balance Sheet

She has since sold her CPA practice to focus on AI consulting and education, demonstrating that today's accounting professionals can create careers far beyond traditional public accounting.

In this episode of Accounting ARC, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC and founder and inspiration architect for the Center for Accounting Transformation, sits down with Farris to explore entrepreneurship, AI, networking and the expanding possibilities available to CPAs willing to embrace change.

Their conversation becomes less about one accountant's journey and more about the profession's future.

“Flexibility should be used as a tool for success. It shouldn't be the exception.”

MOVE Like This
With Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk
For CPA Trendlines Research

In this episode of MOVE Like This, Mandy Gallagher, lead manager of Women’s Initiatives at the AICPA, joins Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk to discuss why caregiving has become such an important conversation in accounting, what firms may misunderstand about caregivers, and how greater flexibility and support could influence retention and leadership pipelines across the profession. Gallagher’s work focuses on advancing women’s initiatives, supporting professional development, and amplifying women’s perspectives throughout the profession.

• MORE MOVE Like This | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network

One reason caregiving is getting more attention now is that it is both more visible and much broader than many people have traditionally assumed. Demographic shifts mean multiple generations are simultaneously balancing careers with responsibilities for children, aging parents, siblings, partners, friends, and others who rely on them. COVID also changed expectations around where and how work can happen. Employees experienced firsthand that they could remain productive while having enough flexibility to pick up a child or take a parent to a medical appointment. As more organizations return to traditional office expectations, those competing demands have become harder to reconcile.

The conversation challenges another long-standing assumption: that caregiving is primarily a women-with-young-children issue.