Ruthless efficiency, process-first thinking, and a bold rejection of traditional models help build her "life-first" firm.

Big 4 Transparency

By Dominic Piscopo, CPA

For CPA Trendlines

On The Big 4 Transparency Podcast, host Dominic Piscopo sat down with Erica Goode, founder of a solo accounting practice that generated over $180,000 in profit in 2024, all while working just 15 hours a week. Her secret? Ruthless efficiency, process-first thinking, and a bold rejection of traditional scaling models.

Goode’s path wasn’t planned. After leaving a corporate finance role to care for her two young kids, she took on one client with just two hours a week to spare.

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As her children’s school hours expanded, so did her firm - but never beyond her self-imposed 15-hour weekly cap. “My business grew as fast as my kids did,” she quipped. Every new client required a new process improvement, creating a flywheel of efficiency and discipline.

Celerity's founder turned a side-hustle into a fast-growing success.

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Tailor Hartman didn’t start Celerity Accounting with a grand plan. The initial goal was to make enough from an accounting side gig to pay down his student loans while he worked full-time as an assistant controller. He found his first clients in an unorthodox place – Upwork.

“I started going on [Upwork] to find cleanup gigs, you know, quick cleanup gigs for like 30, 40 bucks an hour in QuickBooks or maybe even NetSuite,” he shares.

• MORE STREAMING: Telka: Transform Fear into Fuel | Woodard: Move Past Reports; Deliver Results | 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 |

Those cleanup gigs turned into monthly accounting. “I ended up getting enough clients where I could quit my job within three months… which is pretty crazy.” As a testament to Celerity’s excellent service, those early clients remain loyal today.

“We still have all of my existing Upwork clients, which is crazy.”

Hartman's biggest challenge early on wasn't finding clients or managing cash flow—it was himself.

As your client's trusted advisor, can you afford not to include it?

By Rory Henry CFP®, BFA™
For CPA Trendlines

“The first wealth is health,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. Healthcare is one of the biggest expenses in retirement, yet it’s often overlooked in financial planning. For many clients, uncertainty around coverage can be as stressful as market swings or tax changes.

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Accounting leaders face pressure to choose a path that could reshape talent pipelines and firm culture for years to come.

Accounting Influencers

With Rob Brown

Deloitte’s decision to dismantle its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) program for 173,000 U.S. employees is sending shockwaves through the accounting profession, exposing deep divisions on a global scale and forcing firm leaders to weigh politics against talent priorities.

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The move—ending DEI goals, disbanding related departments, eliminating annual reporting, and ordering staff to remove pronouns from email signatures—came just hours before Deloitte UK issued a memo affirming its commitment to DEI.

Trust, values, and local connections are fueling the national rise of one of accounting’s newest Top 50 firms.

Gear Up for Growth

With Jean Caragher

For CPA Trendlines

“If we say we’re going to do something, we’re going to do it. And that’s how you build trust,” says Josh Tyree, president of Sorren, during an episode of Gear Up for Growth. Host Jean Caragher, president of Capstone Marketing, sat down with Tyree to discuss how the newly-formed Top 50 firm – created by the combination of 13 BDO Alliance firms – is navigating large-scale integration while laying the foundation for national growth.

• 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

The conversation reveals two critical lessons for CPA firms considering mergers or expansion.

Students push for networking, compensation clarity, and creativity as the path to success in a changing profession.

Accounting ARC - Student-Led Conversations
With Chayton Farlee
Center for Accounting Transformation

When Dominic Piscopo, CPA, compared his first Big 4 paycheck to his weekend bartending income, he had one reaction: disbelief. “I clocked 100 hours during busy season, and the check wasn’t much different than what I made in two nights at the bar,” he recalls.

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Instead of shrugging it off, Piscopo started asking questions—lots of them. He gathered salary data from peers across firms and discovered his cohort was underpaid compared to the market. Presenting the numbers to leadership, he helped secure a raise of nearly 10 percent for his entire group.

“That was the moment I realized transparency could change the profession,” Piscopo says.

Piscopo shares the story on Accounting ARC: Student-Led Conversations, hosted by accounting student Chayton Farlee. The two explore how networking, pay transparency, and building side projects can help students and young professionals set themselves apart in an industry struggling to recruit and retain talent.

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This stealthy tax rule could hit clients starting in 2026.

Quick Tax Tip
With Art Werner
CPE Today

Every tax bill hides a few surprises, and the OBBB is no exception. According to tax guru Art Werner, one of those surprises could wallop high earners through the quiet return of the PEASE limitation.

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In the newest episode of Quick Tax Tip, he breaks down this often-overlooked provision, its history, and what it could mean for your clients.