Thought Leadership

A client calls with a transaction that does not fit neatly into the firm’s usual playbook. The facts are still developing. The legal documents use unfamiliar terms. A new accounting standard may apply, but its effective date and transition requirements need to be confirmed. Meanwhile, the engagement team is balancing deadlines, client expectations, and the...

Best SQMS Software for CPA Firms: 5 Options to Put on Your Radar Whether you used SQMS software or not, for many CPA firms, the first phase of SQMS was about getting the system designed and documented. The risk assessment was completed. Quality objectives, risks, and responses were identified. Policies were drafted. Responsibilities were assigned....

The deal closes on Friday. By Monday, the combined firm has more people, more clients, more offices, and a bigger growth story to tell. It also has two ways to assign work, two versions of key procedures, two technology environments, and several answers to the question, “Who makes the final call?” That is the real...

A partner is three weeks from signing an opinion on a complex engagement. The standard requires an independent reviewer to challenge the toughest judgment calls before that opinion goes out the door. She starts running through names. The audit partner who touched the file is ineligible. The tax partner covering overflow work doesn’t have the...

Every dollar sitting in a law firm’s trust account belongs to someone else. It isn’t earned until the work is done, it isn’t released until the client signs off, and the lawyer holding it has direct access to it the entire time it sits there. California’s State Bar built an entire compliance infrastructure around that...

The inspection report lands on a Friday afternoon, and by Monday morning a managing partner who has spent fifteen years building a respected practice is reading a deficiency finding that could shape the next year of the firm’s future. No one on the team has been through this before. The clock is already running, and...

Audit firms have spent years interpreting new PCAOB standards on an island, guessing at how the Board would view a judgment call until an inspection told them otherwise. That changes now. The PCAOB has announced a new Firm Consultation Process, led by the Office of the Chief Auditor, allowing registered firms to submit questions directly...

Earlier, we wrote about a training model problem the accounting profession has avoided facing for years. The way firms train their people hasn’t kept pace with how people actually learn, and AI is quietly removing the on the job reps that used to teach judgment by default. We said we were committed to finding solutions,...

Ask an audit senior how they actually learned the job, and the honest answer is rarely “staff training.” It’s the engagement that went sideways in year two. The manager who happened to explain the why behind a workpaper instead of just signing off on it. The client who pushed back and forced them to think...