Thought Leadership

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...

Caseware vs Fieldguide, the Argentina and Cape Verde Matchup Playing Out in Audit Technology Argentina takes the pitch against Cape Verde tomorrow, July 3, and the storyline writing itself in audit technology right now is the same one. Caseware is the reigning champion, thirty years of trophies, the platform every practitioner has played on at...

The accountech vendors showing up in your inbox right now will all tell you the same thing: they have AI technology. That is true. It is also nearly meaningless. There is a difference between a system that has been retrofitted with AI capabilities and one that was built with AI at its core — and...

Most firms are still waiting. They shouldn’t be. On June 9, 2026, the PCAOB issued a supplemental release proposing targeted amendments to QC 1000, A Firm’s System of Quality Control — and for those who have been following this standard closely, the proposals are largely consistent with what experienced advisors have been anticipating. That’s the...

Most industry events are forgettable. The accounting profession runs hundreds of them every year — conferences, summits, roundtables, webinars — and the vast majority leave no impression at all. Bad coffee. Panel discussions that repeat what everyone already knows. Networking that feels like speed-dating for strangers who were forced to be there. We recently attended...