Editor’s note: This is the fifth article in a six-part series.

Partners reassessing some or all aspects of their traditional CPA firm’s business model may consider starting with this exercise: Take a blank sheet of paper and outline what kind of practice you would design if you were starting a new one.

What would the firm’s mission be? What types of clients would it target? What services would it offer to help those clients be successful? What kinds of people would it need to deliver these services? How would the firm optimize client and staff relationships? How would it optimize tasks and workflow?

What technologies would it need to make all this possible?

Donny Shimamoto, CPA/CITP, CGMA, founder and managing director of Honolulu-based IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC, suggested the exercise to help identify firm priorities and the technology to achieve them — essential elements of CPA firm business model transformation.

“Don’t just justify a technology solution; justify business value enabled through technology investments,” he said.

EXISTING OR NEW TECHNOLOGY?

Once firm leaders understand their priorities and develop their firm’s transformation strategy, they can determine how to implement technology to put that strategy into action, Shimamoto said.

For example, firms can explore employing artificial intelligence (AI)-powered financial statement analysis to provide a starting point for advisory services, according to Shimamoto. They can also investigate whether they’re making full use of available data analytics in audit testing to identify higher risk or a higher level of exceptions or anomalies, he said.

In preparing quarterly tax estimates, AI can automate the job of requesting, gathering, processing, and storing information, said solo practitioner and Microsoft MVP Ashley C. Francis, CPA/PFS, whose Seattle-based Francis Group provides trust and estate services for ultra-high-net-worth clients.

Francis also recommended experimenting with new tools to find unexpected benefits. She has found that, because generative AI prompts work best when it has sufficient specificity, the process of perfecting a prompt helps her better define in detail what she needs to know. (See “GenAI for Accountants: 10 Prompt-writing Tips,” JofA, April 1, 2024.) The prompting process forces her to identify her goals and priorities and be more analytic in her thinking. “You are learning your own use cases,” she said. (For more insights, see “Real-Life Ways Accountants Are Using AI,” JofA, June 1, 2025.)

MAKE TRAINING A PRIORITY

Transformation does not have to happen all at once. It can be done incrementally, depending on the firm’s goals and circumstances. That’s true of technology integration as well. Firms should ensure that their teams have the knowledge they need to make the best use of new tools.

Shimamoto has found training to be key to success in technology adoption. However, many organizations may skip proper education in the belief that younger staff can quickly gain proficiency in any new technology, Francis said. In other cases, when firms don’t incorporate new technologies, people use their own tools with no monitoring or consistency in application.

“You can’t just throw people into the deep end,” she said.

Firms also shouldn’t settle for quick or low-cost training but should aim for education that enhances the team’s long-term effectiveness, according to Shimamoto. That requires:

• Focusing on learning the technology and how to use it to achieve business objectives.
• Giving staff the time to explore new technologies without the pressure to keep up with billable work and staying only within engagement budgets.
• Including training goals in performance evaluations or other incentives.

Francis recommended group training for generative AI. “Communications-based tech is best learned socially in groups,” she said. For example, staff members can be given a problem to solve and work together through different iterations, with a manager checking in and discussing the answers at the end.

NURTURE IN-HOUSE RESOURCES

In addition to formal training, firms should identify the tech expertise they have on hand. “Your staff is already using ChatGPT and other tools,” said Amanda Wilkie of Boomer Consulting.

To leverage existing know-how, Wilkie recommended creating a group of the firm’s most active and knowledgeable technology users. This process can help determine current usage, which tools are most effective, and how best to leverage existing resources. While the IT team may be the technology experts, staff members can offer insights into which tools may best address specific firm needs and why. They may be able to offer valuable insights on use cases. “Harness their passion and build a training plan around what they’ve learned,” Wilkie said.

For small firms, Francis recommends leaning into custom chatbots, such as ChatGPT’s Custom GPTs or Microsoft’s Copilot agents, for those “quick questions,” she said, “whether from new staff about rules and processes or employees about human resources, custom chatbots are an easy way to save time and get people comfortable with using GenAI.” (For more insights, see “Agentic AI Poised to Change the Way CPAs Work,” JofA, June 1, 2025.)

Firms can also use their internal data to create their own resources, Francis said. Some firms have built custom GPTs that can answer help-desk questions or offer information on human resources and benefits concerns, as well as on client-related issues, she said. One firm imported all its past agreements into an internal GPT. “When someone is building an agreement for a similar client, they can have a conversation with the GPT on what’s been done before,” Wilkie said.

DON’T LET EFFICIENCY IMPEDE INNOVATION

Efficiency and innovation can come into conflict, Shimamoto said. The road to innovation and transformation can be messy, uncertain, and even wasteful. Efficiency, on the other hand, is about order and speed, which can thwart innovation efforts if efficiency efforts don’t allow for experimentation.

For example, a tax firm could be totally efficient and automate the preparation of a tax return from data entry through delivery of the return via a client portal and email — not having any contact with the client at all. However, this cuts out the tax preparer from the client and could negatively impact the rapport the client feels with the firm. Taking the time to personally talk the client through the return and answer questions they may have live (even if via a virtual meeting) is less efficient hours-wise but is much more effective in maintaining the relationship with the client, Shimamoto said. It can also provide an opportunity for the firm to carry out innovations to its service line by discussing additional services the firm can offer.

Firms should be aware of technology’s benefits and limitations. Generative AI, for example, can automate knowledge-based tasks, create and standardize communications, and rapidly answer questions. However, because it is trained on existing information, it can’t provide fresh ideas or insights that do not follow pre-existing patterns, Shimamoto said.

In their transformation efforts, firms will have to allow for creativity and mistakes. Innovation, whether in adopting new technologies or taking other steps forward, “is about trial and error and ensuring that you are learning from failure,” Shimamoto said. “If you’re not having any failures, then you’re not taking enough risk and you’ll be less innovative.”

REDEFINE ROI

Wilkie urged firms to reconsider their attitudes toward technology funding. “It is truly an investment,” she noted, “and sometimes the ROI on a technology investment isn’t apparent until well after it is made.” In many cases, the chance to gain new knowledge and better understand the depth and the limits of firm members’ current expertise is the actual return on an innovation project, she said, rather than a quantifiable financial result.

To achieve buy-in, organizations often emphasize the consequences of failing to adopt new tools, Shimamoto noted. “They say that if we don’t invest in technology, we’ll fall behind our competitors,” he said.

But the proper perspective is to align technology expenses to initiatives that solve tangible problems, minimize risk, and enhance the firm’s competitive advantage, Shimamoto added.

PRIORITIZE CHANGE MANAGEMENT

While transformation can be exciting and productive, it can also be exhausting. Firms that are working to build cultures of continuous improvement and adapt to a constant state of change are likely also experiencing change fatigue, Wilkie noted.

Key to successful change management is understanding that organizations don’t change, people do, Wilkie said, so firms should emphasize supporting their people through the transformation process. That may mean examining the best way to communicate about new approaches. According to Wilkie, a study suggested that when people are faced with a change to their daily routine or department, they feel more comfortable hearing about it from their immediate supervisor rather than from the CEO or another executive. Even when new technology is being rolled out, people prefer to get the details from their boss rather than from the IT department, because they trust that their boss understands their work and the specific impact the change will have on them.

To maintain trust in the change and its value, managers should be able to answer their teams’ questions with confidence. Wilkie recommended tapping supervisors to introduce new technologies and educating them in advance about its impact so that they can communicate effectively about what it means to their teams.

Communication should always emphasize the benefits of the new technology for the people who will be using it. In introducing any new tool, Wilkie encourages firms to proactively answer two questions for employees:

• Why do I need to change?
• Why will this be better?

HUMAN-CENTRIC SOLUTIONS

A supportive approach to training can provide a range of dividends, Wilkie said. In the most recent AICPA Private Companies Practice Section CPA Firm Top Issues Survey, dealing with technology and hiring and retaining talent were chief concerns for many firm segments. (See “Finding Qualified Staff Tops Ranking of CPA Firm Top Issues,” JofA, June 6, 2024.) Technology can take on routine or repetitive tasks, minimizing stress and long hours, and making it possible to tackle more satisfying assignments. That kind of transformation alone can help address firms’ staffing concerns, Francis noted.

In the end, the best technology choices will provide tangible benefits for the people involved. “You want to use technology to support the humans inside the firm so they can support the humans you’re working with outside the firm,” she said.

---

Building a better firm

During the past decade, CPA firms have been caught up in changes and challenges from within and outside the profession, including the disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, evolving client and staff expectations, and rapid advancements in technology.

The “Building a Better Firm” series is based on the Transforming Your Business Model resource initiative that the AICPA and its Private Companies Practice Section launched to offer firms insights and to address the difficulties and opportunities that these changes and challenges present.

The six articles in the series provide an overview of the initiative and lay out the five key areas in business model transformation:

• Overview: “Transform Your Business Model.”
• Strategy: “How to Develop Your Firm’s Transformation Strategy.”
• Governance: “Building a Better CPA Firm: Getting Governance Right.”
• Service offerings: “Building a Better CPA Firm: Stepping Up Service Offerings.”
• Technology: “Building a Better Firm: How to Pick the Proper Technology.”
• Culture and talent: November issue.

---

LEARNING RESOURCES

Digital CPA 2025

Join CPA.com in Washington, D.C., and online from Dec. 7—10 to discover emerging technologies, unlock actionable strategies, and collaborate with peers who are designing a new era of accounting. Earn up to 16 CPE credits. For more information or to register, click on the headline above.

CONFERENCE

AICPA ENGAGE 26

Firm practice management and technology will be on the agenda when the ENGAGE conference celebrates its 10th anniversary at the ARIA in Las Vegas.

June 8—11

CONFERENCE

PCPS membership

The Private Companies Practice Section (PCPS) is an add-on firm membership section within the AICPA that supports CPA firms of all sizes in the everyday intricacies of running a practice by providing practical and customizable practice management resources. For more information, click on the PCPS membership headline above.

SECTION

Certified Information Technology Professional

The AICPA’s Certified Information Technology Professional (CITP) credential represents the intersection of technology and financial reporting. CITPs understand how information technology, accounting, and finance interrelate. Choose from three pathways to earn the credential. For more information, click on the headline above.

CREDENTIAL

For more information or to make a purchase, go to aicpa-cima.com/cpe-learning or call 888-777-7077.

---

MEMBER RESOURCES

Articles

JofA Artificial Intelligence (AI) Coverage

“How Accountants Can Balance Technology and Critical Thinking,” JofA, April 1, 2025

Podcast episode

“Transforming: Tales of Business Evolution,” AICPA and CIMA PCPS, Jan. 17, 2024

Websites

PCPS Technology resources page

2024 PCPS CPA Firm Top Issues Survey Results and Analysis

---

About the author

Anita Dennis is a freelance writer based in New Jersey. To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Jeff Drew at Jeff.Drew@aicpa-cima.com.