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What tech vendors can learn from CPAs and their practices

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In the first two parts of this series (here and here), we explored what accounting firms can learn from accounting technology vendors. The first article discussed how vendor business models can inspire accountants to rethink their approaches to innovation and client experience, and the second article highlighted approaches tech companies use in talent management to attract and retain top talent. Now, in a reverse Uno move, let’s explore three ways vendors can learn from CPAs.

1. Camaraderie and Knowledge Sharing in Competition

Technology has introduced a wide array of tools and efficiencies to the accounting field, helping firms tackle capacity challenges and enabling accountants to work faster and more efficiently. The rapid pace of tech innovation has opened doors for transformative solutions—but also brought an overwhelming influx of vendors competing for attention. Given the overlapping nature of solutions, some vendors’ inclination is to take a zero-sum competition mode.

This doesn’t have to be the norm for competitors. Anyone attending events from major alliances and associations, such as the ITA Collective in Palm Springs last week, would quickly notice a striking phenomenon: leaders of competing CPA firms exchanging insights, strategies, and best practices. This openness exists because CPAs understand a fundamental truth—a rising tide lifts all boats. In a field with abundant work and too few qualified professionals, it’s in everyone’s interest to support one another, to collectively advance the profession.

Technology vendors could benefit from adopting this mindset. Tech companies, coming from varied backgrounds—some deeply rooted in the accounting profession, others arriving from different industries—are sometimes accustomed to protecting their innovations tightly. But accounting tech is different. Here, many vendors have simultaneously overlapping, complementary, and competitive features in their products. Acknowledging this dynamic and committing to a connected technology ecosystem can foster a more robust, sustainable market with greater revenue potential and deeper client trust. Adopting a collaborative approach will ultimately prove more valuable than a closed, competitive stance in our profession.

2. Integration with Local Communities

CPA firms have a special bond with the communities they serve. As trusted advisors, CPAs become pillars of their communities, guiding local businesses and individuals through complex financial landscapes. Their relationships with clients are often both professional and personal, rooted in a strong commitment to nurturing the community relationship as a whole.

Let’s compare this with the tech startups that are rooted in the city that I call home today: San Francisco. A city at the heart of the generative AI boom in Silicon Valley, San Francisco is a global epicenter of tech innovation. Yet it also highlights the disconnect between technology-driven wealth and broader community wellbeing. The waves of technology workers and hackers who are furiously working to build the future yet have little community involvement have led to uneven benefits (and also inspired the term “tech bros”).

Local community integration isn’t just about fostering goodwill; it’s a solid business strategy. 

Rooting a business in its community can lead to more empathetic product design and better team cohesion, and an edge in recruiting for the office hubs.

When naming my consulting firm, I chose the name Edgefield Group, inspired by the street I grew up on—Edgefield Street—to reflect the foundational sense of place and rootedness that CPAs embody in their work. Vendors could adopt this principle, fostering meaningful relationships within communities and embracing a relational approach that considers the broader impacts of their technology.

3. Slowing Down to Speed Up: Responsible Innovation

CPAs are known for their conservatism and for their role as stewards of financial data—a role that often requires a level of caution and accountability. This is in stark contrast to tech’s rapid development culture, famously epitomized by Meta CEO’s Mark Zuckerberg’s “move fast and break things” philosophy. While speed and disruption can yield breakthroughs, this approach doesn’t translate well to fields like finance and accounting, where trust and reliability are paramount.

The accounting profession’s cautious, deliberate nature offers a valuable counterpoint to the fast-paced culture of tech, especially regarding emerging technologies like AI and fintech. Take, for example, the recent AICPA Executive Roundtable, which focused on the theme of Responsible AI. This forum allowed vendors and CPA leaders to thoughtfully discuss the responsible use of AI in the profession, emphasizing the importance of anticipating potential risks and considering the long-term implications of technology.

Slowing down may seem counterintuitive, but it creates space for meaningful dialogue, ethical reflection, and deliberate innovation that will advance the technology realm faster. By embracing the “slow down to speed up” principle, tech vendors can craft solutions with a long-term view, protecting and upholding the profession’s values while still meeting the demand for efficiency and innovation. There is a growing need for companies to adopt this mindset, recognizing that sometimes the most responsible—and ultimately most profitable—way forward is to ensure every step is taken with care and consideration.

Conclusion

As the tech and accounting worlds continue to converge, it’s clear that each has much to learn from the other. While accounting firms can gain agility and fresh ideas from tech companies, vendors would do well to emulate CPAs’ collaborative spirit, commitment to community, and cautious approach to innovation.

Ultimately, by embracing these values, tech vendors have an opportunity to create greater value for the industry and the world. Whether through collaborative knowledge-sharing, local community involvement, or thoughtful, responsible development, these lessons from CPAs offer a pathway for vendors to foster sustainable growth and contribute meaningfully to the profession they serve.

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Accounting

Tax scheme star witness clams up at his own €428M trial

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Kai-Uwe Steck, a star witness who spilled the beans to German prosecutors and TV viewers about the Cum-Ex scandal, turned silent at a trial into his own alleged role in a €428 million ($446 million) tax scheme.

The tax lawyer, who for years has testified in countless Cum-Ex cases where he also extensively described his own role, “for now” won’t comment at his trial, a spokeswoman for the Bonn court said on Friday. He’s free to change his mind about that in the future, she added.

The 53-year old lawyer once was a key figure in what became a Cum-Ex industry, involving some of the world’s top banks. Steck was a law partner of Hanno Berger, the attorney dubbed “Mastermind” of the strategy that exploited how dividend tax was once collected. Their firm was instrumental in selling the business model to rich private investors. For years, they made millions from their work. After German prosecutors started to investigate, Steck flipped sides and became the first person to cooperate with the authorities in the probe.

Steck, who lives in Switzerland, traveled numerous times to police headquarters in Düsseldorf to testify and later was key to recruiting traders to follow his example. Under the fake name “Benjamin Frey” and wearing disguising make-up and a wig, he also appeared in German TV documentaries about the scandal.

In an opening statement on Thursday, his defense lawyer Gerhard Strate asked the court to drop the case because of human rights violations. His client had confessed to the crimes as early as 2017 but was charged only seven years later, in violation of the right to a speedy trial. Instead, Cologne prosecutors “used” him as a witness, degrading him to a mere “object,” according to the attorney.  

A ‘pawn’

“He became a pawn in the tactical considerations of the prosecution and had to testify as a witness at each of the trials held in Bonn from the fall of 2019 until this year,” Strate said, according to a verbatim of the statement published on his website. “Now he is being thrown under the bus by the beneficiaries of his risktaking and courage.”

Strate said Cologne prosecutors promised to drop his case before trial because of his extensive collaboration but failed to put that deal into writing and now it can’t be found in their files. This bad example will stop others from cooperating, he warned.  

Steck, who for years hoped he could dodge trial, had fired his long-time defense team after he was indicted in April. He hired a new pair of attorneys, including Strate. 

Just a month earlier, Steck had testified in the case of the former head of M.M. Warburg & Co. At the time, he said Cologne prosecutors “at no time” promised him anything. His attorney Strate didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment on the March testimony.

Steck is also scheduled to testify next week in the Munich Cum-Ex trial of the two founders of Avana Invest GmbH. 

Steck’s case is: LG Bonn, 62 KLS 1/24.

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Accounting

UPS hit with $45M penalty by SEC over improper valuation

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United Parcel Service Inc. will pay $45 million to settle claims by the Securities and Exchange Commission that the courier misrepresented its financial results by improperly valuing its freight business.

The company failed to follow GAAP when it evaluated its less-than-truckload operations in 2019 and 2020, the SEC said Friday in a statement. “Had UPS properly valued Freight, its earnings and other reported items would have been materially lower,” the agency said.

UPS, which didn’t admit or deny the findings, agreed to avoid future violations, the SEC said. The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Bloomberg.

A UPS truck in San Francisco with pedestrians passing by
A UPS truck in San Francisco

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

The SEC’s order alleges that UPS used an outside consultant to value the business without providing certain information such as the company’s own internal analysis of the freight business. UPS didn’t tell the consultant it had concluded that “a prospective buyer would expect Freight to generate significantly less profit after it was sold because it would no longer benefit from synergies and other cost savings it was getting as part of UPS,” according to the order.

UPS sold its freight business to TFI International in 2021 for $800 million. 

Shares of UPS rose 1.1% as of 9:40 a.m. in New York.

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Accounting

Intuit falls after giving tepid outlook despite new AI tools

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Intuit Inc., the maker of the TurboTax tax preparation software, dropped in extended trading after giving a sales and profit outlook for the current quarter that fell short of analysts’ estimates, disappointing investors looking for a boost from the company’s new AI products.

Revenue will be about $3.83 billion in the period ending Jan. 31, the company said Thursday in a statement. Analysts, on average, estimated $3.86 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Earnings, excluding some items, will be about $2.58 a share in the fiscal first quarter, also missing estimates. 

Intuit, however, affirmed its fiscal year forecast issued in September for sales of about $18.25 billion and adjusted profit of about $19.26 a share.

Intuit TurboTax packages at store
Intuit TurboTax packages at store in Brooklyn

Eilon Paz/Bloomberg

The financial software company is working on implementing artificial intelligence features through its applications including tax preparation program TurboTax. Earlier this week, Intuit launched an AI assistant tool for QuickBooks, which helps businesses manage taxes and other financial results.

The shares declined about 8% in extended trading after closing at $678.70 in New York. The stock has gained 8.6% this year. 

Intuit’s stock dropped earlier this week after the Washington Post reported that the leaders of President-elect Donald Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” have discussed creating a mobile app for Americans to file their taxes for free. Intuit reported in May that it lost 1 million customers who use the free version of TurboTax, although executives have said the company is working to cater the software to those with more complicated tax situations who would buy the product.

In the fiscal first quarter, sales rose 10% to $3.28 billion. Analysts, on average, projected $3.14 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Those gains were led by Credit Karma, which jumped 29% to $524 million, topping estimates. The unit aggregates loans and helps users track cash flow.

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