Accounting
Art of Accounting: How to be a great employee, manager, partner, advisor and team member
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Being a great resource is quite easy. Just do what the person you report to needs you to do. Do it when you say you will do it and better than anyone else could do it. Also, never, ever upward delegate.
This should be a standard operating procedure but it rarely occurs except by exceptional people. The more exceptional people an organization has, the more successful it — and everyone there — will be.
I modestly suggest that a major reason for my success has been adhering to due dates and trying to do the work better than anyone else. Also I had a resolve to never leave my boss (when I started out) or client where they had to do something. It has always been my firm or me that had to follow through and never the boss or client. Additionally, when I was a staff member, I always tried to anticipate what my boss would do with what I was doing, and then tried to do some of that too. I never left part of what I had to do for my boss to clean up or complete. Likewise with clients I always tried to assume the responsibility to do as much of what the client would do as I could.
Whether you are the lowest-level employee or highest-level CPA firm owner or partner, your job is to provide services for the person hiring or engaging you. Those services include, and really demand, that the right work gets done at the right time in the right way. It cannot be simpler than that. Do what you are supposed to do without error while meeting the time commitment. And then anticipate the use of that information and try to do something extra to save the effort of the person above you, i.e., your boss or client.
Anticipating means two things. Understanding the purpose and use of what you are doing, and how it could meet or exceed that purpose, and/or whether alternatives might be more appropriate. This is how you become a trusted advisor.
My first boss told me that, since I was just starting out, I was not expected to know too much, but I was expected to do what I was told to do and to get it done on time without careless errors. He told me that as he would gain confidence in me, I would be given more responsibilities and higher-level work that I could grow from and advance my career with. This is a lesson for all of us. Prove your ability by doing the right at the right time in the right way.
Clients need you, and expect you, to suggest alternatives to their plans, better ways of doing things, with methods that will help the client accomplish their objectives more reasonably, efficiently and effectively. That’s what made me successful.
I also taught this to my staff, i.e., my team, and those who learned were permitted to continue working for me. They made my job easier, more valuable and more fun…and I reciprocated by doing the same for them.
Today there is a big emphasis on advisory services. The advisory services are not new, but the recent (in the last 10 or so years) emphasis on this is new. I always did that. If I did not, then you would never have heard my name or read anything I wrote because I would have had nothing new or different or innovative to write about. I also would not have had the clients that were open and receptive to what I had to offer them, and who recognized this. The recognition was not with accolades but with quick acceptance of, and payment of, my fees.
I also loved being an independent CPA, but I loved being a businessperson more. That is because if I could not succeed in my own practice, I would cease being a businessperson, but I would never cease being a CPA; my role would just have shifted to being an owner to an employee of a better businessperson’s CPA business.
I accomplished a lot and still do, but it has never been alone. I had partners, staff, support people and clients wanting to be exceptional and who wanted to work with exceptional people. I never compromised by doing less than the best anyone could do, and then some, and never accepted anything less from anyone working with or for me.
Anyone can do what I did. Just do what you say you will do, when it has to be done and the way it needs to be done. That’s all. That’s the secret sauce. If you are the leader of your firm, then lead with this standard. If you are a staff person, then everything you do should be following this standard. Whatever your position, you are part of a team. Be aware that no team could rise above the attitudes, skills and desires of its weakest members.
If you agree with what I just wrote, then do it. Start now. You can get started by using this standard and making any necessary adjustments or changes in your practice as the opportunities arise. Give yourself a year to get things working right. But get started.
If you do not agree with what I wrote, then email me and provide your phone number. I’ll call you and give you an opportunity to tell me why I am wrong and how it should be done. I am not too proud to ignore adapting better ways of doing things. After all, that’s how I grew.
P.S.: My checklist file for managing a practice and tax season is being added to, updated and completed. Information about how to receive it for free will be in my column next week. Look for it. If you want to request it now, send an email to
Do not hesitate to contact me at
Big Four firm PwC announced new agentic AI capacities, including a model that proactively identifies areas of value leakage and acts inside the tools teams already use to fix them itself.
The new solution,
The software, which is supported by PwC’s recently released
The system connects directly into ERP environments, continuously monitors key metrics, and acts inside the tools teams already use. For example, a supply chain agent might detect rising shipping costs and automatically reroute deliveries to reduce spend. Finance agents can spot and correct billing errors before they reach the customer. Clients typically see measurable efficiency gains in the first quarter, with continued improvements over time as the system learns and adapts.
“Too many transformations still rely on one-off pilots and stale data, stretching the gap from insight to impact and suffocating ROI,” said Saurabh Sarbaliya, PwC’s principal for enterprise strategy and value. “Agent Powered Performance flips the economics by distilling PwC’s industry transformation playbooks into AI agents that turn static insights into compounding gains, without rebooting each time.”
Agent Powered Performance is platform-agnostic and built on an open architecture so it can work across different LLMs based on client preferences and task-specific needs. It works with major enterprise platforms including Oracle, SAP, Workday and Guidewire.
Agent OS Model Context Protocol
PwC also
By integrating this standard, agent systems registered as MCP servers can be used by any authorized AI agent. This reduces redundant integration work and the overhead of writing custom logic for each new use case. By standardizing how agents invoke tools and handle responses, MCP also simplifies the interface between agents and enterprise systems, which will serve to reduce development time, lower testing complexity, and cut deployment risk. Finally, any interaction between an agent and an MCP server is authenticated, authorized and logged, and access policies are enforced at the protocol level, which means that compliance and control are native to the system—not layered on after the fact.
This means that agents are no longer siloed. Instead, they can operate as part of a coordinated, governed system that can grow as needs evolve, as MCP support provides the interface to external tools and systems. This enables organizations to move beyond isolated pilots toward integrated systems where agents don’t just reason, but act inside real business workflows. It marks a shift from experimentation to adoption, from isolated tools to scalable, governed intelligence.
Research Composer
Finally, a PwC spokesperson said the firm has also launched a new internal tool for its professionals called Research Composer, a patent-pending AI research agent embedded in the firm’s ChatPwC suite, designed to accelerate insight generation by combining web data with PwC-uploaded content.
Professionals will use the Research Composer to produce in-depth, citation-backed reports for either the firm or its clients. The solution is intended to enhance the quality of client work by equipping teams with research and strategic analysis capabilities.
The AI agent prompts users through a step-by-step research workflow, allowing them to shape how reports are packaged—tailoring the output to meet strategic needs. For example, a manager in advisory services might use Research Composer to evaluate white space opportunities across industries or geographies, drawing from internal reports and up-to-date market data.
Eide Bailly, a Top 25 Firm based in Fargo, North Dakota, is growing its presence in the Pacific Northwest by adding Traner Smith, based in Edmonds, Washington, effective June 2, 2025.
Traner Smith’s team includes two partners and 16 staff members and specializes in tax compliance and advisory services. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Eide Bailly ranked No. 19 on
Eide Bailly already has offices in Seattle, but hopes to grow further in the Pacific Northwest. “We’re pleased to welcome the talented team at Traner Smith to Eide Bailly,” said Eide Bailly managing partner and CEO Jeremy Hauk in a statement Monday. “Their expertise with high-net-worth individuals, real estate and privately held businesses aligns well with our strengths, and their client-centric approach is a perfect cultural fit. Having an office in Edmonds, Washington, is a great complement to our existing presence in Seattle. Together, we’re poised to deliver even greater value to families and businesses in the Seattle metro area.”
“Joining Eide Bailly is a natural next step for us — it provides access to deeper technical resources in areas like state and local tax, national tax, succession planning and international tax while allowing us to continue the personalized service our clients value,” said Kevin Smith, a partner at Traner Smith, in a statement.
“With this expanded support and platform, we’re excited to grow our reach, elevate what we do best, and help more clients than ever before,” said Shane Summer, another partner at Traner Smith, in a statement.
Eide Bailly has announced several other mergers in recent weeks. Earlier this month, it added
In 2023, Eide Bailly added
Top 100 firm
“We began working with Knuula in Spring 2024 to streamline our engagement letter process,” said Don Murphy, Managing Member of BMSS. “It quickly became clear that Knuula was not only a strong solution for us, but also an ideal partner in advancing industry-wide automation.”
While the specific terms of the deal were not disclosed, a spokesperson with Knuula said that, after this investment, BMSS and a collection of 21 of their partners now own 13% of the company. The investment represents not some passive revenue deal but an active collaboration between the two companies, with the spokesperson saying they will be working closely together on things like product development, new features, improvements, and networking.
The deal comes about a year after Knuula integrated with QuickFee, a receivables management platform for professional service providers, which allowed users to have engagement letters directly connecting to their QuickFee billing platform, tying the execution of the letter directly to the billing process.
“We’ve long sought to partner with a firm focused on strategic innovation in the accounting space,” said Jamie Peebles, founder of Knuula. “To develop a perfect solution for large firms, it is ideal to have a partner that is willing to work closely together and iterate quickly. This requires constant feedback between our two teams. The IT team from BMSS worked with our development team constantly and helped us iterate rapidly. We also had consistent input from partners, manager, and administrative staff to help us make valuable changes to Knuula. BMSS was a perfect partner for us.”
PwC AI agent acts proactively to preserve value
Eide Bailly merges in Traner Smith
BMSS announces investment, collaboration with Knuula
New 2023 K-1 instructions stir the CAMT pot for partnerships and corporations
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