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Boomer’s Blueprint: Why accounting firms need a massive transformative purpose

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CPA firms today face a common challenge: How do they remain relevant, innovative and forward-thinking? Amid advancing technologies, artificial intelligence, and shifting client expectations, leaders must provide a clear vision to inspire and guide their teams. Too often firms are trapped in a shared services environment rather than a shared vision.

A “massively transformative purpose,” or MTP, offers that shared vision. It’s a north star to align every firm member toward a shared goal that transcends traditional success metrics.

So, what is an MTP?

An MTP is a bold and audacious statement defining a desired future state for the world, industry, profession or community. Unlike a mission or vision statement, an MTP isn’t about your organization or its immediate goals. Instead, it’s about the larger impact you hope to create. It acts as a gravitational force that attracts clients, talent and partners.

Examples of well-crafted MTPs include:

  • “To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.” — Tesla
  • “Organize the world’s information.” — Google
  • “Humans must become a multiplanetary species.” — SpaceX

Why an MTP matters for CPA firms

CPA firms often define success by traditional metrics such as billable hours, revenue growth, or client retention. These metrics are essential, but they don’t necessarily inspire teams or differentiate your firm in the marketplace. An MTP helps your firm:

1. Attract and retain talent. A compelling MTP gives employees a sense of purpose beyond their day-to-day tasks. This sense of purpose fosters engagement and loyalty.
2. Strengthen client relationships. Clients increasingly value working with professionals who share their values and are committed to broader societal goals.
3. Drive innovation. An MTP encourages firms to think beyond incremental improvements and consider transformative changes that redefine the profession.

Steps to develop your MTP

Before you can use an MTP to reach your goals, you must think about who you wish to serve and what your services will look like. Here are some steps to get started.

1. Ask transformative questions. Consider what you offer (or will offer in the future) to deliver value in radical and innovative ways. Some potential questions include:

  • What does the world hunger for, and how can our firm contribute?
  • What would we do if we could never fail?
  • What impact would we strive for if we received unlimited resources today?

2. Ensure key attributes. An MTP isn’t a vision or mission. Think bigger. Your MTP should be:

  • Aspirational. It describes a desired state that inspires action.
  • Audacious. It must be bold enough to make a significant impact.
  • Transformative. It should address the “why” behind your firm’s existence.

3, Test and refine. To gauge their reactions, share your draft MTP with team members, clients and stakeholders. Does it excite them? Does it make them lean in and ask, “How?”

Embedding MTP in your firm’s DNA

An MTP isn’t a one-time exercise. To create meaningful change, you must integrate it into the firm’s vision, planning and accountability structures. Here’s how to do it:
1. Vision. Use your MTP to set long-term goals and align strategic initiatives.
2. Planning. Break down your MTP into actionable milestones. Make sure every individual, department and service line understands their role in achieving the broader purpose.
3. Accountability. Create feedback loops to measure progress and adapt as necessary. Leadership must consistently champion the MTP and demonstrate its importance through words and deeds.

A well-defined MTP positions your firm to thrive in the 21st century and beyond. By aligning your team around a transformative purpose, you’ll foster innovation, attract like-minded clients and partners, and impact the profession. To paraphrase Margaret Mead, small groups of thoughtful, committed citizens and entrepreneurial leaders can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.

Think — plan — grow!

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Accounting

IAASB tweaks standards on working with outside experts

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The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board is proposing to tailor some of its standards to align with recent additions to the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants’ International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants when it comes to using the work of an external expert.

The proposed narrow-scope amendments involve minor changes to several IAASB standards:

  • ISA 620, Using the Work of an Auditor’s Expert;
  • ISRE 2400 (Revised), Engagements to Review Historical Financial Statements;
  • ISAE 3000 (Revised), Assurance Engagements Other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information;
  • ISRS 4400 (Revised), Agreed-upon Procedures Engagements.

The IAASB is asking for comments via a digital response template that can be found on the IAASB website by July 24, 2025.

In December 2023, the IESBA approved an exposure draft for proposed revisions to the IESBA’s Code of Ethics related to using the work of an external expert. The proposals included three new sections to the Code of Ethics, including provisions for professional accountants in public practice; professional accountants in business and sustainability assurance practitioners. The IESBA approved the provisions on using the work of an external expert at its December 2024 meeting, establishing an ethical framework to guide accountants and sustainability assurance practitioners in evaluating whether an external expert has the necessary competence, capabilities and objectivity to use their work, as well as provisions on applying the Ethics Code’s conceptual framework when using the work of an outside expert.  

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Accounting

Tariffs will hit low-income Americans harder than richest, report says

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President Donald Trump’s tariffs would effectively cause a tax increase for low-income families that is more than three times higher than what wealthier Americans would pay, according to an analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

The report from the progressive think tank outlined the outcomes for Americans of all backgrounds if the tariffs currently in effect remain in place next year. Those making $28,600 or less would have to spend 6.2% more of their income due to higher prices, while the richest Americans with income of at least $914,900 are expected to spend 1.7% more. Middle-income families making between $55,100 and $94,100 would pay 5% more of their earnings. 

Trump has imposed the steepest U.S. duties in more than a century, including a 145% tariff on many products from China, a 25% rate on most imports from Canada and Mexico, duties on some sectors such as steel and aluminum and a baseline 10% tariff on the rest of the country’s trading partners. He suspended higher, customized tariffs on most countries for 90 days.

Economists have warned that costs from tariff increases would ultimately be passed on to U.S. consumers. And while prices will rise for everyone, lower-income families are expected to lose a larger portion of their budgets because they tend to spend more of their earnings on goods, including food and other necessities, compared to wealthier individuals.

Food prices could rise by 2.6% in the short run due to tariffs, according to an estimate from the Yale Budget Lab. Among all goods impacted, consumers are expected to face the steepest price hikes for clothing at 64%, the report showed. 

The Yale Budget Lab projected that the tariffs would result in a loss of $4,700 a year on average for American households.

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Accounting

At Schellman, AI reshapes a firm’s staffing needs

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Artificial intelligence is just getting started in the accounting world, but it is already helping firms like technology specialist Schellman do more things with fewer people, allowing the firm to scale back hiring and reduce headcount in certain areas through natural attrition. 

Schellman CEO Avani Desai said there have definitely been some shifts in headcount at the Top 100 Firm, though she stressed it was nothing dramatic, as it mostly reflects natural attrition combined with being more selective with hiring. She said the firm has already made an internal decision to not reduce headcount in force, as that just indicates they didn’t hire properly the first time. 

“It hasn’t been about reducing roles but evolving how we do work, so there wasn’t one specific date where we ‘started’ the reduction. It’s been more case by case. We’ve held back on refilling certain roles when we saw opportunities to streamline, especially with the use of new technologies like AI,” she said. 

One area where the firm has found such opportunities has been in the testing of certain cybersecurity controls, particularly within the SOC framework. The firm examined all the controls it tests on the service side and asked which ones require human judgment or deep expertise. The answer was a lot of them. But for the ones that don’t, AI algorithms have been able to significantly lighten the load. 

“[If] we don’t refill a role, it’s because the need actually has changed, or the process has improved so significantly [that] the workload is lighter or shared across the smarter system. So that’s what’s happening,” said Desai. 

Outside of client services like SOC control testing and reporting, the firm has found efficiencies in administrative functions as well as certain internal operational processes. On the latter point, Desai noted that Schellman’s engineers, including the chief information officer, have been using AI to help develop code, which means they’re not relying as much on outside expertise on the internal service delivery side of things. There are still people in the development process, but their roles are changing: They’re writing less code, and doing more reviewing of code before it gets pushed into production, saving time and creating efficiencies. 

“The best way for me to say this is, to us, this has been intentional. We paused hiring in a few areas where we saw overlaps, where technology was really working,” said Desai.

However, even in an age awash with AI, Schellman acknowledges there are certain jobs that need a human, at least for now. For example, the firm does assessments for the FedRAMP program, which is needed for cloud service providers to contract with certain government agencies. These assessments, even in the most stable of times, can be long and complex engagements, to say nothing of the less predictable nature of the current government. As such, it does not make as much sense to reduce human staff in this area. 

“The way it is right now for us to do FedRAMP engagements, it’s a very manual process. There’s a lot of back and forth between us and a third party, the government, and we don’t see a lot of overall application or technology help… We’re in the federal space and you can imagine, [with] what’s going on right now, there’s a big changing market condition for clients and their pricing pressure,” said Desai. 

As Schellman reduces staff levels in some places, it is increasing them in others. Desai said the firm is actively hiring in certain areas. In particular, it’s adding staff in technical cybersecurity (e.g., penetration testers), the aforementioned FedRAMP engagements, AI assessment (in line with recently becoming an ISO 42001 certification body) and in some client-facing roles like marketing and sales. 

“So, to me, this isn’t about doing more with less … It’s about doing more of the right things with the right people,” said Desai. 

While these moves have resulted in savings, she said that was never really the point, so whatever the firm has saved from staffing efficiencies it has reinvested in its tech stack to build its service line further. When asked for an example, she said the firm would like to focus more on penetration testing by building a SaaS tool for it. While Schellman has a proof of concept developed, she noted it would take a lot of money and time to deploy a full solution — both of which the firm now has more of because of its efficiency moves. 

“What is the ‘why’ behind these decisions? The ‘why’ for us isn’t what I think you traditionally see, which is ‘We need to get profitability high. We need to have less people do more things.’ That’s not what it is like,” said Desai. “I want to be able to focus on quality. And the only way I think I can focus on quality is if my people are not focusing on things that don’t matter … I feel like I’m in a much better place because the smart people that I’ve hired are working on the riskiest and most complicated things.”

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