Accounting
Small accounting firms aren’t off the DEI hook
Some smaller accounting firms are in denial that they have a major role to play in advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the accounting profession.
One-third of micro and 13% of small firms say DEI is not a necessary part of their strategy, according to
By and large, experts agree there is still much more work to be done on the DEI front.
Donny Shimamoto, founder of CPA firm IntrapriseTechKnowlogies and the Center for Accounting Transformation, says that among small firms there is a sense of “this doesn’t really apply to us; this is for big organizations,” and “we can’t have representation; we’re too small.”
So what can small firms do, with the limited resources they have, to advance DEI?
Kimberly Ellison-Taylor, the former chair of the American Institute of CPAs’ National Commission on Diversity and Inclusion, says small firms should view their size as their strength: They have an advantage in that there’s less bureaucracy — they can make changes and implement policies in the office without getting caught up in red tape.
She said firms should not underestimate the value of flexibility. Diversity encompasses race, ethnicity and gender, but it also includes parental status, neurodiversity, socioeconomic status, physical ability or disability, and more. Offering hybrid or remote schedules, or offering reduced hour requirements, can be a deciding factor for potential employees choosing between firms.
“Play to your strengths and use that to get them to come and work with you,” Ellison-Taylor said. “It might not follow any conventional model that you’ve ever heard of, but why not start one?”
It’s important for DEI to be a tone set from the top.
“In order for staff to really have buy-in, they like to see that their leaders are actually bought into the various initiatives or the culture of the firm,” said Trevor Williams, audit partner and director of DEI at GRF CPAs in Bethesda, Maryland.
“There’s only so much growth that your firm can do if everybody looks like and thinks like the same cookie cutter,” Williams continued. “You can’t be successful in today’s environment with that type of belief.”
Diverse leadership brings different perspectives to the table.
“If everybody has the same opinion, you’re not going to get the right answer,” said Lexy Kessler, vice chairman of the AICPA and mid-Atlantic managing partner of Top 100 Firm Aprio. “If you have people with different opinions and different backgrounds coming into conversation, then you get to the right answer.”
DEI can improve a firm’s bottom line.
“We work in accounting. If we can start showing people that by continuing their efforts in inclusive initiatives in their firm — that the metrics will get better — I think that they will keep going with it,” said Sandra Wiley, president of Boomer Consulting. “But I think we’ve got to turn the attention to not just what some firm leaders would call fluff and talk about the numbers. Talk about profitability, talk about how many innovative ideas are coming up, talk about the collaboration between teams about engagement, and attracting and retaining good people.”
But it’s up to firms to make change happen. “You can’t wait and hope for the best,” said Anoop Mehta, past chair of the AICPA and current chair of the AICPA NCDI. “You have to put processes in place, and you have to be intentional about it.”
Experts say that now is not the time to pull back. Doing so risks alienating not only diverse talent but also the growing Gen Z workforce who highly value their companies’ stances on critical social issues.
“Pulling back is only going to position your firm as being run by people that don’t care about this kind of stuff,” said Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk, president and manager of the Accounting MOVE Project. “They don’t care about their employees. They don’t care about reaching people outside of the majority of firm employees.”
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.”
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