Accounting
Use strategic planning to meet a firm’s growth goals
No matter where a CPA practice is in its lifecycle, owners should have growth in mind. A young practice will strive for growth by adding clients and offering new service lines, sometimes sacrificing margins to bring in new opportunities. Midlife practices may want to acquire other practices or merge with competitors to form a new entity.
Mature practices, where the founders may be looking to retire or sell, should keep the practice in growth mode. This is to
As a business owner, here are some lessons learned and tools I’ve used to strategically plan for the future.
Types of growth
Expanding a business can happen through
Inorganic growth occurs when a practice merges with or acquires another company. The revenue streams of the target practice are added to those of the purchasing practice, increasing its size and reach.
CPA practices may achieve growth through a combination of organic and inorganic growth. Strategic planning is a powerful tool for maximizing growth regardless of type.
Who should be involved in strategic planning?
While it may be unwieldy to include all members of the staff in the core strategic planning group, everyone should have input, through focus groups, surveys and team meetings. Getting input from all areas of the practice helps ensure everyone feels ownership in the finished product and all areas of the operation are considered.
Strategic planning process
A strategic plan helps the practice define where it wants to go and what its priorities are. It gives everyone in the company a shared vision so they can tailor their work toward accomplishing its aims.
A good starting point for a strategic plan is the company’s mission and vision statements. The mission statement should convey what the practice does, e.g., “Smith, Brown, & Jones, CPAs offers its clients the ultimate in accurate, timely and insightful accounting services.” The vision statement should paint a picture of how the practice wants to be seen, e.g., “Smith, Brown, & Jones, CPAs will be the most highly trusted accounting practice in the Tri-State area.”
SWOT analysis
The next step is to carry out a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
- Strengths include those activities that the practice does well, such as “maintains excellent client communications,” “has a high client retention rate,” or “offers advising services not available from other CPAs in the area.”
- Opportunities represent potential areas for growth or more effective competition, e.g., “the owner of a local CPA practice is looking to sell their practice,” or “new investments in AI would allow existing staff to serve more clients.”
- Weaknesses might include “technology is not up to date,” or “staff turnover has been higher than ideal.”
- Threats could range from “a regional CPA practice just moved into the area and could take away clients” to “our technology is outdated and could be hacked.”
Setting goals
With a completed SWOT analysis, the team can develop a set of goals to help address weaknesses and threats while capitalizing on strengths and opportunities. It’s important to keep the list of goals to a manageable size (maybe three or four) and to prioritize them so everyone will know which goals to pursue in case two or more conflict.
For the above examples, a practice might make the following goals:
- Invest in technology upgrades to make use of AI and to improve cybersecurity.
- Acquire a retiring competitor’s practice to better compete with the new regional practice.
- Intentionally incorporate the practice’s good communications methods into staff training.
How to go from plan to reality
Once the goals are set, it’s important for each one to be assigned a lead who is responsible for progress on it. The plan should be revisited regularly and updated to reflect new conditions, and incentive compensation for management and employees should then be tied to achieving the goals.
For larger-scale goals, such as carrying out an acquisition, it’s important to bring in outside experts who can keep the project on track and alert the team to any potential problems. A legal advisor and a trusted lending partner should join the practice’s own accounting team. Together, they can help bring a deal to a successful conclusion.
The Treasury Department named a pair of Internal Revenue Service agents as special advisors to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and plans key roles for them in reforming the IRS after they complained of mistreatment under the Biden administration while investigating Hunter Biden’s taxes.
Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, who were both special agents with the IRS’s Criminal Investigation division,
The two whistleblowers had
“As I noted in my letter to Secretary Bessent last month, if we reinstate whistleblowers who have been retaliated against, it will send a clear signal that pointing out wrongdoing is an honorable thing to do,” Grassley said in a statement Tuesday. “It will help change the culture of our bureaucracy. I’m very grateful to Secretary Bessent for supporting Gary and Joe, and I have no doubt they will be a boon to the Treasury Department in their new roles. Gary Shapley and Joe Ziegler put their entire careers on the line to stand up for the truth, and instead of being thanked, the Biden administration treated them like skunks at a picnic. Far too many whistleblowers share a similar experience of retaliation. I hope today is the first of many redemption stories for whistleblowers who’ve been mistreated. By taking a stand for whistleblowers, President Trump and his cabinet are ushering in a new era of transparency and accountability.”
Bessent hailed their promotion to positions of influence in the Trump administration. “I am pleased to welcome Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler to the Treasury Department, where they will help us drive much-needed cultural reform within the IRS,” Bessent said in a statement. “These veteran civil servants join us to help further the agency’s focus on collections, modernization, and customer service, so we can deliver a more effective and efficient IRS experience for hardworking American taxpayers. I appreciate Senator Grassley’s efforts in Congress to support whistleblower protections in order to improve transparency, accountability and root out the culture of retaliation.”
Shapley and Ziegler are expected to transition to senior IRS leadership after their stint at the Treasury Department, according to the
“We are enormously grateful to Secretary Bessent, Senator Grassley, and all of the members of Congress for their leadership and trust,” Shapley and Ziegler said in a joint statement. “We have been motivated by one singular mantra: do what’s right, and do it the right way. It has not been easy, but having a clear conscience is worth the effort. We appreciate the opportunity Secretary Bessent is giving us to put our experience and firsthand knowledge to good use for the American people to eliminate waste and reform the IRS.”
Turkey’s Treasury and Finance Ministry is using artificial intelligence to track down money earned by psychics and fortune tellers as part of a broader drive to combat the informal economy and boost tax revenue.
The ministry has turned its attention to the rapid growth of online services such as astrology, spiritualism, star charting, magic, meditation and numerology — many of which operate without clear regulation.
According to state-run Anadolu Agency, AI technologies have been engaged to track digital footprints across multiple platforms, including social media, online payment systems and messaging services such as WhatsApp and Telegram.
The initiative builds on Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek’s wider
Although earlier efforts to rein in government spending yielded limited results, Simsek’s operation has increasingly focused on revenue generation through measures such as taxing multinational corporations,
An investigation flagged 1,034 individuals as “high risk” and uncovered 1.8 billion liras ($50 million) in undeclared income between 2021 and 2023, Anadolu reported. In addition, 295 individuals were found to be operating without the requisite taxpayer registration.
In a statement on X, Simsek
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board today appointed members of its two advisory groups: the Investor Advisory Group and the Standards and Emerging Issues Group.
The IAG was established by the PCAOB to provide investors’ perspectives on the Board’s agenda. The SEIAG was also established by the PCAOB to advise on existing standards, proposed standards, potential new standards and some emerging issues. Members are appointed for two-year terms.
“Advisory groups bring insightful and valuable feedback to the PCAOB to support our investor-protection mission,” PCAOB chair Erica Williams said in a statement. “We thank all IAG and SEIAG members for their willingness to serve and for sharing their valuable time and perspectives with us.”
IAG appointments
Terms expiring Dec. 31, 2026:
- Steven Grey
- Satyam Khanna
- Steven Lipiner (He was appointed to the IAG for a one-year term to replace a member who stepped aside prior to the completion of their two-year term, and his term will expire Dec. 31, 2025.)
- Jeffrey Mahoney
- Amy Copeland McGarrity
- Sandra Peters
- Nemit Shroff
- Gary G. Walsh
Continuing members
Terms expiring Dec. 31, 2025:
- James Andrus
- Mary M. Bersot
- Jonathan Grabel
- Ken Goldman
- Tracy Sophia Harris
- Paul O’Brien
- Sanford Rich
- Gina Sanchez
SEIG appointments
Terms expiring Dec. 31, 2026:
- Preeti Choudhary
- Brian Croteau
- James Freis, Jr.
- Robert Hirth, Jr.
- Steven Lipiner (He was appointed to the SEIAG for a one-year term to replace a member who stepped aside prior to the completion of their two-year term, and his term will expire Dec. 31, 2025.)
- Jeffrey Mahoney
- Jamila Abston Mayfield
- Sandra Peters
- Laura Phillips
- Stephen Rivera
- Kurt Schacht
- G. Alan Skinner
- John White
Continuing members:
Terms expiring Dec. 31, 2025:
- Christine Davine
- David Fabricant
- Colleen Theresa Honigsberg
- James Hunt
- Jennifer R. Joe
- Carole McNees
- Steven Morrison
- Dane Mott
- Christian James Peo
- Shivaram Rajgopal
- Kecia Williams Smith
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