Weekly Roundup
The FirmLever Weekly Roundup: Issue #51
The "Is My Firm Viable In 3 Years?" Edition
Marc Howard
Marc Howard, a serial entrepreneur in the accounting space is Host of the Pitch Your Firm podcast, founder of Firmlever, founder of Taxplow, Cofounder of BizPayO, and creator of Tax Advisor GPT.
AI and Accounting
Anthropic Just Built An Agent For Month-End Close. My Reaction.
Anthropic shipped ten finance agents this week, including a month-end closer and a statement auditor. I called a member firm to talk through it. The takeaway isn't what most CPAs think.
Operations
Accounting Firm Client Concentration Risk: The Three Thresholds That Decide Your Multiple
Client concentration is the single biggest reason buyers chop a firm's valuation. Three thresholds decide whether your book trades at a premium or a discount.
Wealth
600 advisors complained about CPA referrals. The CPAs answered them.
A BlackRock director's post pulled 75 comments, mostly from CPAs explaining why RIA referral relationships break. None of them named the third path that quietly erases the whole problem.
Weekly Roundup
The FirmLever Weekly Roundup: Issue #50
The 'It's Time to Fix My Pricing' Edition.
Pricing
The Underpricing Trap: How to Spot It and How to Fix It Before Year-End
Most firms aren't underpricing because they're bad at math. They're underpricing because they can't see the signals. Here's how to spot them and how to actually move fees.
Pricing
Accounting Firm Pricing Strategy: How to Increase Fees, Fix Margins, and Stop Leaving Money on the Table
Underpricing is the most common profit leak I see when firms run their numbers on FirmLever. The fix isn't a blanket rate hike, it's a sequenced strategy that protects retention while recovering margin fast.
Weekly Roundup
The FirmLever Weekly Roundup: Issue #49
The "More Money, Less Hours" Edition
Firm Strategy
Why the White-Label Tax Prep Model Is Eating the Midmarket
The margin math of why more U.S. firms are running a front-office/back-office split with offshore prep partners.
AI in Accounting
Juno Just Raised $12M to Automate 90% of Your Tax Prep. Here's What That Actually Means for Your Firm.
A new AI tax prep tool just raised $12M promising to cut return time in half. The interesting question isn't whether it works. It's what happens to your billable model when it does.
Specialist Guide
The CFO's 179D Checklist: Questions to Ask Before Engaging a Specialist
A practical vetting framework for CFOs and controllers evaluating 179D specialists. The right questions to ask about licensing, modeling software, audit defense, and fees before signing an engagement letter.
Firm Operations
Effective Hourly Rate and Utilization: The Two Numbers That Price Your Firm
Effective hourly rate isn't just a pricing check. It's the number buyers back into during diligence, and the one that caps what your firm sells for.