Weekly Roundup

The FirmLever Weekly Roundup: Issue #51

The "Is My Firm Viable In 3 Years?" Edition

Marc Howard

Marc Howard

— 4 min read
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The FirmLever Weekly Roundup: Issue #51

Anthropic released ten finance agents this week.

Ten.

Three of them eat the work CPAs bill for: month-end close, financial statement audit, GL reconciliation.

They install in days, not months. They run inside Excel and Outlook – the tools your team already uses. No platform migration. No consultant. No system replacement.

A member called me asking the only question that matters: "Will my firm be viable in three years?"

I wrote a full take here: Anthropic Just Built An Agent For Month-End Close. My Reaction. (includes short demo video)

Short version: roughly 60% of firm revenue sits on commodity-work rails that just got automated – by the same companies your clients already trust.

Realization rates erode in eight quarters from here. The pivot is specialization, consolidation, or building a higher-margin book of business. Either way, this is something I'll be watching closely so you don't have to.

This Week's Numbers (the FirmLever Network)

On that note...if you haven't heard the news, the FirmLever Network is an accountant-only peer network for buying/selling and referring clients among firms. Invite-only. 100% vetted. 100% free if you're accepted (or get invited by a member firm). We launched it a month and a half ago and here are the latest numbers:

  • 326 admitted member firms on the platform to date
  • 223 firms still pending on the active waitlist
  • 548 firms have applied since launch
  • 43 states represented
  • $128M+ in combined member-firm revenue
  • 114 firm-to-firm connections formed
  • $2.45M+ in client book of business value listed since launch
Click for real-time map.

What's New This Week

1. The first six-figure deal officially closed.

Six weeks ago I told you about a $190K/yr outsourced CFO client that got claimed on the FirmLever Network within 3 hours of posting. That deal officially closed end-to-end in early April – a Pennsylvania firm transferred a California-based client to a peer in Florida. Three states involved. Both sides confirmed. First six-figure handoff on the platform.

Six more deals closed alongside it. Two highlights (anonymized):

  • One Virginia CPA picked up two referrals in the same week -- a Maryland audit handoff (the original firm couldn't service the Colorado client without a state license) and a North Carolina tax block where the seller's preparer had "gone AWOL" mid-season. Both self-confirmed handovers, no admin intervention.
  • And another deal closed just this Wednesday – a Florida bookkeeping referral with a construction-accounting need passed to a South Carolina firm with the right specialty.

Seven deals closed end-to-end since launch. Zero broker fees. Zero success fees. Members ran the deals themselves. All anonymized in keeping with platform privacy policy. Network members can see deals in their feed.

2. Five more Pulse polls closed. Two findings worth your time.

  • 71% of voting members had a more profitable 2025 tax season than 2024 -- with the same or fewer hours. The leverage gap between firms that priced and scoped well and those that didn't is widening.
  • 82% are now pricing new clients on fixed or value-based models. Hourly is officially a minority position.

→ Vote in the next one – one tap, anonymous, members-only

3. Specialty claims hit 1,402 across 255 firms.

Three weeks ago we opened 13 vetted, auto-matched specialty seats. They've gone from ~880 claims to 1,402 claims – about 5.5 specialties per firm on average.

Most-claimed:

  • M&A Advisory (73 firms)
  • Business Valuation (42)
  • Wealth/FP (40)
  • Estate Planning (30)

Still wide open (under 8 firms each): R&D Tax Credits, RSU & Stock Compensation, SALT, 1031 Exchanges, Retirement Plan Design, Forensic Accounting, High-Tech Compensation. If one of these is genuinely your specialty, you'll be one of two or three names that auto-match when a peer's client needs the work.

→ Claim your specialty

4. Optimizer's founding cohort still has seats.

Quick callback for anyone who missed last week's announcement. FirmLever Optimizer is the AI pricing diagnostic + advisory sales copilot my team and I built for the 62% of you who told us during onboarding that pricing was the one thing you'd most want help fixing (it literally tells you exactly what to say and what to do on closing higher-value advisory clients).

I was traveling this past week so onboarding resumes next week. A few founding seats are still open. Reply "Optimizer" and I'll send a 1:1 walkthrough scheduling link. (My apologies to those who have already expressed interest, I have not forgotten you and am still wading through the list since I personally verify fit).

Deal Flow Spotlight

Two listings members are competing on right now (both new vs last week's spotlight):

  1. $500K/yr Bookkeeping block out of the South Central US -- the highest-engagement listing on the platform to date. 28 firms have expressed interest since last month. Still open; seller has been selective.
  2. $100K/yr Tax Planning + Compliance block with a high-tech-comp specialty layer -- in active handover right now. RSU-heavy clients – a niche that just got its own seat in the new specialty list I mentioned above.

Click in and express interest if either fits. FirmLever Network charges no fees. Your name stays private until the seller accepts.

In Other News

Two other pieces I published recently:

One ask

If any of the above is useful, forward this to one peer who'd want it. Email me at marc@firmlever.com if you have something interesting our members would find helpful -- get it in front of over 1,000 firm owners who read this weekly.

If you're reading this from a forward and not in the Network yet -- line skip works the same way. Get invited by a current member, or apply directly.

That's it for week #51 of this newsletter.

Marc
Founder, FirmLever

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