Issue #42 - It's Tiiiiimmmmmeeee to Cut Off Things That No Longer Serve You
Welcome to "Get Work Done," where we discuss the complexities of efficiently running accounting and bookkeeping firms. Brought to you by Financial Cents and delivered to your inbox every 2 weeks.
Small Change, Big Results
Step Into 2026 With Systems That Support You
There comes a time when the status quo no longer feels tolerable.
You know it.
You recognize that something in your accounting firm needs to shift, yet every time you move toward that change, it slips out of reach. The reasons vary: client demands, staffing challenges, shifting priorities, but in the end, the result is the same. Another year passes without the systems you need to grow with intention.
At some point, though, the cycle becomes unsustainable. What once felt manageable begins to strain the limits of your capacity. The interruptions feel heavier, errors are more costly, and pressure is more persistent. The thought of heading into another year with the same gaps and frustrations becomes harder to justify.
That is precisely why the End-of-Year Workflow Reset Series exists.
It offers structured, distraction-free time to evaluate what has worked, what has not, and what must change before 2026. This month, the series is led by three industry experts who understand operational change as lived experience.
Justine Lackey will guide you through structuring your first 90 days of 2026 with intention, resetting your workflows ahead of the busy season, and utilizing real planning frameworks to map out Q1 deliverables.
Nick Bosica, CPA, brings a grounded, strategic perspective shaped by years of building and refining firm operations. His approach is practical, direct, and designed to help owners audit and tighten recurring workflows.
Kellie Parks, CPB, FCPB, is known for making processes accessible, scalable, and sustainable. Her systems-first methodology helps firms standardize their work in a way that supports both the firm owner and the team behind them.
Together, they provide a balanced, real-world framework for the work ahead, one that pairs strategic clarity with operational discipline.
If you feel the tension between where your accounting firm is and where it needs to be, this is your opportunity to bridge that gap. The stability, confidence, and structure you want next year begin with the decisions you make now.
👉 Sign up for the EOY Workflow Reset Series
Community 🫶
The Velocity Retreat With Justine Lackey
If you’re a bookkeeper or accountant who needs a strategic plan for 2026, consider this your official invite to Velocity, Justine Lackey’s half-day (FREE!) virtual planning retreat on December 11th from 12–4:30 pm EST.
Velocity is a community favorite for a reason: in just a few hours, you’ll walk away with:
A crystal-clear 2026 plan that feels achievable and exciting
A simple method to break big goals into tiny weekly actions
A gorgeous 2026 digital planning workbook you’ll use all year
A mindset reset that gets you out of the weeds and laser-focused on building your #dreamfirm
If you want 2026 to be the year you feel grounded and organized and gain real momentum, register for Velocity today. Your future self will thank you.
NexPath Coaching
NexPath Coaching helps organizations of every size create cultures where people understand each other, trust each other, and take ownership so that growth, collaboration, and results happen naturally.
They believe communication and leadership aren’t soft skills but the structure that holds everything together.
If you’re an accounting firm owner and want your team to take more ownership and improve collaboration, start here.
H🔥t today
What Will Accounting and Finance Look Like By 2040?
Daniel Burrus has quite a history as a futurist. Over the past 40 years, the New York Times bestselling author has delivered keynote speeches at more than 3,000 conferences worldwide, advised numerous Fortune 500 executives, and foretold scores of technology and business developments.
These predictions have not come via a crystal ball. They are the result of a methodology Burrus developed to identify trends and use those to anticipate what is most likely to happen in the coming years.
His anticipatory business model is a big reason why the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA) has teamed with Burrus on Finance and Accounting 2040: Rise to the Future Together, an ambitious attempt to envision what the world might look like in 2040 and what accountants in firms and finance departments may do to guide the profession to continued success over the next 15 years.
The AICPA has twice conducted visioning projects like Rise2040. The 1997 CPA Vision Project gathered more than 3,000 CPAs in 200 focus groups to plot the profession’s path through 2011. That report established a new purpose statement for accounting: “Making sense of a changing and complex world.”
Why Managed IT Services Make Sense for Accountants
It’s hard to imagine anything an accounting firm does is not tied to technology and processes; however, with so many firms still stretching the limits of dated technology, it is one of many reasons to consider utilizing managed IT services.
Cybercriminals become incredibly sophisticated, and it’s been made clear accounting firms—with all of the sensitive information they potentially have access to—remain a key target. In fact, according to IBM’s 2024 Threat Intelligence Report, professional services, including accounting, ranked among the top five most attacked industries, with an average breach cost of $5.9 million.
Another survey by the AICPA found that 91% of accounting firms experienced at least one attempted cyberattack in the past year. In the middle of this storm, the IRS tightened its own data security requirements.
Under IRS Publication 4557 and the FTC Safeguards Rule, every tax professional must maintain a Written Information Security Plan (WISP) and demonstrate ongoing security controls. This isn’t advisory anymore; it’s mandatory.
Swipe this workflow template
Swipe this Year End Reporting Workflow Template by Mélyssa Brunet (Workflow Champion 2025)
Get more templates from firm owners like you in our community template library.
Meme
Relatable?😆
Firm Spotl💡ght
How Strategic Tax Planning PLLC Reclaims Time to Serve More Clients
Strategic Tax Planning PLLC was still a side business when Carter Lance began searching for practice management software.
He learned a lesson many accounting firm owners discover too late: Technical accounting skills alone won’t lead to success if your workflow systems are manual and disconnected.
Carter was determined to help businesses create financial plans that met regulatory standards and enabled confident decisions through bookkeeping, tax planning, and fractional CFO services.
However, his search for a suitable workflow software led to an unpleasant realization: most tools were strong in some areas of accounting practice management but lacked in others. He wanted a tool that checked enough boxes and solved enough problems to warrant his financial commitment.
This decision to discontinue the search and continue with manual workflow systems opened the door to some of the worst challenges an accounting firm can face:
Events
📍Digital CPA 2025 - Dec.7 - 11 (Washington D.C)
Digital CPA (DCPA) is the place where the future of the profession is being shaped in real time. Hosted annually by CPA.com, a subsidiary of the AICPA, DCPA has spent more than a decade bringing together the firms, leaders, and innovators who refuse to settle for outdated ways of working.
If you want to stay ahead of the curve, this is the room you need to be in. You’ll hear directly from industry trailblazers, gain insights that can shift the direction of your firm, and see what’s coming long before everyone else does
📍 Ensuring Success 2025 - Dec. 10 - 11 (Virtual)
Ensuring Success is the end-of-year virtual conference that accountants and tax professionals don’t want to miss. Hosted annually by CPA Practice Advisor, this two-day live event brings together some of the most respected voices in the profession right when you need their insights most.
Designed to help you sharpen your expertise and secure those final CPE credits before the year closes, Ensuring Success delivers high-value sessions at no cost. You’ll hear directly from industry leaders on the topics that matter most—practice management, tax updates, accounting technology, workflow efficiency, and more.
Noteworthy
Sarah Won’t Let ADHD Stop Her Bop
If you were at the WorkflowCon 2025 after-party, you can attest to the fact that the jams were fire! All thanks to DJ Sarah Eldridge, an accountant by day and DJ by night.
However, she wasn't always like this.
Rewind three decades, and you’d find a little girl desperately trying to make sense of a brain that worked differently. A child who alphabetized her CD collection while other kids played outside. Who begged for calendars every Christmas and played “school” for fun when she got home from actual school.
One of Sarah’s biggest breakthroughs was understanding how her brain processes focus. Unlike many people who need quiet to concentrate, Sarah discovered she needs lots of noise. She took this discovery even further by learning to DJ and now creates her own mixes of dubstep and drum & bass music. When impostor syndrome strikes or work gets overwhelming, she puts on one of her creations.
The Art of Letting Go (Without Losing Control)
It’s the end of the year, and your accounting firm is buzzing with activity.
Clients are calling non-stop, emails are piling up, and your team is stretched thin trying to meet deadlines. As the firm owner, you find yourself working late nights, meticulously checking every detail, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks. The stress is palpable, and the bottleneck effect is in full force.
Every decision and task needs your direct input, leaving you overwhelmed and exhausted.
According to a study by Gallup, CEOs who delegate effectively generate 33% more revenue than those who don’t. This boost in productivity translates to more clients served, faster turnaround times, and, ultimately, higher profits. Consider how much more efficient your firm would be if routine tasks like data entry and initial client communications were handled by junior staff, freeing up senior accountants to focus on complex financial analysis and strategic planning.
Also, when your employees are entrusted with responsibilities, they feel valued and are more engaged. This empowerment leads to higher job satisfaction and retention rates.
Until Next Time,
I wrote my first post today. It was a hard one bc I was more vulnerable than I am comfortable with. But let’s start this new journey with some honesty!