Issue #43 - It's (almost) the most wonderful time of the year
...and you get to decide what it'll be + what every CPA must do before 2035
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
Dearest gentle reader,
Was it not just yesterday that we screamed “Happy New Year!” and promised ourselves this would be the year we got ahead of deadlines, nailed every client deliverable, and took that long-overdue vacation in Q3?
Yet here we are, another year in the books.
2025 asked a lot from you, and somehow, you showed up for your clients, team, and firm. You pulled long nights. You navigated messy handoffs. You reworked client expectations, built new systems (or at least tried to), and still found time to send a reminder email with grace.
But let us ask plainly:
Did you work on your workflow as much as you worked in it?
That’s the question we kept returning to during the EOY Workflow Reset sessions, and it’s the one we believe you must answer before tax season starts, writing the script for your year.
We brought together Justine Lackey, Kellie Parks, CPB, FCPB, and Nick Boscia, CPA, three firm owners who’ve stopped treating burnout as a rite of passage. They’ve each built systems that scale, protect team sanity, and help them lead with clarity.
What you’ll learn in the replays:
Justine maps out your first 90 days of 2026 so you start strong (and stay that way).
Kellie shows you how to create scalable systems your team will actually follow.
Nick shows you how to fix recurring workflow and rebalance work so Q1 doesn’t immediately become a bottleneck.
This is the blueprint for building a firm that runs with intention.
Let 2026 be the year your workflow works harder than you do.
👉 Watch the EOY Reset Series Replay
Community 🫶
Build a Buyer-Ready Practice with Adam Shay, CPA, MBA
It’s time to build a firm so operationally strong that buyers line up. A sellable firm runs on clear workflow, strong processes, and predictable operations.
Most firms run on memory, heroics, and constant reaction. When Adam built his accounting firm, everything ran through him; burnout, bottlenecks, and a team that couldn’t move without him.
Today, he coaches firm owners 1:1 and through group cohorts, helping them build sellable firms with strong operational strategies that support growth.
In this 5-day email course, you’ll learn the core elements of a buyer-ready practice and how to build simple SOPs so work gets done consistently without you.
Get the Free NSA’s 2024 Profit and Practice Report
The NSA’s 2024 Profit and Practice Report is packed with benchmarking data from accountants and tax preparers across the country. See how firms are pricing services, structuring fees, and building profitability.
With this report, you can compare your fees with national benchmarks, spot opportunities to grow revenue, and gain insights to position your firm competitively.
H🔥t today
Every CPA Must Triple Their Productivity by 2035 or Face Professional Extinction
David Wurtzbacher shared this projection on an episode of the Earmark Podcast. As the founder and CEO of Ascend, a private equity-backed platform that’s completed over three dozen firm acquisitions in just over two years, Wurtzbacher offers an outsider’s perspective on the profession.
According to him, demand for services continues to climb while the number of people entering the profession each year decreases.
To put this in perspective, a typical well-performing firm today generates around $200,000 in revenue per employee. Wurtzbacher’s projection means that the number needs to approach $600,000 per person within a decade. Even scarier? By 2035, roughly 85% of the profession will consist of people with ten years or less of experience in an industry where most say you can’t even make partner in that timeframe.
The Accounting Profession’s Status Is Under Review
So, quick accounting tea ☕️
There’s a proposal circulating that would essentially declare accounting no longer a professional degree, and the accounting world collectively responded: absolutely not.
Nine major accounting organizations, led by the AICPA and representing approximately 1.5 million professionals, have joined forces to push back. They sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Education expressing strong opposition to any draft regulation that would exclude accounting programs from a professional degree designation and urging that accounting programs be included as a professional degree in the proposed rule.
At a time when firms are facing staffing shortages, aging practitioner populations, and rising complexity in compliance and advisory work, de-incentivizing formal accounting education sends the wrong message to the next generation. It frames accounting as less rigorous, less essential, and less worthy of institutional support.
Swipe this workflow template
Swipe this Tax Planning Workflow Template by Laura Adams
Get more templates from firm owners like you in our community template library.
Meme
Relatable?😆
Firm Spotl💡ght
How Profit Constructors Run Multi-Firm Projects Without Things Falling Apart
Tonya founded The Profit Constructors after realizing that the traditional corporate environment no longer fit the life she wanted for her family.
With years of experience in construction accounting and a growing desire for a more flexible and remote-friendly work system, she set out to build a firm that operated differently.
After returning from a maternity break and struggling to ease into work, Tonya decided to use her expertise to create a virtual accounting practice that would give her and her team the freedom to work from anywhere.
When the company started, Tonya and her first staff could comfortably rely on their memories to manage projects because they had worked together for about 20 years; they understood themselves and what each client engagement required, even without spelling things out.
However, as they took on more clients and added staff, they now needed a system to document workflows and collaborate effectively, standardizing their processes across the board.
Events
📍Master the Intuit Bookkeeper Certification - Free Workshop (Today, 7 pm EST)
Margie Remmers-Davis is transforming accounting education by making learning hands-on, practical, engaging, and fun.
During the workshop, you’ll discover:
What the certification actually is (and what it’s not)
Who really needs it vs. who’s wasting their time
The fastest, simplest way to pass without cramming wrong material
How to use it to stand out to clients and employers
Seats are free, but they won’t last, and the live Q&A is where the real gold happens.
Noteworthy
How Stacey Feldman CPA Makes Sure to Fuel Properly Even with a Busy Schedule
In the thick of client demands, team responsibilities, and firm growth, Stacey Feldman, Partner/COO at Full Send Finance, has built a system for wellness.
What makes her approach unique isn’t the discipline (though there’s plenty of that). It’s how she treats her health as a strategic advantage, instead of something to deal with after the busy season. For Stacey, staying sharp means thinking ahead about everything from food to calendar to bandwidth. It means creating predictability in her day so she can lead with clarity.
If you’ve ever told yourself you’ll rest after this deadline, or wondered how to keep showing up for your team without burning yourself out, Stacey’s story is your reminder that taking care of yourself is a business decision.
15 Proven Accounting Firm Growth Strategies for 2026
Growth in 2026 requires more than new clients.
Clients no longer want you only for year-end cleanups. They seek guidance, clarity, and a trusted advisor who can translate financial data into informed decisions.
Also, remote teams are becoming more common. Talent shortages have made geographical hiring optional. Remote and hybrid teams open doors to stronger hiring, but they also require better systems for collaboration, oversight, and accountability. Firms that build for flexibility are the ones keeping their teams engaged and productive.
Growth right now takes smarter operations, modern software, and systems that can actually keep up. To help you navigate this shifting landscape, this guide outlines 15 practical strategies designed to foster your firm’s growth with confidence and profitability.
Happy Holidays, Friends 💚,
See you in 2026!
Killer insights on the 3x productivity requirement by 2035. Wurtzbacher's projection is sobering but spot-on, most firms are still running pre-2020 workflows while client complexity exploded. I've seen first-hand how firms that dont systemize early get bottlenecked by their best people. The $600k rev per headcount benchmark is actually doable if teams shift from reactive execution to proactive workflow design, which means ditching the hero-model fast.