Read
News, M&A insight, expert advice and practical guidance for modern firms.
When the junior stops asking the partner, how do they learn?
As AI tools revolutionise tax research for first-year accountants, a crucial learning gap emerges. While juniors benefit from instant answers, the traditional process of cultivating judgement and critical thinking is at…
BAS agents are asking a question about agentic AI that the regulators have not answered
BAS agents are raising critical questions about the regulatory framework surrounding agentic AI in tax services, especially as technology advances.
Admiin named Australian AI Awards finalist as AI reshapes accounting admin
Admiin has been recognised as a finalist in the AI Innovator - Start Up category at the Australian AI Awards 2026, highlighting its role in transforming accounting administration.
Growth can hide a loss. One firm's filings show how.
Retinue Accounting's rapid growth masked a staggering financial collapse, revealing the importance of tracking client profitability rather than just revenue.
8 client meetings worth recording, and 3 your firm shouldn't
An AI notetaker that joins every meeting by default is a setting, not a policy. This guide sorts client meetings into the eight worth recording, from scoping to handovers, and the three to leave alone, then turns the…
Recording in-person client meetings: consent, kit and a file note
Recording an in-person client meeting gets you an accurate file note without typing through the conversation, provided you get consent first. This guide covers the recording and privacy rules in AU, the UK, the US, NZ,…
How long should your firm keep client meeting recordings?
The file note is the record an accounting firm keeps; the raw recording is a working file that privacy law expects you to delete once it has done its job. This guide sets out the record-keeping and privacy rules in six…
What to ask any AI notetaker vendor about your clients' data
Eleven due-diligence questions an accounting firm can send any AI notetaker vendor, covering training, sub-processors, residency, retention, access, certifications, breach notice, exit, meeting bots and integrations.…
AI meeting notes and professional indemnity: help or hurt?
An AI meeting note that someone has read, corrected and signed off is one of the strongest file notes an accounting firm can hold, while one nobody reviewed can undermine a defence to a negligent advice claim. This…
Vinyl reaches 500 accounting firms in its first 12 months
Vinyl, the AI meeting intelligence platform for accounting and bookkeeping firms, has onboarded its 500th firm 12 months after launch, across Australia, the UK, the US, New Zealand and Canada. It has shipped Client…
Vibe coding your first app: a practical guide for accountants
We built a Xero file-readiness dashboard in Lovable in an afternoon. Here's how, the moment it confidently got the bank reconciliation wrong, and what it takes before your team relies on an AI-built app.
AI client onboarding for accounting firms: what to hand off
AI can take on most of the paperwork in onboarding a new client: the scope note, the document request, the completeness check and the welcome sequence. Identity checks, risk decisions and client acceptance stay with a…
ChatGPT prompts for bookkeepers: 15 for work the ledger can't do
Bank feeds and ledger rules already do the matching. These 15 prompts cover the work around the ledger that still eats a bookkeeper's week, with the data rules that apply before anything gets pasted in.
Bookkeeping jobs in 2026: where the work is and what it pays
This is not a job board: it is the context a listing leaves out, from the official statisticians in the US, UK and Australia. Bookkeeping is a large occupation with flat or falling headcount where most openings come…
Bookkeeping certification in 2026: Australia, the UK and the US
Whether you need a bookkeeping certification depends on the country: Australia makes TPB registration a legal gate for BAS work done for a fee, the UK requires anti-money laundering supervision to run a practice, and…
Your first 90 days of AML/CTF, now it’s live for accountants
Enrolment and a program on paper were the first milestones. This is the operating guide for what comes next: running customer due diligence inside onboarding, handling existing clients, reporting without tipping off,…
Compliance deadlines for accounting firms: 2026-27 calendar
Every regulatory date between September 2026 and December 2027 that lands on an accounting or bookkeeping firm in Australia, the UK or the US, checked against the regulator's own pages. Each country gets a timeline and…
10 MCP servers accountants can connect to AI today
Ten MCP servers an accounting firm can connect to Claude, ChatGPT or another AI assistant as at September 2026, grouped by the job they do: ledger, practice data, proposals and billing, payments, CRM and the inbox. Each…
How to brief a new firm website in an hour (with a template)
A copyable website brief template for owners of accounting and bookkeeping firms, whoever builds the site: yourself, a freelancer, an agency or a template. It covers the decisions only the firm can make, from ideal…
Should your accounting firm publish its prices online?
Whether to publish prices is a decision about which enquiries you want and which conversations you are willing to have before the first meeting. This guide lays out the trade-offs, the four positions a pricing page can…
How to raise your prices: the timeline, the letter, the pushback
Most firms that know they are underpriced delay the increase because they fear the conversation, not the number. This guide covers how to decide who moves and by how much, the notice timeline, a fee increase letter…
How to buy an accounting firm: from first search to year one
Buying an accounting firm is mostly a bet on whether its clients will stay, so every stage from search to integration should be built around retention. This guide covers where practices for sale are found, the due…
What an accounting firm website needs on every page
Most accounting firm websites fail the same way: they say what the firm is, not who it helps or what happens next. This guide goes page by page through what each one must do for a prospect, for Google and for AI answer…
How a partner buy-in works at an accounting firm
A partner buy-in at an accounting firm buys a capital account, a share of goodwill and a slice of future profit, and how each is valued and paid for decides whether the deal works. This guide walks the incoming partner…
Accounting practice benchmarks: 9 numbers that tell the truth
Revenue and the bank balance tell you what already happened. These nine numbers, calculated from the practice-management and ledger data you already have, tell you why, and what to change next month.
The future of accounting in 2027: what the data says
A data-led look at the future of accounting in 2027, built from surveys, regulators and The Firm's own reporting rather than prediction. AI use is near universal but planning is not, the talent pipeline is thin and…
What the negative gearing changes mean for the client considering a knock-down rebuild
The recent changes to negative gearing rules, effective from 1 July 2027, significantly impact clients considering knock-down rebuilds.
Why did software vendors stop listening to us?
A bookkeeper's post about accounting software vendors that stopped listening, and about years of unpaid beta testing, community support and partner-tier downgrades, drew near-total agreement in a practitioner group.…
Your client connected Xero to AI. Now what?
More clients are connecting their Xero files to Claude, ChatGPT and home-built AI tools, and practitioners are split between "their data, their risk" and cleaning up the journals. The three kinds of connection and where…
Get paid before you send the draft: the four rungs of collection
A client took the figures off a draft return, lodged it themselves and skipped the bill. The four rungs of collection, and what to change in the engagement letter and onboarding.
Accounting conferences 2027: dates and verdicts by country
A running calendar of the accounting and bookkeeping conferences worth knowing about for 2027 in Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom, plus what is left of 2026. Every date, venue and ticket figure was…
How to assess a new AI model without losing a week to it
A major model now ships every few weeks and assessing each one properly is not sustainable without a fixed process. Six checks, run in about two hours, produce a decision rather than an opinion, and GPT-6 Astra is the…
Tax and CAS in one platform: what it saves, what it locks in
Accrual's purchase of Puzzle's firm business rests on the argument that tax and client accounting services live in separate systems and firms rebuild context every time an engagement crosses between them. The crossing…
AI can now drive your accounting software. Three things to fix
GPT-6 Astra, released on 3 September 2026, operates software through the interface instead of through an API, which puts every system in your firm in reach whether or not it has an integration. The capability is real,…
An AI drafted a tax return from a W-2. Now price your work
OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra launch on 3 September 2026 included the model completing a federal tax return in a browser from a W-2. The task it automated is the cheapest part of a compliance engagement, and the useful response…
Your software vendor just got acquired. Five questions to ask
Accrual announced on 2 September 2026 that it is acquiring Puzzle's accounting-firm technology and business, splitting the company along a customer boundary and leaving firms on the firm-facing product with a migration.…
How to integrate an accounting firm after an acquisition
Most buyers pour their effort into diligence and treat integration as something that begins on closing day, which is where acquisitions of accounting firms quietly lose the revenue they just paid for. This is a working…
AI in Practice Summit returns on 11 and 12 November 2026: what worked, what's next
The Firm's AI in Practice Summit is back on 11 and 12 November 2026: two days, twelve sessions, one track, free and online. Day one is what firms actually built with AI in 2026 and what it returned. Day two is what to…
Advisory Amplified 2026: dates, cities, cost and whether it is worth your day
Advisory Amplified runs a six-city US tour of one-day events from 22 September to 9 October 2026, at roughly US$149 to US$199 a ticket with 6 CPE credits per stop. Here are the confirmed dates and venues, what happens…
Every Xero App Awards 2026 winner and finalist, in one place
Xero announced the 2026 App Awards at Xerocon Denver: six global categories, plus regional winners for Small Business and Practice App of the Year across eight regions. Here is the full winner and finalist list with a…
Xerocon Denver 2026: every announcement, and what it means for your firm
Xerocon Denver ran 19-20 August 2026 at the Colorado Convention Center. Where London was the agentic AI reveal, Denver was the US build-out: Gusto-powered payroll, native bill payments, Melio expense management and…
Vinyl passes 100,000 recorded hours as firms hand over the work after the meeting
A meeting notetaker for accountants passed 100,000 recorded hours in June 2026. What firms now hand over after the meeting: follow-up emails, notes filed to Karbon or FYI, missed service work.
Xero wants accountants to mentor small businesses for free. The profession is asking why.
Xero's new initiative, Xero For Good: Financial fitness, aims to enhance financial literacy among Australian small businesses by offering free resources and mentorship from accountants.
What Anthropic's new AI watermark means for tax practitioners
Anthropic's introduction of a digital watermark for AI-generated content through Claude Sonnet 4.6 significantly impacts tax practitioners, enhancing the visibility of AI involvement in their work.
Turn client meeting conversations into draft proposals in one click
A beta integration turns a recorded client meeting into a draft Ignition proposal in one click, built from the firm’s own service library and pricing. How it works and how it is rolling out.
Why I built our AI systems in-house instead of buying them
The decision to build AI systems in-house rather than purchasing them has proven invaluable for my Brisbane firm. By developing our own solutions, we retain ownership of critical context, leading to enhanced operational…
The £24,000 opportunity hiding in one client meeting
In every client meeting lies an untapped advisory opportunity, as illustrated by a £24,000 chance discovered in a simple conversation. By focusing on key signals such as client goals, pain points, and emotional cues,…
How I built a tax intake tool in forty minutes with eleven prompts
In just forty minutes, the author transformed a complex tax intake tool into an efficient app using Lovable, demonstrating how practice owners can quickly develop their own workflows with just eleven prompts.
How to scope an AI project so it actually ships
Successfully scoping an AI project requires clarity in problem definition and realistic expectations in project scope. Many AI initiatives fail not due to inadequate models, but from unclear objectives and overly…
I sold my firm to hedge against AI. Here's what I learned.
Why Onside’s owner sold the UK firm to Multiplier Holdings to hedge its AI risk and stayed on, and the three questions to answer first: client expectations, equity and a ten-year view.
Real Firms, Real Builds: What Accountants Are Creating With AI Vibe Coding Right Now
In a recent panel at The Firm's AI in Practice Summit, three accountants shared their journeys of creating effective internal tools using AI vibe coding, despite initial coding challenges.
AI tools are giving tax advice. Accountants should be behind them.
AI tools are now providing tax advice, often without qualified accountants behind them, raising concerns about accountability and reliability. As AI's influence grows, the accounting profession must step up to ensure…
What does a bookkeeper actually do in 2026? (And what AI changed)
The data-entry bookkeeper of 2015 barely exists anymore: bank feeds and AI absorbed the keying, and what's left is review, systems and client management. Here's what the role actually involves in 2026, when a business…
The AI month-end close, step by step
A tool-agnostic, day-by-day walkthrough of a month-end close with AI folded into the steps where it genuinely earns its place: reconciliation triage, accrual prep, variance commentary drafts and checklist automation.…
Accounting outsourcing: the firm owner's honest guide
A practical guide to accounting outsourcing for firm owners: onshore, offshore and hybrid models, what actually delegates well, realistic cost ranges as at mid 2026, and the security and client-communication questions…
Accounting careers in 2026: paths, pay, and where the profession is actually heading
A practical map of accounting careers in 2026: the four main paths (public practice, Big 4, industry, cloud-native firms), typical pay in the US, Australia and the UK, and what AI is really doing to entry-level work.…
Marketing an accounting firm in 2026: what actually brings clients in
An honest ranking of the five channels accounting firms use to win clients, backed by 2025 survey data showing referrals still dominate at 58%. It also explains the AI-search shift (AEO) in plain terms and gives small…
AI and the IRS rules: what US accounting firms can and can't do
US firms can use AI in tax practice, but Section 7216 makes unauthorized disclosure of client tax return information a crime, and the IRS made clear in June 2026 that Circular 230 duties apply in full to AI-assisted…
AI for Canadian accounting firms: CPA Canada's position, PIPEDA, and what's actually allowed
Canada has no dedicated AI law, so Canadian accounting firms using AI answer to PIPEDA, provincial privacy statutes like Quebec's Law 25, and their provincial CPA code of conduct. This guide explains what the regulators…
Client consent for AI: what to tell clients, when to ask, and the letter to send
Whether you need client consent to use AI depends on where you practise and what data you feed the tool: US tax preparers face a criminal statute, while AU, UK and Canadian firms mostly work from professional codes and…
No results
We looked. Nothing matched.
Try a broader term, or browse the week's most-read instead.
Browse most read →- The best accounting newsletters Which newsletters earn the inbox space, and how many you actually need.
- How to choose accounting software for your firm A decision guide for practices choosing their own stack — not for clients picking a ledger.
- Australian accounting voices worth following Who to follow in Australian accounting and what each is genuinely good on — not a recycled American list.
- UK accounting voices worth following Who to follow in UK accounting and what each is genuinely good on — not a recycled American list.
- US accounting voices worth following Who to follow in US accounting and what each is genuinely good on — not a recycled American list.
- Canadian accounting voices worth following Who to follow in Canadian accounting and what each is genuinely good on — not a recycled American list.
- Am I caught by AML Tranche 2? The designated-services test in plain English — many firms panicking about this are not in scope at all.
- KYC for accounting firms What to collect for individuals, companies and trusts, and what the pre-commencement relief actually buys you.
- What to charge for AML compliance The five pricing models firms are using, where the cost really sits, and how to introduce the fee.
- Bookkeeper vs accountant: what’s the difference? Which one your business needs first, where the roles now overlap, and what AI changed about both.
- Payday Super: what changed for your practice The seven-day receipt rule, Qualifying Earnings, and the clearing house closure most coverage buries.
- Payday Super: what changes in your pay runs The pre-run checklist, why the deadline is receipt not submission, and the clients who break first.
- What to charge for Payday Super work Payroll went from four super events a year to one every cycle. Five pricing models and where each breaks.
- Accounting software price changes: a running tracker Every announced price and licensing change across Xero, MYOB and others, and what each costs a practice.
- Accounting firm consolidation: what is driving it Private capital, the succession gap and a rising compliance load — and what it leaves you to decide.
- AI for accountants: what actually works The stacks compared honestly, an adoption playbook, and every piece of our AI coverage in one place.
- How to start an accounting firm Ten steps from niche to first hire, with registration, PI insurance and AML rules in six countries.
- How to start a bookkeeping business Niche, BAS agent and AML rules by country, software, pricing method and first clients.
- SEO for accountants: a practical guide Google Business Profile, service pages, reviews, AI answers and Search Console, without hiring anyone, plus how to judge an agency.
- Marketing for accountants: channels by firm stage Referrals, website, search, LinkedIn, newsletters and events, which suit your stage, and what to measure.
- CPE requirements for CPAs: a firm owner’s guide How CPE works by state, ethics, free CPE that counts, and how to plan and track it across a team.
- Making Tax Digital for accountants MTD for Income Tax in a UK practice: authorisations, client segments, quarterly capacity and how to price it.
- Registering as a tax agent or BAS agent You first, then your practice: sufficient number, PI, CPE, the 2024 Code and annual renewal.
- Professional indemnity insurance for accountants Who must hold it in six markets, what it covers, and run-off when you sell or retire.
- Outsourcing for accounting firms Offshore teams vs outsourced work, what to send, the economics as a method, and client consent rules in six countries.