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News, M&A insight, expert advice and practical guidance for modern firms.
AI is now handling the meeting prep your team never has time for
Vinyl's new AI meeting tool revolutionises meeting preparation for accountants by automatically generating comprehensive pre-meeting briefs based on past client interactions and calendar agendas.
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
Vinyl has revolutionised the post-meeting workflow for accounting firms, recording over 100,000 hours of meetings and automating follow-up tasks.
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
Accounting firms can now streamline proposal creation with a new integration between Vinyl and Ignition, transforming recorded meetings into drafted proposals in just one click.
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.
In the evolving landscape of accounting, the author shares key insights from selling their firm to hedge against AI disruption. By aligning with tech partners, they emphasise the importance of understanding client…
Real firms, real builds: what accountants are creating with AI 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…
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…
AI for UK accounting practices: ICAEW and ACCA guidance, GDPR, and the practical path
UK accounting practices have more official AI guidance available than most realise: ICAEW has published a full generative AI guide, ACCA has a formal position paper, and the ICO has detailed guidance on AI and data…
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…
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.…
How much does an accountant cost? The honest guide for businesses (and what it says about firm pricing)
Typical accountant costs in 2026 across the US, Australia and the UK, from a few hundred dollars for a simple tax return to five figures a year for full-service business support. Plus the part most fee guides skip: how…
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.…
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…
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…
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 Python Scripts Accountants Are Quietly Writing (and How AI Writes Them for You)
In between "learn to code" courses and app-building platforms sits a middle layer almost nobody covers: tiny, single-purpose scripts that kill the 20-minute weekly chores in a tax practice. Practitioners are already…
Speech-to-text for accountants: talk three times faster than you type
Modern AI dictation tools like Wispr Flow and superwhisper turn messy speech into clean, formatted text in any app, and speaking is roughly three times faster than typing. This guide compares the main options on price,…
Claude vs ChatGPT vs Copilot: which AI should your accounting firm actually run?
A structured, practitioner-first comparison of Claude, ChatGPT and Microsoft 365 Copilot for accounting firms: pricing, business-tier data terms, real strengths and weaknesses, and firm-type recommendations. The honest…
25 AI prompts accountants actually use (not the LinkedIn kind)
Most "AI prompts for accountants" lists are recycled filler that produce generic output. These 25 are working prompts organised by the actual jobs in a firm (month-end, client communication, advisory, practice ops, tax…
The best AI meeting assistants for accounting firms, honestly ranked
We compared six AI meeting assistants (Otter, Fireflies, Fathom, Teams Premium, Zoom AI Companion and Vinyl) through an accounting firm's lens: file notes, workflow push, and where client data actually goes. Honest…
The one-page AI policy every accounting firm needs (write it this week)
Nearly every accountant is already using AI, but only about one in five firms has a written policy governing it, which means the real policy is whatever each person quietly decides at their desk. This walkthrough gives…
Agentic AI in Accounting, Explained (Before a Vendor Explains It to You)
Every accounting software keynote now says "agentic," and most of the audience is nodding along without a working definition. Here's what an AI agent actually is, which agents are real in accounting today versus…
What Copilot gets right for accounting firms (that the AI crowd won't admit)
The AI commentary crowd treats Microsoft Copilot as the boring choice, yet it keeps winning accounting firm deployments, often for rational reasons. This piece makes the honest steelman case: where Copilot genuinely…
ChatGPT for Accountants: What It's Actually Good At (and Where It Will Bite You)
ChatGPT is the AI most accountants actually use, usually on a personal free account their firm's policy has never heard of. Here's what it's genuinely excellent at, the specific ways it will bite you on numbers, tax and…
Is AI safe for client data? The accountant's straight answer
The honest answer to whether accountants can use AI with client data: yes, if you use business-tier tools and a handful of non-negotiable rules. The real risk is your process, not the model. We break down what ChatGPT,…
Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek and the rest: do accounting firms need a fourth AI?
Most accounting firms don't need an AI beyond Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot, but if your firm runs on Google Workspace, Gemini isn't a fourth option, it's your first. We take an honest look at Gemini's in-suite case,…
How to set up Claude Cowork in your accounting firm: the practical guide
A practical, step-by-step walkthrough for accounting and bookkeeping firm owners setting up Claude Cowork: from choosing the right plan and settling your client-data policy to connecting the first folders and…
MCP for Accountants, Explained (Without the Jargon)
MCP is the plug standard that lets AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT talk directly to the software your firm already runs, which is why Xero, Ignition and half your app stack suddenly mention it. Here's what it…
Xerocon Denver 2026: The Insider's Guide
Xerocon lands at the Colorado Convention Center on 19–20 August 2026, with Andre Agassi headlining and Xero fresh off an AI-heavy London show. Here's what's actually worth your time — the sessions, the expo triage, the…
Everything Xero announced at Xerocon London 2026 — and the three things that actually matter
Xero used Xerocon London to announce auto bank reconciliation, an AI agent builder, a mid-market tier and a stack of JAX features — most of them tagged "coming soon". We've sorted the announcements that will change your…
Five jobs I used to do by hand in Karbon. Now I just ask.
Discover how AI can streamline your accounting processes by turning client emails into actionable tasks in Karbon, all without manual data entry. This article explores five common tasks that can be automated, showcasing…
AI writes 10,000 lines of code in an afternoon. We still tell most firms to wait.
While generative AI promises to revolutionise accounting by rapidly producing code, the reality is more complex. The authors argue that firms should hold off on adopting these technologies hastily, as the risks of data…
The noise is all about Claude. Nine in ten firms are quietly staying on Copilot.
While many firms are captivated by Claude's innovative features, the majority remain loyal to Copilot for its security and structured environment. Both tools offer similar capabilities, but Copilot prioritises data…
I was my firm's biggest bottleneck. Now it runs on 40 apps I built myself
Two years ago, I transformed my accounting firm by building over 40 apps to eliminate my role as the bottleneck. This journey highlights the accessibility of app development, empowering accountants to create efficient…
No AI is ever going to jail for you
In the evolving landscape of accounting, AI is often overhyped for its capabilities, yet it neglects critical human factors like apathy and fear. As trust remains the key asset for accountants, the true challenge lies…
The Firms Pulling Ahead Aren't the Ones With the Most Software
In a landscape flooded with accounting software, the key to success lies not in the number of tools but in optimising people and processes. Firms that focus on structuring roles effectively and aligning their teams with…
98% of accountants already use AI. Only 1 in 5 are doing it on purpose.
Despite 98% of accountants using AI, only 21% have a formal strategy or policy in place, leading to inefficiencies. This article explores how firms can optimise AI use, highlighting the importance of structured SOPs and…
I can't write a single line of code. I've built 17 apps this year anyway.
This article reveals how a chartered accountant, with no coding skills, successfully built 17 apps in a year by leveraging AI and simple planning techniques.
Anyone can build a pricing tool now. That's exactly the problem.
Many accounting firms struggle with pricing, often undervaluing their services due to a lack of structured frameworks. This article highlights the importance of building a comprehensive pricing tool that incorporates…
Ignition + Vinyl + Claude: I Built 2 Proposals in Under 4 Minutes Using MCP
Creating proposals in Ignition can be streamlined dramatically using the new MCP, which connects AI like Claude to automate tasks in just minutes. This innovative approach not only saves time but also allows for…
Generating AML Risk Assessments Using AI in Minutes
From 1 July, firms must conduct AML risk assessments for clients, but traditional forms can be cumbersome. This article reveals how AI can streamline the process by generating assessments from recorded onboarding calls…
The AI in Practice Summit ran for 18 hours. She watched every minute, and walked away with a new plan.
The AI in Practice Summit offered 18 hours of transformative learning for Lorraine Ellison, a seasoned practice owner who found practical insights on leveraging AI tools for her firm. This free event challenged her…
Start Where You Are: What We Learned at the AI in Practice Summit
New to AI? You're in good company. 17 practitioners share how they're using AI in their firms — and how you can take a confident first step, whatever your starting point.
The most expensive employee at your firm isn't your tax partner
The hidden costs of your admin team can significantly inflate their perceived value, leading to a friction tax that may total around $900k annually.
Would you put Claude in charge of a $20M manufacturer's month-end close?
Kayley Perry's article highlights how AI, specifically Claude, is revolutionising the month-end close for a $20 million manufacturing business using NetSuite.
The real reason Intuit cut 3000 jobs
Intuit's recent layoff of 3,000 employees raises concerns about the future of accounting roles in light of AI advancements. However, the cuts primarily affected middle management, not those directly involved in AI…
Xero wants to run your month-end. The question is whether you'll let it.
Xero has introduced XeroForce, a no-code agent builder for automating financial workflows, allowing accountants to streamline tasks using plain English.
The profession spent twenty years tracking the wrong thing
The accounting profession has historically focused on financial metrics while neglecting the crucial client conversations that drive relationships. With the emergence of vast data from client interactions, firms can…
Most AI tools your firm buys will end up as silos. Here's how to spot them.
Many accounting firms struggle with SaaS tools that create data silos, hindering productivity and workflow integration. The Xero case study on Shapes highlights the importance of asking the right questions before…
Anthropic released ten AI agent templates this week. Five of them are built for accounting.
Anthropic's recent release of ten AI agent templates includes five specifically tailored for accounting tasks, such as month-end closing and GL reconciliation.
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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 accounting firms: what actually works The stacks compared honestly, an adoption playbook, and every piece of our AI coverage in one place.