Accounting Firms
You know compliance revenue has a ceiling. Saying you do advisory isn’t selling it.
Productize continuous monitoring as a subscription. Cherry Bekaert’s Finance Modernization and Aprio’s data and AI practice already ship.
The pressure accounting firms are facing right now.
Compliance Commoditization
Compliance work, the foundation of most firm revenue, is being automated faster than anyone expected.
Client Disintermediation
Clients see AI doing their bookkeeping and wonder why they need a CPA firm at all.
Advisory Pricing Gap
Advisory services are the obvious pivot, but nobody on the team knows how to price or sell them.
74%
of corporate tax clients want their firm using AI; 32% know if it is.
Thomson Reuters Institute 2026
19%
of tax firms can measure the return on their AI spend.
Thomson Reuters Institute 2026
31
partner roles were cut at BDO UK amid AI pressure, with profits down.
Luxembourg Times, 2026
Assessment
See how your firm compares.
Eight minutes. You get an assessment showing where your firm has real commercial gaps, how you compare to peers in your vertical, and a report you can take to your next partner meeting.
See where you standWhat firms like yours are designing in the Workshop.
Most firms feel the itch and start experimenting: a few tools, a pilot, a project that looked promising on paper. The expensive version is finding out a year in that clients won’t pay for it. Whether you’re still deciding where to start or already two pilots in, the Workshop narrows what you take to your clients before you commit more budget to building it.
Every engagement is different. Your team’s domain expertise is the input. These are the kinds of offerings accounting firms leave with, specified and priced. Your team tests them with named clients, then builds what earns it.
Continuous-monitoring advisory subscription
A productized monthly offering where AI runs always-on financial monitoring and the firm sells the strategic interpretation.
Fractional CFO advisory
A productized monthly retainer tied to a defined fractional-CFO scope, sized for clients Big Four won’t profitably serve.
Related reading
YC Just Published the Playbook for Replacing Your Firm
Y Combinator is teaching founders to build AI-native services companies that sell outcomes in tax, audit, law, and insurance. Its four targeting criteria double as a diagnostic for which of your services are exposed.
What the Billable Hour Was Hiding
For decades the hour bundled execution and judgment into one number, and nobody had to pull them apart. AI changed that, and most firms still can’t say how much of their rate is which.
Questions
The Big Four invested more than $10 billion in AI since 2023, and they’re targeting mid-market clients that never justified their fees before. AI-native companies like Rillet are building to close books without accounting firms at all. Sequoia Capital mapped accounting as a $50–80 billion autopilot opportunity. The Big Four’s spend hasn’t bought everyone time.
Continuous-monitoring advisory subscriptions, fractional CFO retainers, and AI-powered tax planning sold on value rather than hours. Cherry Bekaert shipped Finance Modernization in May 2025. Aprio launched its data and AI practice in April 2026. Industry pricing data puts proactive advisory retainers at $1.5K–$5K per month per client.
93% of firms now say they offer advisory, up from 83% (Future Ready Accountant Report). Almost none have changed their pricing or sales motion to actually sell it. Firms that have made the shift earn 30%+ higher monthly recurring revenue than compliance-focused firms. Compliance work has a ceiling whether you bill it hourly or not.
340,000 accountants left the profession in five years. 75% of CPAs are approaching retirement. BDO UK cut 31 partner roles amid AI pressure while profits fell (Luxembourg Times, April 2026). Senior judgment is scarcer; productizing it captures margin that compensates for missing leverage.
Only 19% of tax firms measure AI ROI; 41% don’t know if their firm does (Thomson Reuters Institute 2026). Firms with a formal AI strategy are 3x more likely to see positive returns. The measurement gap is the opening.
Rillet is building to close books without accounting firms at all. The Big Four are using AI to extend reach into mid-market clients that never justified their fee structures before. Sequoia Capital mapped accounting as a $50–80 billion autopilot opportunity. Domain expertise still matters, but for firms that translate it into offerings before someone else does.
$15,000
A full day with your senior team, then 2–3 offering briefs. Test what clients will pay for before you build.
Book a conversation30 minutes with Shawn Yeager. No pitch.