Blog - Earmark CPE

How Accounting Firms Can Win Attention When AI Writes Everything Else

Your firm can now use AI to produce 100 social posts in minutes. But if those posts sound like everything else in a prospect’s feed, no one reads them. That’s the challenge Micky Deming sees across accounting firm marketing. Micky founded Full Stadium Marketing and has worked in the field…

AI can fly your month-end close, but you still have to land it

It’s the third of the month. Bank statements have posted. Payroll exports and loan schedules are ready, and the close checklist is about to consume another week of staff time. Now imagine Meridian already imported the activity, reconciled the balance sheet accounts, booked the accruals, and rolled forward the supporting…

Is your generosity being treated as an entitlement?

Madeline Reeves spent more than four hours building a custom proposal. Her company, Fearless Foundry, had already completed the client’s branding, website, and marketing launch. Now the client wanted the team to take over everything. Madeline reviewed the new scope step by step and heard no objections. Then she sent…

The fugitive accountant who hid for six years in plain sight on the Appalachian Trail

In March 2015, Hayden Krumm sat on his couch watching a rerun of American Greed. The episode featured James T. Hammes, an accountant who stole $8.7 million from his employer and disappeared six years earlier. Krumm recognized him. He’d hiked with that face and photographed it. But on the Appalachian…

How Accountants Can Separate Real AI Gains From Financial Hype

A French property company added €20 million of expected AI savings to earnings before those savings happened. Meanwhile, a new audit firm uses technology to test client data throughout the year. Both stories fall under “AI in accounting,” but one is questionable and the other changes how the work gets…

AI Can Prepare the Work, but Humans Still Own the Risk

An off-the-shelf AI agent opened two general ledgers, compared the balances with prior-year returns, built book-to-tax workpapers in Excel, and entered two business returns into TaxAct. It even found and corrected errors in the tax software. The process took a few hours. Yet the most important step was still human.…

How to prove your quality control system works under PCAOB QC 1000

The manual is thick. The policies are complete. A partner oversees independence, the firm conducts an annual inspection, and every process has a sign-off page. On paper, the firm appears to have quality under control. Then the same inspection finding returns for the third year. “We fix the documentation, we…

IFRS 18 changes the story your income statement tells

Two companies operate in the same industry, under similar conditions, in the same year. One includes share-based payment expense in operating profit; the other excludes it. One includes a goodwill impairment; the other presents it below that line. Both comply with IFRS, yet investors end up “comparing apples to oranges,”…

Three questions every tax firm should ask before new technology touches client files

Grady, the owner of Lighthouse Accounting LLC in the episode’s case study, has a capacity problem. In the previous episode of Tax in Action, he considered hiring employees, outsourcing work, or selling his firm. Now he’s asking, “What if technology could solve the problem?” New software might automate some of…

How to write audit work papers that still hold up five years from now

Early in her career, Meredith Mednick, CPA, CA, completed an audit procedure, got a result she liked, and decided to document it later. Later came. The client had moved on, the files had been reorganized, and Meredith’s senior wanted a step-by-step explanation before signing off. Meredith had only a sticky…

Audit Assertions Are the Difference Between Doing Procedures and Proving Something

In her first week at an accounting firm, Meredith Mednick, CPA, CA, looked ready. She had a new laptop bag, a carefully planned business-casual outfit, and the determination to start strong. Then Dana, her confident third-year senior, dropped a binder on her desk and said, “We’re starting our audit with…

One year after an accounting firm acquisition: What DBA retained (and what it changed)

A 72% client-retention rate might make an accounting firm owner wince. But that number doesn’t tell the whole story. Nearly one year after Dillon Business Advisors (DBA) acquired Enterprise Business Solutions (EBS), DBA expected to retain about 95% or more of the acquired firm’s $1.5 million revenue base. The combined…

How to find, trust, and use your own voice

We know what to do when the records and reality don’t match. We follow the discrepancy, ask questions, and keep digging. But what happens when the gap isn’t between the books and the bank statement? What if it’s between the person we present to the world and the person we…

How an imaginary inheritance secured a $15 million loan

Banc of California gave Mary Carole McDonnell’s loan its lowest internal risk rating. The borrower on the other side of that “safe” deal had a 545 credit score, a history of check fraud, a judgment of roughly $2 million, and an injunction tied to an unpaid loan. News reports said…

AI Is Rewriting the Economics of Accounting Software

Intuit just reported $21.4 billion in annual revenue, 14% growth, and about $4.5 billion in profit. Wall Street punished the stock anyway. On Episode 503 of The Accounting Podcast, hosts Blake Oliver and David Leary examine why with Hector Garcia, a CPA, firm owner, and QuickBooks educator. They also speak…

How to keep Intuit Experts from duplicating the work your firm already does

Alicia Katz Pollock wore her “Strange New Worlds” T-shirt from Scaling New Heights to record this episode of The Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast for a reason. QuickBooks Live is gone as a brand, and Intuit is restructuring how its employees help QuickBooks users. As of July 29, 2026, Intuit Expert…

Is the QuickBooks Online Price Increase Buying Your Clients Anything?

A QuickBooks Online user took to Reddit to complain that Intuit raised his price by 41% without giving him anything new. Alicia Katz Pollock saw it differently. Standing in her bathroom, she dictated a multi-page response listing features that shipped during the past year. She calculated the user’s increase at…

The Bayou Hedge Fund fraud turned credibility into a weapon

On June 9, 2008, a white GMC Envoy sat abandoned near the Bear Mountain Bridge, about 40 miles north of New York City. The keys and a bottle of pills were inside. Traced through the dust and pollen on the hood were three words: Suicide is painless. The vehicle belonged…

Your Firm Feels Broken When the Business Model Doesn’t Match Your Values

Between 2017 and 2019, Sandra Koch was searching for a way to fix what she called her “broken accounting firm.” She tested popular industry models, including selling tax plans. Instead of finding clarity, she felt confused and stressed. The approaches required her to become someone she wasn’t. That experience raised…

The Case for Building Your Accounting Career Around the Person You Are

Halfway through the second day of an accounting conference, Jean Zick often feels her brain slow down. The lights, conversations, and crowded schedule drain her energy. Her type-A instinct tells her to attend every session because she paid to be there. But experience tells her to take a break. That…

Post Archive