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Accounting Firms Boost Profits by 10% Without Losing Clients—Here’s How

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Are outdated billing practices holding your accounting firm back? 

While many firms see proposal and payment systems as necessary yet purely administrative, forward-thinking practitioners are discovering their immense potential to reshape client relationships—and boost profitability.

In a recent Earmark Expo webinar, Tom Maxwell of Ignition showed how modern engagement systems do more than simply streamline operations. They fundamentally change how clients perceive and value accounting services. Forward-thinking CPAs are eliminating accounts receivable, implementing annual price increases, and shifting from after-the-fact billing to genuine value-based partnerships.

The results are striking: Firms report implementing 10% annual price increases with no negative impact on client acceptance rates. More importantly, they’re building stronger relationships rooted in transparency, clarity, and mutual respect.

Below, we explore how these systems turn traditional billing bottlenecks into opportunities for transformation.

The Billing Bottleneck: More Than Just a Payment Problem

For many accounting firms, getting paid feels like an administrative hassle. However, according to Tom Maxwell, this challenge runs deeper—right to the heart of client relationships and firm profitability.

After talking to thousands of firms, Tom identified three main reasons clients struggle to see the true value of accounting services:

  1. Mandatory compliance work: Clients often see compliance as a “must-do” rather than a “value-add.”
  2. Expertise gap: Clients rarely grasp the depth of expertise required for high-quality work.
  3. Value disconnect: When billing happens long after services begin, clients lose sight of the direct benefit.

The result is a vicious cycle of payment delays and weaker client relationships. But forward-thinking firms find that modern engagement systems address both the practical and psychological barriers head-on—starting with the first client interaction.

Transforming Client Engagement from Day One

Modern engagement systems reshape the client experience right from the start, setting clear expectations and articulating value. Gone are outdated PDF proposals, manual credit card processing, and clunky engagement letters—all of which can subtly lower the perceived value of your services.

Instead, clients receive a digital, professional proposal that:

  • Clearly lays out services and value
  • Offers up to three package options with different billing frequencies
  • Guarantees payment authorization before work begins

“My favorite feature,” Tom says, “is that clients must enter payment information before accepting the proposal. That ensures you get paid for your services before you even get started.”

This process is also more secure—no more mishandling of credit card details. Once clients accept a proposal, they receive a signed engagement letter, and their payment information is securely stored for future billing. This streamlined approach does more than save time; it also signals professionalism and shifts the conversation from awkward payment requests to demonstrating tangible client value.

From Reactive to Proactive: Managing Dynamic Client Relationships

With a rock-solid foundation in place, modern systems empower firms to become more proactive. They not only enable systematic price increases but also enhance client relationships.

“We found that Ignition customers were increasing prices by about 10% on average in the past year,” Tom explains. “And when we added the feature enabling a standard price increase, there was no change to proposal acceptance rates.” 

These tools also end stressful negotiations around scope creep or service changes. Firms can quickly update both service levels and pricing, and automated billing continues seamlessly. Every adjustment is tracked for full transparency, reducing tensions and letting both parties focus on a healthy working relationship.

Integrated workflows further enhance automation. For instance, if you integrate payroll data, your fees can automatically scale based on fluctuating employee counts—so you’re always fairly compensated as client needs evolve. By treating billing adjustments and scope changes as a routine, expected part of the engagement, firms solidify their value without appearing adversarial or inflexible.

Embracing Modern Engagement Systems: The Path to Business Transformation

This evolution—from billing bottleneck to strategic asset—goes beyond operational efficiency. It marks a foundational shift in how firms approach client relationships.

By tackling the practical and psychological pain points of billing, modern engagement systems let you focus on what truly matters: delivering measurable value. The evidence is clear:

  • Accounts receivable evaporates
  • Annual fee increases of 10% become standard—with minimal client pushback
  • Client relationships strengthen through transparency and respect

Watch the full Earmark Expo to see these tools in action. You’ll see how industry leaders implement automated billing, consistent price updates, and stronger client relationships—freeing them to concentrate on higher-value, growth-oriented services.

The future favors firms that view proposal and payment systems as strategic levers for better, more profitable client relationships. The question isn’t if you should upgrade your engagement systems—it’s how soon you can begin.

The Future of Financial Reporting Is Already Here – And It’s Automated

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If you’re like most accountants, you spend countless hours updating spreadsheets, reconciling data between systems, and generating financial statements. Month-end close often involves manual data entry, copying and pasting, and time-consuming validation checks. However, recent advancements in automation tools mean those days may be numbered.

During a recent Earmark Expo webinar, G-Accon showcased how its Google Sheets add-on integrates seamlessly with cloud accounting platforms like QuickBooks Online, Xero, FreshBooks, and Sage. The demo highlighted a new era of accounting workflows—one in which real-time synchronization, automated data processing, and detailed reporting can dramatically reduce manual effort and give accountants more time for higher-value advisory work.

Below are the biggest insights from the live demonstration—and how they could reshape your month-end process.

Automated Reporting & Dynamic Templates

One of the standout features is how G-Accon handles financial reporting without storing any data on its own servers. Each time you refresh a report, G-Accon reaches directly into your accounting platform to pull in current numbers. By relying on live data, accountants always see the most up-to-date figures.

But the real magic lies in the template-based system. Rather than manually reconfiguring date ranges or reapplying custom formulas each time, you can define a structure once and let G-Accon handle the rest. Need to show net profit margin or custom KPIs on the P&L? No problem. Create the formula once, and it stays anchored even when new rows (like newly created accounts) appear.

“You don’t have to open each and every template,” explained G-Accon Chief Operating Officer Yelena Tretyakova. “You come here, change your formula in one place, and it updates everywhere.”

This means you can manage multiple sets of financial statements—like P&Ls, balance sheets, and cash flow statements—in a fraction of the time. Dynamic date ranges, color-coded negatives, and company logos can be baked right into your templates, giving clients professional-looking reports with zero repetitive effort.

Bulk Data Upload & Validation

Another common pain point is manual transaction entry. Whether you’re reclassifying expenses, correcting chart-of-accounts mappings, or posting large journal entries, uploading changes line by line is error-prone and labor-intensive.

G-Accon tackles this by allowing bulk uploads from Google Sheets to be directly uploaded to QuickBooks or other platforms. With one click, you can push thousands of lines—bills, invoices, journal entries, time activities—while G-Accon enforces validation rules. If the system detects an unbalanced journal entry, for instance, it flags the row and prevents erroneous data from ever reaching your GL.

You can also automate modifications in bulk. For example, if multiple transactions need a new class or department code, simply download them to a sheet, change the class code, and push them back. Each row’s status is tracked in real-time so you can see exactly which transactions were posted successfully.

“If you have errors because your debits and credits don’t balance, you’ll see that directly from QuickBooks,” Yelena noted. “You can go back, fix the row, and re-upload.”

Multi-Entity Consolidation & Intercompany Eliminations

For firms managing multiple clients—or businesses with multiple subsidiaries—the ability to consolidate is critical. G-Accon supports multi-entity consolidation by pulling data from all connected organizations, unifying it in Google Sheets, and even converting foreign currency amounts where needed.

Crucially, it also supports intercompany eliminations and grouping of accounts. If entities use different account names or numbering conventions, G-Accon lets you create elimination rules and group accounts under a shared heading (e.g., “Operating Expenses”). You can then generate consolidated P&Ls, balance sheets, and cash flow statements that neatly combine or exclude specific line items across multiple organizations.

“If you create new account codes in your chart of accounts, G-Accon picks that up automatically,” Yelena explained. “For multi-entity consolidation, you can map or group different accounts and then eliminate intercompany transactions.”

This streamlined approach removes a huge source of manual reconciliation and ensures you always have an accurate, real-time view of your organization as a whole.

Pre-Built KPI Dashboards

G-Accon also comes bundled with a set of pre-built KPI dashboards. With just a few clicks, you can stand up a visual snapshot of a company’s financial health, showing revenue, expenses, margins, and more. The underlying data is continuously refreshed from QuickBooks or other accounting systems, so these dashboards always display the latest numbers.

Best of all, these templates are fully customizable. You can add or edit charts, incorporate industry-specific metrics, or layer in additional Google Sheets formulas. Because everything lives in Sheets, you have the flexibility to adapt each dashboard to perfectly match client needs.

Workflow Automation & Detailed Logs

While automated reporting and bulk data uploads are huge time-savers, the workflow automation component ties it all together:

  • Scheduling: Set daily or hourly refresh intervals for reports.
  • Alerts: Configure custom triggers (e.g., email stakeholders if monthly expenses surpass $10,000).
  • Report Distribution: Automatically email dashboards or PDF statements to management or clients.
  • Backups: Generate snapshot backups of your Google Sheets file to preserve historical data.
  • Webhooks: If you want to connect with other applications or processes, G-Accon supports inbound/outbound hooks.

What’s more, G-Accon provides a detailed operations log showing every automated action taken. This means you can skip the frantic spreadsheet checks—simply look for “Success” or “Error” in the log to verify your tasks completed correctly.

“If you have 200 different reports, you’re not going to check each tab,” said Yelena. “You come here and see all actions in the log file.”

Real-World Use Cases & Pricing

Accountants use G-Accon for a wide variety of tasks, from month-end close to budgeting and forecasting. Franchise owners leverage multi-entity consolidation to handle dozens of stores; nonprofits integrate with QuickBooks to create advanced dashboards for board members; and businesses that run large volumes of transactions can bulk upload journal entries for year-end cleanups.

All features are included at every plan level. Pricing scales based on how many companies (entities) and users you need, so smaller firms can start affordably and expand without losing any functionality as they grow.

Move Beyond Manual Processes

Interested in exploring these automation capabilities further? Watch the entire Earmark Expo for a deep dive into G-Accon. You’ll see how easily you can move past traditional spreadsheet drudgery and deliver truly value-added advisory services to your clients.

Automation in Payment Management: A Game Changer for Accountants

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For decades, accountants have had to schedule payments days in advance, juggle multiple bank logins, and painstakingly track every invoice and bill to ensure vendors get paid on time. That outdated process is rapidly changing, thanks to new platforms that leverage real-time payment rails like FedNow and RTP (Real-Time Payments). These innovations promise to streamline payments, reduce risk, and free accounting professionals to focus on strategic advisory services.

During a recent Earmark Expo, Forwardly CEO Nick Chandi joined hosts Blake Oliver and David Leary to showcase how accountants can tap into these instant payment rails. Below are the highlights from the conversation, illustrating how a platform like Forwardly can upgrade your payment processes—without requiring a drastic overhaul of your accounting systems.

FedNow and RTP: The Dawn of Real-Time Payments

The U.S. payment infrastructure is evolving. FedNow is the Federal Reserve’s new service enabling near-instant settlement—often in under a minute—while RTP (offered by The Clearing House) also provides real-time capabilities. According to Nick, about 77% of bank accounts are already covered by one or both of these rails, making real-time payments more accessible than ever.

But what if a payer’s bank doesn’t support instant payments yet? Forwardly’s fallback is same-day ACH—at no charge—ensuring no disruption in payment flows. This approach guarantees the fastest possible route for every transaction without complexity on the user’s end.

A Single Dashboard for All Clients

One of the biggest challenges for accountants is managing payments across multiple clients, each with their own bank accounts and approval chains. Forwardly consolidates all this data into a single dashboard, showing:

  • Real-Time Bank Balances: Aggregated balances across each client’s accounts, updated continuously (via Plaid, when available).
  • Outstanding Bills and Invoices: Pulled from integrated accounting systems such as QuickBooks Online, Xero, FreshBooks, and Zoho.
  • Approvals at a Glance: Quickly see which bills need sign-off and where each payment stands in the workflow.

No more guessing whether there’s enough cash on hand—Forwardly’s system checks and balances before processing bills. The platform sends a warning if a payment is scheduled but funds are insufficient. For accountants, this level of visibility is a huge step toward proactive cash flow management and strategic advisory.

Four-Way Sync and Flexible Integrations

For those who already maintain invoices and bills in QuickBooks Online or Xero, Forwardly automatically pulls those records into its dashboard. Conversely, if you create an invoice directly in Forwardly, it syncs to your ledger. Nick described a “four-way sync” feature that can even pass invoices from a QuickBooks user to a Xero user, bridging two different accounting systems.

What about clients on QuickBooks Desktop or those without a formal accounting system? Forwardly allows you to accept or send payments by connecting directly to a bank account. This flexibility means you can standardize real-time payment processes for all your clients, regardless of their tech stack.

Auto-Payments and Approvals

Recurring invoices can be an accountant’s headache—especially if payment amounts vary. Forwardly addresses this with “auto-payments.” After requesting client authorization via a white-labeled form, the platform automatically collects any invoice that appears. You can also schedule future payments or pay right at the due date, minimizing the float time and optimizing cash flow.

The system enforces proper controls via robust approvals. You can set multi-step thresholds (e.g., payments over $5,000 require two sign-offs). Only when the last designated approver clicks “okay” does the money move. In a nonprofit or multi-partner environment, this ensures checks and balances without bogging you down in manual processes.

Simple, Transparent Pricing

Forwardly’s pricing reflects its focus on instant payments:

  • Instant Payments (FedNow or RTP): 1% of the transaction, capped at $10 per payment.
  • Fallback Same-Day ACH: Free when instant rails are not available.
  • Credit Cards: 2.99% + $0.25 per transaction to get paid on invoices. You can choose to pass through the credit card fee to your customer.

Because same-day ACH is free, you only pay a fee when an instant transaction goes through. This keeps costs low while delivering the speed your clients want—no monthly fees or subscription costs are required. Also, another added benefit is that paying bills with Forwardly is free and it takes only 60 seconds. 

Enhanced Role Permissions for Accounting Firms

Firms often need to assign different levels of responsibility to staff. In Forwardly, an Admin or Advisor role carries “superpowers,” meaning they can bypass approval workflows if necessary. A Payment Manager can schedule or initiate payments but cannot override set thresholds. A Reviewer can view details without being able to approve or send money. Each user can be assigned different permissions for different client files, making it easy to stay compliant and maintain sound internal controls. You also get an unlimited number of users at no additional cost.

Transforming Accountants into Payment Strategists

In the demo, Blake and David underscored how real-time payments free accountants to offer more proactive advice to clients. Instead of guessing when to cut checks or dealing with delayed receipts, you can precisely time cash outflows and inflows. You’ll know within seconds whether a transaction succeeded, and you can immediately confirm the date and time in the ledger.

With manual drudgery reduced, accountants can shift their focus to cash flow forecasting, budgeting, and even advisory on optimal payment timing—turning what used to be a cost center into a high-value service offering. By adopting real-time payments, you enable your clients to pay (and get paid) at the speed of modern business.

Looking Ahead

Currently, Forwardly caters exclusively to B2B transactions. Nick explained that personal (consumer) payments are not yet part of the platform. However, expansions to other ERP systems like NetSuite and Sage Intacct and potential consumer capabilities are on the roadmap.

Ready to Upgrade Your Payment Process?

Payment automation isn’t just about moving money faster; it’s about transforming how accountants serve their clients. From centralized dashboards to auto-payments and real-time visibility, modern tools like Forwardly make handling everything from daily bills to large, time-sensitive transactions easier.

To learn more and earn Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credit, watch the full Earmark Expo session. Once you see how effortless real-time payment management can be, you’ll never go back to five-day lead times and manual checks.

Transforming Tax Advisory with AI: Bridging the Gap Between CPAs and Clients

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What if you could transform complex tax strategies into clear value that clients appreciate?

As a tax professional, you’ve probably spent countless hours developing strategic tax-saving initiatives, only to find that your clients don’t fully grasp the value of your work. They see only the final numbers on their tax returns, unaware of your intricate strategies to save them money. 

This disconnect can impact your firm’s profitability and hinder the growth of valuable advisory relationships. That’s why effectively communicating the value of your advisory work is more important than ever.

Transforming Invisible Tax Work into Tangible Client Value

Traditional tax practices face a big challenge: your most valuable work often remains invisible to clients. It’s buried in work papers and lost among tax compliance details. In a recent Earmark Expo, FortunAI founder Bilal Mehanna showed how AI-powered tax advisory tools make this value visible and understandable.

“We’re shifting the mindset from an expense perspective to an investment perspective,” Bilal explains. With an easy-to-use dashboard, clients can see projected income, tax due, and implemented strategies in real-time. For example, a client who invested $22,000 in advisory services saw a return of $247,000 in tax savings—a 1,000% ROI.

The system provides detailed “receipts” of value, tracking every strategy implemented and the corresponding tax savings. Quarterly reports include visual aids like 10-year projection graphs, making long-term value easy to grasp. These reports break down tax projections by quarter, show year-over-year revenue changes, and display marginal and effective tax rates—helping clients understand the immediate and long-term effects.

“Most of the time, the strategies you implement for the client are put in an Excel sheet and then forgotten after a year,” says Bilal. “Now you have a system that keeps all the records.”

AI as Your New Partner in Tax Advisory

While documenting strategies is essential, integrating AI takes your tax advisory services to the next level. As an intelligent assistant, AI learns from client preferences and history to suggest relevant tax strategies. It maintains professional standards by sourcing information from verified authorities like IRS websites and professional tax publications.

“Think about having another assistant, another tax professional helping you, guiding you into strategies, reminding you of certain things,” says Bilal. The system uses a feedback loop that learns what each client prefers. If a client is interested in oil and gas investments, the AI suggests related incentives and strategies.

This AI assistance does more than make suggestions. It helps you quickly research and understand complex strategies, offering summaries and detailed analyses—all within the platform. When you find a potential strategy, you can read a concise description or dive deeper into comprehensive research, streamlining your workflow and saving time.

“One of the biggest pain points with professionals is that the client forgot about my strategies last year, or the year before,” Bilal points out. “This is just a consistent reminder: I saved you this much money in taxes this year and last year and the year before.”

Practical Steps to Leverage AI in Your Practice

Enhancing client relationships with AI doesn’t have to be difficult. Here are the steps you can take:

  1. Implement AI-Powered Tools: Use platforms like FortunAI to automate strategy documentation and show real-time value to clients. This can make your advisory services more efficient and impactful.
  1. Regularly Communicate Value: Provide quarterly reports to keep clients engaged and informed about their tax planning progress. This creates ongoing conversations instead of once-a-year meetings, strengthening trust and satisfaction.
  1. Leverage AI for Strategic Insights: Let AI help you identify and suggest new planning opportunities that match client preferences. This proactive approach can set your firm apart.
  1. Educate Your Team: Use the platform as a training tool to share knowledge across your firm. This ensures consistent service delivery and value communication, even as your team grows or changes.

Evolving Service Delivery and Pricing Models with AI

When you demonstrate value, it changes how you structure and price your services. “People want to pay for the planning… and don’t want to pay for the compliance,” notes Bilal, highlighting the shift in how clients perceive value. By consistently showing the ROI of your advisory work, you can confidently move away from pricing based solely on compliance tasks.

FortunAI’s per-client pricing model supports this value-based approach. “If the system saves just one hour of professional time per client, it pays for itself,” Bilal explains. This affordable pricing lets firms enhance client relationships by consistently demonstrating value.

“We’re not just going to disappear on you for the whole year and tell you to pay a tax bill,” says Bilal. “We’ll send you updated reports. Those things matter to the client, and there are no surprises.”

Your Next Step: Implementing AI to Bridge the Communication Gap

The communication gap has long prevented tax practices from capturing the full value of their advisory services. AI-powered tools are now bridging this gap, allowing you to document, demonstrate, and deliver value throughout the year. By automating strategy documentation, enhancing planning with AI, and regularly communicating value, you can transform client relationships, justify higher pricing, and build stronger client loyalty.

Ready to transform how your firm communicates value to clients? Watch the on-demand Earmark Expo session to see these tools in action. You’ll earn CPE credit while learning practical strategies for implementing AI-powered advisory tools in your practice.

The Key to Overcoming Nonprofit Accounting Challenges

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Nonprofit accountants face a tough situation: they must meet strict demands from donors while not overloading their organizations with overhead. Donors want detailed tracking and reporting for restricted funds but also want to keep administrative costs low. This creates a challenge for CPAs who help these nonprofits.

During a recent webinar, Srikar Chinam, CEO of KarmaSuite, shared how accountants can assist nonprofit clients in alleviating the administrative burden of grant management with the right technology.

The Nonprofit Accounting Challenge

Traditional financial models fail in the nonprofit sector. Srikar explains, “In the nonprofit world, you can’t just calculate revenue minus expenses equals profit or loss because your revenue is restricted and might not align with your spending plans.” 

This mismatch leads to three primary challenges:

  1. Labor-Intensive Grant Management: Each donor has unique budget categories and terminology. For example, one might separate “staff salaries” and “staff benefits,” while another labels it “personnel.” Finance teams spend countless hours manually adjusting data to fit each donor’s requirements.
  2. Optimizing Fund Usage: Program teams may overspend or underspend without clear visibility into grant restrictions, causing constant reallocations. Nonprofits often scramble to spend grant money before it expires while lacking funds in other areas.
  3. Difficulty in Forecasting: Restricted revenues that don’t align with operational needs make forecasting nearly impossible. This leads to fundraising teams overfunding certain programs while underfunding others, thus resulting in unrestricted funds being used up sooner. 

These issues can lead to serious consequences. If you don’t track and document your expenses properly, you may have to return grant money. This is often accompanied by word spreading around on how your nonprofit was the reason why the donor couldn’t meet their impact goals for the year.

Transforming Grant Management with Technology

By using systems like KarmaSuite, nonprofits can simplify their compliance processes and make tracking expenses and reports much easier and more efficient.

Centralized Fund Repository

A centralized system acts as a main reference point for all information related to grants. Instead of setting up complicated sub-accounts, organizations can connect categories specific to donors with standard accounts. Srikar highlights that many government grants need clear explanations on how the money will be spent. The system automatically ensures that these guidelines are followed, making sure that funds are used correctly.

Real-Time Compliance Monitoring

Automated systems can quickly spot mistakes. In a demonstration, Srikar explained how an expense, which was mistakenly linked to a City of Oakland grant, was flagged right away because it didn’t match the related program. This kind of immediate detection helps avoid expensive errors that could be noticed later during audits.

Streamlined Reporting

Automated reporting takes the hassle out of handling data by removing the need for manual changes. This means organizations can quickly create reports tailored for individual donors, and those involved can easily access current information without changing anything, which lightens the workload for finance teams.

Automated Allocations

The only way to show the donor you’ve been compliant with grant restrictions is to manually allocate each expense to a funding source. This is extremely tedious and complex due to grant restrictions and grant expiration dates. KarmaSuite translates all grant restrictions into mathematical equations, understands the context of each expense, and allocate 100’s of expenses in seconds.  

With this automation, accountants can shift their focus from managing details to providing strategic advice. This helps their clients improve the way they manage grants and make the most of their available funds.

Enabling Strategic Decision-Making

The real benefit of these solutions is that they help people make better decisions based on data.

Quick Scenario Modeling

Imagine a board meeting where someone brings up the possibility of a $1 million grant from the county for a new location. “Previously, you’d have to get back to them in weeks,” Srikar says. “Now, you can add expenses for the new location, include the pending grant, create a scenario, run the allocations, and see your funding gap—all during the meeting.”

Visual Indicators for Funding Gaps

KarmaSuite uses color-coded indicators to highlight areas needing attention:

  • Red: Funding gaps
  • Yellow: Expiring excess funds

This level of detail helps organizations see where they have extra resources or where they might be lacking, even within the same program, due to specific rules tied to their funding.

Strategic Fundraising and Planning

Organizations can explore different future scenarios, from cautious to hopeful, helping them plan for a range of possible outcomes. This ability changes how they approach fundraising, allowing teams to focus on specific needs instead of vague targets. When they need to ask donors for adjustments, they can use clear data to explain exactly what changes are needed and why.

These tools also help accountants become better advisors, guiding their clients on how to make the most of their funds and ensure that their financial activities align with their mission.

Turning Compliance into a Strategic Advantage

By using comprehensive financial management tools, nonprofit organizations can turn the challenges of managing grants into a valuable opportunity for growth.

Benefits for Nonprofits

  • Improved Compliance: Centralized management ensures adherence to all donor restrictions.
  • Reduced Administrative Overhead: Automation eliminates manual tracking and reporting.
  • Enhanced Decision-Making: Real-time data supports strategic planning and resource allocation.

Opportunities for CPAs

  • Strategic Advisory Role: Shift from compliance monitoring to providing strategic insights.
  • Optimized Fund Usage: Help clients make data-driven decisions to maximize impact.
  • Mission Alignment: Support clients in aligning financial practices with their core mission.

Watch the Webinar for More Insights

Excited to see how KarmaSuite can change the game for you? Check out the complete Earmark Expo webinar! Learn how you can assist nonprofit organizations in managing their grants more effectively.