When an accounting firm announces an acquisition, the industry responds with congratulations and LinkedIn likes before quickly moving on. But for the acquiring firm, that’s when the real work begins and when most deals quietly succeed or fail.
In a recent episode of Who’s Really the BOSS?, Marcus and Rachel Dillon sit down with Amy McCarty, MBA, to discuss what actually happens after signing on the dotted line. Having completed two acquisitions in 2025—one in January and another on October 1—the Dillon Business Advisors (DBA) team shares the specific decisions, timelines, and hard-won lessons that transformed signed deals into a unified firm.
When “Growth, Not Comfort” Means More Than You Bargained For
At the start of 2025, Marcus proposed “growth, not comfort” as DBA’s rally cry for the year. Rachel and Amy thought he meant leadership development and personal growth. They discovered later he had something else in mind entirely.
“You totally tricked us,” Rachel tells Marcus during the podcast. “You said it was completely about leadership growth and personal and professional development. You never let on that this was really about revenue, team size, acquisitions.”
Marcus’s real motivation was building the budget to hire director-level talent. The firm brought on Angel Sabino as Director of Technology in January and Arin Neucks, CPA, CFP, as Director of Tax and Financial Planning in August. Supporting these hires required top-line growth, and acquisitions offered the fastest path to it.
“To have the budget to do great things, the top line had to grow a little bit,” Marcus admits with characteristic understatement.
The first acquisition closed in January with a longtime friend from a consulting organization. It was intentionally small, what Marcus calls a “dip your toes in the water acquisition.” They retained most of the revenue and one excellent team member who now has a clear career path at DBA.
After news of the January acquisition spread through their St. Louis market, other firm owners approached them directly, asking to be considered for future acquisitions. By Q2, DBA was in serious discussions about a second acquisition that would be three times the size of the first.
The First 30 Days: Change Nothing (Except Communication)
The October 1 acquisition created an immediate challenge because it closed just two weeks before the October 15 tax deadline. DBA’s response was counterintuitive but crucial: they changed almost nothing.
“The biggest changes for them are the name of the company that they worked for changed, and where they’re getting their paycheck from changed,” Amy explains. “But otherwise, same clients, same daily functions.”
This restraint matters because acquired team members arrive in a fundamentally different situation than new hires. A new employee has time to learn systems and absorb culture. An acquired team member comes with a full client roster and deadlines that can’t wait. DBA’s standard two-week onboarding stretched to four to six weeks for acquired teams, with the timeline threaded between ongoing client work.
The single exception to the “change nothing” rule was communication infrastructure. Getting the acquired team into Microsoft Teams became the only day-one priority, even though the acquired firm ran on Google and Slack. Angel worked his technical magic to make it happen.
“That is where we live from an internal communication standpoint,” Amy notes. Without unified communication, the teams coordinated work via email, creating delays and missed context they couldn’t afford during the integration.
This stability was possible because they laid the groundwork long before closing. In late September, DBA visited the acquired team in person to present job offers and handbooks. Rachel initially thought this pre-close access seemed risky. She learned it’s actually common practice. Some private-equity-backed firms even begin data migration before deals close.
Days 31-60: Methodical Technology Migration
After maintaining stability through the October deadline, DBA began the complex work of technology consolidation. The preparation made all the difference.
When Angel joined as Director of Technology, he knew acquisitions were coming. Within 30 days—while tax season was underway—he built an enterprise-level Azure environment from scratch. This meant when October’s acquisition arrived, DBA had infrastructure ready to absorb new users rather than scrambling to build it during integration.
Similar tech stacks between firms simplified everything. Both acquired firms used Thomson Reuters UltraTax and QuickBooks Online, matching DBA’s setup. This synergy was a factor in acquisition decisions.
Where systems differed, results varied. Intuit’s realm consolidation tool worked beautifully. Marcus migrated all the acquired firm’s QuickBooks accounts from his phone’s hotspot while driving to his child’s swim meet. ADP proved more challenging because they wanted to re-onboard clients with new signatures. Rather than confuse clients, DBA maintained two separate ADP logins and will migrate opportunistically over time.
Client communication platforms required careful handling. Both acquired firms used Liscio, while DBA uses Canopy. For the January acquisition, DBA kept Liscio running through tax season before transitioning. The October firm had already been planning its own Canopy migration.
“We told them, ‘We love that you’re going to be on Canopy. Why don’t you hold off on that migration for now?”‘ Marcus recalls. “Because we’re going to have to migrate everything into DBA anyway.”
For systems they couldn’t immediately eliminate, Amy reduced subscriptions to the minimum level rather than canceling them completely. “It’s like when you clean your closet, and you turn the hanger the other way,” she explains. “If you don’t ever use it, then you need to get rid of it.”
Protecting the Cash Flow You Bought
“From a business owner standpoint, I would much rather talk about getting paid and sales and receipts and deposits over tax returns and general ledgers,” Marcus says bluntly.
The revenue structure of the October acquisition required immediate attention. Two-thirds was monthly recurring revenue with auto-drafted payments. Without intervention, that money would continue to flow into the previous owners’ bank accounts.
Rather than rushing clients onto new systems during integration chaos, DBA kept the acquired firm’s payment processor running for three months. The previous owners were a husband-and-wife team, with the husband joining DBA. They agreed to reconcile deposits and forward funds within days. This required an enormous amount of trust, built during 90 days of pre-close due diligence.
The arrangement had a natural endpoint. Monthly clients’ annual agreements expired with their January payment, creating a perfect transition moment. DBA sent new engagement letters with updated payment information to all DBA clients, using the acquisition as a catalyst for firm-wide standardization.
Alison Sharp, the operations and administrative professional who came over from the acquired firm, proved invaluable during this transition. She handled client communications about payment changes, maintaining continuity for clients who knew and trusted her.
Looking Ahead to Tax Season and Beyond
As 2026 begins, DBA faces its first full tax season serving both acquired client bases. The January-acquisition clients are returning for their second year, while the October clients will experience DBA’s processes for the first time.
“It’s going to be a fun tax season,” Amy says with a laugh that suggests “fun” might be understating the challenge.
The integration work continues, but with infrastructure in place and teams unified in communication and technology, DBA has transformed two separate acquisitions into growth that actually supports their expanded director team, even if that wasn’t quite what Rachel and Amy thought they were signing up for with “growth, not comfort.”
For accounting firms considering acquisitions, the DBA team’s experience shows how crucial it is to invest as much in planning the 90 days after closing as you do in the months before. The deal terms matter, but integration execution determines whether you build something lasting or buy an expensive headache. Listen to the full episode for all the details.
Rachel and Marcus Dillon, CPA, own a Texas-based, remote client accounting and advisory services firm, Dillon Business Advisors, with a team of 15 professionals. Their latest organization, Collective by DBA, supports and guides accounting firm owners and leaders with firm resources, education, and operational strategy through community, groups, and one-on-one advisory.