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 an important question: What if recurring friction isn’t a sign that you need more discipline, another app, or a better implementation plan? What if the model simply doesn’t fit your values?
In a recent episode of Who’s Really the BOSS?, Sandra explains how she shaped Aurora Consulting Group around her beliefs about clients, employees, and work. Founded in San Diego in 2011, the firm is now based in Visalia, California. Sandra lives in Baja California Sur, Mexico, and leads a fully remote, six-person team spread across Mexico, California, and Indiana.
Aurora earns revenue in the low $700,000 range. It primarily serves service businesses with $1 million to $5 million in revenue, providing accounting, tax, advisory, and operations-management support.
Stop forcing someone else’s model onto your firm
For years, Sandra operated with a small team, but without the professional community and support system she later realized she needed. She looked outside the firm for answers and tried several approaches that didn’t work for her.
“If I try to twist myself into something I’m not, that’s inauthentic,” she says. “It’s going to fail.”
Her point isn’t that tax planning or any other service model is wrong. The problem comes when a model clashes with what you believe about client service, leadership, or work. Even strong execution can’t make a poor fit feel natural.
When your firm keeps “grinding gears,” consider asking:
- What do we believe excellent client service requires?
- What kind of workplace do we want to create?
- Which services truly help our clients?
- Do poor execution or poor alignment cause this frustration?
Once your values are clear, technology and operating decisions become easier to evaluate.
Let technology support the work
Aurora uses a practical, cloud-based technology stack. Karbon holds client work and email. Clients use QuickBooks Online, while the firm uses ProConnect Tax, Ignition, Ramp, and either Gusto or Rippling. The team also checks Google Workspace before purchasing another tool. Google Forms, for example, often meets its needs without an added subscription.
Sandra adopted cloud software early. After H&R Block purchased RedGear Technologies in January 2012, she had about two weeks to replace her tax software. Intuit was the only company that could import her client data within that window, so she moved to ProConnect. She also began testing QuickBooks Online before it included bank reconciliation because she believed Intuit would continue improving it.
The firm takes an equally practical approach to AI:
- Blue J supports tax and accounting research and helps explain technical topics to clients
- ChatGPT and Claude support creative, subjective, and organizational work. For objective claims, Sandra says, “It’s our job to prove it.”
- EasyLlama provides security, AI, empathy, and customer service training in one place
Technology supports remote work, but a healthy workplace requires trust and attention to people.
Build flexibility around real lives
Every Aurora role has a job description, but Sandra recognizes every employee is different. When one employee’s abilities and strengths didn’t match the role or Sandra’s expectations, the mismatch stressed the team.
Instead of pushing the employee to perform within the same structure, Aurora stripped down and rebuilt the role around the person’s strengths. “We couldn’t see it because of the chaos the mismatch caused,” Sandra explains.
That same care shapes the firm’s schedule. Everyone must attend the Tuesday team meeting at 10 a.m. Beyond that (and California wage-and-hour requirements), Aurora doesn’t require employees to work set days or hours. Employees block unavailable time on their calendars, communicate their schedules, and remain available for necessary meetings.
That flexibility allowed one employee to work half days for two weeks so she could attend her child’s playoff games. Sandra reasons the employee won’t regret those half days years from now, but she would regret missing the games.
However, flexibility only works when clear service standards protect clients.
Turn responsiveness into a shared responsibility
Aurora uses Grasshopper for its phone system. Calls to the general line ring across the company, so any employee can answer. Everyone also monitors the shared client text line. A written policy says that if a message remains unanswered for an hour, someone must alert the intended recipient.
Karbon helps the firm track email response times, and every employee includes a booking link in their email signature. Each client also works with three contacts: a client service manager, a controller, and a CFO. If one person is unavailable, the relationship doesn’t stall.
Podcast host Rachel Dillon highlighted a lesson firm leaders often overlook: Employees can’t follow a rule that exists only in the owner’s head. If the same issue keeps causing frustration, ask whether you’ve documented and communicated the expectation.
But responsiveness is about more than speed. When Aurora learned that a client had lost a family member, the team shared that context so everyone would approach future conversations with care. As Sandra’s story shows, people remember when somebody notices.
Give every team meeting a clear purpose
Aurora’s Tuesday meeting begins with a team member reading the firm’s mission and values. Employees then share work highs and lows, discuss what they need help with, and celebrate progress. The meeting also includes a book discussion, announcements, personal milestones, and “happies and crappies.”
Client problems are intentionally absent. Aurora once discussed them during staff meetings, but the meetings became too long and left employees discouraged. Client issues now go to separate meetings. The weekly team meeting’s purpose is to be a pep rally that builds connection.
That reflects Sandra’s larger message, which is every system, from meeting agendas to response policies, should support the way you want to work.
Build from conviction, not convention
Sandra’s experience offers five lessons:
- Define your values before choosing services, systems, or management practices
- Treat recurring friction as a warning that something may not fit
- Support flexibility with clear schedules and written standards
- Shape roles around people’s strengths whenever possible
- Keep technology purposeful and verify objective AI-generated information
“When you match your firm to your value system,” Sandra says, “everything’s just smooth.”
Your firm doesn’t need to look like everyone else’s. It needs to serve clients well while remaining authentic and sustainable for you and your team.
Listen to the full episode to hear Sandra Koch’s full story and learn how Aurora puts these principles into practice.
Rachel and Marcus Dillon, CPA, own a national, remote client accounting and advisory services firm, Dillon Business Advisors, with a team of 28 professionals. Their latest organization, Collective by DBA, supports and guides accounting firm owners and leaders with Streamlined OS, an operating system for accounting firms, mastermind groups, and one-on-one advisory.