Generative AI-based solution helps firms increase efficiency and provide enhanced client value and insights

NEW YORK, NY (Jan. 16, 2025) – CPA.com announced today that it has formed a partnership with Blue J to connect firms of all sizes to Blue J’s best-in-class generative AI-powered tax research solution that’s designed to streamline a firm’s research processes and support them in delivering deeper, more actionable insights to clients.

Tax practitioners today face significant challenges with tax research, including navigating complex regulations, ensuring accuracy and managing time-consuming processes. Blue J, which was built by tax experts for tax experts, leverages an extensive U.S. tax content library and advanced large language models to instantly deliver firms with trusted, verifiable tax answers and draft high-quality client communications.

"This partnership with CPA.com marks a significant milestone in our mission of making tax law more understandable for all practitioners, so they can deliver exceptional outcomes for clients,” said Benjamin Alarie, CEO, Blue J. By combining our AI-driven solution with CPA.com's expertise around the accounting and finance professions, we are making accurate, efficient tax research more accessible than ever before."

“GenAI has more potential than perhaps any technology since the cloud to transform and enhance firm productivity and client service value,” said Erik Asgeirsson, president and CEO, CPA.com. “However, AI is still a nascent category and accounting professionals are focused on identifying viable use cases and building trust in the technology. We believe leveraging Blue J’s tax research capabilities for compliance work can help free up time that will enable practitioners to further shift toward deepening their trusted advisor relationships and unlocking new opportunities for firm evolution and growth.”

Firm adoption
More than 1,000 firms have adopted Blue J to support their tax research efforts and usage continues to grow in tandem—by the end of Nov. 2024, Blue J was answering more than 100,000 tax research questions from users in the previous 30 days.

Michael Radtke, a partner at Chortek, a mid-size firm in Wisconsin with a staff of 75, said his firm shifted from traditional research tools to Blue J because the solution offers a higher-value, more user-friendly experience that enabled his staff to serve their clients at an even higher standard. “In today’s competitive landscape, it’s important to stay up to date on the latest technologies as they develop. With Blue J, we can now enable our staff to deliver better results, faster, for our clients,” said Radtke.

Leslie Hatridge of Hatridge Tax & Accounting, a boutique tax prep firm based in Colorado, said that Blue J is one of the best investments she’s made in her business. As a one-person company, she feels the biggest thing she's lacking is a team to bounce things off. "Research takes a lot of time, and I'm obsessive about making sure things are done right,” noted Hatridge. “Now I feel like I have the ‘team’ backup I have been missing and can't believe the excellent quality of the research responses Blue J provides me.”

Key features and benefits of the Blue J platform include:

• Research expertly. Accomplish hours of research in seconds and arrive at meaningful insights faster than ever before. Blue J accelerates your research, so you can quickly deliver the right answers to clients.
• Grow your expertise. Practitioners can deepen their tax expertise by leveraging a curated database of trusted tax content, accessible directly through the application. A comprehensive list of sources, highlighting relevant passages, is provided at every stage of research.
• Draft instantly. With the touch of a button, high-quality emails and memos can be created in seconds for faster client communications.

Blue J will be offered to firms through CPA.com’s Preferred Partner Program, which supports CPA firms in expanding and elevating their advisory services through best-in-class technology solutions. Through this program, CPA.com will also provide practice development and training to help firms optimize the use of this technology.

To learn about how tax practitioners can harness Blue J’s advanced tax research capabilities to create efficiencies and deliver more client value, register for CPA.com’s upcoming product webinar, “Tax season prep: Get better tax answers with AI tax research tools,” Jan. 23 at 2 p.m. ET.

To learn more about Blue J, visit cpa.com/TaxAI.

About CPA.com
CPA.com brings innovative solutions to the accounting profession, either in partnership with leading providers or directly through its own development. The company has established itself as a thought leader on emerging technologies and as the trusted business advisor to practitioners in the United States, with a growing global focus. The company’s core mission is to drive the transformation of practice areas, advance the technology ecosystem for the profession, and lead technology research and innovation efforts for practitioners. A subsidiary of the American Institute of CPAs, the company is also part of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, the world’s most influential organization representing the profession. For more information, visit CPA.com.

About Blue J
Founded in 2015, Blue J is the leading generative AI solution for tax research. Trusted by firms of all sizes, Blue J delivers fast, verifiable answers to complex tax questions, empowering professionals to provide exceptional client service. With its conversational interface and curated library of authoritative sources, Blue J is transforming how tax experts work.

Newly appointed Caseware CEO ranks audit transformation as a top priority.

New York, NY (Jan. 13, 2025) - CPA.com, the business and technology subsidiary of the AICPA, announced today the latest updates to its Dynamic Audit Solution (DAS) initiative, including enhanced capabilities, expanded industry content and the appointment of a new chief executive officer at its technology partner Caseware.

DAS, which is powered by a transformative methodology developed by the AICPA in partnership with audit professionals from leading firms, reimagines the audit process with a data-driven, iterative, tailored-in approach that enhances efficiency and promotes a higher quality audit. DAS is built on the Caseware Cloud platform and is the profession’s most advanced and only fully integrated, end-to-end, cloud-based audit solution on the market.

Caseware appoints new CEO with strong technology and accounting industry background 

Caseware, a global leader in cloud audit, assurance and financial reporting and data analytics, is committed to driving audit transformation and today announced the appointment of David Marquis as its new CEO. David joins Caseware after five years at Intuit, where he led the international division including Canada, Australia, the UK and other non-U.S. markets. In their statement, Caseware highlighted the DAS initiative and audit transformation as a top focus area where they continue to demonstrate deep innovation and investment. They also recognized the contributions of their departing CEO David Osborne.

Erik Asgeirsson, CEO of CPA.com, commented on the transition: “David Osborne was a key partner to us in getting DAS launched, and he leaves things well positioned at Caseware for its continued success. I am very much looking forward to advancing the next phase with David Marquis who has a great understanding of the accounting profession along with a deep background in emerging technologies and product strategies. I’m also thrilled with David Marquis’ overall excitement related to the transformative DAS initiative which he shared with me in a recent discussion.”

DAS capability enhancements

As firm adoption of DAS continues to accelerate, the latest updates further support auditors in enhancing the efficiency, quality and client value of financial statement audits.

Recent DAS releases have expanded capabilities to address current auditor needs within the platform and build out key foundational elements to allow for even more enhanced technologies in the coming months, including:

• Newly supported industries. Industries added at the end of 2024 include technology, real estate, dealerships, depository and lending institutions, investment companies and insurance. Additional industry content for state and local governments will be released in the coming months. DAS’s tailored content by industry eliminates irrelevant procedures and supports auditors with tools aligned to unique industry requirements.
• Central Planning. Central planning eliminates redundancy and optimizes workflows for audits that involve multiple engagements by allowing risk assessments and responses to risks to be managed from a central entity. This feature also provides auditors the flexibility to modify elements of the individual entities to further streamline workflows.
• Testing. This release also upgrades the journal entry testing tool, making it simpler to work with existing tests, create new custom tests for specific needs, and link tests to specific risks.

In addition to DAS’s robust capabilities, CPA.com effectively supports firm adoption readiness, providing comprehensive implementation consulting, training and migration services to support firms through the entire audit transformation journey.

Firm adoption

Adoption of DAS continues to accelerate, with many T100 firms now on a path to full migration. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with firms highlighting enhanced efficiency and quality, staff engagement and upskilling, implementation training and the flexibility to use “out of the box” or as a customized solution as key benefits.

For more information on the Dynamic Audit Solution and recent updates, visit cpa.com/DAS.

About CPA.com

CPA.com brings innovative solutions to the accounting profession, either in partnership with leading providers or directly through its own development. The company has established itself as a thought leader on emerging technologies and as the trusted business advisor to practitioners in the United States, with a growing global focus. The company’s core mission is to drive the transformation of practice areas, advance the technology ecosystem for the profession, and lead technology research and innovation efforts for practitioners. A subsidiary of the American Institute of CPAs, the company is also part of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, the world’s most influential organization representing the profession. For more information, visit CPA.com.

Ryan Wolff, Supervisor, Strategic Innovation & Data Analytics at AAFCPAs, earns top honor.

DENVER (Dec. 10, 2024) – Ryan Wolff has been named the recipient of CPA.com’s Digital CPA Innovative Practitioner Award, which recognizes forward-thinking practitioners whose leadership, strategic decision-making and use of technology are shaping the future of the profession. Wolff is leveraging advanced audit technologies and artificial intelligence to optimize methodologies, improve quality and achieve significant time savings across audit engagements.

“Receiving the award is a testament to our team’s dedication to pushing the boundaries of what's possible in audit transformation,” said Wolff. “By harnessing the power of AI, data analytics and robotic process automation, we've significantly enhanced audit quality and efficiency. These advanced technologies have not only streamlined our processes but also fostered a culture of continuous improvement and strategic thinking at AAFCPAs.”

Wolff is a leader of Strategic Innovation & Data Analytics at AAFCPAs, a Top 100 firm focused on audit, tax, accounting and advisory solutions for nonprofits, commercial companies and high-net-worth individuals. As a leader of the firm’s Automation Center of Excellence, Wolff has created an AI prompt library using tools like Copilot and ChatGPT to upskill audit teams, reduce manual work and enhance audit quality. He also leads data analytics initiatives to evaluate new audit platforms to harness large data sets, resulting in greater precision and effectiveness, and has implemented robotic process automation (RPA) into audit workflows.

“This award acknowledges individuals who are determined to identify innovative approaches for improving outcomes—either for their firm or their clients,” said Michael Cerami, EVP, CPA.com. “In Ryan’s case, his ability to embrace AI and data analytics to bring along the rest of his firm has helped drive encouraging results in their audit practice, as recognized by his peers.”

Wolff was recognized at Digital CPA, CPA.com’s annual conference for progressive practitioners focused on innovative technologies and business strategies impacting the accounting landscape.

Brenda Cannon, CPA, owner, Cannon & Associates, and Matt Gardner, CPA, CEO and co-founder, Hiline, were named runners-up for the award.

Cannon made a change in her firm to schedule every tax return, resulting in well controlled work and a more manageable schedule. She has developed a method for the scheduling process and has hosted workshops to help other firm owners implement it. Cannon is currently working on a web application to streamline the scheduling.

Gardner’s firm doesn’t just utilize technology, it’s a core part of Hiline’s offering. He identified a gap where he felt small and medium-sized businesses were being underserved and now integrates cloud-based technology and AI to deliver high-quality, tech-enabled accounting services to his clients.

To learn more about this year’s recipients, as well as the other distinguished nominees shaping the future of the profession, visit the CPA.com Digital CPA Innovative Practitioner Award page.

About CPA.com

CPA.com brings innovative solutions to the accounting profession, either in partnership with leading providers or directly through its own development. The company has established itself as a thought leader on emerging technologies and as the trusted business advisor to practitioners in the United States, with a growing global focus.

Our company’s core mission is to drive the transformation of practice areas, advance the technology ecosystem for the profession, and lead technology research and innovation efforts for practitioners.

A subsidiary of the American Institute of CPAs, the company is also part of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, the world’s most influential organization representing the profession. For more information, visit CPA.com.

Flagship event for innovation-focused accounting firms draws record attendance.

DENVER (Dec. 9, 2024) – Harnessing the power of AI, transformation of practice areas, and firm business model strategies that enable growth and high value work are key themes at this week’s Digital CPA Conference^® (DCPA), the premier event for progressive accounting professionals.

“In today’s fast-changing and increasingly complex business environment, clients are increasingly looking to their CPAs for deeper insights and higher-value services to inform their strategies and support better decision-making,” said Asgeirsson. “Today’s firms must be strategic and intentional about firmwide transformation. This means taking a fresh look at your firm’s business model, embracing technology to improve service delivery and drive outcomes, and cultivating the right talent and culture. Firms that do will continue to thrive as trusted advisors for their clients.”

This year’s event, taking place in Denver (and also available virtually), brings together more than 1,400 of the profession’s most innovative leaders and practitioners across client advisory services (CAS), audit and tax.

Key themes framing the discussions at DCPA24 include:

1. Unlocking the potential of AI. Over the past year, AI has quickly moved from theoretical to practical as an abundance of new AI-enabled solutions and use cases have emerged across accounting and finance, accelerating the shift toward advisory services and offering firms a viable solution to help address talent and capacity challenges.

   The AICPA and CPA.com remain committed to helping practitioners understand and maximize the capabilities of AI. Through its multi-part GenAI initiative, CPA.com delivers the latest insights, tools and resources on topics from building a safe AI strategy to implementing effective change management strategies to support the impact on roles, process and workflows.

2. Capitalizing on growth in client advisory services (CAS). Already the fastest growing service area for the profession, CAS is growing and presenting significant opportunities for firms that are taking an intentional approach to building and scaling their practices. According to the just released 2024 CPA.com and AICPA PCPS CAS Benchmark survey report, firms reported 17% median growth in their CAS practices, outpacing overall firm growth. Firms are also leveraging new capabilities, strategies and services to provide higher-level business insights to clients.

   CPA.com has long been focused on empowering firms of all sizes to understand the opportunity within CAS to maximize their value and growth potential. Adding to its CAS 2.0^® Practice Development Coaching program, CPA.com has expanded its offering to include two new learning pathways, CAS 2.0 Development Essentials and CAS 2.0 Practice Introduction, which include access to workshops, new toolkits and self-studies for firms new to CAS and those looking to build up an existing practice.

3. Driving audit transformation. Audit is the latest of the practice areas to undergo a major shift to the cloud.This is being driven by the availability of more cloud-based solutions, as well as a desire by firms to deliver deeper insights and more comprehensive risk management for their clients.

   To support firms in their audit transformation journey, CPA.com added its first audit track to DCPA in 2023, which was very well received. This year nearly 200 audit professionals are attending the event to network with their peers and learn more about how to transform their own audit practices. Many top 100 firms are are now on a path of full migration of the Dynamic Audit Solution (DAS), a fully integrated, end-to-end cloud-based solution with transformative AICPA methodology, to support their transformation. CPA.com also helps firms assess their readiness and offers comprehensive implementation consulting, training and data migration services to prepare for a technology-driven shift.

4. Evolution of firm strategies and structures. Leading-edge firms are adopting new strategies, business models and governance structures to successfully execute transformation, optimize technology investments and better position for long-term viability. They’re also accelerating technology adoption to automate lower-level work, exploring new ownership models, such as private equity and employee stock ownership plans (ESOP), and rolling out new compensation and talent strategies to combat hiring and retention challenges and build capacity.

To learn more about CPA.com’s efforts to enable firms’ digital and advisory transformation, visit www.cpa.com.

About CPA.com

CPA.com brings innovative solutions to the accounting profession, either in partnership with leading providers or directly through its own development. The company has established itself as a thought leader on emerging technologies and as the trusted business advisor to practitioners in the United States, with a growing global focus.

Our company’s core mission is to drive the transformation of practice areas, advance the technology ecosystem for the profession, and lead technology research and innovation efforts for practitioners.

A subsidiary of the American Institute of CPAs, the company is also part of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, the world’s most influential organization representing the profession. For more information, visit CPA.com.

• Double-digit growth trend of CAS continues to outpace growth in the profession
• Significant increase in net client fees per professional (NCFPP)
• Median reported CAS revenue rose 61% over 2022

NEW YORK (Dec. 9, 2024) – Client advisory services (CAS) is poised to continue its impressive trajectory as the fastest growing service area in public accounting, according to the newly released 2024 CPA.com & AICPA PCPS Client Advisory Services Benchmark Survey report. The survey polled more than 200 U.S. firms with CAS offerings and collected data from the 2023 calendar year.

CAS practices that participated in the survey reported a median growth rate of 17% and are highly optimistic about the continued opportunity of the practice area. Respondents projected 15% continued growth in the current year and an impressive 99% projected median growth for their firms over the next three years. Additionally, median CAS net client fees per professional (NCFPP) rose to $156,250 for all respondents, an increase of 29% over the 2022 survey.

The growth in key metrics is likely attributed to firms doing more CAS engagements, rather than tax cleanup or annual project work, and taking steps to standardize processes and “right price” work with fixed-fee strategies that are billed on a recurring basis. The survey also indicated firm practices are shifting to maximize value for clients and staff and support continued growth.

Key insights include:

1. CAS growth continues to be significant and outpaces the profession’s overall growth. Respondents reported an increase in CAS revenue growth that was stronger than their firm’s overall reported median growth.
2. Firms can increase revenue by expanding their higher-level service offerings. Firms that generate significant revenue from CFO or higher-level business insights advisory services earned more than 30% higher monthly recurring revenue.
3. Defined strategy and planning are key to a successful and profitable CAS practice. Practices with a formal CAS business plan report nearly $10,000 more in median average annual client revenue. They’re also more strategic about staffing and have a clear, firmwide understanding of services and ideal client profiles.
4. Defined client niches are key to promoting standardization and efficiency and, ultimately, increasing profitability. Practices where more than half their revenue comes from defined industry niches report 38% higher median CAS revenue and 51% higher net revenue per client than all respondents.
5. Adaptability and agility are key to staffing in CAS. Nearly four-fifths (78%) of practices have dedicated staff working only in CAS. Additionally, ongoing training and flexible staffing solutions are important to achieve operational excellence and maximize growth.
6. Better strategy and investment around technology means better productivity, efficiency and staff satisfaction. About half of CAS practices (51%) are continually investing in technology, and those practices report higher total CAS revenue and average client revenue. They also report serving 50% more clients (100 versus 67) than all respondents.
7. Pricing in the CAS space has shifted away from pure time and materials billing. CAS practices continue to lead the way in rethinking billing with only 10% of respondents still employing hourly billing as the primary pricing method.

“Firms are continuing to double-down on client advisory services (CAS) as a key growth area, but there’s still so much more potential for those that take an intentional and strategic approach to building and scaling their CAS practices," said Kimberly Blascoe, CPA, Senior Director of CAS Professional Services, CPA.com. “By continuing to shift from financial CAS (transactional to controller services) to higher-level business insights CAS (based on financial and non-financial insights), firms will create more value for clients and be well positioned for ongoing success.”

CPA.com will hold a free webinar Thursday, Jan. 30 at 1 p.m. ET to highlight key insights from the survey and offer practical strategies for firms to strengthen and develop their CAS capabilities. To support firms on their CAS journey, CPA.com offers a portfolio of learning resources including whitepapers, firm self-assessments, self-guided toolkits, virtual and in-person workshops, guided coaching cohorts, consulting engagements and much more. Through its award-winning CAS 2.0^® Coaching Program and the Digital CPA conference, CPA.com has built and is cultivating a thriving CAS community where firms have access to like-minded CAS practitioners and leaders.

To learn more, please visit cpa.com/client-advisory-services.

Methodology

The CAS Benchmark Survey was conducted online from May to July 2024 and includes data from calendar year 2023 for the 206 CAS practices who self-selected to participate in the survey. Besides general results, the survey analyzes the performance of top CAS practices, defined as those with the highest net client fees per professional (NCFPP).

About CPA.com

CPA.com brings innovative solutions to the accounting profession, either in partnership with leading providers or directly through its own development. The company has established itself as a thought leader on emerging technologies and as the trusted business advisor to practitioners in the United States, with a growing global focus.

Our company’s core mission is to drive the transformation of practice areas, advance the technology ecosystem for the profession, and lead technology research and innovation efforts for practitioners.

A subsidiary of the American Institute of CPAs, the company is also part of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, the world’s most influential organization representing the profession. For more information, visit CPA.com.

About the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, and AICPA & CIMA

The Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (the Association), representing AICPA & CIMA, advances the global accounting and finance profession through its work on behalf of 689,000 AICPA and CIMA members, students and engaged professionals in 196 countries and territories. Together, we are the worldwide leader on public and management accounting issues through advocacy, support for the CPA license and specialized credentials, professional education and thought leadership. We build trust by empowering our members and engaged professionals with the knowledge and opportunities to be leaders in broadening prosperity for a more inclusive, sustainable and resilient future.

The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), the world’s largest member association representing the CPA profession, sets ethical standards for its members and U.S. auditing standards for private companies, not-for-profit organizations, and federal, state and local governments. It also develops and grades the Uniform CPA Examination and builds the pipeline of future talent for the public accounting profession.

The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) is the world’s leading and largest professional body of management accountants. CIMA works closely with employers and sponsors leading-edge research, constantly updating its professional qualification and professional experience requirements to ensure it remains the employer’s choice when recruiting financially trained business leaders.