How Top Firms Make Room for Leadership: Best of the Best

What needs to change when a successful accounting firm grows, and what should stay the same? Chelsea Summers speaks with Smith + Howard CEO Sean Taylor about sustaining performance through growth and two private equity partnerships. The firm has appeared on IPA’s Best of the Best list for 17 consecutive years. Sean explains why the firm built its leadership team before pursuing acquisitions, brought a defined strategy to investors and adopted an acquired firm’s process. He also reflects on giving leaders more time to absorb major changes. Listen for lessons on delegating decisions, retaining people and preparing your firm for its next stage of growth. Sean’s podcast, The Worst Advice I Ever Got: https://www.smith-howard.com/worst-advice-podcast/ Earn free CPE with Earmark! Listen, take a short quiz and download your certificate on the IPA channel in the Earmark app: https://www.earmark.app/channels/c5717392-a994-407c-9f27-7f09a08a4b7c

What does it take to earn a place among IPA’s Best of the Best? Chelsea Summers and Rob Brown open this new series on the 75 firms recognized in 2026. Chelsea explains how IPA evaluates firms across 35 performance metrics and why strong profitability alone does not guarantee a place on the list. They explore the range of firms represented, from small practices to national organizations, and what decades of repeat recognition suggests about leadership and succession. Chelsea also considers what the survey can measure and where culture and client relationships require a closer look. Listen for a fuller picture of the designation and what your firm can learn from it. Explore IPA’s 2026 Best of the Best Analysis: https://form.jotform.com/260045789028159. Earn free CPE with Earmark! Listen, take a short quiz and download your certificate on the IPA channel in the Earmark app: https://www.earmark.app/channels/c5717392-a994-407c-9f27-7f09a08a4b7c.

If your firm’s partner income falls below a benchmark, where should you look first? Chelsea Summers and Rob Brown end the series Running the Modern Firm with nine measures associated with partner income in IPA’s 2026 Practice Management data. They examine why revenue per partner, leverage, partner billing rates and revenue per full-time employee deserve attention alongside hours and utilization. Chelsea walks through how to prioritize gaps in your firm’s results and recognize whether pricing or staffing needs a closer look. They also discuss how firm size, client mix and ownership affect the comparisons. Choose one meaningful gap for your next partner meeting, with a plan to revisit it. Explore the 2026 IPA Practice Management Report: https://insidepublicaccounting.com/about/ipa-practice-management-reports/ Earn free CPE with Earmark! Listen, take a short quiz and download your certificate on the IPA channel in the Earmark app: https://www.earmark.app/channels/c5717392-a994-407c-9f27-7f09a08a4b7c

What is AI actually changing inside CPA firms? Chelsea Summers welcomes Donny Shimamoto of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies, who helped design the AI questions for IPA’s 2026 Information Technology Survey. Together, they examine what participating firms report about adoption, investment and results. Only 3.2% describe AI as fully integrated into their operations, while 42.9% report no measurable impact yet from their AI tools. They discuss how firms can define success before a pilot, evaluate vendor claims and put governance in place before purchasing software. Donny also explains why better client service and employee experience belong in the assessment of AI’s value, alongside financial returns. For leaders planning their next investment, the conversation offers a practical starting point: establish where the firm stands, what it wants to change and how it will know whether the investment is working. Earn free CPE with Earmark! Listen, take a short quiz and download your certificate on the IPA channel in the Earmark app: https://www.earmark.app/channels/c5717392-a994-407c-9f27-7f09a08a4b7c

Firms are investing in offshore capacity to expand their teams and technology to improve efficiency. But the value of those investments depends on what happens to the workflow around them, including how work is staffed, handed off, reviewed and delivered. Chelsea Summers and Rob Brown examine the gap between adopting new resources and redesigning the workflow around them. About half of participating firms use offshore FTEs, and 56% of firms already offshoring plan to increase that capacity next year. Yet offshore staff still account for only 2.6% of total personnel across all firms. Chelsea explains why firms can add cost and complexity when technology and offshore teams are treated as separate initiatives. The firms positioned to capture more of the margin benefit redesign how work is staffed, handed off and reviewed, with technology and offshore capacity built around the same process. The episode closes with a practical starting point for firm leaders: choose one workflow this quarter, map it from start to finish and identify whether new technology or offshore capacity actually changes the work. Earn free CPE with Earmark! Listen, take a short quiz and download your certificate on the IPA channel in the Earmark app: https://www.earmark.app/channels/c5717392-a994-407c-9f27-7f09a08a4b7c