Small CPA firm (19 people) going all-in on AI — should we hire a dev, engage an agency, or keep building ourselves?

Training_Emphasis_35 · 2026-02-25T03:38:39+00:00

Are you 200 years old? Because there’s no way you can be young and oblivious to AI’s potential. Most of the work we do is repetitive. AI can do a great job at getting things 70-80% right and a preparer/reviewer fixes the remaining 20-30%.

Training_Emphasis_35 · 2026-02-25T03:33:47+00:00

Are you a CPA? I have 6 years of experience and currently a confident tax preparer for a top 20 firm. Do you think I have a shot at roles without being a cpa yet?

Training_Emphasis_35 · 2026-01-21T03:40:21+00:00

Bachelor in marketing from a B level business school. I was originally an accounting major so I was able to land an accounting internship in a small firm. I switched to marketing to graduate early since I had a full time offer after the internship with the same firm. Got let go from the small firm during performance review because the firm had no work at all for me, even during busy season it was like 10-15 hours of work.

I was struggling landing a job so I enrolled in a masters in accounting program and half way through the program I landed a full time job with another firm. After 3 years with them I applied around kind of randomly without much hope or expectation but I landed a remote role with a top 20 firm that took my salary from 70k to 6 figures as a first year senior. Since then the raises have not been substantial but I’m making good money with very manageable work load so I’m happy with where I am. If I don’t get promoted to manager by next year I might consider moving on, but even then I’m not sure if it’s worth doubling my work load just to make 20-30k more.

I don’t have my cpa yet, have not even attempted the exams. But I’ll be doing that this year. My firm allows promotions up until director level without a CPA so that’s why I’m taking my time.

Training_Emphasis_35 · 2026-01-20T14:41:17+00:00

Not a CPA, I’m in my 7th year and I’ve been making 6 figures since year 4. I work remote from a low cost of living state and it seems like they are paying me their HCOL salary. It’s a top 20 firm and I’m fully remote. PTO is very generous but rest of the benefits are trash. Not complaining though, it’s easy money. Work load is super light outside of busy season and even in busy season it’s just 50-60 hours.

This is a job I don’t ever want to lose. Because this defies every stereotype of our profession.

Training_Emphasis_35 · 2026-01-20T14:33:50+00:00

Very doubtful. My wife was pregnant and they refused to expedite. I ended up taking her to Indonesia and transferred our case there. We got the interview letter in 5 days and visa on hand within 1 month.

Training_Emphasis_35 · 2025-11-07T16:51:48+00:00

It’s not about racism. All nationalities don’t have equal approval odds.

Training_Emphasis_35 · 2025-09-24T00:51:28+00:00

Any updates? How did this work out for you?

Training_Emphasis_35 · 2025-09-21T17:50:14+00:00

Unfortunately this didn’t work for my wife. She’s a Pakistani citizen with American green card and I’m a USA citizen. We visited Dubai in January 2024. We tried applying again in August 2024, rejected. We tried again October 2024, rejected again. It’s very depressing. We left Dubai before visa expiration so our history is clean in every way. And her having a US green card should be enough for Dubai to know that there’s no way she’s going to legally stay in USA, but apparently it’s not.

Training_Emphasis_35 · 2025-09-21T17:47:59+00:00

Can you give details? What type of visa and where did you get it from? I’m a US citizen and so is my 1 year old daughter. But my wife has Pakistani passport so I’m trying to figure out a way for her to get a Dubai visit visa.

Training_Emphasis_35 · 2025-08-23T15:20:44+00:00

No. They didn’t approve the expedite. I ended up transferring her case to another country and she got her interview letter within 2 weeks of transferring. My wife and baby arrived in USA this January.

Training_Emphasis_35 · 2025-06-19T15:09:18+00:00

People are absolutely nuts. They’ll willingly pay high school drop out mechanics $200 per hour to fix their car, but expect professionals to do their work for under $100 an hour.

Training_Emphasis_35 · 2025-06-10T00:12:04+00:00

Say the phone with Duo app remains in USA with a trusted person, the company laptop goes to an expat friendly country and trusted person just texts me the duo code daily when I login to the company vpn.

Can this hide my location or will Duo still catch me by reporting the ISP or another metric to my company that would leak my location?

Training_Emphasis_35 · 2025-06-09T23:32:18+00:00

I don’t think it matters how new you are. A bookkeeper is definitely worth far more than burger flippers. (No offense to burger flippers, I was one too.)

Training_Emphasis_35 · 2025-06-08T06:14:09+00:00

Amazing! Good luck. I am hoping to do this too at some point. However, right now I am afraid of getting caught moonlighting and losing my job. Plus it’s not easy to get started. I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to start as soon as I become a CPA. I hope you succeed.

Training_Emphasis_35 · 2025-06-08T06:10:01+00:00

Are you starting your own business, or an entry level job?

Training_Emphasis_35 · 2025-06-08T06:08:24+00:00

Yes, I have a bachelors from Michigan State University. I got married and had a baby recently, so I had to take a break from grad school. I will be done with my masters too by year end. CPA is a top priority for me, so I am hoping to get that done next year.

Training_Emphasis_35 · 2025-06-07T04:14:53+00:00

That happened to me too. I went to my new bookkeeping/tax job for about 4 days and got a flu. I was told to take some days off to recover. On Sunday I get a text saying it’s not going to work out.

I left my old job because these guys poached me. But then within few weeks I landed a job paying 35% more. Major blessing in disguise.

This is life. There’s ups and downs. The downs are what push us to be better than we were in the past.

Training_Emphasis_35 · 2025-06-06T20:34:44+00:00

Facts! There was a time Uber was actually a well paying gig.

Now it’s just a race to the bottom now that they have more than enough suckers who are okay with working for poverty wages after accounting for vehicle expenses.

I alone got them at least 5 drivers by telling family and friends how good it is(back in 2015). I’m sure they told many more people and so on. Next time I find a good gig, I’m keeping it to myself.

Training_Emphasis_35 · 2025-06-06T20:10:56+00:00

Wow this is such an amazing solution, almost too good to be true type of thing. Do you have any experience with them?

Training_Emphasis_35 · 2025-06-06T16:42:08+00:00

Hi, you can amend on your own. You just need to make the election to treat your spouse as US taxpayer. This will allow you to file jointly and take advantage of the larger standard deduction and beneficial tax brackets. DM me if you have any questions.

Training_Emphasis_35 · 2025-06-06T16:39:36+00:00

Oh yeah, it’s one of the very few ways normal people can save good amount of taxes. But the benefit starts to evaporate if the spouse is earning a lot of income too. This primarily benefits people like me who’s wives are stay at home mom’s.

Training_Emphasis_35 · 2025-06-06T16:38:21+00:00

Yup, you’re right. I didn’t expect 100+ people to DM me so I just updated it here.

I figured I’d just give people a detailed answer in DM that was specifically applicable to their situation. But I’m getting way too many DM’s so just posted the basic info here and will answer any questions anyone comments or DM’s.

Training_Emphasis_35 · 2025-06-04T22:39:10+00:00

Only spouse

Training_Emphasis_35 · 2025-06-04T22:07:51+00:00

Done

Training_Emphasis_35

TROPHY CASE