By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | SkillAbility for Accounting Firms
Last updated: July 16, 2026 | 23-minute read
- What accounting manager onboarding should accomplish
- What to complete before day one
- External hire vs. internal promotion
- The five systems every manager must inherit
- A first-week accounting manager agenda
- Days 1–30: Learn, clarify, and establish the baseline
- Days 31–60: Lead, delegate, and take ownership
- Days 61–90: Create leverage and prove the operating model
- Copy-and-use 30-60-90 onboarding template
- 100-point manager onboarding scorecard
- Recommended weekly operating rhythm
- Completed CPA firm example
- Warning signs the onboarding plan is failing
- AI and workflow leadership in the first 90 days
- What the firm should measure after 90 days
A new accounting manager can be technically capable, experienced, and well respected while still entering the role with significant unanswered questions.
Which clients does the manager truly own? Which decisions can be made without partner approval? Which staff members are ready for more responsibility? Which employees need closer review? Which deadlines are negotiable, and which are not?
How should work be assigned? How should review notes be handled? When should the manager coach, correct, escalate, or step in? Which partners expect frequent updates? Which clients have hidden history that never made it into the engagement file?
In many CPA firms, the answers are transferred informally.
The new manager attends a few meetings, inherits a client list, receives access to several systems, and is told to ask questions. A promoted manager may be expected to already know the answers because the person has worked at the firm for years.
Then busy season, a client deadline, or a staffing problem exposes what the onboarding process failed to transfer.
An accounting manager onboarding plan should transfer more than information. It should transfer authority, context, relationships, standards, operating responsibility, and a repeatable method for creating results through the team.
The first 90 days should therefore be designed as a controlled transition into management—not a calendar of introductions and administrative tasks.
Who I Am and Why This Matters
I have practiced public accounting since 1990. I founded my accounting firm in 1993, merged it in 2001 to form Howard, Howard and Hodges, and helped grow the organization from three people to approximately 50 staff across four locations and multiple states. Our firm was named PASBA Firm of the Year in 2015.
During that growth, I watched managers become one of the most important points of leverage in the firm.
A capable accounting manager protects quality, develops staff, translates partner expectations into executable work, keeps clients informed, manages deadlines, and identifies risk before it becomes a crisis.
An unclear manager role creates the opposite effect.
The manager may become a highly paid preparer who still performs too much work personally. Staff receive inconsistent direction. Clients bypass the manager and call the partner. Partners continue coordinating the workflow because they do not trust the information reaching them. Review turns into rework. The manager works longer hours, but the firm gains little additional capacity.
Since 2020, I have built and run the SkillAbility accounting workforce development platform used by more than 1,000 accounting professionals across dozens of PASBA firms. That work has reinforced a lesson from public practice:
A manager cannot create leverage when the firm has never clearly transferred the role, the standards, the client context, or the authority required to lead.
Why Accounting Manager Onboarding Matters Now
The accounting profession needs stronger internal leadership pipelines. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports approximately 1.58 million accountant and auditor jobs in 2024 and projects about 124,200 openings per year from 2024 through 2034.
BLS also states that automation and artificial intelligence are expected to increase productivity and make advisory and analytical responsibilities more prominent. That shift increases the importance of managers who can verify work, develop judgment, communicate with clients, and lead workflows that combine people and technology.
Firms Need Managers Who Can Build Capacity, Not Only Perform More Work
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook.
The AICPA PCPS CPA Firm Competency Model, updated in October 2025, identifies six core competency areas across associate, senior, manager, senior manager or director, and partner roles: productivity, technical knowledge, client service, people development and teamwork, business development, and culture and inclusion.
Those domains make the onboarding challenge clear. A manager is not only inheriting more technical responsibility. The person is moving into a role that combines team productivity, client leadership, employee development, business understanding, and firm culture.
Management support also has an outsized effect on the team. Gallup has estimated that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement across business units. Reporting on Gallup’s 2025 workplace findings also indicated that only 44% of managers had received management training and that global manager engagement declined to 27% in 2024.
Managers Carry High Influence, but Many Receive Limited Preparation
Sources: Gallup manager research and reporting on Gallup’s 2025 State of the Global Workplace findings.
Onboarding cannot solve every management problem. It can prevent a firm from creating avoidable confusion during the period when a new manager is forming habits, relationships, and assumptions about the role.
What Is an Accounting Manager Onboarding Plan?
An accounting manager onboarding plan is a structured 90-day transition that transfers role expectations, authority, team responsibility, client context, workflow ownership, quality standards, relationships, and measurable operating outcomes to a new or promoted manager.
A complete plan answers eight questions:
- What results is the manager responsible for?
- Which decisions can the manager make?
- Which matters require partner, HR, legal, security, or technical escalation?
- Which clients, employees, and workflows are being transferred?
- What risks and history must the manager understand?
- Which operating rhythms should begin immediately?
- What support and coaching will the manager receive?
- What evidence will prove the transition is working?
Administrative onboarding still matters. The manager needs access, payroll setup, policy orientation, technology, and introductions. Those tasks are necessary but insufficient. The management plan must explain how the person will lead.
Before Day One: Prepare the Role Before Onboarding the Person
Manager onboarding begins before the manager starts or before an internal promotion becomes effective.
1. Define the manager’s operating result
A title is not an operating result. Examples include managing recurring monthly accounting for a specified client portfolio, leading tax preparation and review workflow for a defined return group, owning audit planning and fieldwork coordination for selected engagements, improving first-pass quality, or developing two seniors toward defined next-level responsibilities.
2. Create a decision-rights map
Document which decisions the manager may make independently, which require consultation, and which require approval.
| Decision Area | Manager May Decide | Consult or Escalate |
|---|---|---|
| Assignment and scheduling | Routine work allocation and internal checkpoints | Chronic overload, deadline changes, or work outside team capability |
| Technical treatment | Matters within defined expertise and firm guidance | Complex, uncertain, high-risk, or partner-reserved matters |
| Client communication | Routine status, information requests, and approved explanations | Pricing, disputes, major risk, advisory recommendations, or relationship threats |
| Employee performance | Coaching, feedback, work expectations, and routine accountability | Discipline, accommodation, protected activity, harassment, or termination concerns |
| Security and data handling | Enforce approved procedures and stop unsafe work | Any suspected incident, disclosure, unauthorized access, or policy exception |
3. Reduce or redesign the technical workload
A promoted manager cannot take on a full management role while retaining the previous technical workload unchanged. Before the effective date, identify work that will transfer, work retained temporarily, clients requiring staged transition, technical specialties the manager will continue owning, and responsibilities that should stop.
4. Prepare the client and knowledge-transfer package
For each inherited client, include service scope, key contacts, communication preferences, deadlines, prior issues, risk areas, open commitments, pricing sensitivities, partner relationship history, systems, document locations, and advisory opportunities already discussed.
5. Name the manager’s manager
The new manager needs one accountable coach—usually a partner, director, or experienced manager—who reviews real management decisions during the first 90 days. “Ask anyone” often becomes “ask no one.”
External Hire vs. Internal Promotion: The Plans Should Not Be Identical
| Onboarding Need | External Manager Hire | Internally Promoted Manager |
|---|---|---|
| Firm systems and culture | Requires explicit orientation and comparison with prior-firm habits | May know the culture but still need clarity on management standards |
| Relationships | Must build credibility with partners, staff, and clients | Must renegotiate relationships with former peers |
| Technical standards | Must learn firm-specific review and documentation expectations | May know standards but must learn to enforce and teach them |
| Old role habits | May import practices that do not fit the new firm | May continue acting like a senior or individual contributor |
| Authority risk | May act too quickly without understanding context | May hesitate to use authority with former peers |
External managers need context before changing systems. Promoted managers need a relationship reset. The firm should announce the role clearly, explain decision rights, and support the manager when former peers continue bypassing the new structure.
For the readiness criteria before promotion, read Senior Accountant Promotion Criteria: How to Know When Staff Are Ready for the Next Level.
The Five Systems Every Accounting Manager Must Inherit
Role → Team → Clients → Workflow → Development
Outcomes, authority, escalation, measures, and partner expectations.
Capability, workload, feedback, accountability, and career development.
Relationships, history, communication, scope, risk, and expectations.
Assignments, capacity, deadlines, open items, review, and escalation.
Coaching, observed practice, reflection, feedback, and next-level capability.
The manager needs one reliable operating system across these five areas. The firm must also keep coaching the manager. Onboarding should include observed delegation, feedback, capacity decisions, and client communication—not only status meetings.
The First Week: A Practical Accounting Manager Agenda
| Day | Primary Focus | Required Output |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Role, outcomes, authority, support, and success measures | Draft manager charter and decision-rights questions |
| Day 2 | Team introductions, capability history, workload, and development needs | Initial team capability map |
| Day 3 | Client portfolio, relationship history, service scope, risk, and deadlines | Client transition and priority list |
| Day 4 | Workflow tools, review standards, security, communication, and escalation | Workflow risk and access checklist |
| Day 5 | Confirm 30-day priorities, meeting rhythm, coaching schedule, and immediate risks | Approved 30-day operating plan |
Do not fill every hour with presentations. The manager needs time to review work, prepare questions, observe the team, and convert information into an operating plan.
Days 1–30: Learn, Clarify, and Establish the Baseline
The first month should produce clarity—not dramatic reorganization.
Finalize the manager charter
Document primary outcomes, client and service scope, team responsibility, decision rights, escalation boundaries, quality and security responsibilities, performance measures, and the manager coaching schedule.
Build a team capability map
For each direct report, document the current role, independently demonstrated work, work requiring checkpoints, repeated review-note patterns, client communication level, workload, development priority, and career interest.
Use evidence rather than inherited labels such as “strong,” “slow,” “not client-facing,” or “future partner.” The Accounting Competency Matrix Template for CPA Firms can provide the role-standard foundation.
Review the client portfolio
Classify clients by relationship importance, technical complexity, deadline sensitivity, profitability or scope pressure, knowledge concentration, communication risk, and transition urgency.
Establish the operating rhythm
Start recurring meetings early: weekly team capacity review, regular one-on-ones, manager-partner coaching, client-status review, and review-note pattern review.
Observe before diagnosing
Review actual work, meetings, communication, and workflow. The cause of a problem may be unclear standards, broken workflow, late client information, insufficient capacity, or inconsistent partner direction—not only a weak employee.
For a structured diagnosis, read CPA Firm Training Needs Assessment: How to Find Skill Gaps Before Buying More Courses.
30-day deliverables
- Approved manager charter
- Team capability and workload map
- Client portfolio priority map
- Current workflow and deadline-risk baseline
- Operating meeting calendar
- Top five improvement opportunities
- No more than one or two immediate process changes unless risk requires more
Days 31–60: Lead, Delegate, and Take Ownership
The second month should move the manager from observation into controlled leadership.
Transfer work through structured delegation
The manager should assign work using purpose, scope, client context, expected output, quality standard, authority, checkpoint, escalation rules, and deadline. The manager’s coach should observe at least one delegation conversation.
Lead client-status communication
The manager should assume responsibility for defined client interactions: consolidated open-item requests, status and deadline updates, routine explanations, meeting preparation and follow-up, and early escalation of relationship or scope risk.
Begin direct coaching and feedback
The manager should convert review and workflow evidence into employee development. At least one direct report should have a documented 60- to 90-day development priority with realistic assignments and evidence.
Use the Accounting Employee Development Plan Template for CPA Firms.
Test capacity decisions
The manager should prepare a forward-looking workload plan and identify overloaded employees, unused capability, review bottlenecks, work assigned at the wrong level, client dependencies, and deadlines requiring leadership intervention.
Improve one priority workflow
Select a problem with enough evidence and a manageable scope. Examples include consolidating client open items, standardizing review-ready requirements, creating a predictable review calendar, improving deadline escalation, or reducing repeated basic review notes.
For the review system, see How to Reduce Review Notes in Accounting Without Turning Managers Into Editors.
60-day deliverables
- Documented delegation and review examples
- Client relationships actively transitioning
- Forward-looking capacity plan
- Development plans for priority employees
- One workflow improvement in controlled implementation
- Evidence of early issue identification
- Reduced dependence on the partner for routine coordination
Days 61–90: Create Leverage and Prove the Operating Model
The final month should show whether the manager can produce results through a stable system.
Own a defined operating result
The manager should become accountable for an outcome such as monthly-close completion and quality for a client group, tax workflow for a return portfolio, fieldwork and review coordination for selected engagements, reduction in repeated documentation notes, or development of a senior toward greater review responsibility.
Demonstrate team leverage
Look for evidence that staff questions are becoming more focused, junior work improves after feedback, review notes become less basic, work is delegated at the correct level, the manager retains less unnecessary preparation work, and partner coordination time declines.
Lead a quarterly-style operating review
The manager should present team capacity, quality patterns, client risk, deadline performance, employee development, workflow improvement, and decisions or support needed from leadership.
Establish the next 90-day plan
Manager onboarding should end by becoming manager development. The next plan should identify one people priority, one client-leadership priority, one workflow or capacity priority, one manager capability to strengthen, and evidence with review dates.
90-day deliverables
- Manager operating review
- Updated team competency and capacity map
- Client portfolio transition status
- Quality and workflow comparison with baseline
- Manager readiness scorecard
- Next-quarter development plan
Copy-and-Use Accounting Manager 30-60-90 Day Onboarding Plan
Accounting Manager Onboarding Plan
| Manager | |
| Role and service line | |
| External hire or internal promotion | |
| Manager coach | |
| Primary operating result | |
| Team and client scope |
| Period | Outcome | Actions | Evidence | Support Required |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Days 1–30 | ||||
| Days 31–60 | ||||
| Days 61–90 |
Decision rights
| Manager Decides | Manager Consults | Partner or Specialist Approves |
|---|---|---|
Recurring operating rhythm
☐ One-on-one meetings with direct reports
☐ Weekly or biweekly manager-coaching meeting
☐ Client portfolio and deadline review
☐ Review-note and quality-pattern review
☐ Monthly operating review
Mandatory risk gates
☐ Technical and professional escalation boundaries understood
☐ Employee-relations escalation process understood
☐ Client scope, pricing, and relationship escalation understood
☐ Workload and deadline escalation process understood
100-Point Accounting Manager Onboarding Scorecard
Use the scorecard to organize evidence at the 90-day review. Adjust the weighting to the service line and role scope.
| Onboarding Outcome | Points | Strong Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Role clarity and decision rights | 15 | Manager acts within authority and escalates the right matters |
| Team capability and relationship leadership | 15 | Knows staff capability, workload, development needs, and performance risk |
| Delegation, coaching, and accountability | 15 | Assignments are clear; employee independence and follow-through improve |
| Client portfolio ownership | 15 | Manager understands history, scope, risks, deadlines, and communication expectations |
| Workflow and capacity management | 15 | Work, review, dependencies, and deadline risks are visible and managed early |
| Quality and review leadership | 10 | Review focuses on risk and judgment; repeated basic issues decline |
| Partner and upward communication | 5 | Updates are concise, early, and focused on decisions and risk |
| Security, integrity, and professional responsibility | 5 | Protects client and employee data and uses authority responsibly |
| Evidence of manager leverage | 5 | Partner rescue, unnecessary manager preparation, and team dependency decline |
Suggested interpretation
- 85–100: Strong 90-day transition; expand responsibility according to demonstrated capability.
- 75–84: Core transition is working, with targeted support and scope controls still required.
- 60–74: Important onboarding gaps remain; clarify role, support, capability, or workload before expanding responsibility.
- Below 60: The transition is not producing a reliable management operating model. Reassess role design, onboarding support, manager readiness, and fit.
A total score should never override a serious security, integrity, employee-relations, or technical-escalation failure.
Recommended Weekly Operating Rhythm
| Meeting | Purpose | Suggested Length |
|---|---|---|
| Team priorities and capacity | Assignments, deadlines, blockers, review windows, and workload risk | 20–30 minutes weekly |
| Direct-report one-on-ones | Work, feedback, development, support, and career progression | 20–30 minutes weekly or biweekly |
| Manager coaching | Real management decisions, difficult conversations, scope, and escalation | 30 minutes weekly |
| Client portfolio review | Status, open items, scope risk, deadlines, and relationship needs | 30 minutes weekly |
| Quality and development review | Repeated notes, employee capability, training patterns, and workflow improvement | 30–45 minutes monthly |
The rhythm should support work, not create reporting for its own sake. Eliminate meetings that do not produce decisions, clarity, development, or risk control.
Completed Example: Internally Promoted CAS Manager
Senior Accountant → Client Accounting Services Manager
| Primary result | Own monthly accounting workflow, quality, client status, and staff development for 18 recurring clients. |
| Team scope | Two staff accountants, one senior accountant, and shared offshore support. |
| Days 1–30 | Completed team capability map, client-risk map, review-note baseline, decision-rights agreement, and weekly operating rhythm. Identified that the senior was overloaded while one staff member had unused capability. |
| Days 31–60 | Transferred three recurring reconciliations to the staff member using structured delegation, began leading client-status calls, created one consolidated open-item list, and coached the senior on review-note prioritization. |
| Days 61–90 | Owned workflow for the client group, presented a capacity and quality review, and established development plans for both staff accountants. Partner involvement shifted toward advisory and relationship matters rather than routine coordination. |
| Quality result | Repeated documentation notes declined, while review continued to identify appropriate judgment and client issues. |
| Capacity result | The manager retained less routine preparation work, the senior’s overload declined, and staff responsibility expanded under checkpoints. |
| 90-day score | 88 out of 100; mandatory risk gates met. |
| Next-quarter priority | Develop the senior to lead two client-status meetings and assume routine review responsibility for a defined client subset. |
The manager did not “fix” the department in 90 days. The manager established a reliable operating system, transferred work more effectively, improved visibility, and created evidence that the team could develop greater capacity.
Warning Signs the Accounting Manager Onboarding Plan Is Failing
The manager still performs most difficult work personally
This may show weak delegation, inadequate staff capability, unclear risk tolerance, or an unchanged workload.
Partners continue bypassing the manager
The firm may not have clearly transferred authority, or the manager may not be providing reliable information and judgment.
The team cannot explain the manager’s expectations
Role clarity for the manager has not translated into clear assignments and performance standards for staff.
Client questions still reach the partner first
The client transition may be incomplete, or the manager may not have enough context, authority, or confidence.
The manager has no time for one-on-ones or coaching
The role may still carry too much preparation work, too many direct reports, or an unrealistic client portfolio.
Every issue is treated as a training problem
The root cause may be workflow, staffing, unclear standards, client delay, or partner decisions.
The manager makes major changes before understanding the system
External hires are particularly vulnerable to mistaking unfamiliar practices for broken practices.
The manager avoids difficult conversations with former peers
An internal promotion may require explicit support, observed accountability conversations, and clearer authority.
The onboarding meetings become status reporting
The manager’s coach should examine decisions, behavior, people impact, and development—not only ask whether projects are on time.
AI and Workflow Leadership During the First 90 Days
A new accounting manager may inherit workflows already using AI, automation, offshore support, or several connected systems.
The first 90 days should establish which tools are approved, which client and employee data may be used, who verifies automated output, how assumptions and corrections are documented, which tasks remain under human professional judgment, how employees are trained on the underlying accounting objective, and which incidents require immediate escalation.
Do not let automation hide weak capability
The manager should determine whether an employee understands the work or can only operate the tool.
Do not redesign every workflow immediately
Observe the current controls, data quality, exceptions, and failure points before making changes.
Use AI to support—but not replace—manager judgment
Approved AI may help summarize open items, identify repeated review-note categories, prepare practice scenarios, or draft status communication. The manager remains responsible for security, verification, context, fairness, and final decisions.
What Should the Firm Measure After 90 Days?
Quality
First-pass quality, repeated review notes, material issues missed, documentation, and review turnaround.
People
Employee independence, capability growth, feedback quality, accountability, workload, and successors developed.
Capacity
Work delegated, manager rescue time, partner coordination, review bottlenecks, overtime, and schedule stability.
Clients and Firm
Deadline reliability, communication quality, scope control, client confidence, economics, risk, and relationship transfer.
Do not evaluate the manager only by whether deadlines were met. A deadline can be met through excessive manager hours, hidden employee overload, work taken back, reduced coaching, and partner rescue.
Did the manager produce the result through a system that increased future team capability and protected quality?
How SkillAbility Supports Accounting Manager Onboarding
SkillAbility helps CPA firms connect manager onboarding with the capabilities employees and leaders need before and after the transition. It is an accounting workforce development and knowledge-transfer platform built around a pathway from new hire to future partner.
The SkillAbility Development Pathway
Builds technical workflow, documentation, self-review, issue recognition, and review-ready work so managers inherit a more capable team.
Builds communication, financial interpretation, business acumen, professional presence, and judgment for stronger client leadership.
Builds delegation, coaching, review leadership, team leverage, firm economics, succession, strategic execution, and ownership thinking.
The onboarding plan creates the first 90-day operating transition. The broader pathway helps the manager continue building toward stronger client leadership, firm stewardship, and future partnership.
For the firmwide strategy, read Accounting Workforce Development: How CPA Firms Build Capacity From Within.
The first 90 days should not prove that the manager attended meetings. They should prove that the manager can lead a defined team, client portfolio, workflow, and quality system with increasing independence and measurable leverage.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should an accounting manager onboarding plan include?
It should include role outcomes, decision rights, client and team scope, technical and employee-relations escalation, client knowledge transfer, workload transfer, operating meetings, coaching, 30-60-90 milestones, evidence, and success measures.
What should a new accounting manager do in the first 30 days?
The manager should clarify the role, understand decision rights, assess team capability and workload, review the client portfolio, learn firm standards and systems, establish operating rhythms, identify risks, and create a factual baseline before making major changes.
What should happen during days 31–60?
The manager should begin structured delegation, direct coaching, client-status leadership, capacity planning, workflow ownership, and one controlled improvement project while receiving regular coaching.
What should a manager accomplish by day 90?
By day 90, the manager should own a defined operating result, lead routine client and team workflows, provide reliable partner updates, demonstrate delegation and coaching, manage deadline risk, improve visibility, and present a next-quarter plan.
Should an internally promoted manager receive formal onboarding?
Yes. Internal knowledge does not automatically create role clarity, management authority, delegation skill, employee-relations knowledge, or the ability to lead former peers. The onboarding emphasis should differ from that of an external hire, but it should still be formal.
How should onboarding differ for an external accounting manager?
An external hire needs deeper firm, system, culture, client-history, and relationship context. The manager should observe before making major changes and compare prior-firm practices with the new firm’s standards rather than assuming one approach is universal.
Who should own the manager onboarding plan?
One partner, director, or experienced manager should be accountable for the transition, with HR, technology, security, and technical specialists supporting relevant sections. Shared support should not replace one clear owner.
How often should the new manager meet with a partner?
A weekly coaching meeting is appropriate during the first 90 days for many roles. The discussion should focus on decisions, people, clients, risk, workload, and development—not only project status.
Should the new manager keep the same technical workload?
Usually not. The firm should reduce or redesign the workload so the manager has time for planning, review, coaching, client communication, capacity management, and accountability.
What metrics should be used during manager onboarding?
Measure quality, repeated review notes, work delegated, manager rescue time, capacity visibility, deadline control, client communication, employee development, partner coordination, security, and evidence of team leverage.
How should CPA firms onboard managers during busy season?
Keep the plan narrower and more operational. Clarify authority, limit the initial portfolio, establish frequent capacity and risk reviews, preserve coaching time, and avoid transferring every client or people responsibility at once.
What if the manager is technically strong but weak with people?
Limit the initial span, provide observed delegation and feedback practice, assign a manager coach, use realistic conversations, and measure employee impact before expanding people responsibility.
Can AI help onboard an accounting manager?
Approved AI can help organize client histories, summarize nonconfidential process information, prepare practice scenarios, categorize review notes, and draft operating plans. Human leaders must verify output, protect data, explain context, and retain responsibility for decisions.
External Research and Authority Sources
The Bottom Line
A new or promoted accounting manager does not need 90 days of introductions. The manager needs a controlled transfer of responsibility.
Define the operating result. Clarify authority. Transfer client history. Map team capability. Reduce the old technical workload. Establish a reliable workflow and meeting rhythm. Observe delegation, feedback, client communication, and capacity decisions. Give the manager a manager. Measure whether quality, staff independence, client confidence, deadline control, and firm capacity improve.
The first month should create clarity. The second should create controlled ownership. The third should create evidence of leverage.
A successful 90-day onboarding plan does not make the new manager responsible for everything. It makes the manager reliably responsible for the right things—with the authority, context, support, and evidence needed to lead.
Protect Knowledge. Develop People. Scale the Firm.
Does your firm transfer manager responsibility through a system—or through trial, error, and partner rescue?
SkillAbility helps CPA firms build review-ready staff, capable seniors, effective managers, client leaders, and future partners through structured practice, knowledge transfer, leadership development, and measurable evidence.
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To building managers who create capacity,
Vincent Howard, CPA
Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges
SkillAbility for Accounting Firms
About the Author
Vincent Howard, CPA has practiced public accounting since 1990. He holds a Master’s degree in Taxation from the University of Central Florida, founded his accounting firm in 1993, and helped grow Howard, Howard and Hodges from three people to approximately 50 staff across four locations and multiple states. He has participated in PASBA since 1997, and the firm was named PASBA Firm of the Year in 2015. Since 2020, he has built and run the SkillAbility accounting workforce development platform, used by more than 1,000 accounting professionals across dozens of PASBA firms.
© 2026 SkillAbility for Accounting Firms. This article provides general educational information and does not replace legal, employment, human-resources, accounting, tax, data-security, or regulatory advice.