By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | SkillAbility for Accounting Firms
Last updated: July 16, 2026 | 21-minute read
- What accounting-firm cross-training means
- Why firms should act before busy season
- What does not count as cross-training
- Six key-person risk areas to cover
- Five levels of backup readiness
- Cross-training priority matrix
- The seven-step cross-training process
- Copy-and-use cross-training plan
- Role and responsibility coverage matrix
- Choose the right training method
- How to validate backup readiness
- 100-point cross-training scorecard
- Completed busy-season example
- Security and access controls
- What the firm should measure
Busy season does not create key-person risk.
It reveals it.
A tax manager becomes unavailable and no one else knows how the firm handles a group of complex business returns. A senior accountant is out unexpectedly and the monthly-close team discovers that one reconciliation process depends on undocumented judgment. A firm administrator misses several days and no one knows the complete sequence for routing electronic signatures, monitoring filing acknowledgments, or resolving rejected submissions.
The work still exists.
The deadline still exists.
The client still expects an answer.
The missing person may be the only part of the system that knew how everything connected.
During slower periods, the firm can hide that dependency through availability. Everyone asks the same person. The expert answers the question, fixes the file, moves the workflow, and protects the result.
During busy season, those interruptions multiply. One absence, resignation, family emergency, illness, system problem, or overloaded reviewer can create a chain reaction across clients and deadlines.
A cross-training plan should make the firm less dependent on one person before workload, deadlines, and client pressure remove the time needed to teach.
This article provides a practical plan for identifying critical responsibilities, selecting qualified backups, transferring knowledge securely, testing performance, and creating reliable busy-season coverage without turning every employee into a generalist.
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.
As a small firm grows, specialization becomes necessary.
One person becomes especially good at a difficult client, tax issue, payroll setup, review process, software workflow, or administrative deadline. That specialization improves efficiency and quality.
It can also create hidden concentration risk.
The firm may believe it has a process because the work gets completed consistently. In reality, the process may be one experienced person remembering what to do, recognizing what looks wrong, knowing whom to contact, and stepping in whenever the standard workflow fails.
That arrangement works until the expert becomes unavailable or overloaded.
Then the firm learns whether the capability belonged to the organization or only to the individual.
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 experience has reinforced a lesson I learned in practice:
The best cross-training does not create two people who have seen the work. It creates at least two people who can carry the responsibility at an approved level.
Why Cross-Training Matters Before Busy Season
The accounting workforce continues to move through retirement, job changes, promotions, leaves, and changing responsibilities. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 1,579,800 accountant and auditor jobs in 2024 and projects approximately 124,200 openings per year from 2024 through 2034. Many of those openings are expected to result from people transferring occupations or leaving the labor force, including retirement.
BLS also notes that longer work periods are common during tax season and other deadline-heavy periods. At the same time, automation and AI are expected to shift more accounting value toward analysis, communication, risk identification, and higher-level judgment.
Firms Need Reliable Coverage While Work and Talent Continue Moving
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook.
Cross-training supports more than emergency backup
A capable backup can reduce:
- Manager interruptions
- Deadline concentration
- Client dependence on one relationship owner
- Review bottlenecks
- Vacation and leave disruption
- Resignation and retirement exposure
- Errors caused by rushed emergency handoffs
It can also create development opportunities for staff and seniors who need realistic next-level assignments.
Competency should determine coverage
The AICPA PCPS CPA Firm Competency Model, updated in October 2025, identifies productivity, technical knowledge, client service, people development and teamwork, business development, and culture and inclusion across five firm roles.
A backup should be selected according to the competency required by the responsibility—not merely availability or job title.
A technically strong preparer may not yet be ready to lead the client communication. A manager may understand the relationship but not the software workflow. An administrator may know the filing sequence but not the technical conditions that require partner review.
Cross-training is part of business continuity
ISO 22301:2019 is the current published international standard for business continuity management systems. It provides a framework for planning, operating, monitoring, reviewing, maintaining, and improving an organization’s ability to continue through disruption.
ISO 30401:2018 provides requirements and guidance for establishing, maintaining, reviewing, and improving a knowledge-management system. Together, the two standards support a practical principle for CPA firms:
Critical work should have both recoverable knowledge and a capable person who can use it.
What Is an Accounting Firm Cross-Training Plan?
An accounting firm cross-training plan is a structured process for identifying essential responsibilities, assigning primary and backup coverage, transferring the required process and judgment, testing performance under realistic conditions, and maintaining readiness as people, clients, systems, and standards change.
A complete plan answers seven questions:
- Which work cannot stop during busy season?
- Who currently owns each responsibility?
- Who is the primary backup?
- What level of coverage is required?
- What knowledge, access, judgment, and relationships must transfer?
- How will readiness be tested?
- How will the coverage remain current?
Cross-training does not mean every person learns every job.
The goal is targeted redundancy around critical work.
What Does Not Count as Cross-Training?
| Common Activity | Why It Is Not Enough | What Completes the Transfer |
|---|---|---|
| Watching the expert work | Creates familiarity but does not prove independent performance | Backup performs while the expert observes, then repeats independently |
| Sharing the procedure | May omit judgment, exceptions, context, and escalation rules | Scenario practice and teach-back confirm understanding |
| Granting software access | A login does not prove correct, secure, or authorized use | Controlled workflow completion with role-appropriate permissions |
| Naming an emergency contact | The person may not understand the work or be available | Tested primary and secondary coverage |
| Completing a course | Shows participation, not role-specific capability | Realistic assignment completed to the firm’s standard |
| Helping once during an emergency | May depend on step-by-step rescue from the primary owner | Independent performance with documented scope and escalation |
The difference is evidence.
A cross-trained employee can carry an approved part of the responsibility without requiring the unavailable person to guide every decision.
Six Key-Person Risk Areas CPA Firms Should Cover
1. Client relationship coverage
Every important client should have more than one professional who understands:
- Decision makers
- Communication preferences
- Service scope
- Open commitments
- History and sensitivities
- Deadline expectations
- Relationship and collection risk
Client coverage is not complete when a second person is copied on email. The backup should participate in meetings, understand the history, and know which matters remain partner-reserved.
2. Technical and specialty coverage
Identify responsibilities involving specialized tax, accounting, audit, advisory, payroll, industry, or regulatory expertise.
The backup should know:
- Applicable authority
- Normal treatment
- Common exceptions
- Documentation requirements
- When a specialist or partner must be involved
3. Review and quality coverage
Critical work should not depend on one reviewer.
Backups need evidence that they can:
- Understand the objective
- Trace conclusions to support
- Identify material issues
- Distinguish preference from correction
- Communicate review notes clearly
- Recognize when higher-level review is required
For review standards, read How to Reduce Review Notes in Accounting Without Turning Managers Into Editors.
4. Workflow and systems coverage
Map the people who understand:
- Workflow setup
- Permissions
- Integrations
- Templates
- Automation rules
- File locations
- Deadline monitoring
- Error recovery
5. Operational and administrative coverage
Administrative key-person risk can stop production even when technical staff are available.
Include:
- Engagement creation
- Electronic signatures
- Filing acknowledgments and rejected returns
- Billing and collections
- Portal administration
- Client onboarding
- Vendor contacts
- Document routing
6. Leadership and decision coverage
The firm should identify who can make or escalate decisions involving:
- Workload and deadline tradeoffs
- Client complaints
- Pricing and scope pressure
- Employee performance
- Security incidents
- Technical uncertainty
- Quality concerns
A backup may be able to keep the workflow moving without having authority to make every business or professional decision.
Five Levels of Backup Readiness
Identified → Exposed → Practiced → Independent → Transferable
The firm knows the critical responsibility, owner, and proposed backup.
The backup has reviewed the process and observed the primary owner.
The backup has performed the work with guidance and feedback.
The backup can perform the approved scope without procedural rescue.
The backup can review, explain, maintain, and transfer the responsibility again.
Not every backup needs Level 5.
A high-risk client relationship or technical responsibility may require Level 4 or 5. A low-risk administrative process may require Level 3 with a clear escalation path.
Cross-Training Priority Matrix
Prioritize responsibilities using four factors:
- Business impact
- Knowledge concentration
- Busy-season timing
- Backup readiness
Impact + Concentration + Timing + Readiness Gap
| Factor | 1 Point | 3 Points | 5 Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business impact | Minor inconvenience | Meaningful delay or rework | Major client, quality, filing, revenue, or reputation risk |
| Concentration | Several independent performers | One primary and one limited backup | Only one person can perform or explain it |
| Busy-season timing | Flexible or infrequent | Recurring deadline with some flexibility | High-volume, immovable, or closely sequenced deadline |
| Readiness gap | Backup independently validated | Backup has practiced with support | No backup identified or only observed |
- 17–20: Critical—assign leadership ownership and complete validation before busy season.
- 13–16: High—create primary backup coverage and a documented contingency.
- 9–12: Moderate—schedule guided practice and validation.
- 4–8: Routine—maintain documentation and periodic backup testing.
This is a practical management tool, not an external accounting standard. Adjust the factors to the firm’s services and risk tolerance.
The Seven-Step Accounting Firm Cross-Training Process
Step 1: Identify essential responsibilities
Start with the work that must continue—not with employee job descriptions.
Ask:
- Which deadlines cannot move?
- Which clients create material relationship or revenue risk?
- Which technical matters have only one qualified reviewer?
- Which systems or administrative steps can stop production?
- Which decisions require named authority?
Step 2: Define the exact backup scope
Do not write, “Backup for tax manager.”
Define what the person is expected to cover:
- Prepare
- Review
- Approve
- Communicate
- Coordinate
- Escalate
Step 3: Select the backup by evidence
Use the Accounting Competency Matrix Template for CPA Firms to compare the responsibility with demonstrated capability.
Consider:
- Technical foundation
- Workflow fluency
- Documentation quality
- Judgment
- Client communication
- Security and confidentiality
- Availability during the risk period
Step 4: Transfer the process, context, and judgment
Use the Accounting Firm Knowledge Transfer Template to capture:
- Purpose
- Sources
- Normal workflow
- Quality standard
- Common exceptions
- Client context
- Decision rules
- Escalation boundaries
Step 5: Practice using real or realistic work
Use a progression:
- Expert explains and demonstrates
- Backup performs with guidance
- Backup repeats with a checkpoint
- Backup performs independently
- Backup handles an exception or deadline variation
Step 6: Run a no-rescue validation drill
The primary owner should become unavailable for the exercise.
The backup must:
- Locate the information
- Access the correct systems
- Complete the approved scope
- Communicate status
- Identify open issues
- Escalate appropriately
The drill should not create actual client risk. Use a prior-period file, sandbox, simulated interruption, or controlled live assignment.
Step 7: Maintain the coverage
Revalidate when:
- The process changes
- The client changes
- The software changes
- The primary or backup changes roles
- Technical guidance changes
- A quality issue reveals a gap
- Busy season approaches again
Copy-and-Use Accounting Firm Cross-Training Plan
Critical Responsibility Cross-Training Plan
| Critical responsibility | |
| Business result protected | |
| Primary owner | |
| Primary backup | |
| Secondary backup or escalation owner | |
| Risk score and target coverage level | |
| Validation deadline |
1. Approved backup scope
2. Required knowledge, systems, and relationships
3. Normal workflow and quality standard
4. Common exceptions and warning signs
5. Decision rights and escalation
☐ Backup may prepare but not approve
☐ Manager review required before completion
☐ Partner or technical specialist approval required
☐ Client confirmation required
☐ HR, legal, security, or compliance escalation required
6. Training activities
☐ Expert demonstration
☐ Screen or workflow walkthrough
☐ Guided practice
☐ Client or internal meeting participation
☐ Independent assignment
☐ Exception scenario
☐ Teach-back
☐ No-rescue coverage drill
7. Validation evidence
8. Maintenance
| Current readiness level | |
| Next practice or test date | |
| Update triggers | |
| Manager approval |
Role and Responsibility Coverage Matrix
| Critical Responsibility | Primary | Backup | Risk | Current Level | Target Level | Next Validation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Review the matrix by service line, office, team, and busy-season deadline. A firmwide average can hide one critical responsibility with no backup.
Choose the Right Cross-Training Method
| Responsibility Type | Best Methods | Validation |
|---|---|---|
| Routine workflow | Procedure, screen recording, completed example, guided practice | Independent completion with correct documentation |
| Technical judgment | Case walkthrough, research exercise, decision tree, planted exception | Explains reasoning and escalates uncertainty |
| Client relationship | Client profile, joint meetings, successor-led call, transition debrief | Client communication handled within authority |
| Review responsibility | Completed examples, side-by-side review, note calibration, coached review | Finds material issues and gives clear notes |
| Administrative continuity | Checklist, access test, calendar drill, exception routing | Process continues without missed control or deadline |
| Leadership decision | Decision-rights map, scenario discussion, observed coverage rotation | Makes approved decisions and escalates reserved matters |
The training method should match the knowledge.
A checklist works well for a predictable sequence. It is not enough for professional judgment, relationship leadership, or an unusual technical exception.
How to Validate Backup Readiness Before Busy Season
Use a controlled coverage drill
Schedule a day or assignment when the primary owner does not answer routine questions.
The backup should use the documented resources and approved escalation path.
Test normal work and one variation
A backup who can repeat a familiar process may still fail when:
- A document is missing
- A client changes the facts
- A filing is rejected
- A system produces an unexpected result
- A deadline conflict appears
- A technical matter exceeds authority
Require teach-back
Ask the backup to explain:
- The purpose
- The critical risks
- The normal workflow
- The quality standard
- The common exceptions
- The escalation rules
Measure rescue
Record how often the backup required the primary owner to:
- Find information
- Make a routine decision
- Correct the workflow
- Rewrite the communication
- Complete the work personally
Some review is appropriate. Procedural rescue reveals an incomplete transfer.
100-Point Cross-Training Readiness Scorecard
| Readiness Area | Points | Strong Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Scope and authority understood | 10 | Backup knows what may be performed, approved, communicated, and escalated |
| Knowledge and resources are findable | 10 | Current sources, procedures, examples, and contacts are organized |
| Normal workflow performance | 15 | Backup completes routine work accurately and on time |
| Quality and documentation | 15 | Work meets the firm’s support, conclusion, and review-ready standard |
| Exception recognition and judgment | 15 | Backup recognizes when normal processing should stop or change |
| Communication and relationship continuity | 10 | Status, questions, client contact, and internal handoffs are clear and appropriate |
| Security and access behavior | 10 | Uses approved systems, unique credentials, least-necessary access, and secure transfer |
| No-rescue validation | 10 | Completes the approved scope without hidden procedural intervention |
| Maintenance and secondary coverage | 5 | Next test, update trigger, and secondary escalation are documented |
Suggested interpretation
- 85–100: Strong evidence of independent coverage within the approved scope.
- 75–84: Usable backup with targeted controls or coaching still required.
- 60–74: Partial coverage; continue practice before relying on the backup during busy season.
- Below 60: The firm remains materially dependent on the primary owner.
A high score should not override a confidentiality, authorization, professional-integrity, or material-escalation failure.
Completed Example: Business Tax Return Review Coverage
Primary Tax Manager → Secondary Business-Return Reviewer
| Business result protected | Maintain timely and consistent review of routine closely held business returns if the primary tax manager is unavailable or overloaded. |
| Risk score | 18 out of 20—high filing impact, one primary reviewer, concentrated deadline, and limited existing backup. |
| Backup scope | Review routine S corporation and partnership returns within the firm’s defined client and technical scope. Escalate elections, unusual ownership, multistate complexity, uncertain basis, significant related-party issues, and partner-reserved planning matters. |
| Knowledge transfer | Review checklist, completed examples, prior review-note patterns, client-risk profiles, deadline calendar, technical escalation map, and workflow demonstration. |
| Practice | Backup completed five coached reviews, two independent reviews, and one planted-exception case involving unsupported shareholder activity. |
| Validation | During a controlled no-rescue drill, the backup completed the routine review, identified the planted exception, prepared focused review notes, and escalated the issue to the technical partner. |
| Security | Role-based access granted only to the approved client group using individual credentials and multi-factor authentication. |
| Score | 88 out of 100—approved as Level 4 backup for the defined scope. |
| Maintenance | Review two returns monthly during filing season and repeat the exception drill before the next major deadline period. |
The backup is not a replacement for the primary tax manager across every client and technical matter.
The firm has created reliable coverage for a clearly defined segment of critical work.
A 90-Day Pre–Busy Season Cross-Training Timeline
| Period | Primary Focus | Required Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1–30 | Inventory critical work, score risk, select backups, define scope, organize knowledge and access | Coverage matrix, priority list, backup assignments, knowledge records, and training calendar |
| Days 31–60 | Demonstrate, practice, review, participate in meetings, and complete normal-case assignments | Work samples, review feedback, client or workflow participation, and corrected documentation |
| Days 61–90 | Run independent assignments and no-rescue drills, test exceptions, correct gaps, and approve coverage | Readiness scores, validated coverage levels, escalation maps, and maintenance dates |
Protect the training time
Cross-training repeatedly fails when practice assignments are the first items removed from the schedule.
Leadership should:
- Reserve specific training and validation time
- Temporarily adjust production expectations
- Give backups real work rather than optional observation
- Hold primary owners accountable for transferring capability
- Review progress before busy-season workload peaks
Cross-Training Without Expanding Security Risk
Cross-training often requires additional access to client files, software, portals, and workflow systems. Coverage should not become uncontrolled access.
IRS Publication 4557, Safeguarding Taxpayer Data, states that every employee should be educated about security threats and safeguards. It recommends limiting taxpayer-data access to people who need it, using individual credentials, multi-factor authentication, encryption, audit trails, and security awareness training.
Use least-necessary access
Grant the backup the access required for the approved scope—not unrestricted access to every client or administrative function.
Never share credentials
Each person should use individual credentials so the firm can preserve accountability and audit trails.
Test access before the emergency
A backup who understands the work but cannot enter the system is not operationally ready.
Separate training data from live client data when possible
Use sanitized files, prior-period copies, sandboxes, and fictional scenarios for early practice.
Revoke unnecessary access
Update permissions when the coverage scope, client assignment, role, or employment status changes.
How AI Can Support Cross-Training
Approved AI can help a firm:
- Turn expert interviews into draft procedures
- Summarize repeated review-note patterns
- Create sanitized exception scenarios
- Generate teach-back questions
- Compare coverage plans with competency requirements
- Organize searchable knowledge
Human professionals must verify technical accuracy, client context, current guidance, security, and decision rights.
Do not enter confidential client or employee information into unapproved tools.
AI can make knowledge easier to retrieve. It does not prove that the backup can make a sound professional decision under deadline pressure.
What Should the Firm Measure?
Coverage
Critical responsibilities identified, backups assigned, target readiness levels, and secondary escalation coverage.
Capability
Guided practice completed, independent work passed, exception scenarios passed, and teach-back quality.
Continuity
Deadlines maintained during absences, client handoffs, access readiness, and successful coverage drills.
Capacity and Risk
Manager rescue time, review bottlenecks, key-person interruptions, overtime concentration, and repeated failures.
Useful firmwide measures include:
- Percentage of critical responsibilities with a named backup
- Percentage with independently validated coverage
- Number of Level 1 and Level 2 high-risk responsibilities
- Coverage drill pass rate
- Procedural rescue required during drills
- Client responsibilities with more than one informed relationship owner
- Critical access failures identified before busy season
- Hours of work concentrated in one reviewer or specialist
Do not measure only how many employees completed cross-training.
Measure how many critical responsibilities became less dependent on one person.
How SkillAbility Helps CPA Firms Build Reliable Coverage
SkillAbility helps accounting firms move from person-dependent work to structured, measurable capability.
It is an accounting workforce development and knowledge-transfer platform built around a pathway from new hire to future partner.
The SkillAbility Development Pathway
Develops accounting, tax, payroll, software workflow, documentation, self-review, issue recognition, and review-ready execution through structured practice.
Develops client communication, financial interpretation, advisory thinking, business acumen, relationship capability, and professional judgment.
Develops review leadership, delegation, coaching, client transition, firm economics, succession, strategic execution, and ownership thinking.
Cross-training protects the immediate busy-season responsibility. A structured development pathway builds the deeper bench that makes reliable coverage possible year after year.
For the complete strategy, read Accounting Workforce Development: How CPA Firms Build Capacity From Within.
The goal is not to eliminate specialists. It is to ensure that specialized knowledge, client responsibility, workflow control, and decision authority do not disappear when one person is unavailable.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should an accounting firm cross-training plan include?
It should include critical responsibilities, primary owners, qualified backups, approved scope, target readiness level, required knowledge and access, training assignments, escalation rules, validation evidence, maintenance dates, and secondary coverage.
When should CPA firms begin cross-training for busy season?
Begin at least 60 to 90 days before workload peaks when possible. High-risk responsibilities involving complex judgment, important client relationships, or limited backups may require a longer development period.
How is cross-training different from shadowing?
Shadowing gives the learner exposure to the work. Cross-training requires the backup to perform the responsibility, receive feedback, handle realistic variations, and demonstrate independent capability within an approved scope.
Does every critical responsibility need two backups?
Not always. The required redundancy should match the impact, concentration, deadline, and availability risk. Critical responsibilities should usually have a primary backup and a defined secondary escalation or contingency.
How do firms choose the right backup?
Compare the responsibility with demonstrated technical, workflow, communication, judgment, security, and review capability. Also confirm availability during the risk period and interest in the development assignment.
How can firms cross-train without hurting productivity?
Prioritize the highest-risk responsibilities, protect scheduled practice time, use real recurring work, adjust short-term production expectations, and measure the future manager-rescue and continuity value created.
How should cross-training be tested?
Use an independent assignment, prior-period file, sandbox exercise, planted exception, teach-back, client-meeting leadership, or controlled no-rescue coverage drill. Test both the normal workflow and at least one variation.
What is key-person risk in an accounting firm?
Key-person risk exists when an important client, process, technical decision, workflow, relationship, or deadline depends heavily on one person and the firm lacks a tested alternative.
Should partners be included in cross-training?
Yes. Partner-held client history, pricing context, referral relationships, technical judgment, and decision authority may create some of the firm’s highest concentration risk.
How should cross-training access be handled?
Use role-based, least-necessary access, individual credentials, multi-factor authentication, secure transfer methods, and audit trails. Test access before coverage is needed and revoke it when the role changes.
Can a junior employee serve as a backup?
Yes, for responsibilities within demonstrated capability and with appropriate review and escalation. Backup scope should be defined by evidence and risk rather than title alone.
How often should cross-training be refreshed?
Review critical coverage before each major busy season and whenever clients, systems, standards, roles, or owners change. High-risk backups should perform periodic work rather than rely on one old training exercise.
Can AI help with cross-training?
Approved AI can help organize procedures, summarize sanitized interviews, identify repeated review issues, and create practice scenarios. Human experts must verify accuracy, security, client context, current authority, and final readiness.
External Research and Authority Sources
The Bottom Line
Busy season is the wrong time to discover that only one person understands a client, workflow, technical issue, filing process, review standard, or operational deadline.
Identify the work that cannot stop. Score the risk. Define the backup scope. Select the backup by demonstrated capability. Transfer the process, context, judgment, and escalation rules. Give the person real work. Run an independent drill. Correct the gaps. Test access and security. Maintain the coverage as work changes.
Do not measure cross-training by attendance.
Measure whether the firm can continue performing the responsibility safely and effectively when the primary owner is unavailable.
The best time to build backup capability is while the expert is available, the deadline is still distant, and the firm can turn mistakes into development instead of client risk.
Protect Knowledge. Develop People. Scale the Firm.
How many critical responsibilities in your firm still stop when one person is unavailable?
SkillAbility helps CPA firms transfer technical execution, client knowledge, professional judgment, review capability, and leadership responsibility through structured practice and measurable evidence.
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To building reliable coverage before the deadline,
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, records-management, or regulatory advice.