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About Us

Built Inside a Real Firm. Battle-Tested on Real Clients.

The Training Platform Accounting Firms Actually Asked For

SkillAbility wasn't designed in a software lab. It was built inside a 60-year-old CPA firm to solve the problem every firm owner knows: your best people spend their billable hours training instead of producing.

We are a business-to-business talent development system built exclusively for accounting and CPA firms. One membership gives your firm the complete development pathway — from getting new hires productive without consuming senior partner time, to upgrading your compliance staff into high-margin advisors, to building the future leaders who will carry your firm forward.

The knowledge that used to live in two or three people's heads becomes a system your whole firm runs on — consistent, repeatable, and always available when someone needs a refresher instead of pulling a manager off client work.

SkillAbility is built and continuously developed by practicing CPAs with over 50 years of real firm operational experience. Every module exists because a real firm needed it to onboard a real employee who had to do real client work. We will continue expanding content as our member community grows and the profession evolves.

BASE builds execution. MAPS builds judgment. Summit builds your firm's future.
Technical skills get you hired. Relationship skills get you promoted. Business skills build a firm.
Your membership includes the whole climb.

A PERMANENT SYSTEM, NOT A ONE-TIME COURSE — SkillAbility doesn't just train your team once and disappear. It becomes part of your firm's infrastructure: the place where your processes live, your standards are set, and your people develop. By implementing SkillAbility, you stop worrying about inconsistent training affecting the quality of client work. Every new hire learns the right way, the same way — and when questions come up after training is complete, you point your team member back to the appropriate module instead of pulling a senior off billable work to re-explain something for the fifth time. The investment pays for itself in recovered senior capacity, and keeps paying as your team grows. As the profession evolves, so does the system — new content, new workflows, and new software coverage are added as the industry changes.

How We Develop Your Team

The Development Pathway

Every firm needs two things from its people: the ability to execute the work, and the judgment to advise the client. SkillAbility builds both — through structured, hands-on pathways where your team learns by doing real work inside real software, progressing module by module with nothing skipped and nothing skimmed.

One firm membership includes the complete climb. Here's where it starts:

BASE: Technical Execution Pathway

BASE helps new hires build technical confidence through real accounting and tax workflows before they touch live client files.

Explore BASE

MAPS: Advisor Pathway

MAPS develops advisors who can communicate, analyze, and think beyond the task.

Explore MAPS

WHY CHOOSE SKILLABILITY?

SkillAbility wasn't designed in a software lab. It is the brainchild of Vincent Howard CPA, managing shareholder of respected CPA firm Howard, Howard & Hodges (“HHH”) based in Lake Mary, Florida. HHH was founded in 1961 and currently has over 55 employees across multiple states. SkillAbility carries over 50 years of operational and technical knowledge into every module — and the team that develops and supports the system are hands-on practitioners who still serve business and individual clients every day.

The origin story is simple. During the COVID-19 pandemic, shadowing became impossible — so the first version of SkillAbility was an MS Word document outlining the first 90 days of employment, hyperlinked to training videos and procedures on HHH’s internal servers. Simple. Unsexy. And it worked so well that new hires were getting up to speed faster than they ever had under traditional shadowing — without consuming partner time. When colleagues at other firms started asking for access, that internal document evolved into the system you see today.

The difference matters: every module, every workflow, every simulation in SkillAbility exists because a real firm needed it to onboard a real employee who had to do real client work.

Here are a few reasons firms choose SkillAbility:

RECOVERED SENIOR CAPACITY

Member firms have reported staff accountants and bookkeepers managing significant assigned client accounting and payroll workloads within their first 90 days, and accounting & tax managers handling tax planning and return preparation across substantial client books within 90–120 days — all without consuming senior partner hours in the process. Results vary by firm, which is exactly why we back everything with the SkillAbility Performance Guarantee: if it doesn’t improve your onboarding, we’ll refund your investment.

CONSISTENCY — EVERY NEW HIRE, SAME STANDARD, DAY ONE

Trainees get a focused 2–3 week boot camp where learning is the only assignment — no client work, no distractions. They have full access to all learning materials and can repeat any module as many times as they need to fully absorb the work, supported by a 15–20 minute daily check-in with your firm’s internal manager or facilitator.

No more training by whoever happened to be available. Firms have even put their entire existing teams through the program to standardize processes and eliminate the inefficient habits that creep into daily workflow over the years.

A PERMANENT SYSTEM, NOT A ONE-TIME COURSE

The system doesn’t disappear when training ends. Your team has 24/7 access for refreshers and reference — so when a question comes up six months later, you point them back to the module instead of pulling a senior off billable work to re-explain it. The knowledge that used to live in a few people’s heads becomes infrastructure your whole firm runs on.

INSTRUCTORS WHO ACTUALLY DO THE WORK

SkillAbility’s instructors aren’t professional trainers reading scripts — they are practicing professionals who do what they teach, every day, for real clients. Every employee is trained properly, completely, and methodically by people with real-world responsibility for the work.

OUR CLIENT SAYS

Employee remembered a ROTH IRA conversion in Ultra Tax and helped a long term employee who didn't know how to execute it in the software all from using SkillAbility.

“Started the first video lesson of the SkillAbility. Vince could be an accounting professor, this is all accounting 101 that I took last semester. He is good. IDK why I even took the class its all summed up in this video”

Alison Rickhoff

Our firm has gone through quite a bit of staffing changes in the last 5 years. In mid 2021, we had 2 out of 3 of our very experienced staff accountants leave within 60 days of each other, leaving us without staff, but also, no capacity for existing staff to train them. We signed up for the SkillAbility to train their replacements. This was very effective for us, and although one person did not work out for other reasons, and had to be replaced, both of the final hires were able to learn the basics of their jobs, and get onto production incentive pay very quickly-in one case 90 days, the other 120 days. And I might add, are more productive than the people they replaced!! More recently, we hired a new Accounting & Tax Manager. He was able to complete the SkillAbility and be productive in less than 2 weeks. I highly recommend this LMS program-it has been a game changer for us!

Kim & Carl Corneliuson | Hopkins, MN

Our team has had great success using SkillAbility to train new employees. The platform is user-friendly, and it provides clear, comprehensive training on how to use our software effectively. The step-by-step modules ensure that our new hires are confident and fully prepared for the various tasks they will be performing. It’s been an invaluable tool for streamlining our employee onboarding process!

Paragon Accounting & Tax Solutions | Woodstock, GA

DISCOVER HOW SKILLABILITY CAN HELP YOU ACHIEVE YOUR FINANCIAL DREAMS THROUGH A ZERO-PRESSURE, ZERO-PITCH & ZERO-OBLIGATION MEETING.

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