By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | SkillAbility for Accounting Firms Last updated: August 25, 2026 | 36-minute read TL;DR — The Short Answer IRS tax notice response training should teach accounting staff to protect the taxpayer’s procedural rights while rebuilding the IRS issue from source evidence—not simply draft a
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By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | SkillAbility for Accounting Firms Last updated: August 25, 2026 | 38-minute read TL;DR — The Short Answer Gift tax return training should teach accountants to document the transfer—not merely compare a gift with the annual exclusion. A review-ready Form 709 preparer identifies the
By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | SkillAbility for Accounting Firms Last updated: August 24, 2026 | 35-minute read TL;DR — The Short Answer Estate tax return training should teach accountants to prove what was included in the gross estate, why each asset was valued the way it was, what
By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | SkillAbility for Accounting Firms Last updated: August 24, 2026 | 35-minute read TL;DR — The Short Answer Fiduciary income tax training should teach staff to determine who is taxed on each dollar of income—not simply populate Form 1041 and copy numbers to Schedule
By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | SkillAbility for Accounting Firms Last updated: August 24, 2026 | 28-minute read TL;DR — The Short Answer C corporation tax training should teach staff to build Form 1120 from a reconciled corporate tax file—not to populate software from the trial balance and wait
21 Aug
AI Governance for Accounting Firms: Rules for Using, Reviewing, and Approving AI-Generated Work
By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | SkillAbility for Accounting Firms Last updated: August 21, 2026 | 26-minute read TL;DR — The Short Answer AI governance for accounting firms should answer five questions before AI-generated work enters a client file: Is this use allowed? Is this data allowed? What evidence
By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | SkillAbility for Accounting Firms Last updated: August 21, 2026 | 27-minute read TL;DR — The Short Answer WISP training should turn every security requirement in the firm’s written information security plan into observable employee behavior. Tax professionals are high-value targets because they hold
21 Aug
CPA Firm Manager Span of Control: How Many Staff Can One Manager Actually Develop and Review?
By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | SkillAbility for Accounting Firms Last updated: August 21, 2026 | 20-minute read TL;DR — The Short Answer For most CPA firms, there is no single correct manager-to-staff ratio. A manager’s reporting span, review span, and development span are three different capacity problems. Gallup’s
20 Aug
Budgeting and Forecasting Training for Accountants: Turn Historical Numbers Into Forward Decisions
By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | SkillAbility for Accounting Firms Last updated: August 20, 2026 | 29-minute read TL;DR — The Short Answer Budgeting and forecasting training should teach accountants to convert reliable historical financials into explicit assumptions, operating drivers, integrated future financials, rolling updates, scenarios, and decision-ready recommendations.
By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | SkillAbility for Accounting Firms Last updated: August 20, 2026 | 29-minute read TL;DR — The Short Answer Outsourced controller training should teach accountants to own the reliability and operating rhythm of the client’s finance function—not merely prepare cleaner books and not prematurely jump
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