By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | SkillAbility for Accounting Firms Last updated: July 31, 2026 | 41-minute read TL;DR — The Short Answer Scope creep in an accounting firm occurs when the client’s requested work, the facts, the service level, the volume, the timing, or the professional risk expands
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31 Jul
CPA Firm Engagement Management: How Managers Control Deadlines, Quality, Scope, and Team Leverage
By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | SkillAbility for Accounting Firms Last updated: July 31, 2026 | 39-minute read TL;DR — The Short Answer CPA firm engagement management is the manager’s operating system for converting an accepted engagement into timely, review-ready, properly scoped, economically controlled client work through the right
By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | SkillAbility for Accounting Firms Last updated: July 24, 2026 | 39-minute read TL;DR — The Short Answer A CPA firm is ready for tax season when it has tested—not merely assigned—the people, workflows, review capacity, client-intake process, technology, security controls, and backup coverage
By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | SkillAbility for Accounting Firms Last updated: July 20, 2026 | 21-minute read TL;DR — The Short Answer Accounting training ROI should measure whether development changes work—not whether employees complete courses. Calculate the full cost of training, then measure the financial value of manager
By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | SkillAbility for Accounting Firms Last updated: 2026 | 12-minute read TL;DR — The Short Answer In modern tax practices, review — not preparation — has become the primary constraint. Software and AI made preparation faster, so more returns hit the review stage sooner,
06 Jul
Cost of Accountant Turnover in Public Accounting: What CPA Firms Really Lose When Staff Leave
By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | SkillAbility for Accounting Firms Last updated: July 2026 | 14-minute read TL;DR — The Short Answer The cost of accountant turnover in public accounting is not just recruiting fees, salary replacement, and lost hiring time. It is the cost of rebuilding capability from
By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | SkillAbility for Accounting Firms Last updated: 2026 | 12-minute read TL;DR — The Short Answer Your managers aren’t too busy to train — your firm has made them the entire training system, which no manager has the bandwidth to be. They’re already reviewing
24 Jun
How to Retain Knowledge When Staff Leave: Why Documentation Isn’t Enough (and What Actually Works)
By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | Skillability for Accounting Firms Last updated: 2026 | 12-minute read TL;DR — The Short Answer To retain knowledge when staff leave, you have to accept an uncomfortable truth first: you can’t keep most of it by writing it down. Critical firm knowledge is
By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | Skillability for Accounting Firms Last updated: 2026 | 14-minute read TL;DR — The Short Answer A CPA enablement platform is the people layer of an accounting firm’s tech stack — the system that makes your staff actually able to operate everything else. Firms
By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | Skillability for Accounting Firms Let me tell you what most platform comparison articles won’t. They’re written by people who have reviewed platforms. I’ve needed them. There’s a difference — and that difference is about $9,500 per hire, a decade of painful lessons, and
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