Celerity Accounting LLC

Founder and CEO

Intuit

Intuit Partner Council

Blackhawk Technical College

I am teaching a course on Accounting Technology this semester!

Adjunct Professor Accounting

Contrail Aviation Support, LLC

Assistant Controller

BDO USA, LLP

I am currently responsible for performing and overseeing the full cycle general accounting function for small to mid-size organizations.

Duties include(but not limited to):
- Manage the daily, monthly, and annual accounting close procedures.
- AR/AP, fixed Assets, deferred revenue, compilations, and other accounting transactions.
- Balance sheet reconciliations
- Financial reporting & variance analysis
- Budget creation & presentation
- Payroll & payroll returns(941/940/etc).
- Transitioning or implementing new accounting software & accounting processes
- Management reporting & presentation of financial statements

Experienced Senior Associate - Business Services & Outsourcing

TrafficCast International, Inc.

Accounting duties (but not limited to) 
- Office administrative duties.
- AP/AR, Inventory tracking, Cost accounting(BOM), Purchasing, Month-end & year-end close, Fixed assets, and other transactional accounting.
- Monthly and annual financial statement preparation.
- Assist in moving through annual Audits.
- Weekly cash sheet tracking and forecasting 
-  Purchasing, Coordinating shipments, Minimize BOM costs, Material tracking, Finished goods, overseeing shipment arrivals, & Inventory/stock planning.
- Quickbooks desktop, Excel, Google Docs, and Bill.com

Senior Accountant and Procurement Specialist

Food Fight Restaurant Group

Accounting for up to 8 restaurants using Microsoft Great Plains, Sharepoint, Microsoft Programs, Swipely, Upserve, Posi, Aloha, Icontrol, Restaurant365, and other programs. 

Duties included(but not limited to):
- Monthly financial statements & close process 
- Balance sheet reconciliations 
- Gross Margin & other KPI tracking
- Weekly Cash sheet tracking & forecasting
- AR/AP
- Journal entries 
- Training staff on best practices
- Work with restaurant GM's to make better financial decisions
- Sales tax
- Compliance for both state & federal

Accountant

Seneca Foods Corporation

- Accounts Payable
- Ad Hoc reporting
- Other accounting duties
- SAP ERP system

Accounting Accounts payable

I demystify finances for 7 & 8 figure business owners | Founder @ Celerity Accounting | Top 100 Proadvisor 2024

I’m Tailor Hartman, founder and CEO of Celerity Accounting.

We’re a fractional accounting and advisory firm for 7 and 8-figure businesses using NetSuite and QuickBooks Online.

If your books are messy, your reports are unclear, or you’re scaling fast without the right financial visibility, we’re the team that fixes it.

A few milestones along the way:

- Named one of CPA Practice Advisor’s “40 Under 40 CPAs in the Profession” 
- Built Celerity from a solo operation into a trusted partner for $5–50M businesses.
- Launched a modern firm owner newsletter called "The Net Effect" for accountants

We partner with e-commerce, manufacturing, and other growth-minded companies to turn chaos into clarity.

Because accounting shouldn’t just be about compliance. It should be a system that drives better decisions, faster growth, and fewer surprises.

At Celerity, we don’t just clean up your numbers. We own the outcome. That means clear communication, controller-level oversight, and real partnership.

If your NetSuite or QBO setup isn’t doing its job, let’s fix it.

Happy to connect and share what we’ve learned!

Email: info@celerity.io
X: @tailor_hartman
https://linktr.ee/tailorh

Tailor Hartman

I turn 34 today.

10 lessons I’ve learned this year:

1/ Everything is about expectations.
If you don’t set them clearly with your team or your clients, nothing runs smoothly. Every problem I’ve had this year ties back to unclear expectations.

2/ Niching was the best move I ever made.
Going all-in on NetSuite and leaning into referrals gave me a steady pipeline faster than any cold outreach ever did.

3/ Hire for puzzle-fit, not paper credentials.
Skills matter, but culture-fit matters more. When the team dynamic clicks, everything gets easier.

4/ Hire before you think you need to.
Waiting too long cost us momentum. Every month I stayed in operator mode was a month we weren’t growing.

5/ Trust is the real currency.
It takes time to build and seconds to lose. The best businesses protect it at all costs.

6/ I stopped chasing validation.
Now it's all about impact. Helping others win is way more satisfying than trying to impress anyone.

7/ Creativity needs space.
The best ideas never come from working all the time. They come on airplanes, hikes, or in the shower when you’re not forcing them.

8/ Energy has a trade-off.
Every extra hour I pour into work comes out of something else: my health, my relationships, my hobbies. Burnout doesn’t just drain you, it drains from your life.

9/ Head-down isn’t always progress.
This year I worked A LOT. It helped us grow, but it also made me realize that my role had to change to keep growing.

10/ Growth sneaks up on you.
The first time is awkward/scary. The tenth feels natural. Growth sneaks up on you. Just keep showing up

Here’s to 34: more impact, more creativity, and a little more room to breathe.

Let me know if any of these stand out to you!

(7) Notifications | LinkedIn

JSESSIONID

li_at

Talks about #cpa, #business, #acccounting, and #businessaccounting

Bringing clarity, speed & automation to $5–50M SMBs | Founder @ Celerity

I'm speaking during Intuit Connect ON this Thursday!

It's a panel discussing accounting & using the new developments at Intuit to run your firm. I'm joined by Rozlynn Y., Jessica McCracken, and Marlie Rumsey.

We go philosophical, practical, and a little nerdy. 

Register here: https://bit.ly/4iwgeO4

Advertising & Media | Finance Leader | Intuit Lighthouse Member | Chief Sparqler

Accounting Industry Advocate | CPAPA 20 under 40 | Growth Strategy

Chief Business Officer at Western Truck & Trailer Sales | Building Strong Teams, Lasting Partnerships & Streamlined Operations

We're hiring!

Looking for a Client Success & Ops person to add to our small team.

Please forward to anyone you think may be interested.

If it doesn't let you apply, please email info@celerity.io your resume. 

Thanks!

Most business owners wait too long to hire an accountant.

In the beginning, doing it yourself feels manageable.

The books are simple. You know where every dollar goes. And it feels like you’re saving money by not hiring help.

But then things start to pick up.

A few more accounts. A few more systems. Suddenly, the numbers stop lining up as neatly as they used to.

When that happens, you lose visibility.

You stop knowing what’s current and start relying on what used to be true.

Decisions take longer.
Cash feels tighter.

And you start managing from instinct instead of data.

That’s usually the turning point.

Over the years, I’ve noticed a few moments where hiring an accountant makes the biggest difference:

1. Launching

Get your structure and systems right from the start. It’s easier to build clean books than to clean up a mess later.

2. Scaling

As revenue grows, your decisions get bigger. You need real financial data to guide them.

3. Time pressure

If accounting is stealing your weekends, it’s time to delegate. Good books give you back time to focus on what actually moves the business forward.

4. Expansion or exit

When you’re opening new locations or planning a sale, you’ll need clean, consistent financials long before the deal closes.

My advice: 

Hire an accountant before you need it.

When your books are current, everything else in the business runs smoother: payroll, forecasting, cash flow.

That’s what good accounting does.

If you’re starting to outgrow your current setup and want to know what that next step should look like, DM me. I’m happy to walk you through it.

Chicago today to see this guy! 

Jason Staats, CPA

I Coach Accounting Firms for Free at 516-980-4968 | Founder of a $400M/yr Accounting Firm Alliance

One of my biggest regrets is waiting too long to hire a senior accountant.

For the first 3.5 years of my firm, all the training and onboarding landed on my plate. 

Processes, cleanups, questions, everything flowed my way.

It worked... until it didn’t.

I became the bottleneck.
I was still deep in client work.
And my time was going to things someone else could have done better.

Looking back, I should have brought in senior help much earlier.

Someone who could take client work off my plate and level up the team at the same time.

If I had done that sooner, I would’ve pulled myself out of the weeds faster and spent my time where it actually mattered.

Don’t wait until you are drowning to hire help.

If a hire frees you to focus on higher-leverage work, it’s usually the right move.

What if you ranked clients by energy instead of revenue?

Every client relationship has a cost.

• Time
• Attention
• Emotional bandwidth

But not all clients cost the same.

Some lift you up.
Some drain you quietly in the background.

Your P&L won't show this. But your calendar, your mood, and your team absolutely will.

When you look closely, energizing clients tend to communicate clearly.

They respect your time.
They trust your process.
Your team enjoys the work.

Draining clients feel different.

The calls are heavier.
The expectations are unclear.
Your team tenses up when their name pops up in Slack.

Both groups pay you.
Only one makes you want to keep going.

Energy is a real business metric.

It shows up in morale, quality of work, hiring confidence, and even the speed of delivery.

If a client drains you consistently, the numbers might still look fine, but the partnership is costing you somewhere else.

Something to think about the next time you review your client list.

Are you tuning in today??

Intuit Connect ON starts at 11 CST. AKA in one hour!

Find the link to sign up in the comments! 

See you soon 😌

I used to think the only way to get great work was to do everything myself.

If I reviewed every transaction, triple-checked every report, and personally spoke to every client, nothing could go wrong.

And for a while, it worked.

The work was tight. Clients were happy.

But I was exhausted.

Every close, every deliverable, every late-night email went through me.

It wasn’t sustainable, and deep down, I knew it.

Still, the idea of handing things off made me nervous.

What if the team didn’t do it my way?
What if clients noticed?
What if something slipped?

Then one month, I had no choice.

We took on a few big new clients, and my schedule was maxed out.

So I handed off two accounts to a team member and hoped I wouldn’t regret it.

A week later, the client emailed to say how seamless the experience was.

I realized that letting go didn’t mean lowering the bar.

It meant raising the ceiling.

Since then, I’ve focused on building a team that owns their work, trusts each other, and takes pride in getting it right.

And that’s the main reason the firm keeps growing.

Most $10M-$50M companies don’t realize they’ve outgrown their accounting system until it’s already slowing them down.

It starts small.

An extra spreadsheet here.
A manual consolidation there.
A few late closes that used to be on time.

Then one day, you’re trying to explain last month’s numbers, and no one’s sure which version is right.

That’s usually when they call us.

Because the system that once worked perfectly is now holding everything together with duct tape.

Here are a few signs it’s time to graduate:

1) You can’t see the full picture
Each team has its own version of the truth

2) Your CFO sounds more like IT support
Half their week is spent cleaning integrations and reconciling errors.

3) You’ve built a maze of tools
Every time you solve one problem, you uncover two new ones.

At that stage, moving to NetSuite becomes the clear next step.

One platform for every entity.
One source of truth for the entire team.
One version of the numbers leadership can trust.

When your systems can’t keep up, your decisions start falling behind.

If you feel your systems aren’t keeping up with the pace of your business, send me a DM. I’m happy to point you in the right direction.

Good podcast with Rob Brown!

We covered a lot but we really talked personal branding & social media as an accountant. 

Check it out below ⤵️

I demystify finances for $5-50M SMBs | Founder @ Celerity Accounting | 40 under 40 CPA

New episode alert! 🎙️

Tailor Hartman left his $100K corporate job just hoping to survive. Instead, he made over $200K in his first year working about 20 hours a week.

His secret? CAS clients, niche specialization (QuickBooks Online + NetSuite), and keeping all the revenue instead of handing it to a firm.

In this episode of Leaders of the Ledger, Tailor shares his journey from BDO to building Celerity, why authenticity beats AI-generated content, and how community connections became his referral engine.

If you're thinking about starting your own firm or growing your influence in accounting, this conversation is for you.

Watch now: https://lnkd.in/gYB8uD5K

🐻 Dan Luthi and I will I'll be speaking at LIVE Intuit Product Leaders: Real Purpose of IAS & Evolved ProAdvisor! 

We will be interviewing two of my favorite Intuit people: Jaclyn Anku & Karla Uribe!

Make sure to attend it on December 17 at 12 PM Central time.

Partner and COO | Tech-Loving Accountant | Father of Four

Join us LIVE with two Intuit Product Leaders to discuss the REAL purpose behind the Intuit Accountant Suite and Evolved ProAdvisor Program updates Tailor Hartman Karla Uribe Jaclyn Anku Intuit Accountants

LIVE Intuit Product Leaders: Real Purpose of IAS & Evolved ProAdvisor

Every time I hit a wall in my business, I solve it the same way.

Whether it’s a client issue, a growth challenge, or one of those days where nothing clicks, I don’t sit there trying to power through it.

I don’t open another tab or stare at the problem harder.

I move.

Sometimes that means working out. 

Sometimes it means cooking something so elaborate it forces me to disconnect.

My favorite dish to prepare is ramen.

Not the quick kind.
The authentic kind.

Broth made the day before. 12 hours on the stove. 

There’s something about slow, intentional cooking that resets me. It pulls me out of urgency and back into clarity.

I've realized most of the time, the problem isn’t the problem.

It’s your state of mind.

If you’re stuck, don’t grind harder.

Move.
Reset.
Come back different.

Works every time.

—

Curious, how do you reset when you feel stuck?

When you start working with a new client, everything is clear.

Scope, expectations, responsibilities.
It's all laid out.

6 months later, things feel even better.

They trust your team.
You want to help.
So you say yes to a few extra things.

A year in, they love you.

They lean on you for more.
Your team steps up.
And before you realize it, the work has doubled.

You’ve become the one who always says yes.

That’s called expectation drift.

It doesn’t happen because anyone is taking advantage.
It happens because nobody stopped to recalibrate.

Lately, we’ve noticed this creeping in with a few clients, so we’ve been working on tightening up how we handle it.

A few things we’re experimenting with:

• Regular alignment checks
• A living expectations list for every client
• Training the team to flag “small” requests that have a big downstream impact

We don’t have this perfect.

But being more intentional about it has already helped a lot.

Every “yes” adds weight.

Fail to rebalance regularly and the partnership eventually tips over.

If you haven’t realigned with a client recently, it might be worth a quick check-in.

🗣️ "'JUST DO IT' – Shia LaBeouf" – Nelson Curtis, CPA

at Intuit Connect, we asked users what they would say to someone considering FinOptimal's apps, and we got some great answers:
💬 "a complete game-changer"
💬 "what took you so long?"
💬 "one of the best products in my tech stack for sure"
💬 "your life is going to get so much easier"

The bigger your business gets, the harder it becomes to trust your own numbers.

Most mid-market companies don’t realize how much disconnected systems slow them down until they’re already feeling it.

I see it all the time.

When new clients come to us, we often find 5-6 tools running different parts of the business. Finance in one platform. Operations in another. Inventory and sales tracked separately.

Each system tells a slightly different story.

Cash flow looks healthy in one place and tight in another. Revenue reports never match the bank balance.

And by the time leadership gets a full picture, the data is already weeks old.

This is a huge problem.

When your data is outdated, you start making decisions in the dark.

You hire too late.
You over-order inventory.

You miss early signs of cash trouble because the information lives in five different places.

That’s why my firm focuses on NetSuite integrations.

When finance, operations, and reporting live in one connected system, the noise disappears and you finally see reality as it happens.

Every time we set up NetSuite for clients, that's the first thing they notice.

They can finally see everything in one place.

Clarity speeds everything up.

And once you’ve had that kind of visibility, you never want to go back.

If you feel your systems aren’t keeping up with the pace of your business, send me a DM. I’m happy to point you in the right direction.

If you could rebuild one part of your firm from scratch, what would you change?

Most firms (mine included) are built one decision at a time.

A process here, a policy there, a tool that made sense 3 years ago but doesn’t fit as well today.

Before you know it, you’ve layered so many patches and systems that the whole thing starts to feel heavier than it should.

When I step back, I realize there are parts of my firm I’d design completely differently if I were starting today.

Maybe a simpler tech stack.
More focused roles.
Clearer communication rhythms.

The hard part is most of us don’t pause long enough to ask:

“Does this still make sense?”

That question alone has made us take a fresh look at how we do things.

Sometimes we don’t change a thing.

Other times, it leads to major improvements.

It’s uncomfortable at first.

But it’s how you keep the firm modern instead of mechanical.

So ask yourself... if you could rebuild one part of your firm today, what would you change?

Some of the best people in the accounting space will be speaking next week for Growing your Firm Summit.

Did you sign up yet?

Link to join here --> https://bit.ly/4okc6lP

Future Firm Inc.

Future Firm provides free content, coaching, education, and community to busy, modern accountants who want to run a firm that allows them to earn more and work less.

For free content, head to: https://futurefirm.co/

To join thousands of others that get a free twice-weekly email with exclusive tips & tricks for your firm, head to: https://futurefirm.co/newsletter/

To quickly systematize your firm so that you're earning more and working less, head here: https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/

Chief Executive Officer

Xen Accounting

*Acquired by the Equiom Group on Nov. 1, 2018*

Xen Accounting is a 100% online professional accounting firm whose purpose is to provide easy, automated & paperless online accounting services to small businesses across Canada. Customers receive an all-inclusive plan that combines accounting services, cloud accounting apps and fast support from a team of tech-savvy accounting professionals.

Since 2013, Xen Accounting has been seen as a thought leader in the accounting space in Canada. Featured continuously in the press, selected to be on Intuit’s Accountant Council in 2015 and becoming the first accounting firm in Canada to accept bitcoins as payment, Xen Accounting is constantly looking to break the mold of what an accounting firm would look like in the digital age.

For more information, please check out www.xenaccounting.com or our Twitter handle @XenAccounting.

Founder & CEO

Techvibes.com

Writer

Minogue Medical Inc.

Reinblatt & Co. LLP

Senior Accountant

I scaled and sold a 7-figure accounting firm in 5 years. Now, through my Future Firm newsletter, I'm giving 9,500+ firm owners the tactics, templates, and frameworks I used to do it.

Ryan Lazanis, CPA

Nobody will hire an accountant because of their tool stack. 

Nobody. 

I once thought having the “perfect” tool stack made me look modern and professional.

And that clients will be attracted to that.

Nope. 

They won’t be.

In fact, all the fancy tools in the world won’t beat an accountant who simply:

• replies on time
• communicates clearly
• delivers when they say they will
• sets expectations early
• keeps things organized
• follows up without being asked
• fixes issues fast
• treats clients like humans, not tickets

Clients don’t hire you or stay because you’re “optimized.”

They stay because you’re reliable and because you actually help them get the outcome that they want.

Simple done well > complicated done poorly.

Giving systems to firm owners to unlock freedom and growth

No alternative text description for this image

When you offshore (especially in the Philippines), you could absolutely try to get the costs as low as you can...

But that doesn’t mean you should.

Let’s be honest…

One of the biggest benefits of offshoring is:

Cost savings. 

Having offshore team members results in significantly lower operational costs than having purely domestic hires.

More importantly, the quality of work is comparable.

For example, according to Indeed, the average salary of an accountant in the US is about $67,000 per year.

In the Philippines, it’s roughly $7.4K/year

The point here isn’t that you should hire offshore so you could save 60K per year.

In fact, I actually recommend paying your team members above market, which offshoring allows you to do.

Here’s an example:

Instead of hiring 2 onshore accountants at $67K each (total: $134K), you could hire 1 onshore and 1 offshore.

Pay your onshore accountant $75K.

Pay your offshore accountant $12K.

Total cost: $87K.

You still save $47K annually while paying both onshore and offshore team members above market.

And you’re not constantly worrying about either of them leaving when a slightly better offer comes in.

Because my Future Firm team is offshore, I’m able to pay them significantly above the market rate.

I’ve never had a team member leave because of salary reasons. 🙂

I’m 42, married for 13 years, and I still do things my wife thinks are ridiculous. 

I pay someone to cut my grass.

And I pay someone to clean our pool.

When she thinks we should have been cleaning the pool ourselves (that’s several hours per week...)

Logical? Or am I just lazy?

Maybe a bit of both. 😅

Well… I’d rather spend that time elsewhere.

Here’s how I really see it:

I could spend two hours mowing and scrubbing… or I could spend those same two hours doing something that actually moves the needle in my business. 

Or just spending time with my daughter.

In short:

I’m basically paying for freedom.

Now, if you find mowing the lawn or cleaning the pool relaxing, I mean… go for it!

I just don’t happen to be one of those people.

It’s the same for firm owners.

You can keep doing the admin, the cleanup work, the endless follow-ups and tell yourself it’s “just part of running a firm.”

Or you can start looking at your effective hourly rate.

If your time’s worth $200 an hour…

And you’re spending it on a $50-an-hour task.

You’re effectively paying yourself $50 an hour.

Or you can accept that your time has to shift as your firm grows.

That every hour you spend on low-value work steals time from the high-value stuff:

Building systems, leading people, creating freedom.

It’s worth taking a hard look at that as you plan your next stage of growth.

And to be fair:

My wife’s right about a lot of things.

She keeps me grounded and a little frugal. 🙂

But every now and then, what’s “worth it” looks a little different to both of us. Lol.

linkedin.com

Good times last night seeing lots of familiar faces at Staats’ Toronto event. Great initiative Jason!

I love this.

We sometimes forget that the numbers we obsess over are rarely the ones that make a firm worth running.

Well said, Andrea MacDonald, CPA. 🙂

I almost didn’t start my firm.

I was 29. 

No clients. 

No experience. 

No safety net.

Just a stubborn idea that maybe accounting didn’t have to be done the old way.

When I told people I was launching a cloud accounting firm, they said that crazy idea would never work.

But it did.

5 years later, that same “crazy idea” hit 7+ figures... and I sold it.

Sometimes the smartest thing you can do is the thing everyone says is stupid. 😉

If you’ve ever been told “that’ll never work,”

You’ll want to see what I’m running this week: https://lnkd.in/e8SNbS-W

I didn’t start my firm to be crazy rich.

I built it for freedom.

Time with my family.

Moments like decorating the Christmas tree with my daughter without rushing back to the laptop after.

And I was fortunate. 

I scaled, worked 35 hours a week or less, and eventually sold the firm.

Now I teach the same systems and tactics I used to firm owners inside Future Firm Accelerate.

But if there’s one thing I’d leave you with today, it’s this:

Figure out what “enough” actually means to you.

Write it down. 

Get it out of your head.

A simple way to start is with a Roadmap.

Write down:

1) What you want in the next 90 days
2) What you want in 1 year
3) What you want in 3 years
4) What you want in 10 years

That’s it.

Once you have it, that document becomes your filter for everything:

• What you say yes or no to
• What you prioritize
• What you stop doing
• What shiny objects you can safely ignore

Most firm owners drift because they never pause long enough to decide what they’re aiming for.

A Roadmap brings that clarity back.

And it helps you build a firm that supports your life. 🙂

--

I share tactics like this in my short weekly newsletters that take less than 3 minutes to read (often much less).

If you want to follow along, go here: https://lnkd.in/edg-g5T8 

By the way...

Have you put up your Christmas tree yet?

I care too much about this profession to stay quiet on this.

But watching firm owner peers charge $54 for work worth $1,000 breaks my heart.

Here’s what I mean...

I used to walk past this accounting firm right next to my grocery store.

There was something troubling below that big green sign...

The advertised prices.

If you zoom in, and if you squint hard, you can see the starting prices of $54 for an individual tax return.

So every time I'd go to the grocery store, this sign would scream at me.

It would almost cause me physical pain.

When I was with my wife, she'd hear me grumble about how much it bothered me seeing that sign.

Because if I go to the website, for that price, this is what you get:

✅ No appointment needed
✅ Free consultation
✅ Guaranteed service
✅ Fast turnaround

That's not a $54 service.

That's a $1,000 service!

But guess what.

A "$54 starting at price" attracts $54 clients, not $1,000 ones.

So…

Please do yourself a BIG favor:

Please, please, pleeeeeeeease do not use low pricing as a way to attract clients.

There is no way that this works out for you.

You will attract the worst clients.

• The ones that give you headaches
• Who are never satisfied
• Who cause you to lose sleep
• Who you most likely won't even turn a profit on

Low prices attract low-quality clients.

And honestly… 

I’d really hate to see my peers charging like that… so I built something to help change that. 

Details here if you’re curious: https://lnkd.in/e8SNbS-W

The year is 2026.

Robots have taken over the world.

AI has reached superintelligence.

And mankind has transcended every known technological limit.

Yet:

My bank wire still takes 8 business days to complete.

When buyers started making offers for my firm Xen Accounting, I had A LOT of doubts about selling.

I wish I could tell you the decision to sell my firm was easy... but it wasn't. 

I agonized over it for months.

Eventually, I decided to write down specifically what I wanted out of life. 

- My goals 
- How much money I needed to be happy 
- The specific kind of work I wanted to be doing 

All that stuff.

After that, everything became clear.

I thought I started my firm because I wanted to make accounting easy and automated for small businesses.

But when I really thought about it, my purpose was actually about trying to help advance the accounting profession. 

I remember when I started my firm there were NO resources out there for people who wanted to create cutting edge, modern accounting firms. So I had to figure everything out on my own. 

It was frustrating.

And when I thought about that, I realized I was there to help other accountants design, implement, and grow a modern firm that doesn't fit the traditional mold and that gives accountants an amazing lifestyle. 

That’s why I created Future Firm Accelerate.

Future Firm Accelerate is my 6-step system for helping firm owners unlock freedom and growth in their firm. 

Inside, you get the playbooks, tools, coaching, and support from me and from an active community of 700+ firm owners...

All designed to help you have the time, energy, and money to live your ideal lifestyle. 🙂

🟢 An important update about the program:

You can save $20/mo on Future Firm Accelerate if you join TODAY through Friday, December 5.

After that, prices go up from $180/mo to $200/mo.

But if you join before then, you'll also lock in the lower rate permanently. 😉

Save $20/mo on Future Firm Accelerate here: https://lnkd.in/egM-kmdP 

P.S. 

If you’re curious what can happen in your first 30 days in the program…

You can go here: https://lnkd.in/eWbwXQQt

My favorite cold DM on LinkedIn:

“Hi”

$500K revenue. Still checking your bank account to see if you can afford a 2-day vacation.

I wish I could tell you that this is rare. But it’s not. 

After looking at hundreds of firms, I realized this doesn't happen because they're bad at what they do.

It's the setup.

- Too many clients (which looks good on paper)
- Too much low-value work for the firm owner
- Not enough margin to build real leverage
- And you could be over capacity before the year even starts

You think the answer is more marketing, more leads, more automation...

But if you’re already working near capacity and you’re still not earning decent profits, adding more clients just makes things worse.

The first thing I look at:

Pricing.

When your prices are too low... your firm starts attracting every problem you don’t have the bandwidth to deal with.

But when your prices actually reflect the value and the outcome the client wants…

• You’ll work with fewer (better) clients.
• You can actually hire help.
• You stop carrying low-value work.
• You start delegating.
• Capacity opens up.

It’s wild how many things start fixing themselves once your pricing gets fixed.

I just wish more firm owners understood this…

Because I see many great accountants out there that bring way more value to this industry than they give themselves credit for.
--
When did you last raise your prices? 🙂

My daughter is 5 and she LOVES unicorns.

I would never tell her that unicorns don't exist...

But unfortunately, you're a grown adult.

And I'm sorry to say:

Unicorns don't exist.

So you shouldn't spend your time trying to look for one.

Let me give you an example.

Firm Owner A gets busy.

They need help with bookkeeping, tax and handling complex client situations.

So, they put a job post out for a Senior Accountant who will do all that.

Eeeeehhh!

Wrong!

What you are looking for is a unicorn.

Someone great at everything, willing to do everything.

And they don't exist 🙂.

I've made that mistake many times before.

And it's always come back to bite me.

When I hired my first offshore Virtual Assistant in the Philippines, the job description included:

• Social media posting
• Writing help (blogging, newsletters, etc)
• Admin support
• Customer service support
• And more...

Basically, I was looking for a unicorn, and I didn't come close to getting it.

Instead:

1️⃣ Focus on what you really need right this moment.
2️⃣ And narrow the focus in your job description.

Do you need a junior bookkeeper?

A senior tax expert?

Etc.

Or, the alternative is:

Hire multiple roles to cover everything that you need. But you'll need the $$$ to be able to do this.

Or you can consider offshoring to secure all those roles at once for a fraction of the onshore rate. 

My daughter still believes in unicorns, and that’s great.

But in business, you can’t afford to.

The sooner you stop searching for a unicorn hire, the faster you can start building a real team. 

One made up of people who are great at THEIR thing.

I didn’t have a family to feed when I started my firm.

I was single. 

No one relied on me bringing food to the table, so if I got broke doing it, no one was going hungry.

That was not the case for Lesley McNamara, CPA, CGA. 

She’s a single mom, and for a while... they were on welfare. 

And nope, she wasn’t a CPA then.

She hadn’t even finished Grade 12.

She went back to school. 

Trained to be a bookkeeper. 

And after failing three CPA exams, and 11 years later, her one-woman firm was born.

By 2017, she was barely surviving. 

Despite the real value her services have, she was underpriced. 

For years, she lived in the tension where she wasn’t confident to raise her prices. 

That place where you know you’re good...

But still hesitate before sending a proposal.

Where you tweak your pricing down “just a bit”… even though you promised yourself you wouldn’t.

But because of her perseverance, combined with the right support, that situation didn’t last for a long time…

When she joined Future Firm Accelerate, she’d read a lesson, watch a walkthrough, hear how other firm owners handled the same situation, and get:

Confidence.

In the value that she brings.

That helped her raise prices and learn to say NO to clients who don’t agree with their prices. 

And with respected work came revenue.

$120K…
$200K…
$350K…
$428K…
And into the version of her firm where:

✅ She and her business partner Brian worked 30–35 hours a week
✅ Took 6+ weeks of vacation annually
✅ Most Friday afternoons off
✅ A full week of shutdown at Christmas

To stepping into retirement earlier than she ever thought she could.

Today, Lesley’s writing the book she never had time to finish.

She’s painting again.

Her life looks calm, intentional, and honestly… earned.

And it means a lot knowing Future Firm Accelerate played a part in that.

She said:

“Thanks to Future Firm Accelerate, from where I was at the start of 2017, I was making like $4,000. And then I built it up to half a million dollars in a short period of time.”

Her story reminds me that when you’re surrounded by the right community, the right structure, and the right validation…

You get further than you ever thought you would.

Maybe even retire earlier than you planned. 🙂

So if your firm feels heavier than it should… or if you feel like you are excellent at what you do but stay underpriced…

Here's a quick heads-up

🟢 You can save $20/mo on Future Firm Accelerate if you join TODAY until Friday, December 5. 

After that, prices go up from $180/mo to $200/mo.

If you join now and you'll also lock in the lower rate forever.

Click this link to save $20/mo on Future Firm Accelerate: https://lnkd.in/egM-kmdP 

—

If you’re curious what can happen in your first 30 days in the program… 

You can go here: https://lnkd.in/eWbwXQQt

#1 pro tip for making yourself the bottleneck in your firm:

Always strive for perfection.

(I’m being sarcastic, of course...)

Perfectionism doesn’t scale.

If you need everything done exactly your way, you’ll never step back. 

Your team will keep coming to you for approval on everything because they know you’ll just redo it anyway.

They come to you for every decision.

So you become the bottleneck you swore you’d never be.

As the image below says:

80% done by someone else is 100% freakin’ awesome!

That’s something I always abide by.

Your team members can do good work. 

But they can’t build the confidence to do great work if you don’t let them try.

They need room to make decisions, handle problems, and make mistakes. 

That’s how they get better. 

And that’s how you gain more freedom. 🙂

9 tips for building an efficient and self-sufficient accounting team: 

1. Document all processes
2. Consider hiring offshore 
3. Interview for attitude, not skills 
4. Analyze and optimize your team’s capacity 
5. Hire senior managers to take work off your plate
6. Recognize your team members’ achievements 
7. Create a strong onboarding process 
8. Pay your team members well 
9. Learn to accept “good enough” 

Those are huge steps to take, but this is where you can start:

Pick something you’ve been holding onto that doesn’t require your specific expertise.

Delegate it completely with clear expectations about the outcome, not the process.

Then, step back.

It’s going to feel uncomfortable.

You’ll want to check in or take it back. 

Don’t.

Let your team member own it.

Even if it’s not perfect.

When they succeed, they’ll gain confidence. 

When they struggle, they’ll learn. 

Either way, they grow.

Why do some clients suck so much?

At least that's what many firm owners think to themselves (secretly, of course!).

But, what if it's not the client who sucks...

It's actually you!

Let me explain...

You send them a simple request, a few documents, nothing crazy.

And then… nothing.

You follow up once. 

Twice. 

Three times. 

Still nothing.

Then, the twist:

It’s not them.

It’s YOU.

Because you’ve made it too hard for them to help you.

Here’s what actually helps fix it:

1️⃣ Keep your request emails under 50 words.
2️⃣ Give them one clear action (“Click here to upload”).
3️⃣ Set a deadline and the consequences for not meeting the deadline (ideally during the second follow-up).
4️⃣ Use a simple doc collection tool (Soroban, Content Snare, etc.) instead of back-and-forth emails.
5️⃣ Remove friction. Add clarity.

You’ll get documents faster, cut your follow-ups in half, and stop asking that question altogether. 😉

I still remember sitting nervously in this interview 8 years ago. 

At that time, all I had was one tiny idea:

To take accounting online. 

And it sparked everything.

At 32, I honestly thought it was pretty cool to be recognized as a thought leader in the space. 

So even though I had such little experience and I was just learning as I went, I shared 3 tips on how I was building a “modern” accounting firm. 

1️⃣ Value pricing

Stop pricing based on self-esteem or fear of losing clients.

Price based on the results you deliver, and make that clear in your positioning.

When clients understand the outcome, the price makes sense.

2️⃣ Build the right tech foundation

It’s easy to get sucked into every shiny new tool that promises to fix your whole firm.

Don’t.

List the parts of your workflow that actually need streamlining.

Buy the tool for that. And only that.

Simple is faster. Simple is easier. Simple gets used.

3️⃣ Work with clients who actually fit your firm

Your sweet spot clients.

The ones your processes were built for.

The ones who said yes to your value-based (or 3-tiered) pricing.

When you work with the right people, everything else in your firm gets lighter.

Funny thing is...

They’re still the same principles I talk about with 700+ firm owners inside Future Firm Accelerate.

Because no matter how much the tech evolves…

Or how fast AI changes the game…

Some fundamentals just DON’T change.

—

New here? I’m Ryan Lazanis.

I share tips and tactics in my newsletter to help firm owners unlock freedom and growth.

Click “View my newsletter” below my name to follow along. 🙂

Here’s how to know you’re hiring backwards:

When you spend most of the interviews testing the applicants’ technical skills or knowing more about their past work experience.

Instead of assessing their attitude.

What I mean is:

It’s HARDER to deal with attitude problems than issues with technical skills. 

HR professionals across industries are recognizing this problem. 

According to an SHRM report:

Developing soft skills like empathy is now a top priority because these traits actually determine whether someone succeeds or fails.

Technical skills can be taught in weeks or perhaps months. 

Attitude?

That’s nearly impossible to change.

That’s why at Future Firm, we use assessments that focus on how people think, not what they know. 

Just a quick tip:

When you’re interviewing, focus on finding people who can: 

Adapt.
Own their mistakes.
And fit your culture. 

You can start with these questions:

1️⃣ “Tell me about a major mistake you made at work.”

Do they take responsibility or blame others?

2️⃣ “Can you mention a scenario where you have received feedback about your work? How did you handle it?”

Are they willing to be uncomfortable and grow?

3️⃣ “Tell me about a challenging situation you recently faced. How did you resolve it?”

Are they natural problem solvers, or did they just identify the problem with no solution?

One last reminder:

A candidate with the right mindset will outperform someone with perfect credentials but a poor attitude. 🙂

Unsolicited advice for modern firm owners:

Get ready to go through absolute hell sometimes.

Change sucks. 

Like, it realllllly sucks.

Whether it’s switching your entire software stack (like we just did – migrating 700+ members, millions in revenue, and every single process we had)...

Or changing your pricing.

Or narrowing your niche.

Or overhauling how your team works.

It’s never fun.

It’s messy. 

It’s uncomfortable.

And it almost never feels like “the right time.”

But sometimes, you just have to suck it up and do it anyway.

Because staying stuck costs more.

If you’re in the middle of a big shift or you know you need one:

Join me, Will Hill, and Sean M. Duncan, CPA on November 20 for a free panel hosted by CPA Practice Advisor:

“How to Lead Your Firm Into the 21st Century”

Grab your spot here: https://lnkd.in/eXGnjUYu

Helping CPA firms in their quest to better serve their clients. 2021 'Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting' by Accounting Today. Professional Speaker

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