Client Advisory Services (CAS) has become one of the most profitable and in-demand service lines in accounting, with revenues surging 17% in two years. Amy Bridges, Senior Manager of Practice Development at CPA.com, unpacks key findings from the latest CAS Benchmark Survey. From pricing strategies to scaling advisory services, this conversation offers actionable insights for firms looking to maximize CAS growth

Kim Blascoe, senior director of CAS professional services at CPA.com, shares some of the highlights of their most recent CAS Benchmark Survey -- from the area's extraordinary growth rates, to the key practices of a high-performing CAS practice.

Article source: https://www.accountingtoday.com/podcast/the-state-of-cas 

DAS recognized among Accounting Today's 2025 top new products in accounting.

A revolutionary product years in the making, the Dynamic Audit Solution (DAS) started by looking at the many new technologies developed over the last few decades and daring to imagine what the audit process would look like if it were built anew.

Article source: https://www.accountingtoday.com/list/the-2025-top-new-products-for-accountants

Generative AI-based solution helps firms increase efficiency and provide enhanced client value and insights

NEW YORK, NY (Jan. 16, 2025) – CPA.com announced today that it has formed a partnership with Blue J to connect firms of all sizes to Blue J’s best-in-class generative AI-powered tax research solution that’s designed to streamline a firm’s research processes and support them in delivering deeper, more actionable insights to clients.

Tax practitioners today face significant challenges with tax research, including navigating complex regulations, ensuring accuracy and managing time-consuming processes. Blue J, which was built by tax experts for tax experts, leverages an extensive U.S. tax content library and advanced large language models to instantly deliver firms with trusted, verifiable tax answers and draft high-quality client communications.

"This partnership with CPA.com marks a significant milestone in our mission of making tax law more understandable for all practitioners, so they can deliver exceptional outcomes for clients,” said Benjamin Alarie, CEO, Blue J. By combining our AI-driven solution with CPA.com's expertise around the accounting and finance professions, we are making accurate, efficient tax research more accessible than ever before."

“GenAI has more potential than perhaps any technology since the cloud to transform and enhance firm productivity and client service value,” said Erik Asgeirsson, president and CEO, CPA.com. “However, AI is still a nascent category and accounting professionals are focused on identifying viable use cases and building trust in the technology. We believe leveraging Blue J’s tax research capabilities for compliance work can help free up time that will enable practitioners to further shift toward deepening their trusted advisor relationships and unlocking new opportunities for firm evolution and growth.”

Firm adoption
More than 1,000 firms have adopted Blue J to support their tax research efforts and usage continues to grow in tandem—by the end of Nov. 2024, Blue J was answering more than 100,000 tax research questions from users in the previous 30 days.

Michael Radtke, a partner at Chortek, a mid-size firm in Wisconsin with a staff of 75, said his firm shifted from traditional research tools to Blue J because the solution offers a higher-value, more user-friendly experience that enabled his staff to serve their clients at an even higher standard. “In today’s competitive landscape, it’s important to stay up to date on the latest technologies as they develop. With Blue J, we can now enable our staff to deliver better results, faster, for our clients,” said Radtke.

Leslie Hatridge of Hatridge Tax & Accounting, a boutique tax prep firm based in Colorado, said that Blue J is one of the best investments she’s made in her business. As a one-person company, she feels the biggest thing she's lacking is a team to bounce things off. "Research takes a lot of time, and I'm obsessive about making sure things are done right,” noted Hatridge. “Now I feel like I have the ‘team’ backup I have been missing and can't believe the excellent quality of the research responses Blue J provides me.”

Key features and benefits of the Blue J platform include:

• Research expertly. Accomplish hours of research in seconds and arrive at meaningful insights faster than ever before. Blue J accelerates your research, so you can quickly deliver the right answers to clients.
• Grow your expertise. Practitioners can deepen their tax expertise by leveraging a curated database of trusted tax content, accessible directly through the application. A comprehensive list of sources, highlighting relevant passages, is provided at every stage of research.
• Draft instantly. With the touch of a button, high-quality emails and memos can be created in seconds for faster client communications.

Blue J will be offered to firms through CPA.com’s Preferred Partner Program, which supports CPA firms in expanding and elevating their advisory services through best-in-class technology solutions. Through this program, CPA.com will also provide practice development and training to help firms optimize the use of this technology.

To learn about how tax practitioners can harness Blue J’s advanced tax research capabilities to create efficiencies and deliver more client value, register for CPA.com’s upcoming product webinar, “Tax season prep: Get better tax answers with AI tax research tools,” Jan. 23 at 2 p.m. ET.

To learn more about Blue J, visit cpa.com/TaxAI.

About CPA.com
CPA.com brings innovative solutions to the accounting profession, either in partnership with leading providers or directly through its own development. The company has established itself as a thought leader on emerging technologies and as the trusted business advisor to practitioners in the United States, with a growing global focus. The company’s core mission is to drive the transformation of practice areas, advance the technology ecosystem for the profession, and lead technology research and innovation efforts for practitioners. A subsidiary of the American Institute of CPAs, the company is also part of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, the world’s most influential organization representing the profession. For more information, visit CPA.com.

About Blue J
Founded in 2015, Blue J is the leading generative AI solution for tax research. Trusted by firms of all sizes, Blue J delivers fast, verifiable answers to complex tax questions, empowering professionals to provide exceptional client service. With its conversational interface and curated library of authoritative sources, Blue J is transforming how tax experts work.

Newly appointed Caseware CEO ranks audit transformation as a top priority.

New York, NY (Jan. 13, 2025) - CPA.com, the business and technology subsidiary of the AICPA, announced today the latest updates to its Dynamic Audit Solution (DAS) initiative, including enhanced capabilities, expanded industry content and the appointment of a new chief executive officer at its technology partner Caseware.

DAS, which is powered by a transformative methodology developed by the AICPA in partnership with audit professionals from leading firms, reimagines the audit process with a data-driven, iterative, tailored-in approach that enhances efficiency and promotes a higher quality audit. DAS is built on the Caseware Cloud platform and is the profession’s most advanced and only fully integrated, end-to-end, cloud-based audit solution on the market.

Caseware appoints new CEO with strong technology and accounting industry background 

Caseware, a global leader in cloud audit, assurance and financial reporting and data analytics, is committed to driving audit transformation and today announced the appointment of David Marquis as its new CEO. David joins Caseware after five years at Intuit, where he led the international division including Canada, Australia, the UK and other non-U.S. markets. In their statement, Caseware highlighted the DAS initiative and audit transformation as a top focus area where they continue to demonstrate deep innovation and investment. They also recognized the contributions of their departing CEO David Osborne.

Erik Asgeirsson, CEO of CPA.com, commented on the transition: “David Osborne was a key partner to us in getting DAS launched, and he leaves things well positioned at Caseware for its continued success. I am very much looking forward to advancing the next phase with David Marquis who has a great understanding of the accounting profession along with a deep background in emerging technologies and product strategies. I’m also thrilled with David Marquis’ overall excitement related to the transformative DAS initiative which he shared with me in a recent discussion.”

DAS capability enhancements

As firm adoption of DAS continues to accelerate, the latest updates further support auditors in enhancing the efficiency, quality and client value of financial statement audits.

Recent DAS releases have expanded capabilities to address current auditor needs within the platform and build out key foundational elements to allow for even more enhanced technologies in the coming months, including:

• Newly supported industries. Industries added at the end of 2024 include technology, real estate, dealerships, depository and lending institutions, investment companies and insurance. Additional industry content for state and local governments will be released in the coming months. DAS’s tailored content by industry eliminates irrelevant procedures and supports auditors with tools aligned to unique industry requirements.
• Central Planning. Central planning eliminates redundancy and optimizes workflows for audits that involve multiple engagements by allowing risk assessments and responses to risks to be managed from a central entity. This feature also provides auditors the flexibility to modify elements of the individual entities to further streamline workflows.
• Testing. This release also upgrades the journal entry testing tool, making it simpler to work with existing tests, create new custom tests for specific needs, and link tests to specific risks.

In addition to DAS’s robust capabilities, CPA.com effectively supports firm adoption readiness, providing comprehensive implementation consulting, training and migration services to support firms through the entire audit transformation journey.

Firm adoption

Adoption of DAS continues to accelerate, with many T100 firms now on a path to full migration. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with firms highlighting enhanced efficiency and quality, staff engagement and upskilling, implementation training and the flexibility to use “out of the box” or as a customized solution as key benefits.

For more information on the Dynamic Audit Solution and recent updates, visit cpa.com/DAS.

About CPA.com

CPA.com brings innovative solutions to the accounting profession, either in partnership with leading providers or directly through its own development. The company has established itself as a thought leader on emerging technologies and as the trusted business advisor to practitioners in the United States, with a growing global focus. The company’s core mission is to drive the transformation of practice areas, advance the technology ecosystem for the profession, and lead technology research and innovation efforts for practitioners. A subsidiary of the American Institute of CPAs, the company is also part of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, the world’s most influential organization representing the profession. For more information, visit CPA.com.