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The April 15th push is when most firms go heads down. DrivePush work through. Deal with what’s urgent. Tell themselves they’ll think strategically “in May”.
That’s normal (as is wasting May—a Renew mantra is don’t waste May).
It’s also why most firms lean on post-tax-season amnesia to avoid making any real changes. Talk is cheap.
Last week’s Renew Connect Live call told a different story.
We had another strong turnout—in the middle of the busiest stretch of the year. Not by accident, but because Renew firms understand this:
If you only think strategically when you’re caught up, you’ll never make changes to your firm.
A mindset we continue to see:
Firms making pricing, hiring, and investment decisions reactively; and hoping they get it right.
Sometimes they do.
One Renew firm on the call shared a different approach. They reached out to us on a pricing decision before finalizing a proposal—and walked away with:
Same client. Better business. More value.
Most firms on the call are planning a 5%–15% increase this year.
That’s not a strategy. That’s the baseline.
If you’re still “thinking about it,” what you’re really doing is delaying a decision that will compound quietly over the next 12 months.
A common Renew reminder: not increasing prices every year is the quickest way to erode profitability. The average Renew member raises prices by 22% in Year 1—with only 4% attrition.
That’s not a price increase. That’s a client mix improvement.
The conversation around AI in accounting has shifted. No one is asking ‘if’ anymore. The only question now is how well.
Inside Renew firms, we’re seeing real use cases:
But here’s the difference:
Some firms are using AI to create capacity. Others are using it to move faster in the same direction. Only one of those changes the trajectory.
And here’s where we see firms get it wrong—AI FOMO is real. We’ve been working in the profession for more than 60 years between the two of us. There is more technology than ever and there is no end in sight. It’s a lot easier to buy a piece of software than have a hard look at your business model.
Technology is not a business strategy (we call Technology a Tier 2 issue).
You determine your business model and then invest in technology to support your model. Technology is one of three places an accounting firm can obtain leverage. The other two are people and pricing. Renew is an advocate of technology—yet not for the sake of more technology.
This is a Tier 1 vs. Tier 2 issue. Your vision, your business model, service offering, your pricing, your target client—those are Tier 1. Your technology stack? That’s Tier 2. It supports the model. It doesn’t replace it. Firms that skip this order end up working for their technology rather than their clients.
The working model we keep seeing holds up: AI for speed. Humans for judgment.
Ignore either side, and it breaks.
There was no shortage of tools discussed—Karbon, Anchor, StanfordTax, AI layers on top. All helpful. None transformative on their own.
The real constraint showed up elsewhere:
Firms that are Making the Firm the #1 Client create more value for themselves and their clients. They’ve addressed their Tier 1 issues first—vision, business model, services, pricing, target client—and then invested in the technology to support it.
Without that, better tools just mean you execute faster on work you’re better off not doing, with clients you’d be better off not having. Every firm has an Insanity Zone: clients consuming the most capacity, paying the least, and creating the most friction. Better technology doesn’t fix that. Better decisions do.
Most firms say they believe that. Very few have calendars that reflect it.
Here’s the test: if your best client called tomorrow and asked for what you’re giving yourself—the time, the investment, the strategic thinking—would you say yes? If not, the firm isn’t your #1 client yet.
If you’re in the middle of a pricing decision, a hiring plan, or just feeling the weight of everything stacking up—this is not the moment to go inward. It’s the moment to get perspective.
Because the firms that come out of this season stronger won’t be the ones who worked harder.
They’ll be the ones who made better decisions while it still mattered.
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