AI for your role

AI for CPAs

Automate the compliance base so you can sell the advisory that clients actually value.

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The shift

How AI is changing the CPA (Public Accountant) role

In 2026, AI is automating the compliance core of public accounting — reconciliations, standard reporting, and routine bookkeeping — that once consumed busy season. Language models research a standard, analyze a client's financials, and draft the memo in minutes. What grows in value is the CPA as interpreter and advisor: applying judgment to gray areas, guiding client strategy, and standing behind a signature.

What AI can take off your plate

  • Reconciliations and routine bookkeeping cleanup
  • Drafting standard financial statements and reports
  • Populating compliance workpapers and checklists
  • Categorizing transactions and flagging anomalies
  • First-draft client correspondence and memos

What stays distinctly human

  • Applying professional judgment to gray areas
  • Advising clients on strategy, not just compliance
  • Standing behind an opinion and a signature
  • Managing risk, ethics, and independence
  • Building long-term client trust and relationships
Tools

Five AI tools for CPAs

QuickBooks (Intuit Assist)
AI bookkeeping that categorizes transactions, reconciles accounts, and drafts reports for your review.
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ChatGPT
Research a standard, draft a client memo, or turn financials into plain-language talking points.
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Thomson Reuters Checkpoint Edge
AI-assisted accounting, audit, and tax research across authoritative content.
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Karbon
AI practice management that drafts client comms, summarizes emails, and keeps engagements on track.
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Digits
AI accounting that automates categorization, reporting, and client-ready financial insights.
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Prompts

Five prompts to try today

Paste these into Claude or ChatGPT and replace the bracketed parts with your own details.

1. Research an accounting treatment
How should [transaction/item] be treated under [GAAP/IFRS]? Summarize the applicable standard, the options, and the disclosure implications, and tell me what to verify against primary authority.
2. Prep for a client meeting
Here are a client's financials: [paste]. Identify the 3 most important trends, risks, and opportunities, and draft talking points that lead with what they should do about each.
3. Draft a client advisory memo
Write a memo advising [client] on [issue/decision]. Cover the options, the tradeoffs, my recommendation, and the assumptions it depends on. Professional but readable.
4. Explain a variance
Revenue/expense moved [describe] versus [prior period/budget]. List the most likely drivers, the follow-up questions I should ask, and how I'd confirm each.
5. Summarize a standard change
Summarize [new standard/regulation] and its practical impact on a [client type], including what changes in their reporting and what I need to do about it.
The playbook

Every AI play for CPAs

The full library of tools, prompts, and tricks for your role — updated every week. Tap any card for a step-by-step walkthrough and examples.

✦  New tools, prompts, and tricks are added every week — and go straight to subscribers in their morning brief. Skip the scrolling and get yours delivered free. Get my free brief →
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A day in your inbox

This is the kind of brief a CPA (Public Accountant) gets, every weekday morning.
Monday morning
✦ Personalized for: CPA (Public Accountant)
Today's Tool
Push compliance onto AI, sell advisory
Move reconciliations and standard reports onto AI-assisted workflows and reinvest the hours in client advisory. As compliance commoditizes, advice is the growth engine.
Today's Prompt
Walk into meetings with insight
Have AI analyze a client's financials for trends and risks and draft your talking points. Insight, not just statements, is what makes you a trusted advisor.
Today's Trick
AI drafts the memo, you sign it
Let AI pull the standard and draft the memo, then verify against primary authority before you sign. The judgment and the signature stay yours.

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