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CAS 2.0 practice strategy focus areas
CAS 2.0 practice strategy focus areas

Strategy and Practice development Technology solutions Center of excellence
governance
• Business model definition • Implementation expertise • Methodology blueprinting
• Firm/practice strategy • KPIs and practice and methodology • Defined skills, roles, and
• Practice leadership management • Technology selection responsibilities
• Governance and • Service delivery model • PSA (and other practice) • Onboarding, engagement,
accountability • Client assessment solutions and offboarding workflows
• Client management • Pricing strategies • Tech-stack design • Detailed procedure
• Compensation • Marketing and sales • Verticalized solution design documentation using PSA
• Internal communication • Holistic fintech design tools
• Upskilling of
implementation and
processing teams
• Subscription MSP
framework

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needs. For example, when a client moves to or Adopting new roles
opens a new location, takes on new employees, or In a firm practicing business insights CAS,
starts a new product line, a firm’s tax or sales tax firm member roles are often significantly dif-
team may not find out until after the fact. Thomp- ferent from those in a traditional firm. Heal’s
son’s team will inform colleagues on other teams firm, for instance, has revised its organizational
about such changes before they happen, enabling chart and job descriptions to build a team that
them to get up to speed on client actions and offer best serves its verticals, she said. Nonfinance
advice early in the process. people — whether in house or contractors,
Outside of a CAS engagement, “clients may such as technology experts — collaborate
not typically ask if you can help them in acquir- with firm members. “Staffing is a big puzzle
ing a company, [for example,]” Yeager said. If the that we’re constantly shifting, based on client
firm is serving as the company’s adviser, however, needs,” she said.
those kinds of conversations are more likely to take As the type of CAS skills a firm needs
place, enabling the firm to bring in its transaction continues to evolve, “we have to know how to
advisory services team. pivot, particularly as technology changes at a
rapid pace,” Heal said. “A lot of our training
Moving away from the billable hour focuses on change management.”
To accelerate the move to business insights CAS,
firms can opt to move away from the billable hour Increasing scalability
and instead adopt subscription or other methods Making the leap to business insights CAS re-
of recurring billing for bundled services, based on quires a growth mindset and firm leaders who
the value of the service and not on how long it understand the market landscape, including
took to perform. These services may be categorized the competition from non-CPA firms, accord-
into tiers of productized service offerings, accord- ing to Merhib. To create a strong foundation
ing to Merhib. The new business model will also for business insights CAS, he recommended
mean that recruitment, compensation, and career that firms first invest in optimizing their exist-
paths for CAS staff will change because, among ing financial CAS practices by making internal
other reasons, accomplishments and goals are no processes and use of technology consistent and
longer measured in hours billed, Merhib said. repeatable.

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