You Created the Capacity. Now What?

In my last article, I challenged CPA firm leaders to stop thinking in terms of AI versus offshoring.

A Broader Conversation

But I believe there’s an even bigger conversation to be had.

AI, automation, and offshore talent can all help you solve one of the most significant challenges facing CPA firms today: capacity.

Even more importantly, what are you going to do with the capacity you create?

You see, creating capacity isn’t the strategy. It’s what you do with that capacity that matters.

If AI allows your people to accomplish certain tasks in half the time, that’s good. If an offshore team removes hundreds or thousands of hours of work from your U.S. professionals, that’s good, too.

But if all you do is fill those hours with more production, more compliance work, and more deadlines, have you really transformed your firm? You may have created a more efficient version of the firm you already have.

I think there’s a much bigger opportunity in front of you.

Move From Efficiency to Excellence

For years, accounting firms have understandably focused on efficiency. Utilization, realization, billable hours, leverage, and productivity have been part of how we manage firms. Those things still matter.

But I believe the conversation needs to expand.

What if some of the capacity you're creating were deliberately reinvested in serving your clients with greater excellence?

Not just faster service, but better service.

That means knowing your clients more deeply, anticipating their needs, bringing ideas to them before they ask, and helping them think about what’s coming around the corner.

Your client probably doesn’t need another advisor who can tell them what happened last quarter. They need someone who can help them think about what happens next. That requires capacity.

Greatest Opportunity: Develop Better Advisors

One of the greatest opportunities I see is developing your people differently.

We have traditionally brought young accountants into firms and asked them to spend years mastering technical and compliance work before giving them meaningful exposure to clients and advisory conversations. AI and offshoring give you an opportunity to rethink that model.

If technology can perform or accelerate some routine tasks, and offshore professionals can assume other work, what could your younger professionals be doing instead?

Put them in client meetings earlier. Teach them how to ask questions. Ask them what they noticed during a meeting. Have them identify an issue and develop a recommendation. Let them sit beside a great partner or manager and watch how that person handles a difficult conversation. Then coach them afterward.

You don’t develop advisors by sending people to an advisory training program and checking a box. You develop advisors by giving them opportunities to advise.

Know More Than the Numbers

Excellent client service also requires understanding more than a client’s financial statements and tax returns.

Do your people understand where the client wants the business to be in three years? Do they understand the owner’s goals?

What about the client’s talent challenges, competitive pressures, succession concerns, technology investments, cash-flow needs, or growth opportunities?

When you understand the business behind the numbers, your conversations change.

Instead of saying, “Here’s what the numbers tell us happened,” you can begin saying, “Here’s what I’m seeing, and here’s what I think you should be thinking about.”

That’s advisory. And increasingly, I believe that is where your greatest value will reside.

Create a Client Experience by Design

There’s another area where I think many firms have an opportunity. Don’t leave client experience to chance.

In many firms, the client experience depends heavily on the individual partner. One partner communicates constantly. Another partner waits until there’s something technical to discuss. One partner proactively brings ideas. One responds when the client calls.

🔵 What does excellence look like in your firm? How quickly should clients hear back from you?

🔵 How often should your most important clients have a meaningful conversation with someone beyond the immediate engagement?

🔵 What should client onboarding feel like?

🔵 When should you talk about the client’s future rather than the work currently on your desk?

These shouldn’t simply be individual preferences. Rather, they should be part of how your firm operates.

Ask Better Questions

Sometimes excellent service starts with something remarkably simple: curiosity.

When was the last time you asked a client:

✅ What is keeping you up at night?

✅ What is the biggest opportunity you see over the next year?

✅ What is getting in the way of pursuing it?

✅ What do you wish we understood better about your business?

✅ Where could we be more helpful?

You might be surprised by what you hear. Your clients will often tell you where the advisory opportunities are if you create enough space to listen.

Think Firm First

Finally, excellence requires looking beyond individual books of business and service lines. Your client doesn’t care about your organizational chart. They don’t necessarily care which department provides a solution. They care whether your firm understands their problem and can help solve it. That requires collaboration.

Your audit team may uncover an issue that your advisory professionals can help address. Your tax professionals may recognize something the client’s CFO should be thinking about. Your technology team may see an opportunity no one else has considered.

But those opportunities disappear when people protect information, relationships, or revenue inside silos. Silos are deadly.

The relationship belongs to the firm, and the client should have access to the best thinking your entire firm can provide.

Capacity With a Purpose

This is why I believe the capacity conversation is much bigger than AI, automation, or offshoring. Those are tools.

The strategic question for you as a leader is what you intend to do with the capacity those tools create. Will you simply produce more?

Or will you use some of that capacity to build better professionals, deepen client relationships, create stronger advisors, collaborate across your firm, and deliver a level of service your clients genuinely value?

Efficiency matters. Profitability matters. Capacity matters. But none of them should be the ultimate destination.

Some Final Thoughts

The real opportunity is using the capacity you create to become more valuable to the people you serve.

So, as you think about your investments in technology, AI, automation, and talent, I’d encourage you to add one more question to your leadership agenda:

We created the capacity. Now what?

This provides a strong bridge from the capacity discussion to the broader strategic themes of advisory, talent development, client experience, and your “Firm First” philosophy.

 Until Next Time!