Lessons
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2026 Predictions: The End of the Human Calculator?
When I started at PwC eight years ago, I kept hearing about the “reviewer shift.” The partners promised that technology would eventually handle the manual grunt work. They said first-year associates like me would stop being preparers and start being reviewers. For years, that felt like a corporate myth. We were still manually keying data and fighting…
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Navigating the Unknown: My Analysis of the 2026 Accounting Landscape
I’ve been poring over the economic reports for the start of 2026, and if I had to summarize the vibe in one phrase, it’s “wait and see.” After the chaos of late 2025—between the government shutdown, the “Liberation Day” tariffs, and the policy shocks—I wanted to get a clear picture of what we, as finance…
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The AI Premium: Why Finance Roles Are Seeing a 56% Pay Bump
Happy 2026. I spent the last few months helping a consulting firm map out their strategy for the year. We ran into a wall immediately when looking at hiring. The problem wasn’t a lack of people. The problem was the pay scale. Large firms love standardized boxes. You have your M1, M2, and M3 levels.…
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Accounting for AI: Breaking Down ASU 2025-06 and Internal Software Costs
I have spent the better part of 2025 talking about how AI changes our workflows. We look at prompts, we look at Python scripts, and we look at automation. But there is a massive side of this conversation I haven’t touched on enough: the accounting. Companies are pouring billions into internal AI tools. Until recently…
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The 2026 Inflation Trap: Why the Fed Just Wrecked Your Forecast
I spent the morning staring at a spreadsheet for my 2026 projections. The numbers looked clean. Inflation is trending down and the market is pricing in rate cuts. I felt good about the bottom line. Then I read the latest transcript from the Atlanta Fed. That optimism vanished pretty quickly. While we are all celebrating…
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The Future of the Firm: Why 2026 is Already Here
I used to look at “future of accounting” predictions with a healthy dose of skepticism. They usually felt like science fiction or vendor sales pitches. But after reviewing the latest Everyday CPE course on the “Future of the Firm,” the data painted a different picture. To get a clear handle on what 2026 looks like for accountants,…
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The Great Data Crisis of 2025: Why Your Finance Stack is Broken
I was going through the transcript for the new “Strategic Finance & Technology” course released this week. I paired it with the “Finance Under Pressure” report from insightsoftware. The numbers are alarming. 93% of finance teams say they are struggling with poor data management. If you feel like you are fighting your spreadsheets, you are…
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The New AI “One Rulebook”: Analyzing the December 11 Executive Order
I spent the last week wrestling with a new Python script to automate my data entry. It was frustrating. But it was nothing compared to the headache compliance teams are about to face regarding AI regulation. On December 11, 2025, the Trump administration signed a new Executive Order titled “Ensuring a National Policy Framework for…
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Regulators vs. Robots: Why the PCAOB is Sounding the Alarm on AI and Private Equity
I’ve been leaning on AI a lot lately. It’s efficient. It gets the job done. But I’ve noticed something. When I let the machine do the heavy lifting, my brain turns off a little bit. I stop scrutinizing every word. It turns out, I’m not alone. And that is exactly what has the Public Company…
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Breaking Down IBM’s $11 Billion Bet on Confluent
I was looking at IBM’s recent moves and their proposed acquisition of Confluent for $11 billion caught my eye. IBM has been trying to reinvent itself for years. Moving from a legacy IT giant to a modern AI and cloud company. Why spend so much on a data streaming company? It felt like a big…