One Step Better Podcast
The Role Follows the Work: Rethinking Our Accounting Firm Staffing Model
Matt and Mike have had this conversation about 9,000 times. They still don't have a definitive answer. Mike opens with a big goal: land on some real conclusions about how the firm is structured. What follows is an honest look at the org chart behind their accounting firm. It has three pods, each with staff accountants, senior accountants, and accounting and tax managers. Above them sit team leads and a director of accounting, and admin, AP, and offshore support work across every pod. On paper, it's just an org chart. In practice, years of chasing leverage have blended the buckets of work so much that almost nobody's role looks the way it was designed. The principle they keep coming back to comes from PASBA: the role follows the work. The trouble is that the work itself is changing. AI and automation are taking over more of the gathering, entering, coding, and reconciling that used to fill a staff accountant's day. If the roles don't change with the work, new technology just adds cost on top of existing revenue. In this episode: Why "the role follows the work" is the simplest principle in firm structure and the hardest one to stick to How the senior accountant role became staff, manager in training, onboarder, and tax learner all at once The hidden blocker: a staff accountant who can't start until admin or AP finishes their piece Reviewing the reviewer: when layers of oversight don't create the efficiency you expected Going from one director managing 25 people to team leads running pods, and whether that pivot went too far How paying on production can quietly discourage managers from handing work down Should onboarding be its own team when sales swing from two deals a month to six? Why every manager wants to onboard clients soup to nuts, and why that might not be the best use of them What a "Patrick Accounting 2.0" pod could look like with AI, automation, and a human in the loop Clients don't care how the work gets done, so the real prize is lowering the cost of production Vertical pods for restaurants or home care vs. a "mutual fund" of clients in every pod The bottom line: nothing is on fire, and the current structure is working. The goal is better gross margin through better leverage, with as little disruption for clients as possible. Next episode, they pick up where this one leaves off: how to develop people and what the staff role looks like going forward. Got a topic you want us to tackle? Drop a comment, send us a message, or share this episode with a firm owner who needs to hear it. Want to be a guest? We're opening the show up to firm owners who want to talk shop. Reach out and let's talk. Connect with us: Matt Patrick on LinkedIn → https://hubs.la/Q04fKVdQ0 Mike Shaeffer on LinkedIn → https://hubs.la/Q04fKVdX0 patrickaccounting.com Tired of struggling to find qualified accountants for your firm? Check out Cloud Accountant Staffing's candidate portal. Full of pre-vetted offshore accounting candidates ready to interview as soon as tomorrow → https://portal.cloudaccountantstaffing.com/register?p=MatthewPatrick
