The California Society of CPAs has announced a new strategic partnership with Thomson Reuters.
The partnership will offer Thomson's Practice Forward Tax Advisory Platform to California CPAs. The Platform helps professionals "[provide] higher-value tax advisory services ... as a next-generation tax accounting firm" by guiding firms through a business model transformation roadmap.
"A significant shift is underway in the tax preparation sector to expand service offerings into tax advisory and even financial planning," said Brad Monterio, CalCPA chief learning officer, in a statement. "CalCPA is partnering with Thomson Reuters to offer the Practice Forward platform as a way to help our California members get out in front of this shift and expand their businesses. We deliver meaningful value to our members by offering them this leading-edge platform to transform their tax practices without learning new tax skills. Practice Forward includes specialized personal coaching, tools, templates and powerful technologies to begin generating new revenue within days."
"The COVID-19 pandemic has had a tremendous impact on small businesses, and we have heard from accounting professionals the need for them to offer advisory services to help these businesses weather the storm," said Keith Nichols, general manager at Thomson Reuters, in a statement. "Expanding into advisory services is a mutually beneficial relationship: Businesses get the expertise on financial management, and accountants are able to obtain a recurring revenue stream."
"Financial planners are already encroaching on traditional tax practices as they expand into doing returns for their financial planning clients," Monterio added. "Practice Forward arms tax preparers with what they need to not only preserve their core tax and compliance practices but also expand into adjacent areas and compete effectively."
