If your audit firm’s strategy hasn’t changed in the last three years, it’s already out of date. The profession is transforming faster than ever fueled by rapid regulatory change, AI- powered technologies, and shifting client demands. Firms that adapt quickly will thrive, while those that don’t risk losing both staff and clients to more innovative competitors.
According to the 2025 State of Tax Professionals Report, 71% of tax firm professionals think AI should be applied to their work, representing the biggest year-over-year increase among all professions covered in the report. In addition, 13% of tax firm professionals surveyed describe AI as playing a central part of their workflow, with nearly all industries expecting it to become central within five years.
At the same time, the accounting profession faces a shrinking workforce. The AICPA reports that by the end of 2019, 75% of CPAs will have reached retirement age. Many of them could retire within the next decade. In this type of environment, audit firms must respond decisively to position themselves for growth.
Audit firms that will succeed in the future are those that base their strategy on a thorough understanding of their capabilities, embrace technology to streamline operations, diversify their service offerings, invest deeply in people, and set clear, measurable goals. This white paper will walk you through each of these components, providing actionable steps to help you create a strategic blueprint for navigating disruption, attracting top talent, and consistently delivering exceptional client value.
The benefits of strategic planning for audit firms:
- Sets a clear course for growth so your firm stays competitive and future ready
- Unites your team with shared priorities, better communication, and stronger collaboration
- Sparks innovation by encouraging bold, creative ideas to reach ambitious goals
- Turns plans into action with a focus on execution, efficiency, and exceptional client service
- Builds a shared vision that inspires every team member to contribute to the firm’s success
Critical components of strategic planning for audit firms
In the audit world, strategic planning isn’t just about forecasting, it’s about building a roadmap that keeps your firm competitive, compliant, and profitable. The process starts with gathering your internal historical data and pairing it with a clear-eyed analysis of market conditions.
For example, consider budget actuals for every audit engagement. How much time and how many resources did each one consume? That data tells you whether you’re operating at peak efficiency, how many new audits you can realistically take on, or whether you’ll need to grow your team to hit revenue targets.
To get started, take a holistic view of your practice and ask yourself about:
- Pricing strategy. Does it reflect the value and assurance you deliver to clients — or are you leaving money on the table?
- Regulatory landscape. Which emerging standards, independence rules, or legislative changes could impact your audit practice or your clients’ industries?
- Staffing stability. Is your staffing stable? Are team members engaged and thriving, or teetering on burnout? Remember, auditor turnover can be costly in both client trust and project continuity.
Once you’ve assessed your pricing, regulatory risks, and staffing stability, the next step is to identify areas of specialization. What unique strengths can your firm leverage to stand out in a crowded market? Whether it’s industry-specific audits or emerging service lines, aligning your capabilities with client demand is key to strategic growth.
This deep analysis will allow you to define where you come from and where you need to go. It’ll also help you understand shifting client expectations and the changing marketplace. Then you can define short- and long-term goals to keep up with — or ahead of — those changes.
Of course, increasing profitability will always be at the top of any goals list. But how will you increase profitability? That’s where specialization and increased efficiencies can help. Specialization — particularly in high-value advisory services — allows your firm to deliver deeper insights and more personalized support, which drives client satisfaction and loyalty. At the same time, increased efficiencies through streamlined workflows free up your team to focus on consultative work rather than repetitive tasks. Together, these strategies not only enhance your firm’s value proposition but also create a more scalable and sustainable path to growth.
Sustaining that growth, however, depends on your ability to retain top talent. When your team is freed from tedious data-entry tasks and empowered to do more meaningful, consultative work, they’re more likely to stay engaged and committed. Long term, consider goals that support firm growth through staff retention. Losing employees doesn’t take much, and those defections can impact your firm’s ability to serve clients and grow. Creating efficiencies can help you retain staff because they’ll be able to do fewer data-entry tasks and more consultive work and obtain that work-life balance.
From there, set objectives that get you to your goals and performance metrics that allow you to measure progress. The objectives will help you find solutions to your roadblocks — such as the right technologies to create efficiencies in your auditing process — while metrics will help you identify opportunities for improvement.
But how do you bring all these components together to build your strategic plan?
The most important aspect to a strategic plan is often knowing where to start. So, what’s the best approach to building your plan? By following these steps:
1. Conduct a thorough internal and external SWOT analysis (H3)
A strategic plan is only as strong as the insight behind it. That begins with a deliberate internal and external analysis. A strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis is a tried-and-true technique for breaking down your firm’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats into actionable insight. It helps leaders and staff align behind a shared understanding of where your firm excels and where pressure points exist, while spotlighting external forces worth capitalizing on or mitigating.
For a SWOT analysis to be effective, audit firms need to go beyond basic assessments and dive into historical performance, including revenue trends, audit turnaround times, client satisfaction, and staffing metrics. Overlay this data with current market conditions, including pricing strategies, fee pressures, and regulatory developments.
For example, changes in standards from governing bodies like the PCAOB, IAASB, and AICPA demand auditors strengthen quality control and compliance measures. As financial reporting complexities grow, firms must adapt their methodology and maintain clear, detailed records that demonstrate compliance with these evolving standards.
Equally important and too often overlooked is the human dimension. Audit leaders should gauge how team members perceive workload demands, technology adoption, and growth opportunities. Understanding staff morale is essential, given that audit work can be intense and the labor market is tight.
By gathering insights on your firm’s capabilities, market dynamics, and staff sentiment, you’ll have a strong vantage point from which to build a strategic plan. This comprehensive picture is key to confidently planning and executing on meaningful goals, process improvements, talent initiatives, and service expansions.
2. Address inefficiencies in your audit process with automation
In today’s audit landscape, manual data entry and outdated reporting methods drag down productivity, erode audit quality, and exhaust teams. Automation offers a compelling solution that streamlines critical tasks, slashes processing time, and dramatically lowers error rates.
A recent article from the Harvard Business Review found that organizations that fail to adapt to new technologies lose up to an average of 25% of their potential revenue annually due to inefficiencies and missed opportunities. This is particularly true for accounting and audit firms that remain tied to manual processes and outdated software.
Improving efficiencies starts by identifying ineffective and time-consuming processes and workflows. For example, manually gathering and reconciling client data from multiple systems can delay the start of analysis and relying on time-consuming, sample-based testing may result in overlooked anomalies. Not to mention repetitive manual document reviews, fragmented communication between audit team members, and reactive, rather than proactive, risk assessments — all of which waste time and money.
Today, AI-powered audit solutions can eliminate these challenges. Instead of relying solely on periodic audits or manual data reviews, firms that leverage AI can continuously scan for emerging threats across multiple areas whether it be financial, operational, or regulatory.
“Is AI going to replace humans? Never,” says Jeff Forrestall, CPA, CFF, ABV, CVA, PFS & Managing Partner at Forrestall CPAs in Atlanta, Georgia. “Auditors are stronger than ever. We’re not going away, we’re just getting better. Using smarter technology, our firm has seen a 30% reduction, year-over-year, in substantive testing and overall time.”
With interactive dashboards and automated reporting features, AI-driven solutions provide auditors with timely visibility into risk exposure. This allows your firm to take swift, informed action and reduce the likelihood of surprise issues that could escalate into crises.
“It helps us with the linkage between our risk and our responses to those risks — and just made us better overall as an auditing firm,” says Jessica Gadeken, MPA, CPA, CGMA & Audit Partner at Wohlenberg, Ritzman and Company in Yankton, South Dakota. “The biggest impact has been in the planning of our audit. It helps us be more precise in terms of what we need to test verses perform substantive procedures on — and helps us make better decisions and better choices because it asks us the right questions.”
How AI addresses audit inefficiencies:
- Data ingestion and preparation. AI automatically extracts and organizes client data from various systems, making it easier to start analysis quickly and securely.
- Data analytics. AI automates the analysis of large datasets, revealing patterns and anomalies that may otherwise go unnoticed.
- Risk assessment. AI can identify unusual patterns and high-risk transactions, helping auditors prioritize testing and tailor procedures to the client’s risk profile.
- Audit planning and resource allocation. AI recommends procedures and allocates resources based on client characteristics and industry benchmarks.
- Continuous auditing. AI enables real-time data monitoring for ongoing assurance, rather than relying solely on point-in-time reviews.
- Document review and analysis. AI uses natural-language processing (NLP) to analyze complex textual data, such as contracts and financial statements, reducing time spent on manual review.
- Decision support. AI assists auditors in making informed professional judgments by surfacing precedent cases, regulatory guidance, and relevant analytical insights.
- Fraud detection. AI algorithms identify irregularities and potentially fraudulent activities within transactional data, allowing auditors to focus on high-risk areas.
3. Engage stakeholders in the planning process
Engaging both staff and clients in your firm’s strategic planning can dramatically elevate outcomes. When team members feel heard and valued, they invest more in success which translates to higher productivity, stronger retention, and lasting loyalty. Similarly, including clients ensures your plan aligns with real market needs and enhances service relevance and satisfaction.
To engage stakeholders effectively, adopt a strategic, structured approach. Techniques such as advisory panels, regular surveys, and two-way forums ensure that a variety of voices are included in shaping strategy. High-performance internal audit teams often go further by inviting stakeholders to join fieldwork sessions or co-develop audit tools, fostering collaboration and reinforcing trust.
In practice, once you’ve gathered stakeholder insights, incorporate them visibly into your planning. Share how feedback guided your decisions and continue the dialog through implementation milestones. This fosters accountability, reinforces trust, and aligns expectations.
Turn voices into value
Want stronger strategies and closer client relationships? Bring stakeholders into the planning room.
- Boost buy-in. Engaged teams work harder and stay longer.
- Stay relevant. Client input keeps services market-ready.
- Make it matter. Share how their feedback shaped real decisions.
4. Setting clear, measurable goals and performance metrics
Clear, well-defined goals serve as the compass for strategic planning in audit firms. They illuminate priorities, guide behavior, and keep teams aligned. Further, structuring goals using the S.M.A.R.T. framework — specific, measurable, assignable, realistic, time-bound — helps ensure clarity and accountability, increasing the likelihood of success.
That said, establishing goals is only half the battle. Your success depends on diligent monitoring and readiness to adapt. According to Harvard Business School Online, only 35% of business owners set benchmarks or measurable goals. Yet, among those who did, 90% considered themselves successful — underscoring the power of even modest goal-setting.
Beyond simply tracking results, effective performance metrics enable an agile strategy. By continuously monitoring key indicators like audit turnaround times, error rates, and team engagement, your firm will remain unified and proactive, even as market conditions or internal needs shift.
Goal-setting at a glance
S.M.A.R.T. goals for audit excellence
- Specific. Clearly define objectives to eliminate ambiguity.
- Measurable. Use quantifiable metrics to track progress.
- Assignable. Designate ownership for each goal.
- Realistic. Set achievable targets grounded in current capabilities.
- Time-bound. Commit to firm deadlines for accountability.
Tip — pair your goals with regular performance reviews of key metrics — such as audit turnaround time, error rates, and team engagement — to keep your strategy agile and your firm ahead of the curve.
Entering growth mode
As AI continues to automate routine, low-value tasks, more firms are recognizing the opportunity to reallocate resources toward higher-value services such as advisory services, strategic planning, and data-driven insights. For audit firms, this means evolving from traditional compliance-focused engagements toward becoming trusted partners in client decision-making.
Your internal analysis will help gauge whether you’re ready for this type of growth. When you are, use your SWOT analysis to match advisory opportunities with your firm’s internal expertise and then use technology automation to free your experts to work with new clients and big-fish projects.
According the 2025 State of Tax Professionals Report, the automation of routine tax work is allowing firms to diversify their service offerings into areas like tax strategy and business consulting.
The most common business services clients are seeking from their accounting firms:
- Tax strategy
- Business consulting
- Financial planning
- Decision-making support
- Help with HR and organizational issues
“We just went through peer review and from three years ago to this year, we’re a smaller firm, 25 employees. We had 36 new audit engagements over the last three years, which is rather large for us,” says Gadeken.
Expanding your services also means re-evaluating how you price them. The by-the- hour approach may not match the value your clients receive from advisory services. By instituting flexible pricing options, you ensure your staff and firm are getting revenue commensurate with the value they’re providing. With this new mindset, your firm can meet clients’ expectations and grow revenue simultaneously.
Addressing areas of concern
As you go through the strategic planning process, you’ll want to address several areas of concern. Here’s how to plan to overcome them.
Attracting and retaining top talent
In the face of a challenging labor market, many firms are turning to technology. Automation can reduce the workload for staff, but it can also be an attractive feature for potential new hires. Eliminating routine tasks allows younger accountants to focus on more “meaningful” tasks that involve human interaction and problem solving.
“I would say within three to six months, new team members are able to take one of our less risky audit areas and perform the audit procedures within that area by themselves pretty easily,” says Gadeken. “Whereas before that would take sometimes up to a year before they felt confident... I feel like that time’s been cut in half for our staff.”
Technology can also facilitate remote working, providing staff with the greater work-life balance they desire. This also allows you to knock down geographic barriers. With remote work, you can hire the best talent from anywhere, not just the best local talent. Technology can also facilitate learning and development, another essential aspect of attracting and retaining staff.
“For recruiting purposes, it’s opened the pool up for us a great deal,” continued Gadeken. “There’s way more opportunities for staff that we wouldn’t have had otherwise.”
In this same vein, you may need to rethink salaries, retention bonuses, signing bonuses, and other compensation to lure and retain top talent.
Diversifying services to meet your clients’ evolving needs
The secret to growth and continued success isn’t much of a secret — it’s meeting clients where they are. But, as noted, client demands are changing.
“We’re seeing consultants using the tax returns to provide consulting and advisory services,” says Shaun Hunley, Tax Consultant, Tax and Accounting Professional Services at Thomson Reuters. “What I’m seeing with accounting firms is that they are slowly, perhaps more quickly now, moving into more of a total package approach. They’re not just tax advisors, per se. They are an advisor in many different aspects of a client’s life.”
Here, too, technology provides an answer. Proactively advising clients requires having the correct client data at hand. That relies on the client providing that data, which can be frustrating for firms.
AI-powered solutions allowing easy, instantaneous data uploading can eliminate this waiting game. By making the data flow more manageable, you’ll have more time to serve your clients better and clarify how new laws and situations will impact them.
That will mean more responsive and personalized services for clients and the data to anticipate their needs. That’s the kind of service that builds client satisfaction and loyalty, which leads to firm prosperity.
Strategic planning: Your firm’s blueprint for growth
- Secure your future. Without a clear growth plan, your firm risks falling behind.
- Break down silos. Rally your team around one focused, winning direction.
- Innovate or stagnate. Bold strategies are the key to thriving in a rapidly changing market.
- Move from talk to action. Focus on execution and measurable results.
- Inspire commitment. Create a shared vision that every team member wants to deliver on.
Take the clear path to higher- quality audit engagement
Public accounting firms are navigating a shifting landscape as staff and client needs evolve. To maintain your ground or advance on the competition, you’ll need to evolve with it. The best way to do that intelligently is with a well-thought-out strategic plan that can adapt as you continuously evaluate your firm, staff, and clients.
Meeting the goals laid out in your strategic plan will likely require technology to automate tedious, time-consuming audit data entry. It may also require a shift in mindset. By streamlining workflows, improving efficiencies, and driving innovation, technology can become a catalyst for future growth and success.
The future of audit success belongs to firms that embrace clarity, precision, and continuous improvement. By aligning your people, processes, and technology around a shared vision for quality, you not only meet regulatory demands but also exceed client expectations. Every streamlined workflow, every well-defined metric, and every strategic decision you make moves your firm closer to delivering higher-quality, more efficient audit engagements — time after time.
Now is the time to put those principles into action. Thomson Reuters offers proven tools, expert insights, and innovative solutions designed to help you eliminate inefficiencies, enhance accuracy, and strengthen client trust. With the right framework and resources, your firm can confidently navigate today’s challenges while setting a standard for excellence that attracts and retains both clients and top talent.
Take the clear path to higher-quality audit engagements and see how a smarter, more strategic approach can transform your practice.
