How Expert CAS Leaders Scale Accounting Operations | Panel Masterclass

Are your firm's internal processes starting to creak under the weight of new growth? When scaling a Client Accounting Services (CAS) or advisory practice, standardizing workflows, managing team capacity, and maintaining quality control become the ultimate operational test. In this live panel session from the Growing Your Firm Summit, host David Cristello brings together a "Council of Operations Experts" to discuss how to build sustainable systems that scale without causing team burnout: - Amy McCarty – Director of Operations at Dillon Business Advisors (20+ years coaching firm leaders) - AJ Zapata – Co-Founder & COO at Maverick (grew his book of business to $1M in 9 months flat) - Melanie – Systems & Admin Lead at Soren Whether you are an operations manager driving software adoption, a bookkeeping firm owner, a managing partner, or a CPA starting a firm, this panel provides actionable blueprints to streamline practice management and elevate firm performance. ### In this episode, we unpack: - Identifying Bottlenecks Early: Practical daily and weekly rituals to spot stale tasks and capacity friction in tools like Canopy and Carbon before they derail deadlines. - The "Bat Signal" Onboarding Method: How Maverick uses dedicated, loud-and-proud communication channels to keep new client onboarding on track. - Frictionless AI Workflows: Real-world use cases for Microsoft Copilot, Claude CoWork, and Notion for automated call summaries, data cleanup, and IRS notice response templates. - Gamifying Firm Improvements: How Dillon Business Advisors uses the "Optimus Pessimus" game to get team buy-in on process changes and achieve an 80% on-time financial delivery rate. - The "Start When Ready" Onboarding Rule: Why slowing down the onboarding process to ensure complete data collection actually speeds up firm delivery and protects staff sanity. - Setting Up Your First Ops Hire: How to delegate authority, clean up baseline data, and "let your operations team cook" so firm leaders can focus on strategy. ### Key Takeaways & Operational Frameworks: - Financial Delivery Incentives: Rewarding teams for delivering monthly client reports by the 15th with clear open-item disclosure rules. - Office Hours for Feedback: Holding bi-weekly 30-minute open office hours to uncover hidden software friction points and train staff on quick efficiency wins. - Data-First AI Readiness: Why clean, centralized client data is mandatory before deploying automated agents. Featured Guests:  - Amy McCarty - AJ Zapata - Melanie