Accounting
Unlocking margin discipline in a consolidating CPA+ industry.
Accounting and professional services firms are navigating unprecedented change. Private equity investment, rapid AI adoption, evolving client expectations, and talent constraints are fundamentally reshaping how value is created and captured across the CPA+ industry. Firms that continue to rely on cost-plus pricing, decentralized renewals, and reactive engagement management risk leaving significant enterprise value unrealized.
While demand for advisory, outsourced CFO, and specialized tax services continues to expand, many accounting firms struggle to convert growth into sustained margin improvement. Pricing complexity, decentralized partner decision-making, and limited market intelligence often dilute the value firms deliver.
INSIGHT2PROFIT partners with CPA+ leaders to transform pricing into a repeatable, scalable value creation lever — improving realization, accelerating growth, and strengthening enterprise valuation.
Common Challenges
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Non-Market-Based Rate Structures
Rates are not aligned to market expectations or properly segmented by service, client profile, or risk, creating weak starting points for pricing decisions.
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Limited Renewal Rate Momentum
Decentralized and reactive renewal processes result in minimal year-over-year effective rate improvement.
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Cost-Plus Pricing Misalignment
Reliance on cost-plus pricing fails to reflect delivered value, reducing profitability and distorting win-rate outcomes.
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Uncontrolled Discounting & Scope Leakage
Inconsistent discounting and unmanaged engagement changes drive planned-versus-actual realization gaps.
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Underutilized Cross-Sell Potential
Lack of structured account planning limits expansion across advisory, tax, and assurance services.
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Reactive WIP & Collections
Delayed visibility into work-in-progress and collections contributes to elevated DSO and cash flow volatility.
What Opportunities Exist in Your Business?
INSIGHT2PROFIT helps CPA+ firms unlock margin and growth by addressing pricing, realization, and commercial discipline across the full engagement lifecycle
Standard Rate Setting
Establishing market-aligned, value-based rate structures creates stronger starting points and reduces downstream discounting and leakage.
- Establish market-aligned, value-based rate structures
- Segment rates by service, complexity, client profile, and risk
- Eliminate irrelevant starting points that undermine realization
Renewals Strategy
A structured, data-driven renewal pricing motion enables consistent effective rate improvement while managing client retention risk.
- Implement repeatable renewal pricing processes
- Equip partners with guidance to confidently drive increases
- Improve year-over-year realization with controlled risk
New Business Pricing
Moving beyond cost-plus estimates allows firms to balance win-rate and margin while improving pricing consistency.
- Shift from labor-based estimates to value-based fee structures
- Use analytics to balance margin and win-rate tradeoffs
- Improve predictability of pricing outcomes
Cross-Sell & Account Expansion
Targeted account planning and peer-based insights unlock incremental revenue across advisory, tax, and assurance services.
- Identify expansion opportunities using peer analytics
- Align pricing and packaging to client lifetime value
- Enable proactive account-level growth planning
Technology & Administrative Fees
Clear messaging and standardized structures improve realization on technology-enabled and value-added services.
- Improve communication and capture of value-add fees
- Increase realization on technology-enabled offerings
- Reduce fee leakage through consistent structures
Managing Leakage
Proactively managing scope changes and engagement dynamics reduces gaps between planned and actual realization.
- Identify planned vs. actual realization variances
- Address engagement creep before margin erosion occurs
- Improve visibility from quote through delivery
Collections
Stronger pricing discipline and engagement controls reduce DSO and improve cash flow predictability.
- Align billing structures with client expectations
- Improve visibility into WIP and collections
- Reduce DSO through earlier intervention
Where CPA+ Firms Lose and Can Recover Realization
Pricing and realization erode at multiple points across the CPA+ engagement lifecycle, from rate setting and renewals through discounts, scope changes, and collections. Individually small decisions compound into material revenue and EBITDA loss, making disciplined pricing, governance, and execution critical to sustained margin and enterprise value improvement.
Price & Realization Waterfall | Common Opportunity Areas for CPA+ Firms
Our CPA+ Industry Approach
INSIGHT2PROFIT combines analytics, tools, and change management to deliver measurable impact:
Value-Based Pricing Models
Data-driven pricing models guide renewals and new business decisions, balancing margin improvement with win-rate outcomes across client segments.
Technology Enablement
Centralized pricing, quoting, and decision-support tools improve partner visibility, consistency, and speed of execution.
Reporting & Measurement
Actionable KPIs and partner scorecards create transparency, accountability, and sustained focus on pricing and realization performance.
Confidence Coaching
Targeted pricing and negotiation support equips partners to confidently execute pricing strategies and sell through organizational change.
Enterprise Value Creation
Pricing is one of the most powerful levers for enterprise value creation in CPA+ firms — but only if each renewal cycle is fully leveraged.
CPA+ Pricing Calendar
Pricing and client negotiations need to be completed on a set schedule to drive impact for the following year
Enterprise Value Creation
Firms may forgo $50M-$100M of enterprise value remaining status quo in the upcoming renewals cycle
Our Pricing & Commercial Experts
INSIGHT2PROFIT has partnered with six of the top 25 public accounting firms, delivering measurable pricing and margin impact across a range of operating models. Engagements include a PE-backed CPA firm exceeding $1B in revenue that achieved a 4.5% effective rate lift in year one, a publicly held CPA firm that improved direct margins by 700 basis points across underperforming offices, and a PE-backed firm under $500M that realized an 8% effective rate increase in the first year. Additional work spans new business pricing, renewal strategy, cross-sell enablement, ancillary fee optimization, and the design of pricing centers of excellence to support sustained performance.
Justin Seefeldt
Justin is a Managing Principal at INSIGHT2PROFIT and brings 15 years of experience as a management consultant focused on pricing, sales and marketing strategy. Over the past decade, Justin has spearheaded over 70 engagements across various industries concentrating on pricing and profit strategy, resulting in delivering clients more than $1B of value creation.
Prior to joining INSIGHT, he spent several years at a Fortune 500 wholesale distributor, focusing on strategic pricing, private brand management, and commercial analytics.
Examples of Justin’s experience include:
- Collaborated with an industrial holding company to develop a scalable pricing structure and process across more than 40 individual businesses, yielding over $30M of EBITDA impact and 500 basis points margin improvement
- Achieved over $10M of EBITDA impact for an omni-channel building products manufacturer by developing a gross-to-net waterfall that identified key areas of profit leakage and creating corresponding strategies to mitigate them
- Served as a centralized pricing function for a Fortune 500 multinational specialty manufacturer to coordinate pricing strategy and action plans across businesses, executing a $400M pricing action against downward margin pressures
Justin earned his MBA in Corporate Finance and Marketing Strategy & Planning from DePaul Driehaus College of Business, Kellstadt Graduate School of Business and a B.S. in Consumer Economics & Finance from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Mike Brenner
Mike is a Vice President of Private Equity at INSIGHT2PROFIT, where he has over 15 years of pricing experience across multiple industries and within the consulting field. He specializes in B2B pricing strategy & implementation for distribution, manufacturing, and service providers. Mike has led more than 3 dozen engagements at INSIGHT, excelling in identifying profitability improvement opportunities and offering pragmatic solutions to change management to ensure tangible financial benefits are achieved.
Prior to joining INSIGHT, Mike managed a pricing team at GOJO Industries, focusing on establishing market-based pricing for its PURELL line and heavy-duty cleaning products. During this period, Mike lead the launch of the pricing function within Salesforce.com, along with additional data & systems integrations within the pricing domain.
Examples of Mike’s pricing experiences include:
- Drove over $100M in price improvement for a national sanitation services provider through the launch of an optimized pricing engine, differentiated price increases, and enhanced leakage management
- Led a $20M margin improvement initiative for a primary supplier of packaging solutions by identifying and correcting profitability outliers, implementing a process for strategically addressing cost increase events, and launching price management tools to support optimization of freight recovery and surcharge capture
- Delivered over $20M in margin improvement for a leader in lubricant sales & distribution services through the establishment of a value-based pricing strategy, development of integrated pricing tools, and robust change management program
Mike earned his MBA in Finance and a B.A. in International Business from the University of Akron, College of Business. He has also studied at the Rennes International School of Business in France.
Terry Oblander
Terry is the Chief Commercial Officer at INSIGHT2PROFIT. With over 20 years of entrepreneurial leadership experience, he collaborates with senior executives to implement commercial strategies that drive significant profit improvements.
At INSIGHT, Terry spearheads the development and execution of growth strategies while overseeing crucial functions, including business development, sales, and marketing. Since joining the company in 2011, he has held several key leadership roles, including Chief Growth Officer and Managing Director of Advisory Services. Terry has been instrumental in leading pricing and profit improvement engagements for numerous companies and played a pivotal role in shaping INSIGHT’s approach to continuous value creation for its clients.
Terry is deeply passionate about enhancing business operations, fostering team and individual development, and contributing to work that makes a meaningful difference.
Prior to joining INSIGHT, Terry held senior leadership positions at AkzoNobel, a Fortune 500 building materials company, where he demonstrated a consistent track record of leading cross-functional teams in driving profitability improvements.
Terry earned his MBA from Cleveland State University and his B.S. in Business Administration from The Ohio State University, Fisher College of Business.
Pricing Solutions to Advance Profitable Renewal Decisions
~$9M-$18M impact from single service pricing; up to ~$100M at full run rate across in-scope services
How Well Are You Pricing To Sustainably Grow Profits?
Built a tailored quoting engine and supporting processes resulting in $100M price impact over 4 years
How Do Your Prices Compare to the Competition?
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