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In this session, Des will cover the following topics: 

1. The honest audit of 2026. Airlines learn from every crash because the black box records everything. Most firms never open theirs. We will: where the year went wrong and what each miss cost, the client friction, the team gaps, the technology that never landed. You leave with the real number, not the feeling.

2. Why your firm performs the way it does. Performance is the last link in a chain: what the firm is for, what it stands for, how it feels to work there, what every seat has to deliver, and then results. Each link sets the terms for the next. You score your own firm on all five and see exactly where the chain breaks. For most firms it breaks at standards, and that is fixable.

3. The one obvious question. Every firm owner already knows the obvious thing they should do and have not done. We will put the question to you straight: what is the obvious thing you already know you should do, that you still haven't done? Answer it honestly and 2027 gets simpler before it gets busier.

4. The six things a firm needs written down to run without you. What the firm is for. What it stands for. The numbers it has to hit. Who owns what. What every seat must deliver every week. How the work actually gets done. Most firms have one or two of the six. You will see which ones you are missing, and the ten documents that fill the gaps. We call it the Accounting Firm OS.

5. What 2027 looks like when people do the thinking and software does the chasing. A live look at how firms are handing the chasing, checking and formatting to software that follows written procedures, and why none of it works without those procedures, a clear org chart and the basics in place. You can't automate a mess. You will see what it looks like when the mess is gone.

Bring one page of your 2026 numbers. You will use it.

Who is this session for:

This is for leaders in the accounting profession who want to take extreme ownership of 2027.

This is for firms who want to build profitable, sustainable, scalable, exit-ready businesses that give themselves, their team and their clients the best leadership they can give.

Who is it not for: 

Anyone looking for a motivational two hours. There is an audit in this, and it costs honesty. If you want to be told 2026 was grand, this is not the session.

A note from Des: 

Every December, firm owners tell me the same thing. Next year will be different. Then January arrives, the deadlines land, and the firm runs exactly the way it ran before. Same prices. Same underperformer not dealt with. Same owner holding it all together.

Here's the hard truth: nothing changes because nothing was written down. The plan was a feeling. The standards were in your head. The numbers were looked at when there was time, which was never.

I have spent thirty years inside accounting firms, and the pattern is the same in almost every one. An underperforming team is usually a broken line, not broken people. A seat with no number attached to it. A standard that moves with the partner's mood. A procedure that depends on who you ask. Fix the line and the people perform.

So on 16 December I am going to do three practical things with you.

First, audit 2026 honestly. Not the version you tell clients. The real one, with the numbers.

Second, show you the six things every firm needs written down to run without the owner in the middle of it: what the firm is for, what it stands for, the numbers it has to hit, who owns what, what every seat has to deliver, and how the work actually gets done. Most firms have one or two of the six. You will see which ones you are missing.

Third, show you where this goes in 2027. People doing the work only people can do, and the chasing, checking and formatting handed to software that follows your written procedures. That future only works if the procedures exist. You can't automate a mess.

Two hours. Your 2026 numbers on the table. A plan you can start on Monday.

You settle everyone else's accounts every year. Settle your own first.

Yours in Progress,

Des