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A Maturity Model Designed for Your CPA Firm

FirmForward from NCACPA meets your firm where it is today—and grows with you.

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Sustainable Growth

Generic maturity models miss the realities CPA firms face today. NCACPA understands the needs of your firm and shapes insight around your goals.

Operational Excellence

Over 100 years of experience goes into developing an operating strategy uniquely tailored to your firm.

Stronger Talent Retention

By providing actionable insight and expert guidance, we help you identify the best talent, hire them, and retain them.

The Best Growth Partner for Your Goals

Your Blueprint Assessment Comes With:

  • CPA-specific maturity scores across the five pillars
  • A prioritized, actionable roadmap for your firm
  • Peer benchmarks from NCACPA community
  • A pathway to Advisor and Navigator guidance tiers
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FirmForward Blueprint is a Framework for Growth Across Five Key Pillars

Blueprint is where we dig in, assess your firm, and provide actionable insight, practical solutions, and expert guidance across five key pillars:

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Talent

Ensures your firm has the right skills in the right roles at the right time.

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Strategy

Sets direction and focus so people, time, and capital create outsized impact.

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Governance

Sets direction and focus so people, time, and capital create outsized impact.

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Technology

Modern, secure, integrated tools paired with training become a force multiplier for quality, speed, and insight.

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Technology

Modern, secure, integrated tools paired with training become a force multiplier for quality, speed, and insight.

“FirmForward opened our eyes to what’s possible, helped us quickly identify where we needed to improve, and gave us a suggested path for moving our firm forward.”

Kelly D. Puryear, CPA

TRP Sumner, PLLC

Get your Blueprint

Put FirmForward to Work for You in Three, Simple Steps.

01

Contact Us

Fill out the form below and our team will contact you to begin your assessment.

02

Complete Assessment

Tell us about your CPA firm, your goals, and how you plan to grow.

03

Get Your Blueprint

We process your assessment, design the best framework for your goals, and pair you with experts to help you get there.

FirmForward Assessment FAQs

The FirmForward Blueprint is the report derived from a firm maturity assessment that helps CPA firm leaders evaluate their organization across five critical areas: Talent, Strategy, Governance, Technology, and Culture.

The assessment is designed for managing partners and other firm leaders involved in the management and future direction of a CPA firm.

Respondents evaluate a series of statements tied to the five FirmForward pillars. Results are scored by pillar and overall, providing a clear baseline of the firm’s current maturity.

The FirmForward Blueprint is most useful for CPA firms with more than approximately $1.5 million in net client fees, a diversified service offering, and a leadership team actively thinking about the firm’s future. It is especially valuable for firms that are looking to grow, evolve their business model, strengthen leadership and operations, or make more intentional decisions about talent, technology, governance, strategy, and culture. Smaller firms may also benefit when they are at a meaningful inflection point and ready to take a more structured approach to transformation.

Respondents receive a personalized results experience with pillar-level scores, overall maturity insights, and detailed commentary to help interpret results and identify next steps.

Yes. No individual assessments or identifiable firm data will be shared. The assessment is intended to serve as a confidential leadership tool for your organization.

Yes. Once a critical mass of firms has entered data, reports will automatically update to include benchmarking such as median scores, best-practice scores, and average responses to individual questions. Respondents will be notified when that information becomes available and can view it in their personalized dashboard.

The results can support leadership discussions, strategic planning, retreat conversations, and priority-setting. They are designed to help firms move from insight to action.

Yes. The assessment can be a valuable discussion tool for firms participating in the FirmForward Leadership Roundtables, helping leaders reflect on challenges, compare themes, and engage in more practical peer dialogue.

Those surveys provide valuable financial and operational benchmarking, helping firms compare metrics such as growth, profitability, staffing, compensation, leverage, billing rates, and productivity with peer firms. The FirmForward Assessment serves a different, complementary purpose. Rather than primarily asking, “How do our results compare?”, it helps firm leaders examine how the firm is positioned to evolve across Talent, Strategy, Governance, Technology, and Culture. FirmForward is designed to help leadership teams:

  • assess the practices and capabilities behind firm performance
  • identify areas that may require greater attention or investment
  • explore progressive and innovative approaches being used across the profession
  • establish priorities for strategic planning, retreats, and transformation efforts
  • create a common framework for candid leadership and peer discussions

As participation grows, FirmForward will also incorporate benchmarking into each firm’s personalized dashboard, including median scores, best-practice scores, and averages for individual assessment questions. No individual assessment or identifiable firm data will be shared. In simple terms: traditional surveys help firms compare performance; FirmForward helps leaders understand what may need to change to improve future performance.

Ready for Your Blueprint Assessment?

Fill out the form below and a member of our team will contact you to begin your assessment.

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