Measure Twice, Automate Once: How Accounting Firms Can Finally See What Their Work Actually Costs

The central thesis: accounting firms are investing heavily in AI, but most don’t have the foundational data infrastructure to know if it’s working—or to price and staff their fixed-fee work confidently.

The hidden cost lies in delivery effort that goes unrecorded: hours that get absorbed, ghosted, or quietly written off in the interest of client relationships or margin optics. This destroys the pricing data a firm needs to run a fixed-fee business intelligently, and the problem compounds year over year.

The session will be interactive, with live poll questions designed to surface honest audience responses and drive discussion. Attendees will leave with a clear framework for thinking about AI strategy, fixed-fee economics, and practice profitability.

Accounting firms are spending more on AI than ever. Most can’t tell you if it’s working.

That’s not a technology problem. It’s a data problem: and it’s the same one quietly undermining fixed-fee profitability across the industry. When delivery effort goes unrecorded, firms don’t just lose margin on individual engagements. They lose the pricing intelligence they need to avoid repeating the same mistake next year.

In this session, Laurel shares the framework leading accounting firms are using to finally connect time, delivery cost, AI ROI, and what becomes possible when they do.

You’ll leave with a clear answer to three questions your firm should already be asking:

• Where is our time actually going?
• What does our work actually cost to deliver?
• How do we know whether our AI investments are paying off?

Can’t make it? Register and receive access to the recording. 

— The BKR International & Laurel Team