On The Books

In this final episode of 2025, hosts Ted Callahan and Jessica McCracken are joined by two exceptional guests to reflect on the year in accounting and look ahead to 2026: Becky Munson, a Partner in the Advisory Group at EisnerAmper, and Michael Hitchcock, Vice President of Product for Accounting and Accountants at Intuit.

The Working Families Tax Cut, signed into law earlier this year, introduces several compliance changes that will impact payroll and tax filing for the 2025 tax year. This episode features Tanner Arnold, Staff Program Manager on the Intuit Payroll team, who dives into the specifics. Learn about the provisions for "no tax on tips" and "no tax on overtime," understanding the critical distinction between qualified and non-qualified tips and overtime.

This episode of the "On the Books" podcast celebrates its one-year anniversary and dives into the exciting launch of the Intuit Accountant Suite. Directors Karla Uribe and Jaclyn Anku join us to discuss the new firm-level product, which aims to be a single destination for all of your firm's work. Karla details how the suite was co-built with accountant feedback and introduces powerful features like Client Insights and enhanced user permissions.

At Intiut Connect, Jaclyn Anku, Principal Program Manager of ProAdvisor, was able to catch up with Professor David Waite of Utah Valley University who brought a group of accounting students to this year’s event. In Episode 14, we profiled Professor Waite and accountants Brittany Brown and Dan Luthi and their first-of-its-kind Client Advisor Services course at the university.

Tune in to this episode of On The Books as host Jessica McCracken gives a sneak peek at the upcoming Intuit Connect conference in Las Vegas. Learn about what to expect at the tentpole event, including the main stage lineup featuring Intuit leaders, Queen Latifah, Brene Brown, John Foley, Vanessa Van Edwards, and Carla Hall.

On this episode of On the Books, hosts Ted Callahan and Jessica McCracken welcome Dan Hood, Editor-in-Chief at Accounting Today, to discuss the biggest trends and disruptions facing the accounting profession, particularly as firms look ahead to 2026. Dan shares his take on the multiple crossroads the industry faces, focusing on the significant impact of technology (especially AI), ongoing staffing and capacity issues, and the influence of private equity. He emphasizes that for firms to thrive, they must view change as permanent and develop the core competency of continuous adaptation. The conversation also looks at how companies are hiring and making changes. It highlights the change to human intelligence and advisory services like Client Accounting Services (CAS).

In episode 21, Chris Willams, CEO of System Six summarized the key focus areas of any merger or acquisition as “get the keys to the technology and focus on the people.”

In this episode of On the Books, Ted and Jessica sit down with Chris Williams, the founder of System Six, a fully remote outsourced accounting business with 50 team members across three countries, to talk about the human side of mergers and acquisitions. The group talks about best practices in identifying firm goals before stepping into an M&A conversation, the right mindset for those conversations, and how to truly put staff and clients first in the middle of a change.

Here is a much-needed dose of accountant wisdom.