After tax season, accounting professionals are usually ready for two things: a chance to catch their breath and an opportunity to think about what comes next.
Scaling New Heights 2026 delivered both.
Held in Orlando again, this year’s conference brought together accountants, bookkeepers, firm owners, technology providers and industry leaders for four days of education, conversations and new ideas. As an exhibitor, the MoneyPenny team had the opportunity to reconnect with current customers, meet many prospective customers and get a close-up look at where the accounting profession is heading.
The official theme for this year’s conference was “Strange New World.” It was a fitting description of the environment accounting firms are operating in today.
Firm owners are dealing with staffing shortages, rapid technological change, continued consolidation, changing client expectations and growing pressure to deliver more without simply adding more hours to the working week. At the same time, new tools are creating opportunities to build more efficient, scalable and rewarding firms.
The big question is no longer whether the profession is changing. It is how firms will respond.
From AI trepidation to practical experimentation
Unsurprisingly, artificial intelligence was one of the biggest themes running through the conference. What was particularly interesting was how much the tone of the conversation has changed.
Twelve months ago, most discussions about AI in accounting started with concern. Would it replace accountants? Could firms trust it? Was it secure? Was it another overhyped technology that would create more problems than it solved?
Those questions have not disappeared, and they should not. Accounting firms have serious responsibilities surrounding accuracy, privacy, professional judgment and client trust. However, the mood at Scaling New Heights felt noticeably different.
More attendees are now moving beyond trepidation and beginning to embrace AI as a practical business tool.
The conversations were increasingly about how firms could use AI to document processes, improve communication, review information, automate repetitive work and create capacity. Rather than debating whether AI belongs in an accounting firm, attendees were discussing where it belongs, how it should be implemented and what controls need to sit around it.
That represents real progress.
There is still plenty of work ahead. Many firms are learning the fundamentals of prompting and workflow automation, while the more advanced firms are beginning to experiment with AI agents that can complete a series of connected tasks.
Building a reliable agent is very different from asking ChatGPT to draft an email. Firms need clear processes, clean data, defined responsibilities and appropriate human review. They also need the confidence to test, learn and improve without expecting everything to work perfectly on the first attempt.
The encouraging takeaway from Orlando was that the profession appears ready to do that work. Accountants are not abandoning judgment. They are looking for ways to apply it more effectively.
Speakers who continue to move the profession forward
One of the strengths of Scaling New Heights is the range of perspectives represented across its sessions.
We always appreciate hearing from Dawn Brolin, whose combination of practical accounting knowledge, entrepreneurial experience and unmistakable energy makes her an important voice in the profession. Dawn consistently brings conversations back to implementation. New technology only has value when it helps accountants build stronger firms, protect their clients and improve the way work gets done.
Jan Haugo Vuicich is another leader helping accountants move from AI theory to practical application. Her work focuses on helping accounting professionals understand AI architecture, intelligent automation and ethical implementation. As firms become more interested in building agents and connecting AI to their workflows, that combination of technical understanding and real accounting experience will become increasingly valuable.
We also enjoyed the insights shared by Randy Johnston, who has spent decades helping firms evaluate technology and understand what is genuinely useful. In an environment filled with bold claims and rapidly changing products, experienced and independent
technology perspectives matter. Firms need help separating meaningful innovation from noise.
The broader speaker lineup also reinforced the conference theme. Sessions explored the future of work, technological advancement, practice growth, advisory services, leadership, operational efficiency and the human implications of change.
That breadth is important because technology cannot be considered in isolation. The best software will not repair a broken process, fix unclear leadership or create a healthy firm culture on its own. Successful change requires people, processes and technology to move together.
Technology companies worth watching
The expo floor provided another opportunity to see how rapidly the accounting technology ecosystem is evolving. Three companies that particularly caught our attention were Kick, Juno and Levvy.
Kick is building AI-native accounting software designed to automate manual bookkeeping tasks while keeping accountants involved in reviewing and approving the work. Its focus on helping firms shift team members from repetitive processing toward higher-value review and advisory work is closely aligned with the capacity challenges facing the profession.
Juno is tackling tax preparation, an area where firms continue to experience significant seasonal pressure. Its platform extracts information from source documents, creates workpapers, pushes data into tax software and flags items that require human attention. We are excited by its focus on using automation to support professional judgment rather than remove it. Check out our reviews of Juno.
Levvy is taking a broader look at firm operations through its practice and work management platform. By connecting workflows, capacity planning, client communication, documents, billing and AI, Levvy is addressing the digital friction that often builds up when firms rely on too many disconnected systems.
These companies represent different parts of the accounting workflow, but they share a common objective: helping firms build more capacity, improve visibility and give their people more time to focus on meaningful work.
The conversations at the MoneyPenny booth
Of course, the most valuable part of exhibiting at Scaling New Heights was the opportunity to speak directly with accounting professionals.
We appreciated the chance to catch up with existing MoneyPenny customers, hear how their firms are progressing and discuss where they need additional support. Relationships become stronger when you can step away from scheduled calls and project updates and simply spend time together.
We also met many firm owners who are actively thinking about capacity.
For some, the immediate challenge is tax preparation. For others, it is bookkeeping, CAS delivery, administrative support or the difficulty of recruiting and retaining experienced team members. Some firms are interested in outsourcing but are not sure where to begin. Others want to improve their internal workflows or review whether their technology stack is helping or hindering them.
Those conversations are useful because the right solution is not always “add more people.”
Sometimes a firm needs additional accounting capacity. Sometimes it needs a clearer workflow, better use of its existing technology or a more deliberate division of responsibilities between internal and external team members.
Our role at MoneyPenny is to help firms work through those decisions and build a support model that fits the firm they are trying to create.
Face-to-face connection still matters
For all the discussion about AI, automation and digital transformation, our biggest takeaway from Scaling New Heights was a very human one.
This industry is built on relationships.
Conferences give us time to reconnect with people we may otherwise only see through a screen. They create space to talk about business, but also about families, careers, challenges, ambitions and life outside the office.
Some of the best conversations in Orlando did not happen during a formal session or a product demonstration. They happened over coffee, between meetings, at dinner or while walking through the expo hall.
That genuine connection is difficult to recreate online.
Technology will continue to change accounting, and the pace of that change is likely to accelerate. AI agents will become more capable. Software platforms will become more connected. Firms will find new ways to deliver work and support their clients.
But the future of the profession will not be built by technology alone.
It will be built by people who are willing to share what they have learned, experiment with new ideas, support one another and maintain the relationships that make this industry such a rewarding community.
We left Orlando encouraged by what we saw.
There is still uncertainty. There is still a great deal for firms to learn. But the shift from fear to curiosity is underway, and the future looks bright.
Thank you to everyone who stopped by the MoneyPenny booth, shared their story or simply took the time to say hello. We look forward to continuing the conversations and seeing where this strange new world takes us next. And if you didn’t make it to Orlando, but are thinking about your tech stack, we’d be ahhpy to share our insights with you. Our team added to the 295 apps we use this tax season, and we’d love to share our insights.
