Your firm invested in AI. Your people decide whether it pays off.
SquareBiz Advisory brings change management, operations, AI governance and HR together in one engagement, so your people use the tools well, use them safely, and work in roles that still make sense. We work alongside your IT team and vendors, never in place of them.
of CPA firms use generative AI in some form.
CPAFMA Digitally Driven Firm Survey, 2026have no written AI policy their staff are trained on.
CPAFMA Digitally Driven Firm Survey, 2026reported drop in Big Four entry-level hiring, 2023 to 2025.
FM Magazine, October 2026new accounting and finance hires leave within their first year.
BambooHR survey via Fortune, May 2026One problem, seen from four sides.
When a firm brings in AI, the hard questions are about people. Will they use it? Does the work flow around it? What is it allowed to touch? What happens to the roles it changes? Those questions are tangled together, so SquareBiz answers them together.
Will people actually use it?
We gauge readiness before rollout, find where resistance sits and why, and tell each person plainly what the change means for their own work.
Readiness and adoption planDoes the work flow around it?
We map how returns, reviews and client work really move, then redesign the steps so the tools sit where the work happens and handoffs stop stalling.
Redesigned workflowsWhat is it allowed to do?
We set practical usage rules, client-data safeguards and the points where a person reviews AI output. Your counsel signs off on anything legal.
Usage rules and review checkpointsWhat happens to roles and careers?
As AI takes on junior work, we help you redefine roles, competencies and how new staff learn, so you keep developing talent and keep the people you hire.
Role and competency frameworkEach one fails without the others.
- Usage rules that nobody has been brought along to follow stay on paper.
- A new workflow with the old roles around it drifts back within a season.
- Training without clear rules puts client data at risk.
- New roles that nobody explains get pushed back on, and people keep working the old way.
Your vendor installs it. IT keeps it running. Who makes sure your people use it?
Everyone around your technology does their job well. Whether people actually change how they work, safely and with a reason to, usually falls between them.
We are not an IT firm. SquareBiz doesn't sell, select, configure or implement software, and doesn't write legal policy. Your IT team and vendors run the technology, your counsel signs off on anything legal, and we work with both on the people who use it.
Six questions, answered in your office.
Whether you're still weighing AI, partway through a rollout, or living with tools that never quite took hold.
How the work really flows
Where your tools fit the flow of work, and where people still work around them.
Workflow map with friction pointsHow it's being used
Who uses what, how often, and which features you pay for that nobody touches.
Usage findings by tool and roleRules and review points
What AI may and may not do in your firm, how client data is protected, and where a person checks the output.
Usage rules and review checkpointsRoles and development
Which tasks are shifting, what each role should now own, and how juniors will learn the work AI used to leave for them.
Role and competency recommendationsReadiness and resistance
Why some people resist or fear the tools, and what the change means for their own work, said plainly.
Adoption and communication planWhat it's returning
Administrative hours saved and time made billable again, measured against a baseline.
Time-saved and ROI scorecardThe Adoption Gap Scorecard
Is your firm's AI or software investment paying off? Twelve questions across change management, operations, AI governance and HR show where the gap sits.
About five minutes. Answer for the firm as it is today, not as it was planned. You’ll see your results right away and get a copy by email.
Five warning signs that feed each other.
Growing firms often see these together. Each one adds pressure to the next, and most of that pressure lands on leadership. Select a sign to trace it around the cycle.
Operational Lag
Revenue growth is outpacing the firm's capacity to deliver.
We keep taking on work, and every season the deadlines get tighter.
Escalation Bottlenecks
Every problem is funneled through the same small group of leaders.
Every question ends up in the same two inboxes.
Decision Stall
Progress grinds to a halt while work waits for approval at the top.
Returns sit in my review pile for days.
Lack of Accountability
Teams learn to wait for direction instead of taking ownership.
My people are good. They just wait to be told.
Knowledge Silos
Critical know-how lives in a few people's heads, not in documented systems.
If she ever leaves, nobody knows how we do it.
Break the cycle at one point, and the rest begin to loosen.
Between seasons is when fixes stick. Last season's problems are still fresh, and there's time to solve them before they repeat.
Start before JanuaryThree steps, starting in your office.
Readiness and resistance can't be judged over Zoom. Every engagement begins on-site, with your people, before anything is recommended.
On-site Discovery
Interviews with partners, managers and staff, and core workflows observed end to end, show how the work really runs, how the tools are used, and how ready your people are.
Findings & Plan
One plan that covers all four sides: workflow fixes, AI usage rules and review points, role and development changes, and how to bring each group of people along.
Adoption & ROI
Check-ins that track use and hours saved against your baseline, and address resistance as it shows up, so the firm doesn't drift back to the old way.
Michlie Ranieri
Founder & Principal Advisor
Most advisors come from one of these four fields. Michlie has spent more than twenty years working across all of them, which is why SquareBiz can treat change, operations, governance and HR as one problem instead of four projects.
Her career is rooted in professional services, primarily law and public accounting. After a decade in the legal field, she moved into public accounting with Ernst & Young and Anchin, Block & Anchin (now part of Baker Tilly), where she ran tax engagements and worked across audit and financial services, streamlining process and managing risk, resources and people.
As a COO, she led a paper-to-digital transformation of field operations. Across manufacturing, construction and digital advertising, the lesson held: technology only pays off when the people, roles and structure around it change too.
She holds a master's in human resources from Penn State, is an active SHRM member with SHRM-SCP and SPHR credentials, is Prosci certified in change management, and spent two years facilitating EOS with executive teams.
Change, operations, governance and HR, in one advisor.
Start with a 20-minute call.
A conversation by phone or Zoom about what last season exposed and whether an on-site discovery makes sense. No pitch deck, no obligation.
- cruz@squarebizadvisory.com
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