A CRM for CPAs that holds engagement, tax season, advisory, and billing on one surface.
Accounting firms past 6 CPAs run a motion: engagement workflow by service type (tax, audit, assurance, advisory, bookkeeping), tax-season capacity management, advisory practice development, time capture, multi-fee-structure billing, Circular 230 retention. Horizontal CRMs (HubSpot, Salesforce) cover the sales side. Practice-management platforms (Karbon, Canopy, TaxDome) cover the workflow side. Strkr covers both on one surface with the IRS compliance posture the profession requires.
Accounting firms past 6 CPAs hit a set of operational problems. The CRM-plus-practice-management two-tool stack carries handoff loss between the sales motion and the engagement workflow. Tax season capacity planning runs on spreadsheets. Advisory practice development sits in a separate silo from the compliance work. Time capture runs variably. Multi-fee-structure billing (hourly tax prep, flat-fee returns, retainer bookkeeping, project advisory) requires workarounds. The managing partner wants firm economics (utilization, realization, effective rate per service type) that neither tool delivers. Six specific gaps show up at the growing accounting firm, each one driving the search for software that covers the full accounting-firm motion.
The two-tool handoff
HubSpot plus Karbon means context loss.
The common accounting firm stack runs a horizontal CRM for the sales motion (lead to signed engagement) and a practice-management platform (Karbon, Canopy, TaxDome) for the engagement motion. The handoff moves the client from the sales tool to the workflow tool and loses the context the CPA built during the sales conversation. For CPAs selling advisory on top of compliance (a growing pattern), the sales motion carries specific advisory positioning that gets lost in the handoff. Strkr runs both motions on one surface so the context preserves.
Tax season capacity on spreadsheets
280 returns across 6 CPAs over 10 weeks.
Tax season capacity planning (280 returns across 6 CPAs over 10 weeks) typically runs on a spreadsheet maintained by a partner or an operations lead. The spreadsheet is 2 to 3 weeks stale at any point in the season. Routing a new return or triaging an at-risk return requires manual lookup. Strkr runs tax season capacity as a first-class view with current workload per CPA, return mix by complexity, and headroom for new engagements visible.
Advisory and compliance in different silos
The advisory motion is a different workflow.
Accounting firms building advisory practice (CFO services, business consulting, M&A support, estate planning) run advisory as a different workflow from the compliance work (tax, audit, assurance). Advisory engagements are project-based with flat or retainer fees and longer sales cycles. Compliance engagements are recurring with hourly or flat-fee pricing. Practice-management platforms model one well and the other poorly. Strkr models both with the appropriate workflow for each.
An accounting firm bills across multiple fee structures: hourly for complex tax prep and audit, flat-fee for standard returns and incorporations, retainer for ongoing bookkeeping and CFO services, project for advisory engagements. Horizontal CRMs do not model this. Practice-management platforms model partially. Strkr runs the full fee-structure matrix with the billing engine generating invoices by fee type.
Circular 230 retention
The 7-year clock on client records.
IRS Circular 230 and the AICPA professional standards require 7-year retention on client records including tax returns, workpapers, correspondence, and advisory documentation. State board of accountancy rules add specific requirements per state. Horizontal CRMs do not run retention natively. Strkr runs Circular 230 retention with the 7-year clock applied automatically and the state-board-specific additions configurable per firm.
Firm economics not native
Utilization, realization per service type.
The managing partner wants utilization per CPA, realization per service type (tax prep profitability vs audit profitability vs advisory profitability), effective rate per partner, WIP aging during tax season, AR aging post-season. Horizontal CRMs do not deliver. Practice-management platforms deliver partially. Strkr runs the firm economics dashboard with the full metric set and the service-type segmentation accounting firms specifically need.
A CPA firm evaluates CRM on six capabilities: integrated sales-and-engagement workflow, tax-season capacity planning, advisory practice workflow alongside compliance, multi-fee-structure billing, Circular 230 retention, and firm economics by service type. The cards below are the capabilities Strkr ships on every paid tier.
Integrated sales-and-engagement
Lead to signed engagement to delivery.
The full firm motion runs on one surface. A lead captures from the website or referral, qualifies through the sales pipeline, converts to a signed engagement with the engagement letter (per AICPA professional standards), opens the engagement record with the service-type workflow applied, time captures during delivery, invoices generate from WIP or milestones, cash collects, engagement closes with the retention clock applied. The record chain preserves across the lifecycle so a 3-year-ago client still carries the full history.
Tax-season capacity planning
Current workload per CPA, return mix, headroom.
Tax-season capacity surfaces per CPA: current return count by complexity tier (1040 simple, 1040 complex, 1041, 1065, 1120, 1120-S), hours per return estimated and actuals, headroom at the current pace, and the deadline distribution (March 15 deadline, April 15 deadline, extended returns). Routing a new return to the right CPA happens with the capacity data visible. The partner balances the tax-season book without guesswork.
Advisory practice workflow
Project-based with specific delivery.
Advisory engagements run as project-based workflows: CFO services (monthly deliverables with the recurring tasks), M&A support (deal-specific delivery with milestones), business consulting (defined-scope projects), estate planning (phased delivery with signing). The advisory motion runs parallel to the compliance motion with the appropriate billing (flat, retainer, project) per engagement type. The firm sees advisory revenue mix growing against compliance baseline.
Multi-fee-structure billing
Hourly, flat, retainer, project.
The billing engine generates invoices across fee structures. Hourly for complex tax prep and audit (billed from captured time). Flat-fee for standard returns, incorporations, and defined-scope engagements (billed at milestones or completion). Retainer for ongoing bookkeeping, CFO services, and advisory retainers (billed monthly against the recurring schedule). Project for advisory engagements with specific deliverable milestones (billed at milestones). Dunning runs on aged invoices.
Circular 230 retention
7-year clock with state additions.
Circular 230 retention runs on all client records: tax returns, workpapers, correspondence, advisory documentation, email communications with clients. The 7-year clock applies automatically from the appropriate anchor date (tax return filing date, engagement closeout, communication date). State board of accountancy additions configure per firm (specific states extend to 10 years or add specific requirements). The retention workflow surfaces records approaching destruction eligibility for review.
Firm economics by service type
Utilization, realization, effective rate.
The firm economics dashboard runs the key metrics segmented by service type: utilization per CPA, realization per service type (what percent of billed hours actually collects), effective rate per partner and per service type (collected revenue per worked hour), WIP aging during tax season, AR aging post-season, matter profitability by service type (tax prep vs audit vs advisory). The managing partner sees firm health with the service-mix segmentation that accounting firms specifically run.
Client portal with document collection
Tax documents, source statements, workpapers.
The client portal gives each client secure access to document request lists (tax documents, source statements, prior-year returns, business records), the engagement status, the invoice schedule, and the signed engagement letter. Tax season document collection runs structured with the document checklist per client type. The CPA sees received-vs-pending at a glance. Document uploads route to the engagement with the retention clock applied automatically.
Workpaper management
Service-type workpapers with review trails.
Workpaper management runs per service type with the appropriate templates: tax prep workpapers with the standard review trail (preparer, first review, second review, partner), audit workpapers with PCAOB-aligned structure (planning, fieldwork, review, reporting), advisory workpapers with the engagement-specific structure. The workpaper review runs with specific sign-offs retained for the audit trail that regulators and standard-setters expect.
Flat per-seat pricing
Full accounting-firm stack on every tier.
Strkr pricing is per seat with the full product on every paid tier including intake, engagement workflow, tax-season capacity, advisory, multi-fee-structure billing, Circular 230 retention, client portal, workpaper management, and firm economics. No practice-management-SKU, no utilization-report upcharge, no module gate at renewal. A 25-CPA firm pays a predictable number 12 months out.
The CPA workflow in detail
What a tax CPA, an audit senior, and a managing partner actually do.
Accounting firm workflow varies by role. The tax CPA runs 40 to 90 returns during tax season with the delivery cadence. The audit senior runs 4 to 8 concurrent audit engagements with the fieldwork and review workflow. The managing partner oversees firm economics across tax, audit, and advisory practices. The firm administrator handles billing, collections, and the operational reporting. The cards below walk through specific workflows for each role.
The tax CPA tax season
72 returns over 10 weeks.
A tax CPA assigned 72 returns for the April 15 deadline opens Strkr in late January and sees the engagement list by complexity: 42 simple 1040s (estimated 2 to 4 hours each), 18 complex 1040s with schedules C, D, E (estimated 6 to 12 hours each), 7 partnership and S-corp returns (estimated 8 to 20 hours each), 5 trust returns. The CPA plans the season with the deadline distribution and the client-document-arrival pattern. The capacity view surfaces at-risk returns 2 to 3 weeks before the deadline instead of in the final week panic.
The audit senior workflow
Planning, fieldwork, review, reporting.
The audit senior runs the audit engagement workflow: planning phase (risk assessment, materiality, audit program), fieldwork (sampling, confirmations, substantive testing), review (workpaper review by partner and quality control), reporting (audit opinion, management letter, financial statement draft). Each phase carries required workpapers and specific sign-offs. The audit senior runs 4 to 6 concurrent engagements with the phase visibility across clients.
The managing partner firm review
Weekly across service types.
The managing partner runs the weekly firm review: utilization by CPA across tax, audit, and advisory practices, realization by service type over the trailing period, WIP aging during tax season (critical for cash flow during the Feb-April compressed period), AR aging post-season, service-mix trend (advisory revenue as percent of total). The review surfaces the issues: a tax CPA below the target utilization, an audit engagement with budget overrun, an advisory retainer at risk of churn.
The advisory engagement
Project-based with flat or retainer fee.
An advisory engagement runs project-based or retainer. A $45K CFO services retainer runs monthly with the recurring task list (monthly close review, cash flow modeling, KPI reporting, quarterly strategic session). A $28K business sale advisory project runs with specific milestones (valuation, buyer identification, negotiation support, closing). Advisory engagements track separately from compliance so the firm sees the advisory practice growth as a lever.
The tax-season client intake
Document collection structured.
Returning tax clients receive the structured document request in January with the checklist per client type (W-2s, 1099s, mortgage interest statements, charitable receipts, business records for Schedule C filers, K-1s for partners). The client uploads via the portal with the document attaching to the engagement and the retention clock applying. The CPA opens the return with the documents organized instead of chasing missing documents the week before the deadline.
The post-tax-season review
What worked, what did not.
Post-April 15, the firm runs a tax-season review: realization by return type, write-downs by complexity tier, client-communication patterns that worked, document-collection timeline (which clients delivered early, which delivered late), capacity management lessons. The data informs the following year's pricing, capacity, and workflow adjustments. The firm improves on data instead of on anecdote.
What CPAs compare on
The honest accounting-firm software evaluation.
Accounting firms evaluating software compare on criteria specific to the profession. The honest evaluation: integrated sales-and-engagement workflow, tax-season capacity planning, advisory alongside compliance, multi-fee-structure billing, Circular 230 retention, firm economics by service type, and three-year TCO. The six criteria below show up on every CPA firm software evaluation.
Integrated sales-and-engagement
One tool vs two.
Strkr: full sales-to-engagement motion on one surface. Horizontal CRM plus practice management (HubSpot plus Karbon): two-system approach with handoff loss. For firms past 10 CPAs, integrated approach removes handoff cost and preserves the advisory-sales context.
Tax-season capacity
First-class view.
Strkr: tax-season capacity as a dedicated view with return mix, headroom, deadline distribution. Karbon and Canopy: strong workflow coverage. TaxDome: specific tax-focused capacity. For firms running 400+ returns during the season, capacity view quality is a workflow lever.
Advisory alongside compliance
Both workflows modeled.
Strkr: project-based advisory alongside recurring compliance with the appropriate billing and workflow for each. Practice-management platforms: strong on one, lighter on the other. For firms building advisory practice (which is the industry trend), the dual-workflow support matters.
Multi-fee-structure billing
Hourly, flat, retainer, project.
Strkr: all fee structures native. Practice-management platforms: strong at parity for compliance; advisory billing varies. Horizontal CRMs: billing via integration. For firms with the full fee-structure mix, native unified billing removes a reconciliation layer.
Circular 230 retention
7-year clock with state additions.
Strkr: Circular 230 retention native with state-board-specific additions configurable. Horizontal CRMs: via integration. Practice management: typically covered. For firms where IRS exam response is a real possibility, native retention is a posture.
Three-year TCO
One tool vs stack.
Strkr: flat per seat with full accounting-firm stack. Two-system (HubSpot plus Karbon plus QuickBooks): $220 to $400 per CPA per month fully loaded. For 25-CPA firms, three-year TCO delta can run $150K to $320K.
Head-to-head
Strkr vs Karbon for a 20-CPA accounting firm.
Karbon is a common practice-management platform at the mid-market accounting firm end. The head-to-head for a 20-CPA firm running tax, audit, and advisory:
Feature
Strkr
Karbon
Sales motion (pre-engagement)
Native sales pipeline for lead-to-engagement
Lighter sales motion native
Engagement workflow by service type
Native per-service-type workflow
Strong workflow (industry standard)
Tax-season capacity
Native capacity view with mix and headroom
Via workflow and reporting
Advisory alongside compliance
Project-based advisory with specific workflow
Workflow covers both
Multi-fee-structure billing
Hourly, flat, retainer, project native
Full fee structures
Circular 230 retention
7-year clock with state additions native
Via document management
Firm economics by service type
Utilization, realization, effective rate per service type
Via Karbon reporting
Client portal with document collection
Native structured per client type
Native client portal
Workpaper management
Per-service-type with review trails
Document management with workflow
Pricing shape
Flat per seat, full product
Tier-based with per-user pricing
How teams use Strkr
How accounting firms run Strkr today.
The common thread across accounting firm customers: get the full sales-to-engagement motion, the tax-season capacity, the advisory workflow, the multi-fee billing, the Circular 230 retention, and the firm economics on one tool while cutting the two-tool stack. The playbooks below describe the firm motion at common scales and service mixes.
18-CPA full-service accounting firm
HubSpot plus Karbon consolidated.
An 18-CPA full-service accounting firm (tax, audit, advisory) running HubSpot (sales) and Karbon (workflow) consolidated to Strkr over 12 weeks. The sales pipeline migrated from HubSpot with the advisory-sales context preserved. Engagement records migrated from Karbon with the workflow state and time history preserved. Tax-season capacity view activated for the January onboarding to the February deadline rush. Three-year TCO dropped 44 percent and the firm administrator recovered 10 hours per week.
12-CPA tax-focused firm
Tax-season capacity on 480 returns.
A 12-CPA tax-focused firm running 480 returns during the tax season used the capacity view on Strkr. CPA assignments routed based on complexity match and current workload. The at-risk-return flag surfaced 3 weeks before deadline instead of in the final week. The firm completed 467 returns by April 15 (97 percent completion rate vs 89 percent on the prior tax season) and extended the remaining 13 returns on schedule.
8-CPA advisory-heavy firm
Advisory as the growth engine.
An 8-CPA firm building advisory practice (currently 35 percent of revenue, targeting 50 percent) ran the advisory workflow on Strkr with CFO services retainers, business consulting projects, and M&A support engagements. The sales motion carried the advisory positioning from inquiry through engagement signing. Advisory engagements tracked separately from compliance in the firm economics dashboard. Advisory revenue grew from 35 to 44 percent of total over 14 months with the structured workflow absorbing the growth.
25-CPA audit-focused firm
Audit engagement workflow with workpaper review.
A 25-CPA audit-focused firm (regional with 180 audit engagements annually) ran the audit workflow on Strkr with the planning-fieldwork-review-reporting phases and the workpaper review trails. Peer review preparation ran smoother with the audit workpapers organized in the required structure. The quality control partner cleared workpaper reviews in half the time vs the prior document-management-plus-spreadsheet approach.
15-CPA multi-location firm
Two offices on one tenant.
A 15-CPA firm with 2 office locations ran both on one Strkr tenant with location-scoped engagements and shared firm economics. The managing partner saw firm-wide numbers with the per-location breakdown available. Advisory engagements that spanned both offices (e.g., a client's business sale with the audit team in one office and the tax team in the other) coordinated cleanly on the one surface instead of across location silos.
A CRM for CPAs that holds engagement, tax season, advisory, and billing on one surface.
Start a 14-day trial with the accounting-firm configuration enabled: integrated sales-and-engagement workflow, tax-season capacity planning with return mix and headroom, advisory practice workflow alongside compliance, multi-fee-structure billing with hourly, flat, retainer, and project, Circular 230 retention with 7-year clock and state additions, client portal with document collection, workpaper management with review trails, firm economics by service type, and the full product on every paid tier at flat per-seat pricing. Migrate from HubSpot plus Karbon, HubSpot plus Canopy, HubSpot plus TaxDome, or any two-system approach.
How does Strkr handle tax-season capacity planning?
Tax-season capacity surfaces per CPA with current workload: return count by complexity tier (1040 simple, 1040 complex, 1041, 1065, 1120, 1120-S, 990), estimated hours per return based on complexity, actuals vs estimates for the current season, headroom at the current pace, and the deadline distribution (March 15 for S-corps and partnerships, April 15 for individuals, extended returns through October 15). Routing a new return to the right CPA happens with the capacity data visible including complexity match (a complex partnership return routes to the CPA with partnership expertise and current headroom). At-risk returns surface 2 to 3 weeks before deadline so the partner can rebalance or extend proactively instead of discovering the panic in the final week. The capacity view runs during the compressed Feb-April period and in the summer-September extension period with the appropriate deadline anchors.
How does the advisory practice workflow run alongside compliance?
Advisory engagements run as project-based workflows separate from the recurring compliance engagements. CFO services run as monthly retainers with the recurring task list (monthly close review, cash flow modeling, KPI reporting, quarterly strategic session). M&A support runs as deal-specific projects with milestones (valuation, buyer identification, due diligence, negotiation, closing). Business consulting runs as defined-scope projects with specific deliverables. Estate planning runs as phased engagements with signing milestones. Each advisory engagement type carries its own workflow template, billing structure (flat, retainer, or project with milestones), and the appropriate CPA skill match. The firm economics dashboard surfaces advisory revenue mix growing against the compliance baseline so the partner tracks the advisory-practice growth as a lever.
What is the Circular 230 retention requirement and how does Strkr handle it?
IRS Circular 230 and the AICPA professional standards require 7-year retention on client records including tax returns, workpapers, correspondence, and advisory documentation. Specific state board of accountancy rules add state-specific requirements (some states extend to 10 years, some add specific requirements for audit workpapers or trust account records). Strkr runs the 7-year Circular 230 retention clock automatically from the appropriate anchor date: tax return filing date for returns and workpapers, engagement closeout for advisory and audit records, communication date for correspondence. State board additions configure per firm based on jurisdiction. Records approaching the destruction eligibility date (end of the retention period) surface for review and the firm decides to retain further or destroy per the retention policy. The retention workflow produces audit evidence if the IRS or state board requests records for a period, which happens in exams and in state-board peer reviews.
How does Strkr handle multi-fee-structure billing for an accounting firm?
The billing engine supports hourly, flat, retainer, and project billing structures. Hourly bills from captured time (for complex tax prep, audit, and specific advisory work billed by the hour) with the write-up and write-down workflow for realization management. Flat-fee bills at milestones or completion (for standard returns, incorporations, and defined-scope engagements) with the scope-managed billing. Retainer bills monthly against the recurring schedule (for bookkeeping, CFO services, ongoing advisory retainers) with the Stripe recurring charge handling the payment flow. Project bills at specific deliverable milestones (for advisory engagements with milestone structure) with the milestone-completion-triggers-invoice workflow. The firm handles the full fee-structure mix on one tenant with the appropriate workflow per billing type. Dunning runs on aged invoices across fee structures with the configurable escalation.
What is the migration path from Karbon, Canopy, TaxDome, or Jetpack?
Strkr runs an accounting-firm migration tool that pulls the full dataset from the common accounting practice-management platforms via API: Karbon (full API with clients, engagements, time, workflow state, email), Canopy (API with similar coverage), TaxDome (API with tax-focused data model), Jetpack Workflow (API). Engagements migrate with the full history, time entries, workflow state, documents, custom fields, and client portal data preserved. Document migration preserves the organization and the retention clock state. The sales motion data (pre-engagement conversations from HubSpot or similar) migrates in parallel so the full lead-to-engagement history preserves. Most accounting firm migrations complete in 10 to 16 weeks for firms up to 30 CPAs with a 3-week parallel-running period before full cutover. The deeper work is usually the service-type workflow configuration and the CPA and administrator training on the one-tool workflow.
What is the best CRM for CPAs in 2026?
The right answer depends on the firm shape. For firms past 6 CPAs wanting integrated sales-and-engagement workflow on one tool with tax-season capacity, advisory alongside compliance, multi-fee-structure billing, Circular 230 retention, and firm economics at predictable per-seat pricing: Strkr. For firms deeply committed to Karbon or Canopy with heavy integration investment: staying is often rational because the switching cost outweighs the integration benefit. For solo CPAs and small firms (under 5 CPAs) wanting lightweight practice management: TaxDome and Jetpack are strong. For firms specifically evaluating one-tool vs two-tool stack at the mid-market scale (6 to 50 CPAs): Strkr is the direct one-tool answer. For firms building advisory practice as a growth engine with specific sales motion requirements: Strkr fits well because the sales motion runs native alongside the engagement workflow instead of in a separate tool. The best choice matches the firm scale, the service-mix (tax-heavy vs audit-heavy vs advisory-heavy), and the three-year total cost picture.
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