The Architect & The Engine
How modern accounting firms scale without adding headcount. Dawn Brolin’s playbook for the firm you actually want: fewer people, better work, higher margins.
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7,000+ accounting firms and startups trust Puzzle.
What you'll learn.
No theory. Dawn’s playbook for redesigning a firm around higher-value work, not more headcount.
1
Why headcount stopped being the answer.
The spiral that traps growing firms, and the model Dawn built to escape it.
2
The three forces leaving traditional firms behind.
The talent shortage, rising client expectations, and software competing for your clients.
3
The real cost of a manual close.
Why every new client is a recurring tax, and how the close becomes a background process.
4
The accountant’s new job.
Running a 70/30 firm where conversations, not keystrokes, drive revenue.
5
The Architect and the Engine.
The Governed Automation split that keeps you the final decision-maker on every approval.
6
The next five years.
The two paths every firm will take, whether it means to or not.
What we hear from firms
Puzzle enabled us to launch bookkeeping as a profitable, high-margin service. We went from onboarding to delivering results within days—unheard of in traditional bookkeeping.
60–80% margins
Renato Villanueva
Founder & CEO · Parallel
Puzzle bots handle 90%+ of our transactions. We're really only doing exception-based reviews — actually advising our clients, interpreting the financials.
90%+ auto-categorized
John Truong
Head of Tech & Innovation · Attivo Partners
We faced a choice: continue with legacy systems or find a true technology partner who could match our ambitions.
100+ clients migrated,
100% accuracy
Matt Tait
CEO · Decimal
By the numbers
Real firms, real results.
3 hrs → 30 min
New client close time, down from 3 hours
"You can't unsee it as a CPA. 90% of a new client close done in 30 minutes. It used to take 3 hours."
10x
Time saved per close task across clients
"Saves our team so much time, we're reducing client fees."
50%
Faster month-end close
"Trivium cut their close time in half in the first month."
10 → 30
Clients managed. Same team. Same headcount.
"Firms using AI Close report tripling client capacity without adding a single new hire."
See it against your own client list.
The guide is the playbook. A 15-minute call shows you what it looks like with your client mix, your team, and your current close process.
We'll walk through one of your actual client engagements.
You'll see exactly where the approach saves time, and where it doesn't.
No deck, no pitch. Just a working session.
Free. No sales pitch.
You've seen what's inside.
Ready to read it?
Dawn spent 1,200 Mondays wondering if she’d make payroll. Yours can start differently. Drop in your work email and the guide is yours.
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