The Modern Blog

Thoughts on Firm Effeciency

Insights, tools, and strategies for firm optimization.

For Accountants

Job Titles Don’t Build Software

No Chief of Whatever Comes Next. ModernPM stays lean on purpose — because people build software, not titles.

September 22, 2026

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For Accountants

Top 500 Firms Are Not Just Bigger Small Firms

A large firm isn't a small firm with more users. Here's why ModernPM is built for the operational complexity that comes with real scale.

September 15, 2026

For Accountants

Your Software Company Has Its Own Software Company

Buy a wrapper built on NetSuite, Workday, or Dynamics, and you're not betting on one vendor — you're betting on two.

September 8, 2026

For Accountants

We Didn’t Build a Practice Management Wrapper

We could've configured a generic ERP and called it practice management software. We didn't — because owning the interface isn't the same as owning the foundation.

September 2, 2026

For Accountants

Words & Time, Tools and Tokens

The billable hour is going away, but time isn't. Why the future firm's economics will run on time, tools, and tokens — not hours and rates.

Your tech stack, your rules — ModernPM connects to the tools you already use.

Your practice management platform should fit your tech stack. Not force you to rebuild around it. That's the premise behind ModernPM's API — not a bolt-on integration layer, but the same open API that powers the entire platform.

Generic client-level interest is a blunt instrument. Here's the scalpel.

ModernPM applies interest at the invoice level — directly to specific outstanding balances.

When dependencies live in someone's head, they're not dependencies. They're risks.

Dependencies aren't a project management concept imported from software engineering. They're the actual structure of CPA work. ModernPM makes that structure visible and enforceable — instead of hoping everyone remembers.‍

Set the steps, assign the tasks, let the system run the engagement.

ModernPM bakes the institutional knowledge into the system — so the workflow runs whether or not the person who built it is in the room.

One client, multiple entities — billing that knows the difference.

ModernPM's client group functionality ties related clients together and makes that relationship visible throughout billing — so you can manage a relationship as a whole, not just as disconnected records.

If it's not worth billing, write it off. Don't send a $0 invoice.

ModernPM makes write-offs a two-click operation. No invoice required.

Lock the period, reconcile everything, move on — fast.

ModernPM compresses that into a guided workflow that surfaces the problems before they become problems.

Invoice when the milestone is hit — automatically, in the right order.

Milestone billing changes the model. Invoices don't wait for someone to remember. They trigger when the work is done.