Category Archives: Site News

Updates regarding this site

The Dancing Accountant To Join Insightful Accountant Inaugural Advisory Panel

Thanks so much to Insightful Accountant — a leader in news and education for our industry — for inviting me to join a truly exceptional group of colleagues on the inaugural advisory panel.

The primary purpose of the panel is to help us stay in touch with the audience we serve and to continue to provide the content you want. The panel members will also be instrumental in helping us shape the future of Insightful Accountant by identifying areas of improvement, new opportunities and being a collective sounding board for us as we explore what is next for our business.

I’m looking forward to getting to know some new friends and reconnecting with old ones… and most importantly, helping shape a future for Insightful Accountant that addresses the needs of our industry. It’s through these connections that we can truly understand and address the evolving needs of accountants, bookkeepers, tax preparers, advisors, apps and vendors, and of course — the small businesses that we serve.

Read more about the rockstars on this year’s panel here!

And if you’re a member of our community, please reach out and let me know what you find valuable about the content, education, and opportunities Insightful Accountant affords you, as well as what you’d like to see improve.


If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.

The Dancing Accountant on Canopy’s “Practice Success Podcast”

It always feels a bit surreal to watch yourself being interviewed, but KC Brothers and Gaynor Hardy (Meilke) did such an incredible job with this piece — which Canopy recently released in their “Practice Success Podcast” — that I actually found myself revisiting some important points I hadn’t thought about in a while.

It’s not fluff! They asked real questions about issues affecting our industry: we delved into branding your passions, company culture and how we strive to make our firm more human, what that has to do with artificial intelligence — AND the attention we need to give language and training in a world where AI is an integral part of our worklife.

Three Main Themes, as outlined by the producers: 

  1. Integrating passions and work: The importance of integrating passion and personal interests into professional work, as seen through Nancy McClelland’s incorporation of dancing into her accounting career.
  2. Creating your own brand: Creating a unique brand and identity in the accounting industry, exemplified by The Dancing Accountant firm helps to build relationships with clients and leave a memorable impression.
  3. Benefits & Challenges of AI: The benefits and challenges of incorporating AI and automation in accounting ensure a balance between technological advancements and human skills. This includes improving efficiency and the need for ongoing evaluation and training within a firm. 

And I’m going to add that we talked a lot about company culture and work-life balance as well. We fit a lot into 20 minutes.

It was a great conversation and I hope these themes resonate with you and add value to your day! Find the full episode here, where you can choose your favorite podcast platform: https://ow.ly/vwYQ50QrRRf.

Side note: I don’t think of myself as a “name dropper” — but I do love to share props with the people and tools that make a difference in my life. To that end, this episode (recorded at Joe Woodard & Heather Satterley‘s Scaling New Heights conference) is chock-full of mentors and colleagues such as John Garrett, Misty Megia, Douglas Sleeter, Hector Garcia CPA & Mark Corum‘s RightTool, Blake Oliver, CPA and Questian Telka, EA. If this podcast introduces you to any of these fabulous mentors and colleagues, then I’ll consider it a major win. You can thank me later.

The Confluence of Bookkeeping, Tax & Advisory: How to Thrive in the New Accounting Landscape (12/6 @ 3:30 pm ET)

Insightful Accountant is hosting their last Future Forward virtual conference of the year on December 5-6, and I’m delighted to be presenting an exciting topic that resonates with the theme of Niches, Trends, and Predictions for 2024.

I love this particular webinar series, as it’s a fabulous opportunity to connect with peers, get the latest industry updates, and explore best practices, new tech, and other developments in accounting. They do a nice job of speaking both to bookkeepers and tax professionals, as well as tech-related and accounting-adjacent firms. This round will comprise 2 days, 9 speakers, and 11 topics as we share our knowledge, strategies and tactics. If you’re focused on launching, transforming, or growing your business — this is for you. Plus, it’s free if you attend live ($25 fee for the recording, which is totally worth it, as they’re able to subsidize the education without your having to sit through vendor commercial plugs).

My session will be held on Day 2 December 6th at 3:30 pm Eastern, and is called “The Confluence of Bookkeeping, Tax, and Advisory: How to Thrive in the New Accounting Landscape“. It was written with two groups in mind — bookkeepers and tax preparers, both running their own practices — who are getting all sorts of pressure to expand into advisory services. It’s about the trend toward co-firming and other ways to work together in order to serve the clients better, add value/charge more, and develop professional relationships that will bring you more business.

I recently attended QuickBooks Connect, and it got me all riled up (again) about the confluence we’re seeing between CPA firms moving into Client Accounting & Advisory Services (CAAS) and bookkeeping firms moving into advisory services… two previously distinct worlds starting to converge. I feel like the bookkeeping and accounting practices are often dancing technology circles around tax firms — and yet CPAs still look down on them as if they were data entry robots.

It’s time to start communicating with each other!

Bookkeepers –> learn how to “speak tax” with CPAs. Own your spot at the table.

CPAs/EAs –> bookkeepers are your friends! They have the personal relationships and tech know-how that you lack!

Let’s talk about co-firming as one of the accounting trends of 2024.

1. Discover how the scope at CPA and bookkeeping firms is starting to overlap and converge, and why that’s a good thing for you and your clients.

2. Identify the potential challenges and opportunities that this new accounting landscape brings, and how to turn them to your advantage.

3. Apply strategies and techniques to partner across or within firms, to update your accounting practice and stay ahead of the curve.

Join Insightful Accountant and me at Future Forward on December 6th as we talk about what this landscape can look like.

The Confluence of Bookkeeping, Tax, and Advisory: How to Thrive in the New Accounting Landscape – Future Forward December 5-6 2023 by Insightful Accountant (heysummit.com)

But it’s not just me! There’s an amazing lineup of speakers and sessions:

Day 1 – Dec 5

  • Checking in with QuickBooks Checking + Envelopes with Alicia Katz Pollock with Royalwise Solutions, Inc.
  • Strategies For Niching Success with Kellie Parks from Calmwaters Cloud Accounting
  • Niche to an Ideal Client Roster with Debra Kilsheimer from Profit Creator
  • Firm of the Future: Unlocking the Power of the Vertical Niche with Gregg Bossen – Creator/President of QuickBooks® Made Easy™

Day 2 – Dec 6

  • 5 Strategies to Maximize Firm Success Through Onboarding Mastery and Strategic Outsourcing with Vanessa Vasquez from QuickBooks en Espanol
  • Automate Tax Season with AI with Christine Gervais from Epiphany Group
  • Grow Your Practice with Highly Profitable Reporting for Multi-Entity Clients with Charles Nagel from Qvinci and William Murphy from Insightful Accountant
  • The Confluence of Bookkeeping, Tax, and Advisory: How to Thrive in the New Accounting Landscape with Nancy McClelland from the Dancing Accountant

The live event is free, the recordings will be made available for a nominal fee. Just click on this link to sign up.

See you there!


Nancy McClelland Featured on Accounting Insiders Podcast

Check out the podcast on Insightful Accountant’s YouTube channel.

I met the charming and intelligent Christine Gervais earlier this year, having shared an article of hers from Tax Practice News to my LinkedIn feed with my own perspectives. We immediately connected and met via zoom to get to know each other better, compare notes on our practices, and discuss ways in which we might collaborate. (Side note: TPN picked up an important article of mine shortly afterwards due to Christine’s recommendation.)

What an honor that some months later, I was named one of Insightful Accountant’s Top 100 ProAdvisors of the Year and accepted the award at the annual Scaling New Heights conference. I had recommended the jam-packed educational event to Christine, and to my delight, she attended and we met in-person. What neither of us expected was that she ended up being the interviewer in my Top 100 spot with Insightful Accountant, as Tax Practice News is a sister publication.

The question posed was, “if you could start your own practice over again, what would you do differently?” As anyone who has been in the industry — or run their own business — for a while knows, we are constantly making mistakes and learning from them. The goal is not to make the same one twice. So it’s natural to have regrets. But sharing those stories can be immensely helpful to others in the space — whether it’s younger entrepreneurs wondering which next steps to take, or colleagues who feel isolated because they think they’re the only ones who don’t have it all figured out yet.

We had a lovely chat — she’s very easygoing and conversational — and covered the following topics, among others:

  • Hiring your first employee
  • Traits in an ideal team member – intelligence, written skills, ability to learn, detail-oriented, team-player, caring attitude, enthusiasm
  • Interviewing with an eye toward building team culture
  • How teams can collaborate
  • Networking with colleagues
  • Trusting your team and clients to support each other
  • Importance of joining a professional organization and attending conferences
  • Standardizing systems and establishing workflows
  • Teaching accountants and bookkeepers what they need to know to specialize and establish a niche
  • How to find your professional community
  • Identifying and improving processes

I also give a shout-out to a few favorite resources, such as Keeper, AICPA Town Hall series, NATP’s tax education, NSAC and Co-op Professionals Guild, and of course, Bookkeeping Buds.

So check it out! And as always, please give us a like and a comment if you enjoyed it — really does mean so much to us and is very helpful in continuing to reach our audience.


If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.

Happy 22nd “Birthday” To The Dancing Accountant!

It’s been almost a year since our shindig with the Logan Square Chamber of Commerce, clients, and friends — celebrating 21 years of working with small businesses in our community. Today we celebrate our 22nd trip around the sun in this amazing neighborhood, and it’s high time we share all those great memories of the blow-out party that was.

Here are a few highlights — but there are so many more! Check out our photo album to view the rest of the festivities.

Many thanks to Gracie Hammond Photography for capturing so much joy in her photos that day. We treasure these memories. Again, catch the whole reel here (and if you’re a client, you have permission to download and use them for your socials).

Gratitude also goes out to cherished long-time client Vinejoy for the prosecco, Revolution Brewing for the beer, SipJeng for the CBD mocktails, Dill Pickle Food Co-op for the soft drinks, and the amazing Nick Connell for the balloon twisting and general merriment. We couldn’t have done any of this without the dedicated help of Sage Ferguson and her family, as well as the enthusiastic Candy Minx.

Most importantly, we have to thank our entertainers for the event: the best honky-tonk band in Chicago, if not the world — Wild Earp & The Free-For-Alls, with special guest Michelle Billingsley. We are indebted to them for their spirit, talent, charm, camaraderie, generosity — and patience, as the Chamber dealt with power and light challenges at the newly-activated Solidarity Triangle.

Speaking of the Logan Square Chamber of Commerce — this whole crazy event was dreamed up by their energetic Executive Director, who also invited our wonderful drink and food pop-ups, and we were touched that the two previous directors of the Chamber also attended (wish I’d thought to get a photo of all three of them together)! What an honor. Our neighborhood owes so much to LSCC, as well as their incredible Farmers Market.

A recap of the awards ceremony:

Many thanks to all our clients for contributing to the goodie bags, and especially to Jo Snow Syrups, Dill Pickle Food Co-op, and Soap Distillery for providing special prizes to the award-winners!

I could go on and on about what an incredible celebration it was — pretty sure I floated on Cloud Nine for weeks afterwards. Suffice it to say that having hundreds of clients, community members, friends and neighbors come together to commemorate the difference we’ve made together… feels really great. Thank you for letting us be a part of your neighborhood.


Interview: Meet the Brilliant & Insightful Nancy McClelland, CPA

Nancy modeling at the Beehive In Bloom Fashion Show | photo by Zak Jacobson

It’s not often I am described as either brilliant or insightful — so it’s a banner day when referred to as both.

And what better day than today, the 22nd anniversary of starting my own accounting firm?

To celebrate, I am delighted to share a recent interview with CanvasRebel, an online magazine and podcast that highlights voices of small business owners — in their words, “stories about our business or career that we might share at dinner or over coffee, but that wouldn’t necessarily make it into our memoir at the end of our lives; stories that illustrate the nitty-gritty details of what it takes to be successful day to day, how to build and grow a client base, recruit, train and manage a team or generate a living.”

I agree wholeheartedly with the folks who interviewed me. “There is so much we can learn from each other, and we hope these stories inspire you to pursue your passion and support those who are doing so themselves.”

Their questions were thought-provoking and caused me to truly reflect and think about some of the universal truths that I’ve learned in working with small business owners as their CPA. Questions such as:

  • What’s the best advice you’ve ever given to a client?
  • How did you get to where you are today?
  • What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
  • Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

For the answers to these questions — and some top-notch in-costume photos, at various performances — please take a look at the interview. And if you just can’t get enough of the photos, check out some from our 21st anniversary party, last summer.


If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.

The Dancing Accountant Named Top 100 ProAdvisor by Insightful Accountant

I am truly honored and delighted to make the Insightful Accountant Top 100 ProAdvisor list!

Insightful Accountant identifies and recognizes the Top 100 QuickBooks ProAdvisors across the globe each year in its annual award program, formally recognizing recipients at the Scaling New Heights Accounting Technology conference, to be held June 25-28, 2023 in St. Louis.

QuickBooks ProAdvisors are first nominated, and then go through a lengthy vetting process, before eventually opening up to a public vote. Applicants for this prestigious award are ranked based on their performance across various categories, measuring everything from QuickBooks knowledge and continuing education, to utilizing the best tools and partner apps within the QuickBooks ecosystem. Real-world experience with clients is a requirement. Winners have said the Top 100 recognition by peers and their industry has opened doors and provided inspiration and new perspectives.

I would love to express great appreciation to Gary DeHart and the entire Insightful Accountant team for their hard work evaluating the nominees — it’s quite special to receive an award from a publication that has been a trusted go-to resource for so many years. And special thanks to all those who voted, in particular my esteemed colleagues and valued clients. It’s extremely exciting to share space with luminaries in the Intuit QuickBooks world such as Alicia Katz Pollock, Lynda Artesani, Michelle Long, Caleb Jenkins, Marnie Stretch, Stacey Byrne, and Veronica Wasek. Looking forward to the formal announcement at Scaling New Heights. If you see me there, please come on up and introduce yourself!

https://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/in-the-news/top-100-proadvisors/meet-our-top-100-proadvisors-and-top-25-up-n-/


If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.

The Dancing Accountant Offers Webinar On Accounting For Cooperatives

I’m very proud to again be partnering with the National Society of Accountants for Cooperatives (NSAC) to offer an entertaining and educational upcoming webinar, “Hippie Co-ops? Expanding Your Co-op Expertise to Other Cooperative Niches“, on Tuesday, February 21, 2023, at 2 PM ET/1 PM CT/ 12 PM MT/ 11 AM PT.

The focus of this webinar is to teach existing accountants who are already familiar with co-op accounting about the similarities and differences between the types of clients they already work with, and contrast them against a few other co-op types that are becoming more popular.

Consumer, Housing, and Worker Co-ops have been around for a long time and are experiencing a surge in popularity, but many experienced cooperative accountants know little about them. By introducing NSAC members and other accountants to unfamiliar cooperative structures, they can leverage their existing expertise in areas common to all co-ops, and build on that knowledge. We will explore these three co-op types and learn to recognize what they have in common with other co-ops, as well as explain the differences. Our goal is to help identify and create additional business opportunities for cooperative accountants to expand their scope and offerings.

The learning objectives will be:
1) Identify distinguishing characteristics of consumer, housing and worker co-ops.
2) Recognize the unique benefits and challenges of each type, as well as common industries.
3) Explore additional resources and next steps to expand scope and offerings to potential clients.

Normally the cost is $56 for the one-hour session for non-NSAC members, but they have been generous enough to allow me to offer a code to blog readers to attend at no charge. Simply visit:
https://nsacoop.memberclicks.net/022123
and enter the code $DAVIP2023$ to attend at no cost.

Hope to see you there!


If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.

Happy 21st Birthday To The Dancing Accountant!

It’s true — our little CPA firm is officially old enough to drink, so let’s raise a glass to the wild ride it’s been. 🥂

To celebrate, we are planning an outdoor community event with the Logan Square Chamber of Commerce in early September — more on that in an upcoming post — but to mark the official date of first hanging out our shingle, we thought it would be fun to share a delightful interview with Mark Goldman, CPA on his podcast, “Where Accountants Go”. This episode was released just three days before our 20th anniversary.

Speaking with Mark was a truly gratifying experience — he was kind, organized, interested, and sincere, and asked great questions. As a sneak preview of a few good ones:

  • How did you end up being interested in Music from an education standpoint, and how did you end up moving towards accounting? 
  • At what point did you decide to further your education with the Masters in Financial Analysis and why that particular major?  Was it difficult to return to school?  
  • How has your practice evolved over the years?  I see you use the DBA The Dancing Accountant.  Was that always the case, or did that come later?  Is it related to a niche, or more about branding?
  • You’ve been listed on the 50 Top Women in Accounting list. Congratulations!  How does that make you feel?  Is it acknowledgement of hard work, even more responsibility, honor…?
  • What does the future look like for you if it goes exactly how you would like it to go?  When you look back on your career & life, what will you want to be able to say you accomplished?
  •  If you could go back in time and give your younger self just one piece of critical advice, what would that be?

We spoke for over half-an-hour and I felt like we could have gone on for days… his conversational style was comfortable and disarming. I enjoyed sharing personal stories, talking about the great folks I’ve studied and worked with, about how hard it was to go back to school while working, how much I love helping small businesses in my neighborhood, how much I hate saying “no”, how a client came up with my business name… and so on. Give it a listen — and raise a glass to our amazing team while you’re at it!

I would love to be remembered as someone who helped keep our communities vibrant by helping small businesses succeed. That’s the whole point of any of this, and my staff is a group of women who feel the same way. Our work really has meaning. ~Nancy McClelland, CPA


If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.

The Dancing Accountant Shares Tips for Building A Remote Team

“Really great interview. I appreciated how the highlights were amplified. Nancy is smart and real. Blake does a great job allowing the interviewee talk and share her knowledge. Well done!”
-YouTube viewer comment

I was honored to be interviewed recently by the one-and-only Blake Oliver for Relay‘s “Gearing Up” series, where every two weeks, he talks to a real accountant or bookkeeper about ONE challenge in their firm — and how to solve it.

In this episode, we discuss how to build a team with whom you love to work (kudos to Bookkeeping Buds for helping me make that happen).

As our firm grew, I realized that building The Dancing Accountant in a traditional way was re-creating working conditions that our team and I didn’t love — it was immensely important to me that above all, we enjoy working with each other.

But first I had to convince myself I had something to offer — and decided to focus on what I knew employees wanted: meaningful work.

In the latest episode of Gearing Up with our host Blake Oliver, I open up about the a-ha moment that led to our building an entirely different kind of remote firm. In the episode, you’ll learn:
💃 Why Nancy is known as The Dancing Accountant
🔨 Nancy’s favorite tool in her tech stack
🧑‍💻 Three things employees want from work
🧩 The non-traditional structure of Nancy’s team

Full 15-min episode here — 📺 https://youtu.be/IigWdOH5G6M

Enjoy, and let me know what you think!


If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.