For independent CPA, bookkeeping & payroll firm owners · Michigan → Ohio → Indiana

The FIRM OS Launch

A subscription operating system for accounting, bookkeeping, and payroll firms — installed in under 30 days, guaranteed.

For independent CPA, bookkeeping & payroll firm owners · Michigan → Ohio → Indiana

Pick the one that's actually true for you right now.

Both lead to the same build. The path below just starts with the part that matters most to you.

Door 1

You're buried in admin and want your week back.

You're billing by hand, chasing payment, and losing hours every week to work that has nothing to do with the job you're trained for.

Door 2

You want the firm to be worth something without you.

You're billing by hand, chasing payment, and losing hours every week to work that has nothing to do with the job you're trained for.

For independent CPA, bookkeeping & payroll firm owners · Michigan → Ohio → Indiana

Pick the one that's actually true for you right now.

Both lead to the same build. The path below just starts with the part that matters most to you.

Who This Is For

You'll recognize yourself here.

  • Independent, owner-led firm — your name (or your decision) runs the place, no committee

  • 2–15 people, serving business clients, not just 1040s

  • 2 or more of: tax, CPA/accounting, bookkeeping, payroll, advisory

  • 5+ years in business, 10+ Google reviews

  • Owner roughly 45 or older

Who Should Pass

Some firms are a better fit elsewhere.

  • Franchise tax outfits or PE roll-ups

  • Multi-state or national firms

  • Solo, seasonal 1040-only preparers

  • Already on Karbon, Canopy, or TaxDome and happy with it

  • Virtual-only, with no physical office or Google listing

The Proof

Devereaux & Co — Jackson, Michigan

The cash flow has been like it hasn't been in the last 10 years.

Ross Devereaux, Principal

$0K
NEW ENGAGEMENT SIGNED
$0K
ANNUAL COSTS ELIMINATED
<0
DAYS TO LAUNCH
0.0×
TARGET REVENUE MULTIPLE

From 40 Tasks to 4-6 Priorities.

This is life changing

More Space in Your Day. More Billable Hours.

Kill your operational treadmill while growing your money desk

Built to run the same way for bookkeeping and payroll practices, where the work differs but the admin problem is identical. Figures reflect one client's results; individual results vary.

Path 1 of 2 — For the owner buried in admin

The Weekly Relief

Stop invoicing by hand. Stop chasing payment. Stop losing hours every week to admin that has nothing to do with the work you're actually trained to do. FIRM OS replaces bespoke, deadline-to-deadline billing with a subscription system that runs itself, built for accounting, bookkeeping, and payroll firms alike.

What's Built

  • Subscription tiers on a branded landing page — clients choose a plan and enroll themselves

  • Automated intake & onboarding — forms and document requests fire the moment a client subscribes

  • Automated billing — card on file, recurring charges, email receipts. No hand-generated invoices

  • Client portal — documents, billing history, and support in one place

  • Automated communication — welcome sequences, deadline reminders, plan confirmations

  • Reactivation pipeline — a segmented campaign that moves your existing book onto subscriptions

How Fast This Actually Moves

System live in 18–30 days, developer start to launch, review cycles included. First live subscriber conversions land within days of the pricing sheet being finalized — the 30-day figure is mostly the build, not the wait for results.

Week 1, before any build work starts: we identify and invoice any already-completed, unbilled work sitting in your files. Real cash recovered where available, before automation begins.

Effort Required From You

Under 3 hours of decisions only you can make — approving the pricing sheet and making the calls to your top relationships personally, because that's what actually drives enrollment. Zero hours of paperwork, copywriting, or CRM work. That part is done for you.

The Guarantee

Live and billing in 30 days, or you pay nothing. If the launch underperforms the agreed projection, we continue optimizing at no additional charge. We guarantee our build and implementation — not client purchasing behavior or revenue results.

Also Included, No Charge

Bonus I

The Prior Balances Playbook — a collection framework that gets old, unpaid balances handled on the phone, kept entirely separate from the subscription announcement, so the launch stays a positive message.

Kills the objection: "I'm owed money I'll never see."

Bonus II

The Reactivation Audit — a structured pass through your own client list to find the revenue you already earned the right to, before you spend a dollar on new-client acquisition.

Kills the objection: "I don't need more clients, I need more revenue from the ones I have."

Bonus III

The Business Will Baseline — a directional snapshot of what your firm is worth today, and what would move that number. Useful even if you're not thinking about exit yet, because the number tends to change how you run the firm now.

Kills the objection: "I'll worry about that later."

Path 2 of 2 — For the owner who wants the firm to be worth something without them

If You Stopped Tomorrow

Most of what a firm owner has built lives in the owner's head — pricing knowledge, client relationships, day-to-day judgment. If you stepped away tomorrow, planned or not, that revenue doesn't transfer with the business. It just stops.

If the firm cannot operate without you, the value your family or partner can actually transfer may be far less than the value you believe you've built.

Owner-dependent, seasonal practices tend to trade at the low end of the market. Firms with recurring revenue, documented systems, and reduced owner dependence tend to trade higher. FIRM OS is built to move a practice from the first category toward the second. We use 1.4× revenue as our own directional target — not a guaranteed valuation, and not a claim about the market as a whole.

Illustrative target, not a valuation guarantee. Actual multiples vary by size, profitability, client concentration, recurring-revenue share, and deal terms.

What You Get First

The Business Will Baseline — a directional snapshot of what your firm is worth today, and what specifically would move that number, delivered as the first conversation in a full succession plan, not a sales pitch for one. This is the deliverable, not an add-on. Run your own directional number below ↓

How You Get There

The number only moves if the firm stops depending on you day-to-day. So the Baseline runs on top of the same build that fixes that: subscription billing, a client portal, and automated communication, replacing the parts of the practice that currently only exist in your head. One build, framed around the reason you're doing it — not two separate systems to buy and run.

How Fast This Actually Mov

System live in 18–30 days, developer start to launch, review cycles included. The Business Will Baseline itself comes back well before that — a directional number early, the transferable system behind it within 30 days.

Effort Required From You

Under 3 hours of decisions only you can make — reviewing the Baseline and approving the pricing sheet. Zero hours of paperwork, copywriting, or CRM work. That part is done for you.

The Guarantee

Live and billing in 30 days, or you pay nothing. If the launch underperforms the agreed projection, we continue optimizing at no additional charge. We guarantee our build and implementation — not client purchasing behavior or revenue results.

Also Included, No Charge

Bonus I

The Prior Balances Playbook — a collection framework that gets old, unpaid balances handled on the phone, kept entirely separate from the subscription announcement, so the transition stays a positive message to clients.

Kills the objection: "I'm owed money I'll never see."

Bonus II

The Reactivation Audit — a structured pass through your own client list to find revenue you already earned the right to — it also raises the top-line number the Baseline is measuring against.

Kills the objection: "My revenue base looks smaller than it should."

The Baseline, the build, and both bonuses come together as one engagement — not because they're bundled for convenience, but because the number in the Baseline is only real once the build behind it exists.

Free — The Business Will Baseline

What would your firm be worth if you stopped tomorrow?

Five inputs, thirty seconds, a directional read on where your firm sits today — and what specifically would move the number. This is the actual worksheet we use on the call, not a sales pitch for one.

Free — The Business Will Baseline

What would your firm be worth if you stopped tomorrow?

Five inputs, thirty seconds, a directional read on where your firm sits today — and what specifically would move the number. This is the actual worksheet we use on the call, not a sales pitch for one.

Question 1 of 5

Current annual revenue

$
Please enter a valid annual revenue figure.
Question 2 of 5

% of revenue that is recurring / subscription-based

25%
Question 3 of 5

% of client relationships that route through you personally

75%
Question 4 of 5

Are pricing, processes, and client history documented anywhere outside your head?

Question 5 of 5

Planned exit horizon (years)

Please enter a valid exit horizon in years.
Final Step

Where should we send your directional report?

Please enter your first name.
Please enter a valid email address.
Your Baseline Assessment

Directional Firm Valuation

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$0

Figures are illustrative and directional. This is not a business valuation. Any number relied on for an actual transaction comes from a credentialed valuation, not this tool.

Walk Through My Number With John

Investment

One build. One price. Both paths.

Whichever door brought you here, the build and the price are the same.

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Setup, one time — the build, guaranteed, plus the full bonus stack
$0/mo
6-month minimum. Runs the system: billing, portal, communication, care

Q4 pricing goes into effect October 1. Sign before then and this structure is locked in at today's rate for the life of your agreement.

We build one firm at a time, start to finish, so nothing ships half-finished. The next build slot opens when the current one closes.

Straight Answers

The questions we actually get.

Why two paths on this page?

Because owners come to us for one of two reasons — the week they're losing to admin, or the value they've never put a number on. Both problems get fixed by the same build. Read whichever page matches what's actually keeping you up.

$3,500 plus $895 a month is a real commitment for a subscription system.

It isn't software you configure yourself — it's the build, the reactivation campaign, and the ongoing operation of the system together. In Ross's case, the space it freed up produced a $104,000 engagement in a single quarter. The system paying for itself is the expectation, not the exception, once the admin load is off your week.

How much of my time does the build take?

Under 3 hours of decisions only you can make — approving the pricing sheet and, on Path 1, making the calls to your top relationships personally, because that's what drives enrollment. Zero hours of paperwork, copywriting, or CRM work. That part is done for you.

What's the guarantee, exactly?

Live and billing in 30 days, or you pay nothing. If the launch underperforms the agreed projection, we keep optimizing at no additional charge. We guarantee our build and implementation — not client purchasing behavior or revenue results.

Why a 6-month minimum instead of month-to-month?

The build lands in the first 30 days and the value compounds after — the reactivation campaign, the tier conversions, and the portal adoption all keep working in the months that follow. A shorter term prices the system as a one-off project, which is exactly what it's designed not to be.

Is there anything beyond the Baseline for owners further along on exit planning?

Yes — for owners who want to go further after the build, a full succession and buyer-readiness engagement is available as a next step. We'll walk through what that looks like for your firm specifically on a call, once the Baseline gives us a real number to start from.

Why Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana?

We run this live in a full-service CPA and payroll firm in Jackson, Michigan today — Devereaux & Co. — and Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana are where that proof point lands hardest right now. We build one firm at a time so nothing ships half-finished, and take on firms outside that footprint too.

About

John Canetta

I've spent my career helping owner-operators find the cash leak or growth lever that actually moves their business, then building the system that holds the fix in place. Prior engagements span accounting, managed services, payroll, ecommerce, wholesale, and telecom — with documented outcomes from $173,000 to $900,000.

Deliberate Achievement is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. We build one firm at a time, because the work is hands-on and the results depend on it.

Why Now

The next build slot opens when the current one closes.

Q4 pricing goes into effect October 1. Sign before then and this structure is locked in at today's rate for the life of your agreement.

A subscription operating system for independent accounting, bookkeeping, and payroll firms.
Ann Arbor, Michigan

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© 2026 Deliberate Achievement LLC. All rights reserved.

Results described are those of specific clients. Individual results vary.