Headshot of Trevor McCandless Trevor McCandless CEO at Fusion CPA
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The Blog

Aug 31, 2026

How to Give Your Accountant View-Only Bank Access

Your accountant can watch the account without being able to touch it. Most banks set it up in about ten minutes.

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When a Regional Plan Doesn't Fit a National Team
Aug 24, 2026

When a Regional Plan Doesn't Fit a National Team

One of our clients had used a Kaiser Permanente plan for years. The company covered the full employee-only premium, and employees could…

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A magnifying glass held over a rising growth arrow, beside stacks of coins, a small model house marked with a percent sign, and a person typing on a laptop
Aug 21, 2026

How to Monitor and Control LLM Token Spend

Seat-based software scales with headcount. Token-based AI does not, and the difference is showing up on the bill.

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Reviewing investment account growth on a tablet
Jul 23, 2026

Trump Accounts: What Happens After the Free $1,000

You may have heard about Trump Accounts, the new investment accounts you can open for any child under 18. For kids born…

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A hand pulling a labeled file from an organized row of hanging folders
Jul 17, 2026

Tearing the Operations Manual Down to the Studs After 15 Years

Over the last couple of months, I've been rewriting our SOPs. The documentation. The procedures for how we actually do tax and…

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worldcup.jpg
Jul 15, 2026

WORLD CUP 2026: A Christmas Gift That Turned Into a Trip

My wife bought me World Cup tickets last Christmas. Here’s my experience, and a few pics I want to share. The Match…

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Why DIY Bookkeeping Almost Never Works for New Franchise Owners
Jun 26, 2026

Why DIY Bookkeeping Almost Never Works for New Franchise Owners

I got off a call last week with a guy starting a franchise. Career salaried employee, first time owning a business. Smart,…

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Calculator displaying CASH FLOW beside financial charts and a printed spreadsheet
Jun 19, 2026

Operating Entities and Trusts: Structuring for Wealth Transfer Without Killing Cash Flow

Before we talk about entity choices and trust types, the structure has to answer two questions cleanly. Who controls it? Who can…

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Your Tax Return Isn't the Finish Line. It's the Starting Line.
Jun 11, 2026

Your Tax Return Isn't the Finish Line. It's the Starting Line.

Most people see the tax return as the finish line. It's actually the starting line. That return is the whole year compressed…

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trust document
May 26, 2026

Multi-Generational Wealth Strategies: Beyond the Trust Document

The data on multi-generational wealth is grim. Roughly 70% of family wealth is gone by the second generation, and 90% by the…

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wealth
May 18, 2026

5 Common Wealth Mistakes Families Don't See Until It's Too Late

The pattern I see most in my practice isn't bad strategy. It's good strategy that was set up years ago and never…

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Why Calling Your CPA a Week Before the Deadline Costs You More Than a Penalty
May 13, 2026

Why Calling Your CPA a Week Before the Deadline Costs You More Than a Penalty

Most tax penalties have nothing to do with complexity. It's timing. Every tax season we get the same call. "Can you file…

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family
May 11, 2026

The Family Blueprint: How to Plan 20 Years Ahead Without Losing the Next 12 Months

Most financial plans I see are stacks of statements. Allocations, projections, beneficiary forms. They're useful documents, but they aren't a plan you…

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family retreat
May 4, 2026

The Quarterly Retreat: How High-Performing Families Run Their Wealth Like a Business

The default cadence for most families is annual. A meeting with the CPA in March or April. Maybe a meeting with the…

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Why Most Firms Stay Behind After Tax Season (And What We're Doing Differently)
May 1, 2026

Why Most Firms Stay Behind After Tax Season (And What We're Doing Differently)

After tax season, most firms are already behind again. Everyone's exhausted, everyone wants a break, and most teams move on without ever…

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tax
Apr 29, 2026

Tax Optimization vs. Tax Risk

Most people use "aggressive tax strategy" as a single phrase, as if every plan that lowers your bill carries the same level…

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Tax-Season
Apr 16, 2026

Why Tax Season Is the Best Teacher for Young Accountants

Tax season is one of the most intense times of the year inside an accounting firm. Long hours. Tight deadlines. Lots of…

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Why-Intentional-Networking-Beats-Casting-a-Wide-Net
Apr 5, 2026

Why Intentional Networking Beats Casting a Wide Net

Early in my career I went to every networking event I could find. Meetups. Happy hours. Anywhere I could go to help…

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The-Art-of-Deciding-What-Deserves-Your-Attention
Apr 1, 2026

The Art of Deciding What Deserves Your Attention

There's an aura of constant pivoting in the air right now. And deciding what deserves our attention and what doesn't is a…

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opportunity
Mar 30, 2026

Brain Dump Your Ideas to Find the Real Opportunities

When ideas start flying around, it's easy to get overwhelmed. New opportunities, potential initiatives, exciting possibilities. They all seem important in the…

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Why-In-Person-Relationships-Still-Win-in-Business
Mar 26, 2026

Why In-Person Relationships Still Win in Business

For a long time, business growth leaned heavily on digital channels. SEO. Online content. Paid ads. Those tools still matter, but something…

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park
Mar 25, 2026

Why My Wife and I Hold a Quarterly Family Meeting

Between running a business, raising two kids, and navigating tax season, it's easy to feel like you're just putting out fires every…

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ai
Mar 21, 2026

The Enterprise Agent System Is Knocking at Our Door

In several founder groups I'm part of, the same conversation keeps coming up. Tools people thought were three to ten years away…

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tax (1)
Mar 20, 2026

Tax Season Is More Than Filing Returns: Here's What We're Really Doing Right Now

We're at that point in the year where roughly 20 to 25 percent of 2026 is already behind us. For a lot…

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Tax
Feb 18, 2026

The Tax Season Bottleneck Between CEOs and Bookkeepers

One of the biggest tax season bottlenecks? The gap between the CEO and the bookkeeper. If your bookkeeping firm is separate from…

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Tax-organizer
Feb 9, 2026

Why Every Question on Your Tax Organizer Matters

People sometimes feel like the tax organizer is a lot. It's a lot of questions. But every single question is there for…

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Liquidity
Jan 25, 2026

Planning Ahead of 2026 Liquidity Events

Going into 2026, we're seeing a lot of liquidity events. Exits, mergers, acquisitions, and private investments are coming together. When that happens,…

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financial castle
Jan 19, 2026

Building Your Financial Castle: A CPA's Guide to Protecting What You've Built

Here's the harsh reality: 65% of businesses fail within 12 months of a founder's death. If 85% of your net worth is…

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positive energy
Jan 14, 2026

How Fresh Talent Resets Team Energy (And When You Know It's Time)

We're three weeks into 2026, and the energy in our office feels completely different. It's not just the typical New Year motivation—something…

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495846b49bee4967a6ec231f01a54f4f
Jan 8, 2026

Embracing 2026: Leadership, Family, and the Power of Strategic Relationships

Heading into 2026 with a lot of respect for what the year will demand. There will be decisions, transitions, and complexity in…

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What December Teaches Us About What Really Matters in Business
Dec 25, 2025

What December Teaches Us About What Really Matters in Business

This time of year always slows me down in the best way. We spend months talking about growth, strategy, taxes, AI, and…

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Family Business Changed My Mind
Nov 6, 2025

Family Business Changed My Mind

I used to think working with family was a mistake. I had seen the tension it could create, the mess it could…

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Disney
Nov 3, 2025

Disney Cruise Experience 2025

I recently took a break from the world of finance to go on a five-day Disney Cruise with my wife and two…

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Oct 27, 2025

October 2025 Business Updates

With the major tax deadlines of September and October behind us, our focus at Fusion CPA is shifting. This time of year…

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Business Partners
Oct 20, 2025

Why You Should Check In With Your Business Partners

As a business professional who has worked extensively with various service providers, I have learned a crucial lesson about managing professional relationships…

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Accountant
Oct 19, 2025

Why Your Accountant Should Be Your Confidant

As a tax professional, I have heard this countless times: clients who dread talking to their accountants. But I firmly believe it…

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Tech Stack
Sep 5, 2025

My Professional & Personal Tech Stack

As a CPA, technology is central to everything I do. When we recruit new team members, we look for people who are…

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USE | 4th page Featured Image - Puerto Rico
Sep 3, 2025

My Weekly Restaurant Rotation in San Juan

I live on a little island in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and my office is in a neighborhood called Miramar. It’s a…

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Trevor
Aug 19, 2025

One of the Most Eye-Opening Moments in My Career

Early in my career, I witnessed something that forever shaped the way I view ownership, equity, and control. It happened to a…

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Career
Aug 12, 2025

The One Thing I’d Do Differently In My Career

I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my career. But if I could go back and give my younger self one piece of…

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Accoutning
Jun 5, 2025

The Future of Accounting

I've been thinking a lot lately about the future of accounting. And I don't think we're headed towards higher head counts in…

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Cruise
May 5, 2025

The Five-Figure Tax Mistake on a Cruise Ship

I was on a cruise talking shop with another CPA. He was a lifelong controller, but not a tax pro. We got…

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30K lesson
Apr 5, 2025

The $30K Lesson That Almost Cost Me Everything

At 25, I was living what looked like the dream on paper. I started a golf club rental company that was pulling…

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