Follow-on engagement
Fixed-fee engagements leak on admin.
Advisory workflow work is considered only after the firm’s core document process is stable. The primary Gulf & Ponte offer is document workflow implementation for CPA firms.
In a June 2026 Blue J and CPA.com survey, 69% of respondents anticipated moving to a value-based, hybrid, or fixed-fee billing model. When the hour stops being the unit, unbilled admin work stops being recoverable and starts being margin. [ Blue J and CPA.com Source: Survey finds AI adoption among tax firms has nearly doubled in one year: 60% of respondents use AI for tax research at least weekly, up from 33% in 2025; 69% anticipate moving to a value-based, hybrid or fixed-fee billing model — Blue J and CPA.com, Published 8 June 2026. ]
Capacity comes first
Onboarding, engagement letters, scope-change records, and billing follow-up are cheap when you bill hourly, because someone bills them. Under a fixed fee they are pure cost, and they are the kind of repetitive, rule-based work a workflow handles.
There is little point automating billing follow-up on engagements you do not have the staff to deliver. We build the document workflow, you get the season back, and then this conversation is worth having.
Start with the document workflow pilot