A CPA Firm's Worksheet for Its Own Equity Plan

Before comparing platforms, fill in this line: many states restrict the share of equity in a licensed CPA practice that non-CPAs can hold, and some require the firm to remain majority-owned by licensed CPAs specifically. These rules vary by state and change periodically, so confirm your state board's current position with your firm's attorney before drafting any plan, rather than assuming a rule you read about applies to you.

This line comes first for a reason: it determines whether the rest of the worksheet even applies to your partnership directly, or only to a separate entity you'd need to stand up first. Skipping it is the single most common mistake firms make when they try to move fast on a retention offer.

A plan that grants equity only to licensed CPA partners on a traditional partnership track looks different from one that includes non-CPA staff, like a firm's technology or advisory team members who aren't licensed but are critical to a growing consulting practice inside the firm. If your plan spans both groups, you likely need two separate instruments: partnership units for licensed partners under your state's ownership rules, and phantom equity or a bonus pool for everyone else.

Write down every role you'd realistically grant equity to over the next two years, then sort that list into licensed and non-licensed columns before you draft anything. That single exercise usually reveals which instrument each group actually needs.

A traditional CPA partnership often values partner buy-ins and buy-outs using a formula tied to book value or a multiple of revenue, set in the partnership agreement, rather than a market-based 409A. If you're instead granting real stock options through a C-corp entity, perhaps for a technology or advisory spinout arm, that typically calls for an actual 409A valuation with the same rigor you'd recommend to a client. Carta runs in-house 409A valuations (Pulley did too before announcing its December 8, 2026 shutdown), but neither replaces a partnership buy-in formula your attorney should draft separately.

Don't let the two approaches blur together on the same worksheet line: keep the partnership formula and the subsidiary's 409A in separate documents, reviewed by separate advisors if needed, since a reviewer who only knows one side of the structure can miss a conflict between the two.

G&A costs run around 24% of revenue at many growth-stage professional services firms¹, and a firm that already bills its own staff's time by the hour has a clear view of what manual cap table reconciliation actually costs against that budget.

A senior accountant's median national wage runs $83,680², which puts a real number on the hours lost to a spreadsheet-based equity tracker versus a platform that updates automatically with each grant. Multiply that hourly cost by the time your team spends each month chasing down unsigned agreements, and the worksheet answers itself.

For a firm granting real options through a technology or advisory subsidiary, Carta's audit-ready reporting and deep valuation bench tend to feel most familiar, since it's the platform CPA firms most often see when reviewing a client's own cap table.

Bring both platforms a real scenario from your own subsidiary, a specific headcount, a specific pool size, and ask each one to walk it through live rather than relying on a generic demo script. Score the answer on how much of it you'd have to translate for your own team versus how much they explained in language your subsidiary's staff would already understand.

Work the five worksheet lines in this order before choosing a platform:

1. Confirm with the firm's attorney what your state board allows, including limits on non-CPA ownership of the licensed practice.
2. Decide whether you are granting to CPAs, non-CPAs or both, since a plan spanning both groups likely needs two instruments.
3. Choose a valuation approach that matches your structure: a partnership formula for partners, or a 409A for real options through a C-corp.
4. Map the monthly reconciliation workload so you know what manual cap table upkeep costs against your budget.
5. Bring both vendors a real scenario from your own subsidiary, with a specific headcount and pool size, and compare their answers.