Accounting Is the Launchpad, Not the Destination

Accquip founder Tony Wilson explains how an accounting foundation can lead to finance, advisory services, technology, and entrepreneurship.

Accounting students often feel pressure to choose the perfect career path before they have taken their first professional step. Tony Wilson, CPA, CMA, offers a more forgiving — and practical — approach: Choose a direction, start moving, and learn along the way.

“Sometimes, just choose the thing,” Wilson says. “Just go after it.”

In this episode of the Accounting Conversations Podcast, host Chayton Farlee, an assurance associate at CliftonLarsonAllen, talks with Wilson, founder of Accquip, about building a career that stretches from public accounting and corporate finance to entrepreneurship and fractional CFO services.

Along the way, Wilson shares candid advice for students and early-career accountants who want to gain meaningful experience, prepare for firm ownership, and understand where they can create value in a profession transformed by technology.

“If you still think accounting is math, you are not correct,” he says. “Accounting is financial storytelling.”

Accounting creates options
Wilson enters accounting without a carefully plotted career plan. While he was in high school, his mother told him she thought he would be good at accounting. Knowing little about the professional world, he trusted her judgment. He later double-majored in accounting and finance. Although he enjoyed finance, a professor gave him advice that shaped his career: It is easier to move from accounting into finance than from finance into accounting.

Wilson took that advice and began his career in audit at Grant Thornton. He describes public accounting as difficult but invaluable, particularly because of the volume and variety of learning it provides. After working his first busy season, Wilson tackled the CPA exam while working full time. He passed all four sections in rapid succession, an approach he does not necessarily recommend, but he strongly encourages students to pursue the credential if they can.

“I don’t necessarily use it day to day, but once you have it, it just opens up a lot of doors that you wouldn’t expect,” he says.

After nearly two years in public accounting and a promotion to senior associate, Wilson decided he gained what he needed and moved into corporate accounting.

A varied career becomes an entrepreneurial advantage
Through a salaried rotational program, Wilson worked in financial reporting, internal audit, general ledger close, and other areas before joining C.H. Robinson. There, he became a corporate accounting manager, led an intercompany accounting function, and helped create Finance U, an internal initiative designed to educate and upskill finance employees. The position initially sounded unappealing to him. Meeting the people behind it changed his mind.

“Sometimes a position does not sound appealing at all, and then you go for the interview, and you realize, ‘Oh, wow, this actually could be a lot better than I was expecting it to be,’” he says.

The lesson extends beyond job descriptions. Wilson’s career demonstrates how managers, mentors, and workplace culture can matter as much as the work itself. His broad experience also gave him a foundation for entrepreneurship. When Farlee asks how long someone should work before launching a firm, Wilson says the answer depends less on the number of years than on what the person does during them. Five years in a narrowly focused role may leave someone less prepared than five years spanning public accounting, general ledger work, corporate operations, and management. Wilson recommends gaining varied experience, spending enough time in each position to learn deeply, and developing management skills before hiring employees of your own.

“A big part is having your hands in a lot of different things before you venture out,” he says.

Fatherhood turns an idea into a decision
Wilson enjoyed his work and colleagues at C.H. Robinson, but the idea of starting a business stayed with him. For years, he told himself he needed more knowledge and experience before taking the leap. That changed after the birth of his first daughter in 2021. While holding her during paternity leave, Wilson thought about the message he wanted to give her: She can accomplish anything she sets her mind to. However, the statement felt hollow if he was unwilling to pursue his own ambition.

“If she can do anything she sets her mind to, I need to lead by example,” he says.

Wilson returned from leave in late May, left his corporate position by the end of July, and launched his business in August. Accquip now provides fractional CFO and client accounting services tailored to software developers. The firm helps clients with budgeting, cash flow forecasting, profitability analysis, accounting, payroll, billing, and collections.

Wilson initially resisted the “fractional CFO” label because his work does not mirror every responsibility of a CFO at a large public company. His clients see it differently. They view him as the financial professional helping them understand performance, plan ahead, and make stronger business decisions. At its core, Wilson says, the work is managerial accounting — using financial information to shape strategy and improve the management of a business.

“This is what accountants should have always been,” he says.

Bookkeeping provides experience classrooms may miss
Wilson also encourages students to gain hands-on bookkeeping experience. Before graduation, he handled back-office bookkeeping for a bowling alley and accepted temporary assignments while attending college. The arrangement allowed him to schedule classes on certain days and work accounting jobs on others. It gave him flexible income, relevant experience, and something substantial to add to his résumé.

Wilson challenges the idea that internships are always the best way to gain practical experience. Many internships serve primarily as recruiting tools, he says, while part-time or temporary accounting positions may allow students to take on more authentic work. Bookkeeping also helps students connect classroom concepts to the way transactions move through an actual business. Wilson’s own bookkeeping course for freelancers avoids technical language and frames accounting as something more meaningful than calculations.

“If you still think accounting is math, you are not correct,” he says. “Accounting is financial storytelling.”

That story begins with understanding the audience, identifying the information that matters, and organizing financial activity so someone can make sense of it.

AI increases the value of practical expertise
Despite headlines about declining accounting enrollment, demanding workloads, and artificial intelligence, Wilson remains optimistic about the profession. As experienced accountants retire and fewer students enter the pipeline, he believes young professionals who develop strong skills will encounter extraordinary opportunities. Accounting also continues to offer job security because organizations cannot simply stop tracking, interpreting, and reporting financial information. AI may automate parts of the work, but it does not eliminate the need for accountants. Instead, the technology creates demand for professionals who can guide development, test outputs, recognize missing context, and translate information into sound decisions. Businesses need people with practical accounting experience to help train and evaluate AI systems. Clients also need trusted advisers who can examine an AI-generated answer and explain whether it is accurate, complete, and appropriate for their circumstances.

“They’re going to come to their CPA friends,” Farlee says. “They’re going to come to their accounting friends, and they’re going to say, ‘I read this on ChatGPT. What is it not telling me?’”

That combination of technical knowledge, business experience, judgment, and human connection positions accountants to play a central role in the AI era.

For students wondering whether they have chosen the right profession, Wilson’s career provides an encouraging answer. Accounting does not lock them into one destination. It gives them a foundation from which they can move into finance, management, advisory services, technology, entrepreneurship, or a path they have not yet discovered.

The first decision does not need to be perfect. It simply needs to move them forward.

Listen to the full episode