Former KPMG and BDO tax senior manager. Now I run an AI enabled CPA firm, and the businesses I test it on.
What I used to think. At the big firm I treated AI as a research toy. It made things up, the security questions had no answers, and firm policy said wait. I had plenty of reasons to keep it at arm's length.
I was wrong.
What changed. It went from answering questions to doing the work. Research tool, then workflow tool, then agents that execute. So I stopped watching. I left a senior manager seat in 2026 and rebuilt the way a CPA firm runs, one task at a time.
How I use it now. Every day, in every engagement. I took ten years of big firm process, broke each engagement into tasks, and gave every task an owner: AI, staff, or the CPA. AI reads the documents, drafts the workpaper, and does the first pass review. Code does the math and the tie out. A CPA makes the call and signs.
My take now. AI in the loop. Human in the lead. I borrowed that line from Aleksandra Bal because it says it better than I could. AI is a tool inside my process, not a coworker I supervise. I decide what it touches, where it stops, and what counts as a good answer. And when a number is wrong, that is on me, not the tool. My name is on the return.
Right after July 4th, 2026, I left BDO to find out what a CPA firm looks like when you build it around AI from day one. No prep team, no review layers, no template. My right hand through all of it has been Claude. Every memo, model, and tool below came out of working sessions with it, then got checked by me.
Same knowledge. None of the layers.
Four months in, the client list runs from single shop nail salons to big multi location chains, a franchise, and a tailor shop that is a lot bigger than you would guess.
Commission payroll done right. POS data comes in, every check gets built, and the totals tie back to the POS before anything goes out. Owners and techs see one clean page per pay period.
An internal app for the monthly close. Drop in the month's files and walk the steps. Out comes the P&L, cash flow, loans, partner equity, and a year end tax estimate. First tests are on my own businesses.
My model for small business books. Follow the money from the customer to the owner's pocket. POS, merchant, and bank have to tie. Cash flow matters more than the P&L, because cash is what kills a good business.
A private library I run every finished return through, so no planning opportunity gets missed. Next step is a tool that reads a return, builds the client profile, and drafts the plan.
Ten years of big firm process written down, one service at a time. Every task has an owner: AI, staff, or CPA. It is how a new hire gets productive in weeks instead of a busy season.
Calculators and plain language guides for owners. Guarantee pay, salon P&L, 1099 versus W-2, commission splits. Free for everyone, because an owner who understands the numbers is a better client.
One AI enabled CPA firm.
MAN^CPA is my practice. Tax, accounting, payroll, and finance for owners whose situation is not simple: real estate operators, partnerships and multi entity businesses, fund GPs and SPVs, and owners who outgrew their preparer. You work with people trained at the biggest firms, without the distance and without the layers.
The methodCPA. The domain expert and the credibility gate. Nothing leaves without it.
Finance and data. The foundation. Clean data in, real analysis out.
Computer science. The architect behind the tools.
The lab. My own businesses. Everything gets tested there before a client sees it.
Services, who we work with, the free tools, and how to start are all on the firm site.
I don't just advise businesses. I build them too.
Tech driven platform that monitors DMV systems and alerts customers the moment an appointment opens up. Operating across TX, NC, NJ, NY, FL, NV, and Ontario.
Luxury nail spa in the Columbus area, now with two locations: Lewis Center, and Polaris, which opened in November 2026. The nail industry built the Vietnamese American community, raised our families, and created our foundation. Carrying that legacy forward and raising the bar. It is also the lab where my firm's systems get tested first.
Co-founded as a UTA sophomore to help US families call Vietnam affordably. One of the first platforms to let customers recharge phone credit online automatically, long before FaceTime existed.
State licensed CE school approved by TDLR Texas. Practical, modern courses for licensed professionals, starting with cosmetology and expanding into skilled trades.
Family comes first. Everything I build is grounded there.
I am a CPA who now codes with AI. I joined a builder sprint cohort to get better at it, and most of the tools on this page started as a weekend idea.
I went to a gifted high school for math in Vietnam. Tax is a numbers game, with judgment on top. That is where my Substack, Tax Smart From Math, gets its name.
I invest real time in early career professionals, especially international students finding their footing. Just paying it forward.
For client work, start at man.cpa. For everything else, email or LinkedIn works best. I try to respond to everyone.