{"id":14889,"date":"2026-06-02T20:51:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T18:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stocks-future.com\/?guid=4c99ebc55596e4e35adce3ea2c3d5e06"},"modified":"2026-06-02T20:51:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T18:51:00","slug":"crete-professionals-alliance-rebrands-as-current-to-equip-independent-accounting-firms-to-compete-at-enterprise-scale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stocks-future.com\/?p=14889","title":{"rendered":"Crete Professionals Alliance Rebrands as Current to Equip Independent Accounting Firms to Compete at Enterprise Scale"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"bwlistdisc\">\n<li>\n<i>With over 2,000 employees at almost 30 independent accounting firms across the U.S. and more than $500 million in annual revenue, Current ranks among the top 30 firms and is one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S. accounting industry.<\/i><\/li>\n<li>\n<i>Through its partnership with Thrive Holdings and OpenAI, Current launched Tax AI to support accountants with tax preparation, processing 7,000 tax returns this past tax season and decreasing time spent by about a third.<\/i><\/li>\n<li>\n<i>Current\u2019s partner firms retain equity in their own businesses along with their local branding and leadership, backed by long-term, patient investors.<\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul><p>TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Crete Professionals Alliance, a national platform for independent accounting firms, today announced its rebranding as Current. The name reflects the company\u2019s conviction that AI has created the opportunity for local firms to compete with large incumbents and bring Fortune 500-caliber advisory services to Main Street businesses.<\/p><br\/><a href=\"https:\/\/mms.businesswire.com\/media\/20260602293257\/en\/2821986\/19\/current_launch_26_social_version_02_v1_1440p.mp4\"><img src=\"https:\/\/mms.businesswire.com\/media\/20260602293257\/en\/2821986\/5\/current_launch_26_social_version_02_v1_1440p.jpg\" \/><\/a><br\/><a href=\"https:\/\/mms.businesswire.com\/media\/20260602293257\/en\/2821986\/19\/current_launch_26_social_version_02_v1_1440p.mp4\"><img src=\"https:\/\/mms.businesswire.com\/media\/20260602293257\/en\/2821986\/21\/current_launch_26_social_version_02_v1_1440p.jpg\" \/><\/a><br\/><a href=\"https:\/\/mms.businesswire.com\/media\/20260602293257\/en\/2821835\/5\/LI-Logo.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/mms.businesswire.com\/media\/20260602293257\/en\/2821835\/22\/LI-Logo.jpg\" \/><\/a><br\/><a href=\"https:\/\/mms.businesswire.com\/media\/20260602293257\/en\/2821835\/5\/LI-Logo.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/mms.businesswire.com\/media\/20260602293257\/en\/2821835\/21\/LI-Logo.jpg\" \/><\/a><p>\n\u201cThere's an enormous gap in accounting between the transactional service most people get and the strategic partnership reserved for large companies and ultra-wealthy clients,\u201d said Steve Stagner, CEO of Current. \u201cThis gap has persisted because the largest accounting firms have had billions of dollars and entire technology departments for decades, while most have not. We\u2019re arming the rebels.\u201d<\/p><p>\nCurrent helps firms on its platform grow by giving them the tools, technology, and resources they need to deepen the client relationships they\u2019ve built over time. \u201cOur belief is that the firms that will lead the industry forward are not the largest, but the ones closest to their clients,\u201d Stagner added.<\/p><p>\nCurrent provides a shared services platform, purpose-built technology, and national-scale resources. The company also invests in upskilling firms\u2019 employees so they can use the new tools to deliver expanded services. Partner firms retain equity, leadership control, and local branding.<\/p><p>\nCurrent\u2019s technology strategy brings together the people building frontier technology with those using it. As an owner-operator of Current, Thrive Holdings and its strategic partner OpenAI have embedded a team of AI engineers and researchers to build tailored AI products in partnership with accountants on Current\u2019s platform, with the goal of freeing up capacity so they can spend more time with clients.<\/p><p>\nFor the 2025 tax year, Current deployed its first Tax AI pilot at partner firms. Participating firms saw an average of 31 percent savings in tax preparation time and up to 98 percent accuracy across the 7,000 returns processed by Tax AI this season.<\/p><p>\nOne accountant who spent 180 hours preparing returns last year spent just 15 this year. She used the time she got back to call every client and walk them through their return. The technology deployed by the shared services platform creates more space for accountants at its firms to work directly with their clients and, by extension, gives them the capacity to serve new clients and provide new services.<\/p><p>\nLarson Gross, a Current partner firm in Bellingham, Washington, was one of the first to pilot Tax AI. \u201cWhat started as a test engagement quickly became a much larger opportunity because Current\u2019s team delivered exactly what they promised,\u201d said Kelli Visser, the firm\u2019s Managing Partner.<\/p><p>\nThat blend of speed and high-touch service is what clients say they want. In an independent survey Current commissioned in April, 65% of accounting firm clients said AI would improve their perception of a firm -- but 75% said they still prefer personal interaction over automated experiences. Following the success of the Tax AI pilot, Current is helping the rest of its portfolio adopt the tool.<\/p><p>\nThis kind of sustained investment in technology and people requires a different ownership model than the one dominating professional services today. \u201cThe roll-up playbook is often cost extraction on a deadline,\u201d said Stagner. \u201cCurrent\u2019s holding period is effectively forever, which allows us to make investments in people, in ways many short-hold owners wouldn\u2019t. We\u2019re focused on transformative topline growth.\u201d<\/p><p>\nCurrent\u2019s structure, in which partner firms retain ownership and local control, means a partner firm\u2019s growth is its own growth. This creates the right incentive structure to invest in platform-level technology and people development that can compound over decades.<\/p><p>\nBacked by Thrive Holdings, Current now covers all four corners of the U.S., with the ambition to build a fully integrated, end-to-end advisory platform across Tax, Audit, and CAS.<\/p><p>\n<b>About Current<\/b><\/p><p>\nCurrent is building a new kind of accounting firm that preserves local ownership and trusted client relationships, while using shared scale, permanent capital, and purpose-built AI tools to help entrepreneurial firms grow in an industry facing deep-seated tech disruption and continuing talent shortages. By combining Thrive Holdings\u2019 technology expertise with Current founders Jake Sloane\u2019s and Frank Zhang\u2019s support for founder-led businesses, Current serves as a long-term partner to entrepreneurial accounting firm owners who want to retain their brands, leadership, and client relationships, while gaining access to a shared platform of advanced technology, global delivery, and strategic capabilities. Current is an <i>Accounting Today <\/i>Top 10 Firm for Technology and a 2026 Fastest-Growing Firm.<\/p><p>\nFor more information, visit <a  href=\"https:\/\/cts.businesswire.com\/ct\/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.current.co%2F&amp;esheet=54546288&amp;newsitemid=20260602293257&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=current.co&amp;index=1&amp;md5=5f7d23520b4e57e5accfe33b4d41ce46\" rel=\"nofollow\" shape=\"rect\">current.co<\/a>.<\/p><br\/> <b>Contacts<\/b> <br\/><p>\nJulie Gross Gelfand\n<br\/><a  href=\"mailto:juliegrossgelfand@gmail.com\" rel=\"nofollow\" shape=\"rect\">juliegrossgelfand@gmail.com<\/a><br\/>(516) 729-8067<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With over 2,000 employees at almost 30 independent accounting firms across the U.S. and more than $500 million in annual revenue, Current ranks among the top 30 firms and is one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S. accounting industry.<\/p>\n<p>Throu&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-infos-businesswire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stocks-future.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stocks-future.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stocks-future.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stocks-future.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stocks-future.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14889"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stocks-future.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14890,"href":"https:\/\/stocks-future.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14889\/revisions\/14890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stocks-future.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stocks-future.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stocks-future.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}