Most firms can point to a training budget and a CPE tracker. Fewer can point to where that training actually lands — in a specific workpaper, review comment, or client answer. That gap between hours logged and work improved is real, and it’s wide.

PNJ’s answer is a full, recurring training program across three areas — technical accounting standards, tax, and business matters — built and led by the same directors and partners who sign off on client work. The goal isn’t a certificate; it’s a direct line from what the team just learned to what the client sees.

1. What the Program Actually Covers

Training runs on a recurring basis across three areas, each anchored to a leader who also reviews the work it feeds into. Sessions run for both the U.S. and Vietnam teams, so the same update reaches whoever is touching a given engagement, regardless of which office they sit in:

• Technical accounting and ASC updates. Led by Leo Trinh, Director of Accounting and Technology — covering new and evolving standards alongside the systems and workflow changes needed to apply them consistently.
• Tax. Led by Trang Huynh, Director of Taxation — covering federal and state developments, compliance changes, and planning considerations as they come up.
• Business and advisory matters. Informed by Managing Partners John Peter and Hue Nguyen — covering the forecasting, structuring, and operational topics that come up in consulting and accounting advisory engagements.

Where Training Shows Up in Client Work

2. From Training Room to Workpaper

Training that stays in a slide deck doesn’t change client work; training that gets built into checklists, templates, and review points does. A session on a new or updated standard is only useful once it changes something concrete:

• An updated checklist item reflecting what the standard now requires.
• A revised template so the next engagement starts from the current version, not last year’s.
• A note on what the next workpaper needs to show so preparers aren’t relying on memory.
• A reframed planning conversation when the update is on the tax side — a new filing requirement or shifted threshold changes how a return gets prepared or how the conversation with a client gets framed.

That’s a deliberately unglamorous discipline, but it’s the difference between a team that knows about a change and a team whose work already reflects it.

3. Sharper Reviews, Caught Earlier

PNJ’s engagements already move through a defined review chain — a director review followed by partner sign-off — before anything reaches a client. Shared, recent training is what makes that chain sharper rather than just procedural:

• A reviewer who studied a standard or tax change two weeks ago is looking for it specifically, not hoping to notice it in passing.
• Issues get caught at the review stage, inside the firm, instead of surfacing later as a correction the client sees.

4. What This Means in the Room With Clients

Clients increasingly don’t separate “accounting” from “business” questions — they bring both to whichever adviser they trust. Trust is now the top reason clients choose an accountant, and the industry’s Net Promoter Score sits at +49, with most rating their accountant highly.

A team that trains together and reviews together is better positioned to earn that trust — by answering the follow-up question, not just the one that was asked. In practice, that looks like:

• A tax question that gets a straight answer instead of a promise to look into it.
• A new standard explained in terms of what it changes for that specific client rather than a general notice.
• A forecasting conversation grounded in current practice instead of last year’s assumptions.

None of that requires a client to know the training happened — only that the person across the table clearly just had it.

Bottom Line

Technical training is easy to treat as a compliance requirement — something to log, not something to notice. The evidence suggests that’s a mistake: hours alone don’t move quality, but training deliberately connected to workpapers and reviews does.

PNJ’s recurring program across technical accounting, tax, and business matters is built around that connection — led by the same people who review the work and talk to clients about it, so what the firm learns this quarter is what a client sees next.

Sources and Professional Notes

• Thomson Reuters Tax & Accounting, “PCAOB audit deficiency training: Moving beyond CPE hours,” 2026.
• Karbon, “Client Trust Report 2026,” karbonhq.com, 2026.
• NASBA and AICPA, revisions to the Statement on Standards for Continuing Professional Education (CPE) Programs, approved April–May 2026.

Prepared: August 2026  ·  Last reviewed: August 2026  ·  Reviewed by: [PNJ reviewer]

Disclaimer

This material is for general informational purposes only and describes PNJ Group’s internal training practices as of the publication date; specific program content and format may evolve over time. It does not constitute accounting, tax, or legal advice. Contact PNJ directly to discuss your specific facts and circumstances.