How Glenn Burdette Transformed Tax Research With Bloomberg Tax
For any successful CPA firm, tax research is the backbone of operations. But relying on cumbersome, outdated software quickly drains productivity. When professionals spend hours digging through poorly integrated systems or verifying answers from web searches, client service suffers. Finding a reliable, authoritative tool is no longer just an operational preference. It’s a business necessity.
This was the reality for Glenn Burdette, a leading CPA firm on California’s central coast. Founded in 1965, the firm has offices in San Luis Obispo, Santa Maria, and Paso Robles, and provides tax, audit, bookkeeping, consulting, and financial management services. A Top 300 INSIDE Public Accounting firm and recipient of numerous leadership awards, Glenn Burdette officially joined Ascend in June 2025 as part of Ascend’s expansion of regional accounting firms. At its core, Glenn Burdette sees accounting not just as a numbers business, but as a service business, with a deep commitment to its clients, employees, and community.
However, Glenn Burdette’s team of over 50 tax professionals faced a persistent bottleneck: inefficient tax research tools were slowing them down. To modernize their workflow, they needed a solution that prioritized factual accuracy, intuitive search, and robust support. This article explores how Glenn Burdette transformed its internal processes, improved its bottom line, and empowered its team by adopting Bloomberg Tax.
Key Outcomes:
- Glenn Burdette’s tax professionals cut complex research from hours to minutes with Bloomberg Tax , delivering faster, more accurate guidance for clients.
- Glenn Burdette eliminate overspending on its prior research tool and reinvested that budget into Bloomberg Tax, improving capability without increasing costs.
- Glenn Burdette achieved firm-wide adoption of Bloomberg Tax with minimal friction, backed by hands-on-training and dedicated partnership support.
Challenge: Costly expense of disparate tools
Before adopting Bloomberg Tax, Glenn Burdette’s tax professionals were dissatisfied with their existing software. Engagement with the firm’s previous tax research tool was steadily declining, as staff found it overly complex and cumbersome. According to Mical Bovee, a principal at Glenn Burdette, his team increasingly relied on standard web searches. However, these online sources were inefficient and lacked the topical authority required for high-level tax advisory.
This use of disparate tools led Stephanie Hoobery, another principal at the firm, to spearhead an initiative to audit their technology stack. Her review uncovered a major financial inefficiency.
Stephanie Hoobery
This realization presented an opportunity to reallocate those funds toward a more effective tax research platform without negatively impacting the firm’s budget.
As they explored new solutions, the team faced the growing noise surrounding artificial intelligence. Many software vendors made big promises about AI capabilities, but the reality often fell short. Hoobery was particularly skeptical of tools that scraped the open web, prioritizing solutions built on verified, proprietary data. She sought a closed-ended system where every AI-generated answer linked directly to the actual tax code and substantiated analysis.
Solution: A streamlined approach to tax research
Software implementation typically triggers change management hurdles, but Glenn Burdette experienced a smooth transition. The firm began by testing the Bloomberg Tax platform with a small, strategic pilot group. Hoobery and Bovee rolled out the tool to just seven designated users – primarily the partner group – to gauge its effectiveness and validate its AI capabilities before pushing it firm-wide.
The ease of use played a big role in early adoption. Unlike older systems that required extensive training sessions and complex login portals, the new platform prioritized user experience.
“I thought, ‘No one wants to sit through anything extensive. Just give us a login. Tell everyone to bookmark it and just let them go,’” Hoobery said. The transition was further simplified by the integration of Single Sign-On (SSO), allowing staff to access the tool effortlessly.
When the time came to roll the software out to the entire firm in February 2026, the leadership team was prepared. Because the partners had already vetted the tool, they advocated for its use internally. The Bloomberg Tax customer service team collaborated directly with Glenn Burdette to build a digital training room, ensuring the staff had everything they needed right before busy season.
Bovee appreciated this partnership approach, stating, “We really haven’t had any pushback… The biggest hurdle was just getting people to log in and try it out. And it’s kind of like once you use it, you have a great experience.”
Results: Operational efficiency
Once fully implemented, Bloomberg Tax improved the firm’s operational efficiency. Staff members transitioned from spending hours hunting for guidance to instantly accessing accurate, up-to-date information. The platform’s closed-system AI capabilities quickly became an indispensable asset for tackling complex regulatory scenarios.
Hoobery recalled an instance where Bloomberg Tax’s AI tools saved her time on a highly complex trust return. While navigating the taxation of a partnership and calculating Distributable Net Income (DNI), she utilized the platform’s AI assistant to clarify the rules. She then asked a follow-up question regarding Generation-Skipping Transfer (GST) trust dates.
Stephanie Hoobery
For Bovee, the tool acts as a powerful staff development tool. When entry-level professionals encounter unfamiliar international tax issues or merger situations, Bovee directs them to Bloomberg Tax to build an initial research memo. The staff runs targeted prompts, reviews the AI-generated guidance, and brings a drafted summary to their check-in meetings. “Rather than me saying, ‘Go look at this and that,’” Bovee said. “I can say ‘Go check this out. Then let’s have a brief chat about it.’” This allows professionals at every level of the firm to rapidly distill pages of complex tax law down to the specific, actionable advice their clients need.
Just as important as the technology itself was the way Bloomberg Tax showed up as a true partner after the decision was made. For Glenn Burdette, this was not a one-time sales pitch followed by silence. The relationship continued through hands-on training, a custom digital learning room, regular support, and clear visibility into product updates and upcoming rollouts. That level of transparency gave the firm confidence that they were not simply buying software–they were gaining a team committed to helping staff adopt the platform, stay current, and get more value from it over time. For a firm that depends on efficiency and trust, that ongoing partnership became a meaningful differentiator.
Staying ahead of legislation
Tax laws shift constantly, and staying ahead of legislative changes is critical for any high-performing CPA firm. When the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed – which introduced many changes to individual and business entity tax planning – the Glenn Burdette team leveraged Bloomberg Tax to keep pace with all the new developments.
Bovee noted that the platform provided a clear, navigable roadmap for the legislation. “Being able to have the AI tool to deep dive and just say, ‘Okay, but wait a minute. What about this provision, or what about that?’ It definitely made a difference for us,” he said. As the IRS released subsequent revenue procedures, the system automatically updated, ensuring the firm’s advice remained compliant.
Looking ahead, the strategic advantage of an evolving tax research platform is immense. Because Bloomberg Tax’s AI is built directly into the system – not patched together with third-party APIs – the team at Glenn Burdette trusts that future rollouts and a continued partnership will only make an already powerful tool even more valuable over time.
Why CPA firms choose Bloomberg Tax as their research platform?
Glenn Burdette’s experience shows that inefficient software can hurt a firm’s profitability and morale. By switching to Bloomberg Tax, the firm saved thousands of dollars, unified its team on a single intuitive platform, and accelerated its research capabilities.
From analyzing complex estate transactions to deciphering massive legislative overhauls, Bloomberg Tax delivers the exact insights accountants need, precisely when they need them. The tool’s AI features are firmly rooted in vetted, authoritative tax codes, removing the risks associated with open-web LLMs.
For firms grappling with cumbersome systems and a lack of post-sale support, adopting a solution designed to navigate the complexities of modern tax law can significantly enhance operational efficiency. Request a demo today.