Meet Plante Moran
Plante Moran is one of the nation’s largest audit, tax, consulting and wealth management firms with more than 4,000 professionals serving clients around the globe. For more than 100 years, the firm has been guided by a people‑first philosophy that’s rooted in values, relationships, stewardship, and a belief that investing in people ultimately results in better outcomes for clients.
Like most large CPA firms, Plante Moran’s tax practice is deadline‑driven and experiences significant peaks around filing seasons. To operate effectively during those peaks, the firm relies on a visible, consistent, and a shared way of working. An approach they describe as a tax service ecosystem: a framework designed to harness the collective capabilities and resources of their tax department.
The goal
Plante Moran did not set out to “fix a broken process.” They set out to support growth: building a scalable foundation that helps the tax organization move faster, collaborate seamlessly across offices, and accelerate people development as the firm continues to evolve.
Their “one-firm firm” approach means the best person for a client can be anywhere in the organization. That requires a consistent, shared way of working, along with clear expectations, secure access controls, and a single source of truth that scales across offices and time zones.
The challenge
To create this foundation, Plante Moran needed a platform that could help them:
- Standardize engagement project management so staff have a predictable experience across teams and offices
- Accelerate onboarding with a clear roadmap for “how we do our work”
- Reduce friction in collaboration, replacing long email threads with work that lives in one place
- Create operational intelligence by capturing structured workflow data, then analyzing trends (bottlenecks, cycle times, review patterns, delegation health)
- Meet strict security expectations, with granular permissioning for sensitive tax information
The solution
Why monday.com
Plante Moran’s team began in an innovation lab, exploring what a “home base” for operations could look like. They evaluated multiple options over several months, surveying internal teams and aligning with leadership.
monday.com stood out for three reasons:
- Fast adoption and low learning curve, so teams would actually use it day to day
- Data and APIs that enable deeper analysis and continuous improvement once everyone is working in one system
- A unified workspace where reporting and outside information can be embedded alongside daily work, giving teams and leaders clearer, more real-time visibility
Ground-zero standardization, with room for reality
Rather than forcing a rigid one-size-fits-all method, Plante Moran treated Phase 1 as a chance to define a shared baseline for engagement workflows:
- Standard engagement steps and tasks
- Clear “starting role” expectations (staff, senior, manager, partner) to enhance transparency and development
- Flexibility to add or remove steps when an engagement truly requires it
A communication shift that shows up immediately
One early workflow that resonated was how teams handle review notes. Instead of review feedback living inside files, teams can leave notes directly in context, enabling faster back-and-forth and quicker turnaround.
Feedback loops built into the system
Plante Moran embedded feedback channels at multiple levels (boards and documentation) so staff can suggest improvements as they work. The team responds directly, helping maintain buy-in and making standardization feel collaborative rather than imposed.
Designed for tax, supported by specialists
To accelerate implementation, the rollout paired two workstreams:
- A front-facing, people and process stream focused on experience, change management, and adoption
- A tech stream focused on APIs, data structure, and reporting foundations
The team collaborated with monday.com to hold an on-site working session to whiteboard workflows, then align both workstreams so design decisions supported both the daily experience and the reporting goals.
The impact
Early momentum you can feel
Even in Phase 1, adoption is unusually strong: hundreds of users are already active, hundreds of engagements are onboarded, and there is demand from additional teams to join.
Real-time insight, not retrospective reporting
Plante Moran is building toward a view of tax operations that is current, not after-the-fact:
- Where work is sitting today, and why
- Which steps cause the most delay
- How work moves across roles, and whether delegation matches the intended model
- Where repeated review notes point to training gaps or missing standard guidance
A foundation for faster development and higher-value work
With clearer instructions, better delegation transparency, and less time spent navigating coordination, Plante Moran’s leaders see an opportunity to develop people faster toward higher-value advisory skills: strengthening planning, client relationships, and strategic work.
Security and access control that meets the moment
With sensitive tax information in play, Plante Moran emphasized granular permissions and least-privileged access. Their team also highlighted the strength of monday.com’s API model and the ability to support row-level permissioning in embedded reporting, which helped satisfy internal data security expectations.
What success looks like next
As Plante Moran moves beyond Phase 1, success is about building a consistent, firmwide way of working that supports both our people and our clients.
That means:
- Better insight through better data
With consistent workflows, the firm can use real-time data to understand where work slows down, how reviews flow, and where processes can be improved — helping leaders make thoughtful, informed decisions. - Training shaped by real work
Patterns in review notes and workflow activity highlight where additional guidance or development is needed, allowing training to be targeted, timely, and relevant. - Clear, accessible documentation
Guidance on how work gets done lives alongside the work itself, supporting onboarding, consistency, and continuous improvement as the firm grows.
Together, these outcomes will strengthen collaboration, clarity, and development, while creating a foundation that scales for the long term.
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