From KPMG Auditor to Firm Partner: Todd Muslow, CPA, on Bringing Audit Discipline to Everyday Business Accounting

Shreveport, Louisiana Jun 16, 2026 (EMWNews.com) – In an accounting field that often rewards speed and visible activity, the quieter work of preparation can be easy to overlook. Filing seasons compress attention into a few short weeks. Software promises to handle the rest. The steady habits behind reliable financial reporting tend to fade into the background. Yet those habits are usually what separate a stable business from an anxious one.

Todd Muslow, CPA and CGMA, has spent his career on the side of that quieter work. A partner of Muslow+Agnew Group, LLC, a full-service CPA firm based in Shreveport, Louisiana, Todd Muslow works with individuals and closely held businesses across the United States in corporate and personal taxation, financial reporting, and business advisory services. His method traces back to a first job that taught him to question every number before trusting it.

“A figure means nothing until its history is clear,” Todd Muslow says. “That habit never left me.” The discipline he learned reviewing other companies’ books now shapes how he prepares his own clients’ returns and statements.

A Career Built on the Audit Floor

Todd Muslow began his professional career in 1997 with KPMG LLP, joining the Assurance division and specializing in oil and gas audit engagements. The role placed him inside the financial records of public and private companies, serving clients across the United States and internationally. For five years, his work was to verify, document, and question.

That period in public accounting set the tone for everything that followed. “Complexity hides risk in oil and gas accounting, and the only reliable defense is structure,” Todd Muslow explains. Structure, in his telling, is less about rigidity than about knowing where every number originates.

After leaving KPMG, Todd Muslow co-founded Temple Oil Company LLC, an oil and gas services and transportation company, where he served as Chief Financial Officer. The move shifted him from reviewing financial records as an outside party to depending on them from inside a business. He later became Chief Accounting Officer of O’Brien Resources, LLC, overseeing financial reporting, tax compliance, and audit matters across affiliated entities.

In 2009, Todd Muslow partnered with his father to form Muslow & Muslow, LLC, a firm that later expanded into Muslow+Agnew Group, LLC. The progression from auditor to executive to firm partner gave him three vantage points on the same set of numbers, and each one reinforced the last.

An Accounting Philosophy Centered on Preparation

Across those roles, one idea stayed constant. Todd Muslow believes that good accounting is decided long before any deadline arrives. “Preparation ensures accuracy, but planning improves position,” he says. “Both matter, and they are not the same thing.” He returns to that distinction often, treating preparation as the floor and planning as the opportunity.

Tax preparation, in his view, looks backward. It organizes what already happened and reports it correctly under current law. Planning looks forward, while decisions can still change the result. The first protects a client. The second positions one. Todd Muslow sees the gap between those two functions as the place where most financial advantage is won or lost.

Bridging Audit Rigor and Everyday Business Reporting

Many small and closely held businesses never see the inside of a formal audit, yet Todd Muslow argues they benefit from auditor habits all the same. “A business does not need a regulator at the door to keep clean records,” he says. “Protecting the business is reason enough.” He encourages owners to treat their books as if an independent reviewer might examine them at any time.

That mindset turns into specific routines. Monthly reconciliation. A standardized chart of accounts. Documented approval for expenses. Todd Muslow describes these as ordinary practices that quietly prevent extraordinary problems, the kind that surface only when a loan, a sale, or a tax notice forces a closer look. The point is not to chase perfection but to remove the small inconsistencies that grow into large ones.

Why Planning Beats Reaction at Tax Time

For Todd Muslow, the most common and costly pattern is waiting until filing season to think about strategy. By then income has been earned, expenses recorded, and transactions completed. “Once the year closes, most of the meaningful choices are already behind the owner,” he says. “Planning has to happen while there is still something to decide.” It is the practical heart of a line he repeats to clients: preparation ensures accuracy, but planning improves position.

He recommends quarterly review so that estimates and decisions track actual performance rather than guesswork. Estimated taxes are a frequent example. Todd Muslow notes that when projections drift out of step with real income, owners face either penalties or unnecessary strain on cash flow. Steady forecasting, he says, prevents both outcomes before they take hold.

Documentation, Reconciliation, and the Habits That Reduce Risk

Risk, in Todd Muslow’s reading, rarely arrives as a single dramatic event. It accumulates. “Accounting is cumulative,” he says. “Every period rests on the one before it, so a small error left alone does not stay small.” Misclassified expenses, delayed reconciliations, and informal approvals are the gaps he watches for most closely.

His remedy is repetition rather than complication. Consistent monthly closings, clear documentation standards, and defined internal controls form what he calls preventive infrastructure. Technology supports the work, he adds, but it does not replace the discipline of human review. A report still has to be read. A variance still has to be explained.

Reporting as a Tool for Decisions, Not Just Compliance

Todd Muslow also pushes back on the idea that financial statements exist mainly to satisfy lenders or regulators. He treats them as instruments for running a business. “A balance sheet shows position, an income statement shows performance, and cash flow shows survival,” he says. “Owners who read them regularly make calmer decisions.” When reporting stays consistent, he argues, leadership can weigh margins and plan growth against documented results rather than assumption.

That clarity, in his experience, lowers the temperature of difficult decisions. Hiring, borrowing, and investment all become steadier when the numbers behind them can be trusted. The statements stop being paperwork and start being a map.

Looking Ahead: Structure as a Foundation for Growth

Todd Muslow frames structure not as a constraint but as a source of freedom. Clean records, he says, give a business room to move when opportunity or pressure arrives. As Muslow+Agnew Group, LLC continues to serve closely held businesses across the United States from its base in Shreveport, Louisiana, his message holds steady.

“Structure creates flexibility, it does not restrict it,” Todd Muslow says. “Preparation ensures accuracy, but planning improves position, and that is where lasting stability begins.”

About Todd Muslow, CPA and CGMA

Todd Muslow is a certified public accountant and Chartered Global Management Accountant based in Shreveport, Louisiana, and a partner of Muslow+Agnew Group, LLC, a full-service CPA firm serving clients across the United States. He works in corporate and personal taxation preparation and planning, business accounting services, and advisory support for closely held business owners.

Todd Muslow began his career in 1997 with KPMG LLP in the Assurance division, specializing in oil and gas audits for public and private companies. He later co-founded Temple Oil Company LLC and served as Chief Accounting Officer of O’Brien Resources, LLC before partnering with his father in 2009 to form the practice that became Muslow+Agnew Group, LLC. He earned his CPA credential in 2002 and his CGMA designation in 2014.

Todd Muslow was recognized as Best CPA 2025 by 318 Forum Magazine. He remains active in national and state accounting organizations and has served in treasurer roles within charitable and community institutions in Shreveport, Louisiana.