more firms falling behind

more accountants see their businesses weakening under competitive pressures.

the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer:
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competition among tax and accounting firms is clearly intensifying, according to new readings from the annual 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer. it’s a stark warning.

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the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 annual busy season barometer asks a lot of questions about how things are going at tax and accounting firms, and the results are always interesting for comparative purposes and, sometimes, advice from peers.

the barometer also delves into the state of firms today and the professionals who make up the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 network. we ask “how effective is your organization at achieving its goals and objectives with consistency over time?”

it’s a good question. we now have a statistically reliable sample and we’re seeing a disturbing trend.

respondents rate their firms on a scale of one to ten. in last year’s barometer, by the end of january, the preponderance of scores fell between six and eight, with 67.4 percent falling within that good-but-not-great range. this year, that percentage is down to 58.4.

some go up, some down

so where have those upper-midrange firms gone?

well, a few have gone up. last year, only 6.2 percent ranked themselves at the highest levels. this year, 10.7 percent see themselves at the top of the world.

in both years, the percentage giving themselves a nine was a little under seven percent. yet there has been a radical shift in those with the confidence to give themselves an eight. in 2019, 29.5 percent did so. this year, so far, only 16.8 are at the upper end of the midrange.

while a few firms seem to have improved, there’s been a perceptible drift downward for many others. the percentages scoring five or below have increased to 24.2 percent from 19.5 percent. last year, a fifth of firms scored between one and three. this year, it’s one quarter.

at the same time, percentages in the upper half, the six-to-ten range, is decreasing to 75.8 percent from 80.5 percent.

what’s happening? are cpa firms truly worsening, or are respondents getting more critical in their assessments?

some explanations

let’s look at how some of the practitioners explain their rating. (respecting our promise of confidentiality, we leave their names anonymous.) let the lower numbers serve as warnings, the higher as advice.

one disgruntled partner at one of the largest firms says, “all management decisions are driven by profits allocated to the chairman of the board.”

another accountant, the owner of a small firm, gives his own firm a sad rank of just two, telling us, “nobody keeps timesheets, i have more staff in client meetings than i need to have, and i shoot the breeze with clients longer than i should.”

but he has not given up. he’s cleaning house of unnecessary staff and unproductive clients. maybe next year will be better.

a senior staffer at a “four” firm gives us a veritable warning: “management is involved in too much outside of the cpa business.”

a managing partner at a georgia firm rates the practice at a mere three, which seems a bit harsh, given that “the firm keeps up to date on technology and utilizes technological resources, but it provides no pay raises or incentives to motivate or retain talent.”

way down south, a partner at a mid-sized, multi-office firm—51 to 100 personnel—grants his or her practice a seven, explaining, “i’ve only been with them two years. they seem to lay out goals and reach them. they know that talk doesn’t get you there. and, they try to have substantive ways to achieve whatever they set out.”

a firm like that may be a ten of tomorrow.

and speaking of tomorrow, here’s why an owner thinks his small firm rates a nine: “i am winding down as owner, but my son, who is a stanford mba, is excellent at technology and marketing. he has just passed the cpa exam and will be a great future leader for our firm.”

and guess who got a ten—everybody’s favorite organization. our respondent says, “i work for the internal revenue service and consider them to be a top-notch agency of our government.”

posted on february 24, 2020