what makes a partner

checklist: the 16 big responsibilities for any partner.

by marc rosenberg

when managers become new partners, they face numerous changes.

more: the 17 rules for making partner at a cpa firm | who shouldn’t be a partner? | nine reasons people are promoted to partner | how to make partner
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those include some things they’re entitled to … and not.

the realities

you’re an owner. as such, you get paid based on the firm’s earnings, not as an employee.

you pay for your ownership. new owners in any business must pay money to acquire their ownership. at cpa firms, this is called a new partner buy-in. because cpa firms have a substantial street value, it’s reasonable that new partners should be required to purchase their interest in the firm.

as a partner, you get a vote. big deal! most firms don’t take formal votes. instead, they discuss an issue, determine a consensus and act on the decision. if partners really want their “votes” to count, it’s up to each of them to articulate their position on issues at hand and try to influence other partners to see things their way. so a vote is really more of a right to attend partner meetings and influence decisions.

who owns clients and staff? hint: it’s not individual partners. it’s the firm. this means that a partner who decides to leave the firm and join another cannot take clients and staff. of course, there is no law that says clients and staff cannot join the departed partner. but there is an enforceable partner agreement (80-90 percent of all firms have such an agreement) that prevents departed partners from taking clients and staff and requires them to pay liquidated damages to the firm.

partner buyout obligation. by accepting a firm’s offer to become an equity partner, a new partner becomes obligated to join with other partners, both present and future, to buy out the interest of departed partners. the flip side of this is that new partners will get a buyout when they retire.

what partners are and are not entitled to

partners are entitled to

1. attend partner meetings and retreats
2. have their capital returned upon leaving the firm
3. make decisions on client engagements
4. receive regular communications from management regarding what is going on in the firm
5. vote on matters specified in the firm’s partner agreement
6. be paid based on performance
7. have their interest in the firm bought out as stipulated in the partner agreement

partners are not entitled to

1. pull rank
2. be given a lifetime waiver on performance feedback
3. do whatever they want to do, whenever they want to
4. participate in managing the firm; that’s management’s job
5. get paid a lot of money without earning it
   
6. do lower-level staff or admin work and be paid partner-level compensation for it
7. do what’s best for themselves to the detriment of the firm
8. be lone rangers (act alone; nobody knows where they are)
9. abuse staff or behave disrespectfully toward them
10. take clients if they leave the firm to practice elsewhere
11. retain clients if they fail to service them properly
12. be unaccountable for their performance and behavior

partner (equity or non-equity) job description

general

• a partner is first and foremost a leader in the firm. partners always set an example for others to follow because the firm is evaluated by its partners’ conduct.
• partners have three primary duties: bring in business, completely satisfy clients’ needs and help staff learn and grow.
• partners are “impact players” who make clear and measurable contributions to the firm’s growth and profitability.
• technical skills are a given. they are the ante to get into the game.
• partners make decisions that are aligned with the firm’s strategic plan and vision.

specific duties

1. bring in business. contribute to business development and marketing in some way; develop and cultivate referral sources. include other firm members on sales calls. understand that, when it comes to business development, you can’t not try.
2. train and mentor staff so they can advance.
3. be constantly alert to opportunities to hire talent.
4. manage client relationships and engagements effectively; be attentive to their needs; establish strong client loyalty to maximize retention. take clients upscale.
5. serve as clients’ primary business advisor.
6. establish other firm members as key touchpoints with larger clients so that if the partner suddenly leaves the firm, the clients will stay.
7. develop and lead strong teams.
8. become the firm’s go-to person for something.
9. be a good corporate citizen. obey policies and procedures, even if the partner disagrees with them. treat people respectfully. respond timely to voice mails, emails, etc.
10. live and breathe the firm’s core values, every day.
11. push down work to the staff wherever possible; do only partner-level work. understand that a partner should be working on the business, not in it.
12. keep the staff busy. never lose sight of this critical partner duty; never assume other partners are handling this.
13. bill and collect promptly and aggressively.
14. ensure that client engagement letters and all other required agreements and correspondence with clients are executed for each engagement.
15. take on minimal, and preferably no, admin duties (i.e., duties that can be delegated to admin staff).
16. be fiscally responsible 24/7; never be off duty.

how new partner duties change from manager duties

this is one of the grayest areas in bringing in new partners. it has perplexed cpa firms for decades.

here is the typical scenario. the firm has had one or more managers on board for 10 to 20 years. they have made their mark primarily with their technical skills, doing great work with clients, showing tremendous loyalty and work ethic. they generally lack business development and to a lesser extent, leadership skills, but they have become indispensable to the partners, who rely on them heavily to service their clients. the partners would have heartburn if these managers left the firm.

now, one or more of these managers are promoted to partner.

• how does their job change? how should it change?
• they may not have been expected to bring in business because of their partners’ heavy reliance on them to service their clients. should the firm now expect these new partners to bring in business? to what extent are they expected to build their own client base?
• do they continue working on the same clients they did as managers?

to shed light on this practice, we polled 20 managing partners of local multi-partner cpa firms from across the country. almost all of the firms’ annual revenue was $5-$25 million.

summary of responses: as is always the case when issues of general practice are discussed, there was a wide variety in the 20 responses we received.

here is the consensus of the responses:

1. when managers are promoted to partners, the role doesn’t change very much, especially in the beginning years. new partners almost always continue to work on the same clients they were responsible for prior to the promotion.
2. the major change is that now they are expected to delegate work to managers so they can function as partners. this new partner role includes not only delegating the work but developing the managers’ leadership skills. this frees up the new partners to (a) take on additional clients other partners transfer to them and, most importantly, (b) do business development.
3. for decades, cpa firms have debated the pros and cons of requiring people to bring in business to become eligible for partnership. our 20 firms reflect this diversity of opinion. several firms feel it is important to have a balance between business-getting and technical partners. however, more than half of the firms feel that new partners should develop business.
4. several of the firms that were more insistent on business development as a requirement for becoming a partner stated that people with partner aspirations should have been engaged in business development activities well before being considered for partner.
5. an important factor in all these issues is the increasing incidence of firms having two kinds of partners: non-equity and equity. many firms may not be so insistent on requiring business-getting skills to become a non-equity partner, but bringing in business is very likely to be a criterion for advancement to equity partner.
6. several firms stated that they like their new partners to have distinguished themselves as experts in a niche or specialty service.

posted on january 17, 2022