and 15 things every accountant should consider in these unprecedented times.
by bill penczak
my friend tom kallman, the president of a trade show company in new jersey, sent me an email a few weeks ago that i’ll paraphrase:
few, if any, of us lived through pearl harbor. some of us experienced the kennedy assassination. we all recall where we were when the planes struck the world trade center. the covid crisis is another lifetime moment. we learned how to survive all those other events, and we’ll do the same again.
more: re-thinking today’s firm with five global leaders | 5 things your firm should do differently this summer | do you have the guts to beat the covid crisis? | how to inoculate your firm against covid competition | ‘found money’ delights clients | the three r’s for beating the corona crisis
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if you examine the economic recoveries after 911, and after the financial collapse in 2007-2008, there were three economic phases that ensued for cpa firms, their clients, and the market in general that will likely occur in the post-covid economy:
- retention – preserving as much of what we had.
- recovery – stabilizing and moving ahead, as slight as it might be.
- rebuild – coming out better and stronger.
retention – cares act? care and act.
your clients are scared. cash-strapped. laying off or furloughing people, and trying to figure out how to secure government relief funds. the timing of all this, in the midst of the busy season, couldn’t be worse for cpa firms. my friend donny shimamoto, a frequent contributor to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间, refers to cpas as being financial first responders. so what is your firm doing now to quell clients’ fears and be their financial first responder? waiting until final audit reports or returns are completed in april or may will be too late, as some of your clients may no longer be in business without cares act funding.
i was so impressed with marcum’s rapid response to the crisis: days after the president signed the cares act, the firm hosted a how-to webinar about filing for government funding attended by a reported 1,000 people. the lesson here is that they had the infrastructure to execute such a service (busy season be damned), and the client’s compassion to make it a priority. lead, follow or get out of the way.
here are six ways to provide comfort and value to your clients, who will remember your actions and likely never leave your firm:
1 – sba/cares act worksheets and checklist.
the process is daunting and as a financial first responded, your firm should be at the vortex of this process for your clients. at this point, frankly, enough other firms have hosted webinars on the topic, and there are already tens of thousands of applications in the hopper, and doing so now likely would be construed as lame or late. but having some resources on your website to which you could direct frantic clients would be a boon.
2 – team with a law firm specializing in labor & employment issues to address the legalities related to furloughs and layoffs in client communications.
when the economy starts to recover, clients will need to have strategies for retaining their people, and also may endure legal action or even more disruption from former or current employees. your ability to see around the corner and help anticipate these potential problems will only enhance your relationships with your clients.
3 – call your clients to check-in and offer assistance.
ideally, the managing partner and department heads would complete these tasks, augmented by the partner group. even if the partner has a great relationship with the client, a call from the mp carries more weight, and a personal conversation will be long remembered by your clients.
4 – offering free or at-cost short-term accounting assistance for tax clients who may have furloughed their own accounting departments.
the interns you hired for the busy season could be redeployed, and offering such services to clients would be good dry run practice for a new client accounting services practice if your firm has not done so already.
5 – extended billing.
firms earn a disproportionate percentage of annual revenue in the first four or five months of the year. as long as it doesn’t completely disrupt your own cash flow, consider allowing clients to spread out payments for audit and tax work done to date into later in the year when things are back to normal, or the new version thereof.
6 – internal communications to your own people.
your own people are not only overworked due to the busy season, but they are nervous about their clients, stressed about working from home, and fearful about the health and well-being of those about whom they care. talk to them, one to one. this is not a topic to address in a town hall or email blast. your people need personal reassurance and comfort, and firm leadership needs to step up, even if these soft issues are not your strong suit. when things resume a semblance of normalcy, your people will repay your compassion today with their loyalty in the future.
recovery – how to get the quarter back.
in 30/60/90 days, depending on your degree of optimism, the quarantine will be over, unemployment gradually will ease back towards pre-covid levels, and firms and their clients will be trying to determine how to at least get the march, april and may quarter back. there are four constituencies on whom you should focus during the recovery mode:
1 – your people
with the irs deadlines pushed, your tax folks will have a busy season that lasts essentially 6 months. this happened to tax practices in houston after hurricane harvey, where filing deadlines that were pushed out caused a seemingly endless slog through the delayed annual and quarterly deadlines. now tax teams across the country will experience the same endless hamster wheel, and leadership should take notice and again engage your people in frequent and meaningful personal discussions about the workloads, family situations, and fears.
2 – your clients
as things settle back, it would be useful for internal discussions about clients in distress who may not recover. this is not your firm worrying about receivables (as important as they are), but more about thinking creatively about how you and your market connections can assist your clients in finding new customers to replace some of the lost revenue. i find it interesting that while firms regularly refer work to bankers, attorneys, insurance brokers and other centers of influence, they don’t seem to do the same for their own clients. these times call for better creativity and connecting the dots as your clients scramble to recovery what could be months of revenue.
3 – centers of influence
bankers and insurance brokers, traditionally strong referral sources, will be scrambling to recover as well. in the past few weeks, for example, bankers have been consumed in processing care act paperwork and not focused on new loans (even at near 0% interest rates). health and benefit insurance commissions will decline due to fewer people working. your firm can demonstrate leadership with these centers of influence in the rocky months ahead with more outreach, collaboration, and a measured approach to mutual lead generation.
4 – your community
most firms engage in charities for whom they volunteer, but more often than not it’s a one-day, one-off affair during a firm charity day. even as business resumes a more normal state, many individuals will be left behind. so instead of going wide and sending your firm t-shirt clad staff to a half dozen charities on your volunteer day, adopt one charity and get involved year-round. a pressing need will be in education, particularly for lower-income families who don’t have access to high-speed internet and may have missed out on online learning in march and april. food banks will be stressed as well given the exponential numbers of those coming in for assistance. or in an even more bold move, lever your firm’s core competencies in financial matters to teach financial literacy in your community. your community will appreciate it, and your own people will view the firm in a more positive light.
rebuild – what will be your firm of the future?
whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. — mark twain
we have all discovered new ways of working in the past month, and that discovery will continue to evolve in the months and years ahead. some firms will retreat to their previous habits, and a few other firms will use this learning to rebuild and even reinvent themselves to be more competitive in the market, and better places to work for their employees. firms who want to be leading edge will have a unique opportunity to differentiate themselves as others wring their hands, and history tends to reward the bold. disney, fedex, and microsoft were all formed during previous recessions. uber, slack, and whatsapp were founded right after the last major economic downturn.
here are five ways firms can make lemonade from the covid lemons:
1 – value pricing
there’s been a lot of talk, but seemingly not much action on this concept, and the post-corona economy will be ripe for this client collaborative approach to billing. because the process emanates determining what the true value (not cost) of services, it forces firms to become more introspective about not how many hours an audit or return might require, but how that deliverable is accretive to a client’s core business. firms who fast-track value pricing in the post-covid economy will have a competitive advantage vs. other firms and win a disproportionate amount of new work.
2 – consulting services
one firm managing partner told me they are considering expanding their current client accounting services practice to include omnibus strategic services: marketing, hr, and it (and perhaps legal in conjunction with a law firm). cpa firms have (or should have) a deep understanding of the client’s business, and are in the lead when it comes to being an outside advisor, so the leap to these other services won’t be a large one. these services could provide annuity revenue, complement each other, and would increase client retention.
3 – knowledge business services
at the core, cpa firms are in the knowledge business. in the current state, it’s about applying knowledge about tax matters and audit standards to business situations. many firms have expanded from that core and repurposed skill sets to other solutions such as cybersecurity or forensic accounting. but what’s the next new opportunity to solve the business needs of clients using your core skills and knowledge? this topic will be the subject of another article in the next few months, but now is the time for firm management to look at the current landscape and seek ways to solve problems in ways few other firms are willing to do.
4 – work flexibility
we have all demonstrated our ability to perform our work duties while wearing stretch pants and fuzzy slippers. with everyone working from home, i’m declaring the previous stigma about doing so to be officially dead. long live casual every day! firm leadership should adopt a more flexible demeanor on where their people are working as it will not only increase retention and recruiting but without the average 52 minutes of commute time, they are likely to actually increase the productivity of their people.
5 – office space
however many square feet you now occupy, you won’t need as much in the future. while hoteling is already commonplace in larger firms, even smaller firms should weigh the potential cost savings of hoteling, flex-time, and other methods for reducing what may be too large of a footprint.
the covid crisis is indeed a milestone in our business careers that didn’t arrive with an instruction manual. it is an opportunity to embrace your clients and your people in new ways that stray from your comfort zone. it is an opportunity to envision and execute a different future for your firm, and perhaps the industry as a whole.
we will never again be the same, and in some ways, it might be for the better.
bill penczak is a 30-year marketing and sales professional, including tours of duty at big 4 and regional cpa firms. he is a regular speaker at industry and business events on the topic of firm growth. penczak is the founder and chief insights officer of mica ventures, a consulting firm focused on growth and margin improvement for professional services firms. contact him at bill@mica.ventures.