checklist: the five best ideas for winning the tech wars.
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
solo practitioners enjoy certain privileges. they can set their own hours, pick their clients, work at their own pace, dress in office grunge, nap at will and take their dogs to work.
more in surveys & research: clients would switch for portals | firms on the brink of big spending | m&a looms large for 30% of firms | is remote the new normal? | the top challenges in these turbulent times | new worlds of opportunity | accountants agree: the top five ways to fix the irs | survey: firms on the brink of big spending | irs audit rates are dropping, and big earners couldn’t be happier | six more ways to fix the irs | cpa hiring rises as number of new grads continues to decline | trend? or just hype? accountants weigh in | six quick solutions for irs backlogs | the big battles ahead for corporate finance
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today
but when it comes to tech, solos can be challenged. they may know accountancy and their clientele better than anybody in town, but when it comes to tech, they don’t know
- what’s out there,
- what’s coming down the techno-pike,
- how to use new apps and
- whether the latest stuff is worth paying for.
and they tend to run their hardware into the ground, investing in new tools only when they have to.
new issues
the latest accounting firm operations and technology survey finds that technology issues among solo practitioners have changed in the last couple of years.
the top issue, of concern at 58 percent of solo firms, is the challenge of just keeping up with the latest software – what it is, how to use it and how to know if it’s worth purchasing.
the weight of the top issue pre-2021, the cost of purchasing technology, has dropped substantially for 38 percent of solos, down from 52 percent.
meanwhile, password management, a headache at 30 percent of solo firms, jumped from fourth place to third, knocking security and risk management from third down to fourth, a major drop from 48 percent in 2020 to just 25 percent in 2021.
this shifting of challenges seems to indicate little progress in the industry. one conclusion could be that solo practitioners are financially secure enough to afford technology, at least more than they used to be, but they’re too busy to deal with it, which, in a sense, is good.
and passport management is now more challenging than security? kudos to the anti-virus engineers!
advice
the survey concluded with advice for firms of various sizes. the biggies for solos were:
- evaluate tools such as calendly, doodle.com, timetrade.com and microsoft bookings to help clients book appointments.
- consider using outsourced preparation from services such as wolters kluwer and sureprep to extend your ability to help clients without taking on related headaches.
- consider pre-packaged hosting services such as cetrom, right networks, wolters kluwer and thomson reuters to reduce it complexity and downtime.
- find trusted peers or consultants with cpa firm it experience who can help with decisions.
- review the economics of your firm, adjust pricing to ensure profitability, and cull substandard or risky clients to serve better clients better.
the survey found that firms of all sizes have been postponing all sorts of techno-management issues, including general management, tax and audit software, portals, workflow and document management systems. the pandemic lockdown was the main reason.
now, however, just as business is getting into gear again, inflation and economic uncertainty are leading the smallest firms to reconsider whether this is the right time to update their technology.
if not now, when? good question. one bit of piece of dubious advice from the survey is “…you should not push to change too quickly. similarly, it would be best if you did not fall behind.”
somewhere between the two, there’s a fine line to follow. unfortunately, there’s no app for finding it.