here’s what you’re looking for: frank stitely

management

easy ways to avoid ‘done but’ tax returns

meeting of six peoplechange mentality and ask better questions to eliminate bottlenecking.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

a project hung up in process is one where there is a disagreement between people involved in a project as to the status. for example, a client thinks he has answered your tax return questions, while you believe he has not. another example is when a tax return preparer believes a return is ready for review while the reviewer does not believe it’s ready.

more: six ways to create a millennial-friendly firm | do you know your turnaround time? | tax season client meetings: kill them now | leadership growth is a two-way street | 12 subjective factors for pricing your next engagement | the six pillars for finance transformation | three strategies to keep emerging leaders engaged
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

the result of a hung-up project is a dead project – one that’s not moving to completion.
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client service opportunities

six ways to create a millennial-friendly firm

your firm’s future depends on successfully engaging younger clients and younger staff. here’s how.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

do you know why millennials can’t buy houses? avocado toast is expensive. how many millennials does it take to change a light bulb? none. they accept it for what it is. buy me a craft beer and i’ll tell you a half-dozen more.

more: do you know your turnaround time?
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now, here’s why you need millennials as clients and how they increase the efficiency of your firm.

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leadership

do you know your turnaround time?

cutting it is the shortest route to happier clients.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

todd rundgren sang, “i don’t want to work. i just wanna bang on the drum all day.”

i agree with half of that. i don’t want to work. however, i want someone else to bang on the drum all day for me. i’m not that ambitious.

the key to achieving hall of fame-level laziness is delegation.

more: tax season client meetings: kill them now | leadership growth is a two-way street | 12 subjective factors for pricing your next engagement | the six pillars for finance transformation | three strategies to keep emerging leaders engaged
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

if i have no ambition to do anything, but want things to get done, someone else must do them. similarly, effective practice management is putting the right people in the right places accomplishing the right tasks at the right times. that’s a pretty damn good definition of effective laziness as well. there’s a subtle genius in that.

for example, our firm was looking at acquiring a really nice firm, where the two partners were working 100-hour weeks during tax season. as a result of the acquisition, they wanted to work fewer hours. they were preparing the vast majority of tax returns themselves, so we suggested having them act as reviewers instead. that would also transfer knowledge of the clients from them to us – a central objective of any successful acquisition.
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featured

tax season client meetings: kill them now

man working hard at office desklet’s try to spike phone calls and emails while we’re at it.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

what did dorothy and her friends fear in the wizard of oz? “lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” dorothy feared the wrong things if she’s a partner in a cpa firm. we don’t see much wildlife in our offices during tax season unless you count fast food delivery people and the occasional crazy client.

more: make your firm faster, smarter, richer … with millennials | seven ways to beat staffing shortages | the happier, saner, richer tax firm | avoiding projects hung up in process | teaching the meaning of ‘done’
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

we should really fear the events that destroy our priorities and drain hours from productive work. meetings and phone calls and emails, oh my! let’s look at why these communication methods are so destructive from a practice management standpoint.
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featured

make your firm faster, smarter, richer … with millennials

you need them as clients … and employees.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

do you know why millennials can’t buy houses?

  • avocado toast is expensive.

more: seven ways to beat staffing shortages | who’s your most valuable employee? | ‘quick questions’ and other client sins | when clients create errors | how we killed the tax season client meeting | why small firms can win the talent wars
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

how many millennials does it take to change a light bulb?

  • none. they accept it for what it is.

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featured

seven ways to win the talent wars

how small firms can beat the staffing shortage.//www.g005e.com/2020/09/18/better-talent-drives-better-results/

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

the following story brought tears to my eyes while i sat in a barbados resort drinking some alcohol concoction. was it the alcohol talking or the happy ending where i got a profit distribution check? maybe a little of both.

more: who’s your most valuable employee? | how to implement the laziness equation | the happier, saner, richer tax firm | ‘quick questions’ and other client sins | how to train clients | avoiding projects hung up in process | when clients create errors
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

the afternoon before i left for beautiful barbados, the partner group of our outsourced accounting practice met for a state of the practice meeting conducted by our director of outsourced accounting.
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featured

who’s your most valuable employee?

don’t be the fool in the room.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

we have been heavily in the numbers so far. let’s take a break from that to discuss a factor that, while not heavily numeric, plays a big factor in managing wip – employee productivity. because capacity is the denominator in the lean six sigma equation, and employee productivity is a big factor in capacity, employee productivity becomes a big factor in determining turnaround time.

more: how to implement the laziness equation | the happier, saner, richer tax firm | avoiding projects hung up in process | teaching the meaning of ‘done’ | why millennials are the answer | calculating and cutting turnaround time
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

first, let’s dismiss from the room all the consultants, who tell us that time tracking and productivity metrics don’t matter. for the most part, these consultants have never managed or owned cpa firms. rarely have they worked in firms for any length of time.
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featured

how to implement the laziness equation

time is money : clock hands on $100 billscalculate and cut turnaround time.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

one of the funniest parts of launching clarity practice management has been watching my business partner, peter daniel, learn about the business acumen of cpas and accountants. peter and i founded clarity as a collaboration between a cpa firm client (peter) and a cpa firm (me.). he knew what he wanted from a client perspective, and i knew what we wanted as a cpa firm.

more: the happier, saner, richer tax firm | ‘quick questions’ and other client sins | when clients create errors | how we killed the tax season client meeting | why small firms can win the talent wars | there are no easy answers | how to thrive as a 21st-century firm
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

peter owns a software development company and believes in the rational decision-making model for businesses. the rational decision-making model is totally irrelevant to the way most cpas and accountants run their practices. for instance, consider this interchange between peter and a practitioner at our clarity booth during a trade show.
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featured

the happier, saner, richer tax firm

scrambled thoughts enter man's head, straightened ones come outit’s not easy, but it is possible.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

i’m back. since writing the “relentless cpa – the new 21st century system for driving success at tax and accounting firms,” i have spoken to dozens of cpas and accountants, been called a dozen names (some of them deserved), and received a few death threats.

more: ‘quick questions’ and other client sins | how to train clients | how to reduce tax return errors | why your firm needs to attract more millenials | the fool in the room | the 3 biggest tech failures of accounting firms | 7 steps to effective project management
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

actually, the death threats came from my wife, who said she’d kill me if i said “yes” to any new projects. she watches lots of crime shows, so the fbi regarded her threats as serious. i am writing this to buy a bulletproof vest for when she gets out of jail. thank you for your contribution to saving my life.
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featured

‘quick questions’ and other client sins

young businessman with forehead resting on handshow to quietly convince them to pay for tax planning.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

a well-known practice management expert, whom i greatly respect, advises cpas to never tell clients that you don’t have time for them. i disagree with the never part. you know how it starts. on march 25th, the call comes in.

“i know you’re busy but …”

more: how to train clients | avoiding projects hung up in process | teaching the meaning of ‘done’ | why millennials are the answer | calculating and cutting turnaround time | debunking the demise of the cpa firm
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

a request follows that could most certainly wait until after tax season. you are hip deep reviewing all the personal tax returns that got stuck in process while you climbed out of the march 15th corporate tax ditch.
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client service opportunities

how to train clients

skip this, and both service and satisfaction decline.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

you’ll hate me after this post. i’m about to reveal that many of the behaviors that you rationalize as good client service are really just desperate measures to avoid losing bad clients. we’ll talk about getting out of that mess later.

more: avoiding projects hung up in process | when clients create errors | how we killed the tax season client meeting | why small firms can win the talent wars | there are no easy answers | how to thrive as a 21st-century firm | farm-aid for accountants? | whittle down wip
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

clients are trainable – at least as trainable as jack russell terriers. that is to say, they’re somewhat trainable. however, like jack russell terriers, you train clients or they’ll train you. somebody’s getting trained. here’s an example of how that works.
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featured

avoiding projects hung up in process

businessman with fingers crossed behind backhow to climb out of “done but” hell.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

a project hung up in process is one when there is a disagreement as to the status between people involved in a project. for example, a client thinks he has answered your tax return questions, while you believe he has not. another example is when a tax return preparer believes a return is ready for review while the reviewer does not believe it’s ready.

more: when clients create errors | how to reduce tax return errors | why your firm needs to attract more millenials | the fool in the room | the 3 biggest tech failures of accounting firms | wip-ing clients into shape | maximize your role as visionary
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

the result of a hung-up project is a dead project – one that’s not moving to completion. if a tax return gets hung up, eventually your client calls you, and you get to waste time determining why the project stopped moving. by now, you know this increases wip and thus decreases turnaround time.
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featured

when clients create errors

one cause? taking us out of our familiar workflow.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

who makes the errors in your firm? staff obviously, but that’s half of the answer. clients are a major source of tax return errors. clients cause errors in three ways:

  1. errors of omission
  2. errors of commission
  3. errors in attitude

more: how to reduce tax return errors | teaching the meaning of ‘done’ | why millennials are the answer | calculating and cutting turnaround time | debunking the demise of the cpa firm | how many tax preparers do you need? | how the annual tax meeting died | how to teach reviewing and time management | 4 steps to take before next tax season | 3 tips for handling rookie tax preparers
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

every tax season, we finalize and deliver returns only to hear from the client, “i think i might have forgotten to tell you that we had a baby last year.” does this happen to you? this is a client error of omission. unintentionally, clients withhold important information.
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