here’s what you’re looking for: steven sacks

featured

who needs another meeting?

business meeting with people around table facing forwardbetter question: why?

by steven e. sacks
the new fundamentals

when in doubt, call a meeting. jeez! how many hours in the u.s. are cumulatively wasted on a daily basis with meetings?

more: 4 questions for cpa firm boards | are you productive or just busy? | the five big rules for powerpoint presentations | how aging boomers impact the accounting profession | accounting is a profession, not an industry
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are they really necessary?

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featured

4 questions for cpa firm boards

business meeting with people around table facing forwarddo members know their role?

by steven e. sacks
the new fundamentals

the purpose behind an organization creating a board is not to micromanage, design a company logo or address human resource issues. neither is its role to sit around and smoke cohiba esplendido cigars and sip louis xiii de remy martin grande cognac.

more: are you productive or just busy? | the five big rules for powerpoint presentations | how aging boomers impact the accounting profession | accounting is a profession, not an industry
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this glad-handing, back-slapping culture led to the financial breakdowns in the early 2000s and probably still is happening at this writing.
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featured

is your mission statement really a wish list?

coffee cup by napkin with words including "action plans."3 questions it should answer.

by steven e. sacks
the new fundamentals

do you think your staff knows what your company’s or firm’s mission statement is?

wait. let me back up. does your staff even know that such a mission statement exists?

more: are you productive or just busy? | the five big rules for powerpoint presentations | how aging boomers impact the accounting profession | accounting is a profession, not an industry
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my guess is no and no. does your organization explain to everyone what actually defines success and the framework for achieving it?
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featured

are you productive or just busy?

harried business teamyour firm may need to change its culture.

by steven e. sacks
the new fundamentals

did you ever notice when you call an associate or a friend or a business of any type, more often than not he or she will always respond with “i’m really busy” or “i’ve been jammed up”? it does not matter the time of the year, much less the time of week or day.

more: the five big rules for powerpoint presentations | how aging boomers impact the accounting profession | accounting is a profession, not an industry
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has busy become too colloquial or just a throwaway line? what is actually meant by “busy”? or, more specifically, what is the condition of “busyness”?

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featured

the five big rules for powerpoint presentations

drawing of man giving presentationkeep the focus where it belongs: on you.

by steven e. sacks
the new fundamentals

have you ever attended a conference where the presenter plans to supplement his or her key topics by showing an illustration of what is being currently said?

do i look at the speaker or do i look at the slides? will the slides be available later or should i take notes now? should i move up 50 rows so the microscopic wording improves to barely readable? can i ask the speaker to back up a couple of slides?

more: how aging boomers impact the accounting profession | accounting is a profession, not an industry
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whenever i give presentations i try to put myself in the shoes of the listeners and create a presentation in a way that relies on them briefly glancing at the slide transition and then redirecting their full attention back on me. but what we see today is too many speakers just reading what appears on the slides. they should simply begin their session by saying, “i’ll read out loud and you’ll follow along silently.” thank goodness there was never a request made for responsive reading.
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management

how aging boomers impact the accounting profession

businessman and the cloud computing conceptyour people are your biggest assets.

by steven e. sacks
the new fundamentals

there are about 80 million baby boomers today, and this cohort of 65 and older is projected by the us census bureau to reach 83.7 million in the year 2050.

more steven sacks: would you buy your own services? | the future of the accounting profession | avoid last-minute deal making | business is about relationships | can a cpa firm be different in a changing market? | a rapidly changing business environment requires flexibility | accounting is a profession, not an industry

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by 2030, more than 20 percent of u.s. residents are projected to be aged 65 and over, compared with 13 percent in 2010 and 9.8 percent in 1970.

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advisory & consulting

let’s get real: kill saly

gary cokins on predictive accounting and driver-based budgeting.

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^ download the podcast and subscribe on itunes here

with steven sacks
the new fundamentals

the main problem with the annual budget process as a fiscal exercise done by the accountants is that it is disconnected from the executive team strategy.

more steven sacks: would you buy your own services? | the future of the accounting profession | avoid last-minute deal making | business is about relationships | can a cpa firm be different in a changing market? | a rapidly changing business environment requires flexibility

more with gary cokins: the myths of performance management | gary cokins: the truth about activity-based costing

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corporate finance expert gary cokins says the typical annual budget process allows too much room for bad habits, such as the use-it-or-lose-it mindset of allocated resources, as well as incorporating last year’s inefficiencies in processes into the current year.

five key take-aways:

  1. there is interest now in corporate performance management because executives are frustrated with strategy failure. they are good at formulating strategy, but meeting expected goals is a real problem.
  2. the way to get rid of spreadsheet budgeting is to view the amount of spending of any organization as the result of the confluence of two streams. the first is going to be repeatable work. it tends to be operational. the second is non-repeatable because it involves capital, risk management, and strategy projects.
  3. accounting must carefully identify and construct key performance indicators. but not every type of measurement is key.
  4. activity-based costing is just full absorption costing done correctly, without the “butter spreading” on spreadsheets of labor hours or units produced or sales dollars or full-time equivalent headcount or square feet. none of those reflect the unique consumption that the products or service lines actually consume.
  5. many people have heard about the balanced scorecard, but it’s just a feedback mechanism. the real intelligence is in the strategy map.

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featured

accounting is a profession, not an industry

accountant. calculator and hand isolated over white.

“a profession by any other name…” (with apologies to william shakespeare).

by steven e. sacks
the new fundamentals

profession: n. calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation.

maybe i am just cranky, or maybe i have a valid point. far too often i hear accounting referred to as an industry rather than a profession.

more: would you buy your own services? | the future of the accounting profession | avoid last-minute deal making | business is about relationships | can a cpa firm be different in a changing market? | a rapidly changing business environment requires flexibility

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let’s be honest. accounting is a profession that requires years of study and experience, culminating– if one desires – in a cpa credential after successfully passing an arduous two-day, four-part online exam.

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client service opportunities

would you buy your own services?

business meeting of a woman and two mentemplates are handy but don’t show understanding of what the client wants.

by steven e. sacks
the new fundamentals

do you ever wonder why after spending many hours on drafting, editing, proofing and polishing – and proofing and polishing just once more – your engagement proposal efforts did not result in winning the engagement? and if this happens on a semi-regular basis, the frustration is never easier to take.

more: the future of the accounting profession | 7 signs your accounting firm agreement falls short | five common negotiating mistakes | reaching for authenticity in client service | deadlines? ha! don’t make me laugh | organizational change starts and ends with people | busyness isn’t the same as productivity
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you may have the requisite knowledge and experience and perhaps even a broad view based on a diverse set of clients. however, you may have become complacent by maintaining a “cookie-cutter” approach to developing your proposals. like the old joke defining a consultant: “a person who takes off your watch, tells you the time and gives the watch back to you,” implies an approach that you believe is best for your potential client, yet reflects no understanding of what the client actually needs.
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featured video

coaching the right way

dom cingoranelli joins steven sacks and judy trepeck.

^ click to play video

with steven sacks
the new fundamentals: thriving in disruption

with an increasing number of accounting firms embracing employee coaching, it’s becoming clear that many just aren’t doing it right, practice management advisor dom cingoranelli tells steven sacks and judy trepeck in an exclusive new 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 discussion.

more: nancy fox: winning the mind game of success | gary cokins: the truth about activity-based costing | when cyber-crime hits close to home | james lopiccolo: sell service, not hours | the cpa’s best role: leveraging knowledge, not just process | five common negotiating mistakes | courtesy still matters | bigger firm, bigger thinking | 5 steps to better time management | swot’s the purpose? | is your firm’s culture a magnet or a repellent?

goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

“there are more and more firms who are really taking seriously their investment in their people,” says cingoranelli, emeritus founder, senior consultant at succession institute llc. “they understand that for the long term they need to develop their intellectual capital. and they realize that it’s not going to happen by itself.”

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featured video

nancy fox: winning the mind game of success

how to overcome the mind-blocks holding you back from total success.

^ click to play video

with steven sacks
the new fundamentals: thriving in disruption

professionals need to use a blend of psychology and strategy to guide them with both mental fitness and tactics to produce career breakthroughs, executive coach nancy fox tells steven sacks.

more steven sacks: effective networking is an art | business development activities shouldn’t be a chore | cpa’s best role: leveraging knowledge, not just process | avoid last-minute deal making | five common negotiating mistakes | the myths of performance management | business is about relationships | reaching for authenticity in client service |

goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

in business, the mind is 95% of the game, according to fox, so it’s essential to recognize the causes of mindset blocks that are encountered, such as competition and business development, and what their impact can be.


> download and subscribe to the podcast on itunes here

key takeaways:

  • leaders may not understand the nuances or fundamentals of mentoring and cultivating talent. as such, they find the biggest impediments to be themselves.
  • the conscious mind is where our thoughts are directed in such areas as logic, strategy, memory, learning, data analysis. however, 95% of our thoughts are directed by the subconscious mind, and only 5% by our conscious minds.
  • the subconscious mind is where the inner game of work, career, and life is really won — or lost.
  • there are some strategies you can use to train your mind to prepare yourself to experience an outcome and imagine ways to achieve that outcome.
  • in addition to training your mind to block negative thoughts and experience only positive thoughts, there are physical techniques that can be used.

nancy fox is the founder and president of the business fox, a business consulting and training company specializing in guiding law, accounting, and service business firms grow through smarter networking and business development and niche marketing strategies.

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featured

how today’s staffing crisis can forecast your future

copyright 2021 rick telberg. all rights reserved

you can read the tea leaves in who’s getting hired today because they’re the generation that will re-define the tax and accounting firms.

by steven e. sacks
the new fundamentals

the accounting profession is at a crossroads: increasing pressure on keeping up with technology to serve more varied and complex clients, while a quick peek at the landscape indicates the ongoing struggle to attract and retain talent.

more: 7 signs your accounting firm agreement falls short | effective networking is an art | courtesy still matters | bigger firm, bigger thinking | 5 steps to better time management | swot’s the purpose? | is your firm’s culture a magnet or a repellent? | click here for more by steven sacks
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but what is meant by this, actually?

what will be the type of necessary talent? will it be a mixture of technical gaap and gaas know-how and technology-driven knowledge like artificial intelligence? or will the necessary technical expertise be superseded by a deep understanding of blockchain technology and data analytics? if that, then how will firms draw the right people to deliver the value-added services that leverage technology?

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client service opportunities

gary cokins: the truth about activity-based costing

how to implement progressive management accounting techniques.

> download and subscribe to the podcast on itunes here

with steven sacks
the new fundamentals: thriving in disruption

management finance expert gary cokins says there’s nothing wrong with activity-based costing. except that you’re probably doing it all wrong.

more gary cokins: the myths of performance management

more steven sacks: effective networking is an art | business development activities shouldn’t be a chore | cpa’s best role: leveraging knowledge, not just process | avoid last-minute deal making | five common negotiating mistakes | the myths of performance management | business is about relationships | reaching for authenticity in client service |

goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

the problem is, cokins says, it’s convenient for the accountants to allocate the overhead based on allocation factors, like labor hours, number of units produced in a manufacturer, headcount, number of employees, and square feet, even though none of them reflect the unique consumption relationship between how the outputs products and services consumed.

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