management

why time tracking still matters

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if your team dismisses timesheets as old school, you may want to rethink that strategy.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

pen ready to fill in blank timesheet

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: business owners face one of three exits | don’t let clients dictate tax workflow | make fewer mistakes, increase revenue and capacity | how small firms can win the talent wars | easy ways to avoid ‘done but’ tax returns | six ways to create a millennial-friendly firm | do you know your turnaround time?
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

first, let’s dismiss all the consultants who tell us 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. they have never known the struggles of meeting payroll the first pay period in february, when employee hours are up but the tax season money is not rolling in yet.

here’s an example that shows why time tracking and productivity metrics matter:
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procedures require regular revisiting

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woman drawing flowchart on a blackboardremember it’s not just your team on board, it’s also your clients.

by penny breslin
it’s not just the numbers

once you have your procedures, you can assign tasks to your team members. because we perform back office work for many accounting firms, we often adapt to other firms’ workflows. we are often on their workflows for our tasking but internally we also needed a simple means of tasking. another easily integrated app with slack provided this, teamline. with teamline we just type /teamline into any channel and:

  • create a new task on the fly or use a premade template
  • assign it to a team member
  • set a due date
  • attach a file
  • add a checklist of items

more: how to use onenote to create a firm playbook | how to develop internal procedures | proper workflow demands consistency | workflow tools can deepen client relationships | going viral: today’s top marketing strategies | top ten types of clients (and 24 more reader suggestions)
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teamline notifies both the assignee and the creator as to the progress of the task automatically. integration to our google calendar puts the teamline task into the calendar. we never leave slack while doing this as the integration between slack, teamline and google calendar is seamless.
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how do you value your most important asset?

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yes, your employees.

by steven e. sacks
the new fundamentals

skills, abilities and experience are the elements recruiters use to assess candidates who come before them. but what is interesting is despite a skill set playing  a dominant role in the value that an employee brings to the organization, it may not be recognized as such. this is not a new concept. i came across research conducted in 1918 by harvard university, the carnegie foundation and stanford research center.

more steve sacks: how to build a winning proposal | six ways to fix your firm agreement | the great resignation or a reshuffling? | listen to learn | build the framework to a solution with five answers | try for success, not a win
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the study discovered that almost 95% of job success comes from having well-developed soft skills (better referred to as life skills ) and people skills, while  only 5% of job success comes from technical skills and knowledge — hard skills.

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how to use onenote to create a firm playbook

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portrait of investment advisor businesswoman sitting at office in front of computer and consulting with young professional man.client-specific information that should be included.

by penny breslin
it’s not just the numbers

we use onenote to create a firm playbook for each client we work with. this program allows you to record voice and video and save it to a page or implant videos directly into the relevant onenote page.

more: how to develop internal procedures | why federated search matters | tips for getting clients started on bos | the best tech for your team and clients | marketing? know your goals first | eight things to stop doing now | you don’t have to do everything
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we get lots of zoom recordings on procedures from firms. in our world, the onenote template has a specific page for all videos as a subpage for each client. this onenote book resides on the shared server so that all the team members can access it at any time to verify, review or update procedures.
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business owners face one of three exits

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businessman putting a card with text "don't resist change, embrace it" in suit pocketexpect to sell your practice? not if you resist change.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

in talking to firms from around the country, i realized there are three types of firms out there:

  1. firms and practitioners that are sliding into retirement, whether they know it or not
  2. firms that see the need for change, but don’t know where to start
  3. firms that see a clear path to the future through better practice management

more: don’t let clients dictate tax workflow | make fewer mistakes, increase revenue and capacity | how small firms can win the talent wars | easy ways to avoid ‘done but’ tax returns | six ways to create a millennial-friendly firm | do you know your turnaround time?
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

since publishing my first book and launching my firm’s workflow and collaboration application, i have talked to practitioners from firms of all types and sizes. my cpa firm pursued a few acquisition opportunities. during the process, i learned there are a lot of practitioners who are either incapable of adapting to our profession’s 21st-century changes or unwilling to adapt. that’s okay, if you are making an informed choice to retire and don’t care about realizing much in value by selling your firm.

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accountants need each other more than ever

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don’t ditch live events. we need human connection.

by seth fineberg

at large

“we didn’t realize how hard accountants party, and we had a difficult time keeping up. we’re also still recovering from the ‘socializing’ and contemplating having a recovery section at our next booth.”

more fineberg: what bogs down accountants | your classic business model won’t allow growth

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certainly, event creators need to consider content first and foremost as a draw. you need a “why” and a practical purpose.

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ron baker: monetize the relationship, not the transaction

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ron baker: the subscription model optimizes lifetime customer value.

subscribe to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 podcasts anywhere: apple, google, spotify, iheart, deezer, amazon music and audible, player fm, audacy, gaana (india), and boomplay (africa).

the disruptors
with liz farr for 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

ron baker has been on a crusade to transform accounting firms for decades, first by pushing us to kill the billable hour and to implement value pricing. today, he’s advising accountants to switch to a radically different business model. his new book, co-authored with paul dunn, “time’s up! the subscription business model for professional firms,” explains the subscription model and why moving to this model aligns the values of firm owners with those of their customers.

more: erik solbakken: yes, you can work less and make more | donny shimamoto: future firm growth requires a mindshift | jennifer wilson: empower young workers to build the firm everyone loves | mike whitmire: re-think your hiring and training practices | hector garcia: success strategies of a quickbooks youtube superstar | blake oliver: why tax work yearns to be free| private equity explodes in u.k. | brannon poe: the status quo must go  | accounting nerds, unlock your super powers  | disruptor: jason statts shakes up the status quo | think small to think big with matt wilkinson | when financial statements go extinct with corey schmidt | can geraldine carter save accountants from themselves? | re-inventing accounting with tyler anderson

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

this book began from ron’s obsession with the question “what would happen if disney started cpa firms?” accounting wouldn’t be a grudge purchase with low prices, but disney “would enhance the experience and you would pay a fortune and you would be delighted to do so.” in today’s world, your customers are no longer comparing your firm to the other cpa firms, but to “any organization that has the capacity of raising our customer’s expectations,” such as nordstrom or amazon. baker said, “we need to up our game as a profession.”

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randy crabtree: follow these 3 rules to keep employees happy

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randy crabtree: allow your employees freedom in two critical areas to win talent wars.

subscribe to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 podcasts anywhere: apple, google, spotify, iheart, deezer, amazon music and audible, player fm, audacy, gaana (india), and boomplay (africa).

the disruptors
with liz farr for 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

randy crabtree talks to a lot of other accountants and admits that he “steals ideas from everybody else.” imitation, after all, is the sincerest form of flattery.

more: erik solbakken: yes, you can work less and make more | donny shimamoto: future firm growth requires a mindshift | jennifer wilson: empower young workers to build the firm everyone loves | mike whitmire: re-think your hiring and training practices | hector garcia: success strategies of a quickbooks youtube superstar | blake oliver: why tax work yearns to be free| private equity explodes in u.k. | brannon poe: the status quo must go  | accounting nerds, unlock your super powers  | disruptor: jason statts shakes up the status quo | think small to think big with matt wilkinson | when financial statements go extinct with corey schmidt | can geraldine carter save accountants from themselves? | re-inventing accounting with tyler anderson

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

one topic he’s been talking about a lot lately is the issue of mental health in the profession, which he feels is largely self-induced. although he’s been asked to talk about mental health without mentioning burnout–don’t be a downer–crabtree says it’s impossible. “i’m like, i’m sorry, but i can’t do that. it doesn’t go away if i don’t talk about it,” he said.  

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marchternity: just say ‘no’

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whether marchternity continues depends entirely upon you.

more on marchternity:
the solution is community, by liz farr

by seth fineberg
at large

after nearly three years of what many tax pros consider one of the longest tax seasons on record –- a.k.a. ‘marchternity’ –- one would think this season would be different.

more fineberg: what bogs down accountants | your classic business model won’t allow growth

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

to be sure, plenty of tax practitioners in late 2022 did indeed call the end of marchternity and look forward to some sense of normalcy, as much of what caused the extended tax season in the first place appears to have subsided. so, do tax pros expect this season to be different?

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don’t let clients dictate tax workflow

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//www.g005e.com/2014/02/02/marcus-metrics/ask the right questions and stick to your processes.

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: make fewer mistakes, increase revenue and capacity | how small firms can win the talent wars | easy ways to avoid ‘done but’ tax returns | six ways to create a millennial-friendly firm | do you know your turnaround time?
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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how to develop internal procedures

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smiling woman using smartphoneplus three apps for organizing them.

by penny breslin
it’s not just the numbers

there is a symbiotic relationship between your technology and your processes. you have to consider both, or you won’t get the full benefit.

more: why federated search matters | top tech tools for building your new bos business | choose your little black dress of technology | pick your favorite clients | keep the accountants focused on accounting | what do you want advisory services to be?
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

mckinsey global has been researching the impact of automation around the world, and (no surprise) found that when companies try to retrofit technology to fit into existing processes, “companies end up with a patchwork of incongruous technology tools that automate separate and distinct parts of the process. this approach is fine for capturing the first 5 percent or so of automation’s impact. but unlocking the full potential requires a fundamentally different way of thinking. to capture that potential, managers must be willing to re-engineer their processes completely.”[1]
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