over 46 percent of respondents expect a five to ten percent expansion of clientele, and another 13 percent say theirs will swell by more than ten percent.
in van nuys, calif., steve glick came up with a new concern: “now the software companies—turbotax, intuit, etc.—are competing against their customers by preparing tax returns.”
gretl siler, at succentrix business advisors, in panama city, fla., has the problem everyone wishes they had, plus the one everyone wishes they didn’t. she says, “note that i am not having any problem with increasing prices or with competitors. the problem is too many new clients and staffing… plus the irs is still terrible.”
to be sure, there’s bob langworthy, the founder of southern maine’s management accounting. he couldn’t name a single concern. “none!” he says. “we served 1,000 clients last year and already have more than 200 committed new clients this season.”
for 2023, the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer expanded the list of possible concerns, 24 in all, plus an “other” option. it’s our longest list ever, and accountants checked off each and every possible worry.
aynsley damery wants accountants to think more deeply about their work. the ceo for clarity said we need to think about what clients want and deliver it to them, but as simple as that sounds, the problem is he doesn’t “think many accountants truly understand what their clients are looking for.” clients who have started their own businesses are looking for a combination of “money, time and freedom.” however, damery said, we’re selling them dashboards, kpis and cash flow forecasting without explaining why that’s important and what that’s going to do for them. “clients are looking for an advisor who’s going to listen to me, understand my hopes, my fears, my vision, what the challenges are, and be able to be there to support me,” damery said.
“our clients don’t understand numbers, yet we give them plans with the numbers, and … it doesn’t help,” he said. instead, damery said cpas need to help them understand what they need to do “to make a difference and move their business forward. and that’s not about giving them the answers. that’s about asking the right questions.”
firm leaders will respectfully ask for a day, week or even a month to catch their breath, but will not get it. running a business today is unlike anything anyone has ever contemplated. the past year brought permanent changes in how our firms operate, and the pace of change will continue. those awaiting a return to the way things were should strongly reconsider.
merger activity will continue as staffing challenges strain capacity, internal succession plans can’t be fulfilled, and needed technology investments balloon. the declining talent pipeline of accounting graduates and cpa candidates will require fresh perspective on how we grow and staff our firms in the future. read more →
hitendra patil: celebrate the pandemic’s silver lining.
the disruptors with liz farr for 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
technology is disrupting the profession, but for the good.
hitendra patil, cpa, long the head of customer success at accountantsworld by iris and an independent advisor, says that the silver lining of the pandemic is that it forced accountants to move to the cloud and to develop distributed labor models–changes that are here to stay.
“we can’t fight the rapid technological changes – we can only leverage them to provide better service and insights to our clients,” patil said. “technology puts advisory services within the financial reach of more small business owners. but the superpower that accountants still have is the ability to connect our clients’ goals and aspirations with what’s happening in accounting,” he added, saying that it enables conversations on a higher level. “instead of pestering them for bank statements and receipts, we can ask about trends we see in the financials,” patil said.
retiring will continue to be difficult for many partners of small firms. even if on paper they’ve done their job of bringing in new partners, many of their successors already have a full book of business and can’t absorb all of the outgoing partner’s client bases.
not to mention that many newer-generation partners have no appetite for the long-hours lifestyle of baby boomers. it’s not uncommon to need two new partners to replace a founder who’s been working 3,200+ hours per year. few want that job. read more →
in marketing and sales and in managing relationships at work, we’re moving away from “personas” and toward “person.” that will translate into more individualized marketing, supported by automation tools like email marketing.
the profession as a whole has a significant problem attracting college graduates. the 150-hour requirement coupled with non-competitive compensation compared to finance degrees, as an example, is causing enrollment in accounting programs to drop and graduates to choose alternative careers.
until the profession addresses these issues, firms are going to find it hard to recruit enough talent. we predict the use of alternative sources of talent, such as offshore, will continue to grow in response to this challenge. read more →
erik solbakken, a.k.a. “the heavy metal cpa,” is on a mission to free accountants from an oppressive business model. solbakken spent 18 years working his way up to be a partner in a firm in canada, but when the partnership fell apart, he was liberated to create a new kind of firm, where he and his staff never worked overtime and he made more money. today, he acts as the guide he wishes he’d had when he started out, empowering accountants to create firms they love working in.
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recruiting and capacity remain challenges.
cas continues to be a huge opportunity.