today's features

partner comp earnings gap: what’s the right spread?

people standing on stacks of coins, representing income gaps

how do you get it right at your firm?

by kristen rampe
partner comp: art & science

there are many reasons for a sizeable spread in partner income at a cpa firm. for example, at a firm with both a founder nearing retirement and a first-year partner, the spread would be wide. some firms are the opposite, with two to four founding partners agreeing to share all profits equally. there is no spread there.

more on partners: thirteen traits of partners you’ll want to keep | six rules for keeping partners happy and productive | five keys in compensating new managing partners | top 20 tough choices for the partner comp committee | voting on ownership basis? three better methods | what partners do and don’t deserve | tell potentials what partnership takes | five steps to transition to partnership
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for most multipartner and multigeneration accounting firms, the situation gets more complicated. you’ll have some high performers and some who are on cruise control. you’ll have ones contributing notably more dollars to the bottom line and more to future leaders’ development.

but what about two partners who contribute relatively the same? should their income allocation be similar? how similar?
read more →

main street accountants see turbulence ahead for small business

the avalara accountants confidence report points to difficulties.

via avalara

nearly 50 percent of accountants surveyed believe the outlook for over 80,000 small business clients they represent will turn sour over the next 1avalara (prnewsfoto/avalara, inc.)2 to 18 months, according to a new 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 study conducted with avalara, the sales tax automation provider.

full report: download (pdf)

fielded during the 2024 tax season, the survey shows accounting professionals flashing warning signs around key business issues, leading with clients’ abilities to hire and retain employees, manage costs and price increases, and keep up with technology changes ushered in by artificial intelligence. read more →

measuring marketing success: the 10 kpis

they can be used in ways you might not have considered.

by august j. aquila
price it right: how to value accounting services

marketing key performance indicators (kpis) are measurable values that help marketers track and analyze the success of their marketing campaigns. the firm and its marketing department must jointly determine which of the kpis are important and will be tracked.

more: seven reasons marketing can make your firm a great place to work | seven ways that marketing helps you retain clients | is pricing a marketing function? | develop your personal marketing plan in ten steps | five ways to make partners fall in love with marketing | analyze your firm to keep it current | what makes a great website? | losing can help you win more | three more strategies for growing your practice | four strategies for building your practice | eight areas to cover for personal goals | understand the 10 steps of the buying process
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i’m going to briefly discuss 10 key performance indicators so that you can put a dollar amount on the effectiveness of your marketing strategies and campaigns as well as track the firm’s overall marketing performance.
read more →

best people practices for small firms with kristin murray & jennifer wilson | gear up for growth

kristin murray and jennifer wilson reveal strategies for growth, culture, and staff retention.

[preview] the complete video episode, including commentary, analysis, notes, takeaways, additional background information, and transcript,  is exclusively first available to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research pro members first. | go pro here.

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gear up for growth
with jean caragher
for 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

“probably no surprise, the greatest challenge to growth in this industry is attracting and retaining talent,” says kristin murray, managing partner of weinstein spira. “without that, there is no growth, and given the landscape of our industry right now, that’s everybody’s biggest challenge. if it’s not, i’d be amazed.”

gear up for growth spotlights the best strategies for smart and efficient growth in today’s competitive landscape. more gear up for growth every friday here.more capstone conversations with jean caragher every monday | more jean caragher here | get her best-selling handbook, the 90-day marketing plan for cpa firms, here | more the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 broadcast channel

“kristin was the person in her firm who stuck her neck out and took the risk back when she was a tax partner leading the hr and culture initiatives for the firm,”  says jennifer wilson, partner and co-founder of convergence coaching.

murray and wilson reveal their strategies for firm growth, firm culture, and staff retention on gear up for growth, hosted by jean caragher, president of capstone marketing, and powered by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间.

read more →

the importance of great bosses

do your employees want to spend time with you?

by marc rosenberg
cpa firm staff: managing your #1 asset

in most organizations, everyone reports to a specific individual. early in his career, marc rosenberg was the controller of a valve manufacturing company. the company grew to the point where he needed to hire an assistant controller. guess who that person reported to 100 percent? guess who was totally responsible for the success of that assistant controller? marc, in both cases. if that person failed because of no fault of marc’s, it still reflected negatively on him. marc was held accountable.

more: how remote work is impacting accounting firms | make work flexibility work for everyone | why staff leave cpa firms … and how to stop them | how to solve the big disconnect in talent management | what relevance means for staffing in accounting | how accounting staffing has changed
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but cpa firms operate differently, and therein lies the rub. staff have multiple bosses because each client they work on has a different team consisting of a partner, a manager and/or a senior. we call this the “who’s my boss” syndrome. staff often feel like they have no boss and therefore, no one is looking out for them. or they feel like they have too many bosses when each of their engagements is with a different team.

these are two of the many reasons mentoring is so important. one of the mentor’s jobs is to make their mentees feel like someone is looking out for them.
read more →

bissett bullet: a word to the wise

today’s bissett bullet: “as you push for partnership, be conscious of how you make others feel with your words and actions because you are a part of a team and no one member will ever be greater than that.”

by martin bissett

think before you speak or act and be conscious of how you respond to the actions of others, as this will be noticed by those who decide your future. be known for displaying tact and diplomacy and your career will move in the right direction because of your measured behavior.

today’s to-do:

think of a situation that may have played out differently if you had taken a moment to consider your response to a colleague or client. what can you learn from that?

see more bissett bullets here

read more →

partners: your middle managers are getting squeezed

staff just don’t feel comfortable asking for things that help their mental and physical well-being.

client pressure: 84 percent can work from home at least sometimes. however, only 44 percent say the firm has their back with difficult clients.

by seth fineberg
accountants forward

crabtree

this may seem mysterious, but when it comes to ensuring job satisfaction and retaining staff, firm leaders should pay closer attention to middle management/mid-career staff and their connection to employees and the work itself, according to a survey conducted by tri-merit group co-founder randy crabtree, hb publishing & marketing company founder hank berkowitz, and myself at accountants forward.

more staffing here | more surveys and research here | more seth fineberg here

“everything about putting your people first leads to increasing the satisfaction of those who work in the profession,” says crabtree. “things like firms having your back, supporting their growth or getting to know who the people you work with are matters greatly.” he added, “when you have a good variety of work to do and find you enjoy that work, you won’t mind working the extra hours at times either.”

read more →

irs still unsure how to measure audit rate

data table

differing definitions are only part of the problem.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

the inflation reduction act endowed the irs with almost $80 billion to improve customer service and beef up enforcement. congress later reduced the amount to $57.8 billion, with $24 billion earmarked for enforcement.

in no time at all, there was misinformation bouncing around social media and conservative podcasts, claiming that the ira would result in more audits of middle-class taxpayers.

more: art werner: estate planning strategies | quick tax tip | art werner: post-mortem estate planning | quick tax tip | pause to praise the tax pro volunteers | irs vs. fraudsters | imagine! the national tax advocate does | art werner: maximizing fringe benefits | is the irs mismeasuring phone service? | irs makes big progress but … | business booming, but not as much as last year | busy season barometer offers clues for better business | tax practitioners say happy days are here … again | the irs is coming! get your clients into compliance
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the enforcement resources had no such designation. to allay fears, in 2022 the secretary of the treasury directed the irs commissioner not to use any of the additional resources to increase the audit rate of small businesses or households earning below $400,000.
read more →

when to increase scope and when to let it go

the most crucial aspect of scope is for everyone to know precisely what falls within the lines of the scoped services and what does not.

by jody padar
radical pricing – by the radical cpa

there’s a time to increase scope and a time to let it slide. let’s explore these two options.

it’s professional responsibility to inform a client when a request is out of scope. in this instance, you have two options: either make it a separate engagement or include it in the existing service package. it’s important to have everyone on the same page about what is within scope and what falls outside of it.

more  jody padar | pricing | the radical cpa | from success to significance: the radical cpa guide | radical pricing

it would be best if you always built into your pricing agreements a 20 percent buffer to protect you against pricing mistakes. this doesn’t mean you should do work outside the scope for free, but if a client asks for a service not included, you could decide to let it go if the amount is immaterial.

however, if the value is greater or you need to investigate further, be clear with your team and the client.

read more →

leadership for the future: stakeholders, sustainability, and strategic vision | accounting arc

leadership beyond control means empowering others to succeed and, of course, eating last.

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accounting arc
with byron patrick and donny shimamoto.
center for accounting transformation

the latest episode of accounting arc offers a candid discussion on leadership with byron patrick, ceo and founder of verifyiq, and vice president of client success at the b3 method institute.

more accounting arc: in-person conferences still essential | non-accountants in accounting: a game-changer for the professionrubik yeriazarian: smaller firms offer big opportunities for rapid skill development in forensic accounting | accounting arc | ai will steal your job. and that’s a good thing | accounting arc | the right kind of lazy: innovative approaches to streamlining workflows | accounting arc

alongside host donny shimamoto, founder of intraprisetechknowlogies and the center for accounting transformation, patrick challenges traditional notions of leading a company.  read more →

attract clients, don’t sell to them

woman points to laptop to explain something to a female client

make your expertise a magnet.

by martin bissett
business development on a budget

it’s about time to realize that value is not about time.

more: how to attract clients | four reasons accountants struggle with selling | perception, even your own, is reality | stop waiting for business to come to you | four key questions about leadership | showing leadership through customer service | the real math behind the sales pipeline | keep business development going during busy season | walk the commitment walk | two steps toward mastering selling | thirteen ways to show commitment | clients can’t grow without you | seven mistakes in winning new fees
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when i look back on the research that has been conducted by various groups as to the biggest obstacles accounting firms cite to growing their practice,

  • 50 percent said creating opportunities,
  • 25 percent said knowing how to close deals
  • and the remainder said having self-confidence in presenting and then being able to positively differentiate from their competition.

let’s not sell, let’s attract.
read more →

new tech turns bombed-out rubble into blocks for new homes

photo courtesy of https://www.crisisconstruction.com/

 

more affordable housing could be on the horizon. 

by rick richardson
technology this week

russia attacked ukraine 30 months ago, and during that time, hundreds of thousands of buildings were destroyed. soon, a new machine will start creating lego-like building blocks for new dwellings out of some of that debris.

more technology this week: discovery in california could power 375 million electric vehicles | lexar ssd expands storage for pro-level video | new pacemaker powered by light, no batteries | is nasa about to make air travel cheaper? | your brain can store 10 times more than anyone thought | microsoft discovers a security flaw impacting android apps | ai-engineered enzyme could be solution to plastic pollution | ai named the highest-paying in-demand tech skill for 2024 | lenovo readies new thinkbook laptop with a transparent display
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according to nic matich – a cofounder of mobile crisis construction, an australian charity that created the equipment – “the idea is to recycle and use what’s there.” glass, garbage and old walls are ground into a fine mixture in a mill and combined with water, clay and cement in small amounts. after that, the device compacts everything into a block. after a few days of curing, the blocks are ready to be used to construct walls.

read more →

alicia katz pollock: create a human-centric business | the disruptors

give your team the resources they need to do the work that makes them happy. plus eight key takeaways.

[preview] the complete 1-hour video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to pro members. | go pro here

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the disruptors
with liz farr

“alicia katz pollock proves that you don’t need to begin with an accounting degree or formal bookkeeping training to be a hugely helpful resource for the quickbooks community.”

more podcasts and videos:  nancy mcclelland: be the one your clients ask first |alan whitman: stop accepting the status quo | sean duncan: discover your own genius | ingrid edstrom: true wealth is not financial | caleb jenkins: firm growth requires owners to shift roles | chris hervochon: be the leader you want to work for | ira rosenbloom: don’t merge for the moneyadam lean: get out of the accountant’s trap |

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pollock started teaching computers and microsoft products and used quickbooks in her business. then, people started asking her to teach them quickbooks. she ran her quickbooks set-up and methodology past a few bookkeepers, who told her, “alicia, you have a knack for this.” so she dove in to learn as much as she could and is today one of the go-to experts for quickbooks.

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