today's features

don’t risk losing good employees for bad clients

keep the right kpis and the right clients, and you’ll keep the right staff.

by alan anderson, cpa
transforming audit for the future

audit in the future will be much different than in the past. it’s going to require different skill sets. in the future, we need to teach more thinking and interpretive skills. the ticking and tying can be automated, but we’ll need people to interpret the anomalies that the bots and automation tools kick out. they’ll need to develop a deeper understanding of the industry, the client, and general business sense to discern whether an anomaly is just a mistake or a sign of something more profound.

more: can a service center model solve audit staffing shortages? | don’t take on audits in an industry you don’t understand | how ‘business expert cpas’ get their own business wrong | exceptional audit client service demands effective communication | five ways to prevent audit bottlenecks | how do we drive relevance in audit? | lack of relevance drives audit commoditization | four basic understandings every auditor must master | wanted: great audit mentors | closing the audit expectations gap
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as the owner of a business myself, i understand the need to ensure there is enough cash coming in to keep the lights on and everyone paid. but sometimes, firms take on work just to keep people busy all year round. a prime example of this is ebp audits, which seem quick and easy but have their own risk factors. doing only one or two a year can be especially risky for your firm.

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ask for what you’re worth

hand moving triangle along beam to indicate balance between price and value

how to prepare for a value pricing opportunity.

by ed mendlowitz
202 questions and answers: managing an accounting practice

question: i just heard from a client we hadn’t heard from in seven or eight years and he says he has an “emergency.”

more: the top tip for reviewing tax returns | you have to start somewhere | nine reasons not to specialize | hiring experience vs. training inexperience | a friendly chat or a billable discussion? | when selling a firm to staffers is tricky | courting a client? don’t give too much away for free | nine tips for a healthier tax season | fifteen strategies for first-time supervisors
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here’s the story: he had started a business eight years ago and he used us for a couple of years until some big money was raised and they switched to a big four firm. he also stopped using us for his personal return, switching to the big four firm. then, just last week, he called us to ask for assistance in evaluating a multimillion-dollar termination package. he needed to meet with me right away because he did not want the offer to slip away. he then asked what the rates would be and could he have a discount because he was once a good client (he was – seven and eight years ago!). the asking for a discount left a bad taste in my mouth.
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desperate cfos are outsourcing accounting functions

bar chart
25 percent of cfos will be looking for staff accountants. personiv

can cpa firms take advantage?

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

cpa firms have long been aware of the worsening talent shortage. fewer students are majoring in accountancy. fewer are pursuing cpa certification. and baby boomer leaders of accounting firms are retiring more often than ever.

more: does firm culture still matter? | tax and accounting jobs and salaries show strength | tax law is driving practice development | olympics of outsourcing and offshoring for accountants | new study: strong and steady growth for accountant jobs and salaries | turnover timebomb: 4 of 5 senior managers at risk | are client services a fourth-rate priority? | revenues rising as pricing models evolve | 150 credit hours: helping or hindering? | can’t recruit? retain! | the accountant as a strategic business partner | report: efficiency still the top priority for accounting firms
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

now financial leaders in the corporate sector are feeling the pinch. a survey issued by personnel agency personiv finds that 83 percent of senior corporate leaders recognize the accounting talent crunch, way up from 70 percent in 2022 and 63 percent in 2020. and 10 percent say the shortage is getting worse.

no surprise, then, that 90 percent of cfos who responded to the survey say they have outsourced at least some accounting functions.
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five ways to make partners fall in love with marketing

three businesspeople meeting outdoors and shaking hands

it’s an age-old problem, but that doesn’t mean you have to accept it.

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

if only there were a silver bullet to solve this problem! but unfortunately, there isn’t one.

more: analyze your firm to keep it current | what makes a great website? | four strategies for building your practice | market technology services through workshops and training | the secrets of great business developers | dodge the four curses of a production orientation | client acquisition never stops | ‘sales’ is not a four-letter word | maybe what you need is a marketing audit | three types of marketing message, and which is best
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

getting partners to market and to love doing it has been the achilles’ heel of the accounting and consulting professional for as long as i can remember. what does it take to make progress in this area? here are some ideas to help you move forward:
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how to solve the big disconnect in talent management

can you articulate your firm’s employee value proposition?

by marc rosenberg in collaboration with jeremy wortman, ph.d., owner of hrd initiatives
cpa firm staff: managing your #1 asset

“executives spend more time on managing people and making people decisions than on anything else – and they should. no other decisions are so long-lasting in their consequences or so difficult to unmake. and yet, by and large, executives make poor promotion and staffing decisions. at most, one-third of such decisions turn out right, one-third are minimally effective and a third are outright failures. in no other area of management would we put up with such miserable performance.” – peter drucker

more: what relevance means for staffing in accounting | how accounting staffing has changed
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what is talent management?

talent management is an umbrella term for how firms acquire talent, engage people in their firms, develop their skills and retain them. among many things, it addresses
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steve yoss: connect, transform, and analyze data like a pro with power query basic | quick tech talk

integrate information systems, but don’t ignore your gut.

quick tech talk
with steve yoss
cpe today

how do you ensure data integrity when you’re working with multiple disparate systems that you want to ultimately pull together and have talked to each other?

you’ll always want to make sure that you have a system of record: one system inside your organization that’s kind of the master control over everything else inside your company. it could be quickbooks, your erp platform, a custom database, or something else. but ideally, all other systems inside your company take their cues from that one master system.

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bissett bullet: why bother?

today’s bissett bullet: “why, in general, does marketing in the accounting profession fail so often and if it yields such dismal results, why bother?”

by martin bissett

i’ve said it before and you’ll read it again many times as you stick with me. the secret sauce, the thing that most accounting professionals don’t use effectively enough are their stories. nothing more, nothing less.

we’ve established that marketing creates need and when you tell your clients’ stories – not in terms of what you did, not even in terms of how much time and money you saved, but in terms of what your clients were able to use that time and money for – you attract other people who want the same.

how many stories do you have hidden in your portfolio, even just over the last five years? how many mortgages have you saved? how many personal guarantees have you gotten back from the bank? let’s be really blunt, how many marriages have you saved as a result of your work?

today’s to-do:

find five of your best client stories and ask for permission to use them. some clients will be happy for them to be shared and others will want them anonymized – that’s fine. think about how you can leverage these in your marketing.

see more bissett bullets here

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does firm culture still matter?

a well-defined firm culture is key to building an irresistible employer brand.

by seth fineberg
at large

who you are and what you stand for as a firm can mean many things, but if you aren’t explicit about what you are about, you may as well say nothing.

more: seth fineberg

i know this is a bold statement, but over the years, i’ve heard the term “firm culture” tossed around so freely that i daresay, when pressed, that firm leaders will be challenged to have a legitimate answer when asked what it actually is.
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getting aligned on scope helps your team and your clients

master the map to success.

by jody padar
radical pricing – by the radical cpa

there are two basic ways to drive from door county, wisconsin, to new orleans to attend mardi gras in february. the first is to chart a course using a map or gps app. it will tell you the route to take, where to stop along the way and how long it will take to make the drive. the second way is to start the car, back out of the driveway and head south, hoping you’ll bump into new orleans along the way.

more: create more meaningful kpis | here’s how profit sharing improves your firm | productize services for consistent client value | four ways automation pushes the paradigm shift | how value pricing impacts your employees | why pricing is so disruptive | accounting disruptors are heading your way … with deep pockets | advisory work must be priced by value, not hours
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which do you think gives you the better opportunity to arrive in new orleans in time for the festivities?

scope is a lot like creating a project map showing what you want to accomplish, who’s going to do what, how you’re going to do it, what you’ll need along the way and how long it will take to get there. it includes all the specific details of what you’ll deliver to the client, including, for example, tax returns, quarterly planning, bookkeeping and cash flow management.

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how to put your strengths to work for you

here’s a quiz that provides real insight.

by sandi leyva
the complete guide to marketing for tax & accounting firms

most of us have an idea about what our character strengths are.

a few years back, a scientist named christopher peterson developed a global list of 24 strengths that all humans have.

more: implement these two daily rituals | three ways to follow up with prospects | twelve ways your business card can hurt you | got fomo when it comes to ai and chatgpt? you should: here’s what you’re missing | how to weather any economic storm | ten ways to have more energy this tax season | seven steps to keeping your clients forever | give to receive, and eight more ways to boost sales
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these break down into the following six major categories:
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the right kind of lazy: innovative approaches to streamlining workflows | accounting arc

arc hosts discuss redefining efficiency in the accounting profession and when it pays to ‘slack off.’ 

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

in a recent episode of the popular accounting arc podcast, hosts liz mason, cpa, and donny shimamoto, cpa.citp, cgma; and byron patrick, cpa.citp, cgma; discussed an unconventional yet powerful concept: the right kind of lazy. this idea, which involves strategically optimizing workflows to eliminate non-value-adding tasks, offers a fresh perspective on efficiency and productivity in the accounting profession.

more accounting arc

mason, founder and ceo of high rock accounting, shared an anecdote from her early career at grant thornton. faced with the monotonous task of processing paper tax returns, mason decided to automate the process. she spent over 100 hours developing a script that streamlined data entry and document generation. although initially time-consuming, the solution saved significant time when implemented across multiple offices. “it was fun and a great learning experience,” mason remarks. “at scale, it saved a ton of time for people.”

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caleb jenkins: firm growth requires owners to shift roles | the disruptors

leave the stone age behind. join the new paradigm.

this is a preview. the complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to pro members. 

the disruptors
with liz farr

when caleb jenkins was eight, he started selling cookies to his dad’s firm during tax season. his dad told him, “for me to pay you, i need you to create an invoice for me.” so jenkins set up his own quickbooks file and has been playing with quickbooks ever since, and eventually joined his dad’s firm.

more podcasts and videos: ira rosenbloom: don’t merge for the moneyadam lean: get out of the accountant’s trapgeraldine carter: charging more is better for your clientsvimal bava: when working smarter, not harder, is the only option | dawn brolin says grow your firm by shrinking itjason blumer & julie shipp: move leaders out of client service | james graham: drop the billable hour and you’ll bill morekaren reyburn: fix your marketing and fix your business | giles pearson: fix the staffing crisis by swapping experience for education | jina etienne: practice fearless inclusionbill penczak: stop forcing smart people to do stupid worksandra wiley: staffing problem? check your culture | scott scarano: first, grow people. then firm growth can follow |

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like most small firms, rlj financial focuses on the fundamentals of tax, bookkeeping, and payroll, but, as jenkins says, “in the eyes of the beholder, there’s really not a whole lot of value there.” however, shifting into advisory – a big talking point in recent years for the profession – is where accountants can bring “incredible value …beyond the baseline of traditional compliance services,” jenkins says. shifting into advisory also means “there’s way more work that happens all year round.”

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