don’t weed out the roses

gardener pruning a rose bushwhen tweaking your comp system, remember it’s not just about the money.

by august aquila
creating the effective partnership

if your partners are putting up a fight to keep clients who should be let go, take a look at your compensation system. it’s not just about billable hours.

more on leadership for pro members: 8 questions to analyze your pricing | what makes a successful strategic plan? | innovate or die | partners love, hate leadership | 8 ways leaders destroy firms | today’s top six partner compensation trends | 8 financial ducks to line up now

here are 16 tweaks to your firm’s compensation system. while the list is not exhaustive, it does provide criteria that firms can consider beyond revenue.
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busy season 2016: why some have it worse

picture1the factors that undermine an otherwise better busy season.

how was your busy season?
join the survey; get the benchmarks

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

according to the final results of the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 2016 busy season survey, this has been a relatively good year…better than last year, anyway. a good 60 percent of respondents said 2016 was much better or somewhat better than 2015.

more busy season management:  better gets better. and worse gets worser | busy season 2016: topline survey results | accountants see economy improving… but mainly for themselves | tax season 2016: turning id theft from a problem into an opportunity  | lessons learned from a bad busy season | busy season 2016: more clients, fewer problems | busy season 2016: problem clients are causing big trouble | 12 ways to stress less this tax season | the dreaded ‘quick question’ | 40 other services your tax clients should know about | where workflow management runs off the rails | ready for tax season? not so fast | 8 ways to delight tax season clients | tax season management: multi-tasking is a myth | digital workflow systems make tax season easier | tax professionals find it increasingly difficult to keep up with late-changing tax regs | the new normal: a busy season that never ends | pro member exclusives: sign in or 2022世界杯足球排名 here

which, admittedly, isn’t saying much. last year was a bad year, a perfect storm of problems. it left 19 percent grousing about a “somewhat worse” busy season, another 3 percent saying it was “much worse.”

could 2016 really be worse than 2015, especially given that it was so much better for so many tax preparers? yep.

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why use windows 10?

windows software logodid you claim your free upgrade yet?

by roman h. kepczyk
quantum of paperless 

okay, we all know that the windows operating system is preferred to run computers by the primary vendors to the accounting profession. all decisions about operating systems have to be done carefully as they impact software and hardware decisions for at least 3-5 years.

more on tech spending: right to the root, or why scanners rule | size matters: in desktop monitors

while we don’t place too much emphasis on the workstation operating system, one significant issue you can’t overlook is increasing computer memory to function optimally with today’s multi-monitor requirements and the multitude of concurrent applications your staff will be running.
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managing the managing partner

businessman standing at conference table with 4 colleagues seated behindchecks and balances are key.

by bill reeb and dominic cingoranelli

as past success and personal development continuously demonstrate, organizations operate more effectively when people are managed. and since partners are people, rather than gods or superheroes, it makes sense that we put something in place to manage them as well.

more on performance management: accountability is for everyone | succession plan requirements | base retirement on today’s operations | how involved should retired owners be? | firms say what would change retirement pay | 4 ways to create more capacity | 7 succession questions to ignore for now | how partner ratings factor into equity | hazards of not reallocating equity | 5 harmful management attitudes (and how to fix them) | do cpa firms need management or leadership? |  job 1 for the practice owner: client management

with this general background in mind, let’s dive a little deeper into how a managing partner goal-setting process might work.
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8 questions to analyze your pricing

number 8 in gold

building a growth-centric pricing strategy requires analyzing 3 factors.

which pricing schemes are working best today?
join the survey; get the results.

by august aquila
creating the effective partnership

think of any services, professional or commercial, that you have purchased over the last few years.

more on leadership for pro members: what makes a successful strategic plan? | back to basics: 25 ways to grow your practice |3 ways to halt a poor leader | 8 questions that staff ask in a merger | the 4 best ways to use your senior partners | 11 steps to building a better partnership team | partnership is about persuasion

would you pay a premium rate to a bonsai gardener just to trim a regular tree or shrub? most likely not, since there would be many a gardener available to do this simple task. however, the price of an open heart surgery would not matter, if the operation would save your life.
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how to decide who decides pay

woman on building roof spraying out dollars with a garden hosewhere to draw the line between managing partner and compensation committee.

by bill reeb and dominic cingoranelli

everyone likes the idea that “i” will hold “me” accountable. but few like the idea of “anyone else” holding “them” accountable.

more on performance management: accountability requires clear expectations | base retirement on today’s operations | who decides what? | how retired partners are robbing their own firms | best practices for mandatory retirement | how retirement issues affect succession planning | succession: the questions to care about | how to target what skills to develop now | what having your employees’ backs means | 5 harmful management attitudes (and how to fix them) | do cpa firms need management or leadership? |  job 1 for the practice owner: client management

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

so, once the decision has been made to implement systemic changes to hold partners accountable to specific performance expectations rather than just relying on everyone to put in a self-proclaimed “good day’s work,” the next battleground is determining who will be holding whom accountable. the discussion always shifts to “let’s have a group of people, like a compensation committee, hold us accountable.”
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why this help wanted ad is all wrong

ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and aconsider why the person is leaving.

by ed mendlowitz
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 practice doctor

question: please explain why you told me this ad was off base.classified ad for an accountant

more practice doctor q&a: everyone needs strategic planning | help clients, increase revenue: make sure everyone on staff knows your firm’s full menu of services | i made partner, now what? | 19 ways to stop wasting reviewer time | how to sell your practice | why gross is the method for pricing a practice | no go on pro bono | how to advise an executor | 14 ways to use timesheet data

answer: the ad was placed in a local newspaper by a small cpa firm looking to hire someone with two years of experience. this firm obviously does quality work since they do audits.

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make accountability a process

man and woman reviewing a documenteveryone performs better when someone else has oversight.

by bill reeb and dominic cingoranelli
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 / succession institute

setting up an “accountability and goal process” always sounds much easier than it actually is to implement. so for those who already think this process would be painful, just know that you still are probably underestimating the amount of agony in store.

more on performance management: accountability requires clear expectations | accountability is for everyone | succession plan requirements | base retirement on today’s operations | who decides what? | how retired partners are robbing their own firms | how involved should retired owners be? | firms say what would change retirement pay | 4 ways to create more capacity | how to find a partner’s replacement | action plans for transitioning partners | partner retirement and the war for clients | best practices for mandatory retirement | how retirement issues affect succession planning | succession: the questions to care about 

this leads us to the standard question, “if this is so awful, why would anyone do it?” the answer is both simple and abstract.
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the six rules to get the most out of cpe

ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and ait’s not just to line trainers’ pockets.

poll: what’s on accountants’ cpe agenda this year?
join the survey. get the trends.

by ed mendlowitz
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 practice doctor

question: like every cpa i need to take continuing education courses. however most of what i take

  • are not relevant to me,
  • are things i know or
  • are things i don’t really want to know.

more practice doctor q&a: everyone needs strategic planning | help clients, increase revenue: make sure everyone on staff knows your firm’s full menu of services | i made partner, now what? | 19 ways to stop wasting reviewer time | how to sell your practice | why gross is the method for pricing a practice | no go on pro bono

also, many of the speakers are boring. yet, cpe is big business. are there any suggestions you can give me to get better use of that time?

answer: i am willing to bet your practice is also in a rut and is stagnating. the purpose of cpe is to help us become more effective, to grow, to be introduced to areas we are not familiar with and to keep us updated in what we do. you can approach cpe as you do, which is as a chore, or as i do, which is as an opportunity.

here are some tips: read more →

which social media should you use?

social media words on cubesdon’t pick a platform at random. make an informed choice.

by becky livingston
the accountant’s social media handbook

according to quicksprout research, 75 percent of people are somewhat likely to share content they like online with friends, co-workers and/or family members. forty-nine percent do it at least weekly.

more on social media: what is social media? | how social media works with accountants’ top 5 marketing goals

in the same study, 86 percent of marketers stated that social media is important for their business, while 89 percent stated that increased exposure was the number one benefit of social media marketing.
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how to merge sole practitioners

two businessmen shaking hands21 issues to consider.

by marc rosenberg
cpa firm mergers: your complete guide

when considering a merger of sole practitioners, there are numerous critical issues to negotiate. twenty-one, in fact.

more on mergers: merging in smaller: what to ask | 12 reasons to merge in a smaller firm | 3 factors that always affect negotiations | mergers: assessing compatibility | case studies reveal potential loi issues | merger prep: getting to know you | plant seeds to turn up merger candidates | 15 can’t-skip merger terms to decide | mergers 101: when negotiations aren’t really negotiations

1. method/system for splitting the profits. keep in mind that if you devise a system that essentially revolves around making each solo a profit center, as if they still had their own firms, it will tend to discourage the two of you working together as one firm.
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pay varies when performance varies

closeup shot of a caliper measuring the word "goals"plus ways to measure both objective and subjective performance criteria (yes, it can be done).

by bill reeb and dominic cingoranelli
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 / succession institute

an important point to keep in mind is that we, as human beings, have good months and bad ones, good years and bad ones.

more on performance management: accountability requires clear expectations | accountability is for everyone | succession plan requirements | base retirement on today’s operations | who decides what? | how retired partners are robbing their own firms | how involved should retired owners be? | firms say what would change retirement pay

what is going on in our personal lives has a lot to do with how we perform in our professional ones. therefore, if someone is going through a difficult time, such as a divorce, death in the family, major conflicts with extended family, etc., we can expect those events to spill over into our work life.
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hate meeting people? try improv (no joke)

ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and atwo must-read books on communication and networking.

by ed mendlowitz
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 practice doctor

question: i am a very good accountant but have problems when i speak with people i meet whom i do not know. do you have tips for me?

more practice doctor q&a: everyone needs strategic planning | help clients, increase revenue: make sure everyone on staff knows your firm’s full menu of services | i made partner, now what? | 19 ways to stop wasting reviewer time | how to sell your practice | why gross is the method for pricing a practice | no go on pro bono | when a client balks at necessary work | how to advise an executor | why your clients need annual minutes – and how you can help | 14 ways to use timesheet data | why more firms are trashing timesheets | how much overhead is too much?

answer: there are many ways to break the ice when you meet new people that i could share with you, but i just read a book about that so will recommend it to you and will now provide a brief summary of the book.
read more →