today's features

accountants in pop culture: myths, realities, and stereotypes – accounting arc

from “the office” to “parks and recreation,” listen in on how tv and movies shape our view of accountants.

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

accountants are often depicted in popular culture in ways that range from humorous to downright exaggerated. in a recent episode of arc, hosts liz mason, cpa; byron patrick, cpa.citp, cgma; and donny shimamoto, cpa.citp, cgma, delve into these portrayals, discussing their favorite fictional accountants and the stereotypes that come with them. 

more accounting arc

patrick, vice president of client success at the b3 method institute, starts the conversation with “the office,” where characters like oscar, kevin, and angela offer a comedic take on the profession. “the beauty of ‘the office’ is in its exaggerated realism,” patrick explains. angela’s strict, by-the-book approach and kevin’s more laid-back attitude reflect common perceptions of accountants. “they were the butt of many jokes, but also some of my favorite accountants to watch,” he adds. 

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perception, even your own, is reality

young businesswoman looking in mirror

you have to believe in yourself.

by martin bissett
 business development on a budget

“no man has the ability to step outside of the shadow of his own character.” – robespierre

as far as our potential clients are concerned, how they perceive us is how we really are to them, regardless of the truth of the matter.

more: eight questions that target personal accountability | how to prepare for partnership | five questions to help forecast your firm growth | do you deliver on your website’s promises? | five questions about facing challenges | be clear about your roi proposition | it’s time to prepare the next generation | who are you more committed to, your firm or your clients? | nine checkpoints before every prospect meeting | three questions about conversion | six keys to turning prospects into clients | don’t overlook internal communication | four reasons people struggle with communication | why firm culture matters for partners
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because of this, it’s important to realize that when we are meeting a new potential client who has not been referred to us, it does not matter what the reality of our value proposition is; it matters how that potential client perceives our value proposition. therefore, to be effective in winning work, we must understand how we can positively influence their perception of us at each stage of the relationship-building process.
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create more meaningful kpis

employees must understand what they’re working toward.

by jody padar
radical pricing – by the radical cpa

key performance indicators separate the signals from the noise. throwing timesheets into the trash is your opportunity to focus all your attention on what is most important to your firm’s continued success.

more: five areas to ground new metrics other than time | five reasons to ditch timesheets for good | productize services for consistent client valuedigitize clients for standardizationsix steps to creating a standardized practice | four ways automation pushes the paradigm shiftare you the key signal caller for your clients?value pricing requires defining your clientshow value pricing impacts your employees
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good kpis are quantifiable measurements agreed to beforehand. they must be important to the organization as a whole and specific. here are a few examples you might consider adopting:
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recently discovered antibiotic spares ’good’ bacteria

lolamicin defeated 130 drug-resistant strains of common gram-negative bacteria.

by rick richardson
technology this week

despite all the positive effects antibiotics have on the planet, one of the major drawbacks to their use is how they indiscriminately destroy both bad and good bacteria.

besides eliminating disease-causing invaders in the human body, a single course of this life-saving medication can have an “immense” effect on the gut and the microorganisms that live there, according to the national center for biotechnology information.

more: is nasa about to make air travel cheaper?startup creates legolike brick that can store air pollutionyour brain can store 10 times more than anyone thoughthow many ev charging stations will we need?google launches new private space featuremicrosoft discovers a security flaw impacting android apps | what is an ai pc, and should i get one?fool’s gold may not be so foolish nowai-engineered enzyme could be solution to plastic pollution | german researchers develop ev motor with no rare-earth magnets
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certain bacteria or fungi may occasionally overgrow because of this influence. for example, following antibiotic treatment, women may have a 30 percent chance of acquiring a yeast infection.

researchers at the university of illinois in urbana-champaign are developing a remedy. lolamicin is a novel antibiotic that has been found to target selectively gram-negative infections, sparing other bacteria.

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don’t take on audits in an industry you don’t understand

don’t try to wear too many hats. pick your specialty area and become a guru.

by alan anderson, cpa
transforming audit for the future

industry expertise is essential for businessmindedness. for me, the primary ingredient for building a successful audit practice is to avoid taking on work that you don’t understand. too many firms say they can audit any balance sheet, but that’s when they can get into trouble. many firms get sued because they made a bad business decision. they thought they could take on this unique industry and get it right. if you dabble in any industry, you will put your firm and yourself at tremendous risk.

more: four questions to make your firm more successful as a business | move to advisory and assurance with relevance | how ‘business expert cpas’ get their own business wrongsay adios to audit fee pressure | eight items to cover in the audit exit to deepen client relationships and prove value | know your three audit w’splanning lays the foundation of audit relevance | how do we drive relevance in audit? | before the audit: more than just planning | are you correctly identifying the relevance intersection? | lack of relevance drives audit commoditization
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when the u.s. department of labor looked at the quality of employee benefit plan (ebp) audits, they found plenty of problems. that 2014 study found “a clear link between the number of employee benefit plan audits performed by a cpa and the quality of the audit work performed.” almost half of the firms the dol looked at performed only one or two ebp audits per year, and 75 percent of those had deficiencies. over half of those (56%) had five or more deficiencies.

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you have to start somewhere

wishful thinking won’t move you forward.

by ed mendlowitz
the 30:30 training method

question: thanks for the training memo. although i requested your memo because i know i need help with improving efficiency and the like with my practice, many of your thoughts and ideas i have already thought of but simply did not implement them.

more: two options for collecting past due fees | you can’t win with lowballing | yes, you have to share work papers | should you merge? here’s how to chart your path | hold staff accountable if you want them to listen to you | how to raise your rates | higher fees to start: ten ways to make your tax season better | three ways to start an accounting practice | free consultation? not always | referral fee? forget it
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response: i think you hit part of the nail on the head in what you wrote – you’ve had many of the ideas and “simply did not implement them.”
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olympics of outsourcing and offshoring for accountants

the only difference is it’s not a once in four years event.

by hitendra patil

 the olympic games are the epitome of human achievement. the best athletes in the world come together to compete for the ultimate coveted glory. the accounting profession is no different in its competitive spirit and quest for excellence.

take action now: take this 2-minute quick quiz to evaluate if your firm needs outsourcing.
you will instantly get your score and what that score means.

outsourcing and offshoring have emerged as a necessary remedy to overcome the challenges of the accounting talent shortage. accounting firms leveraging outsourcing and offshoring are like the athletes excelling at the olympics. like the olympics, accounting firms need rigorous preparation, strategic planning, and meticulous execution to succeed with outsourcing and offshoring. let us dive into the comparison between the olympics and outsourcing/offshoring strategies. let us see how accounting firms can assure gold-medalist performance in the olympics of outsourcing and offshoring.

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chris hervochon: be the leader you want to work for

avoid the mental gymnastics required to switch between customers in different industries and niche your services.

this is a preview. the complete 1-hour video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to pro members. 

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the disruptors
with liz farr

chris hervochon is building his firm, better way cpa, “in a very specific way, for our tribes.” he explains, “not everyone needs to be our customer, not everybody’s our tribe, not everybody needs to be our employee.” leading with their core values, the process for bringing on new customers and new employees “weeds out the bad or the potentially poor fit customers,” which, in turn, helps with managing their time, the most valuable thing they have.

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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his tribe includes marketing agencies, which he started working with by accident. then, one day, he realized that “i like working with these people. they need help. their model fits into what i’m doing. they’re professional services. they work roughly the same way that i do.” so he leaned into his niche.

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how accounting staffing has changed

businesswoman sitting on table while talking with four coworkers

and two major drivers of that change.

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

“treat people as they are and they will remain as they are. treat people as they can be and should be and they will become as they can and should be.” – goethe

“you see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up, such as dressing and the proper way of speaking and so on, the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she’s treated. i shall always be a flower girl to professor higgins, because he always treats me as a flower girl. but i know i can be a lady to you, colonel pickering, because you always treat me as a lady and always will.” – eliza doolittle in “my fair lady”

more: thirteen traits of partners you’ll want to keep | six rules for keeping partners happy and productive | why strategic thinking impacts your firm’s future | seven things good firms must do | five ways to separate accounting winners from losers | two factors determine firm profitability | don’t make firm profitability a goal | core values: why your firm needs them | 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
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

the ancient greek philosopher heraclitus said: “there is nothing permanent except change.” people fly and drive cars instead of using horses and carts. technology has replaced calculators, slide rules and the process for writing books. food is purchased at grocery stores instead of grown on farms.

drastic changes have occurred in the cpa industry as well. one of the biggest areas of change is how staff are managed and treated, as shown by this chart.
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archos advisors: a structured approach to change management

innovation insights: effective change management strategies include understanding human nature, scaling and ranking people dependence, and addressing resistance. 

center for accounting transformation
center for accounting transformation

innovation insights
with donny shimamoto

center for accounting transformation

in a rapidly evolving business landscape, managing change effectively is crucial for organizational success. in the latest episode of innovation insights, donny shimamoto, cpa.citp, cgma, hosts diane brown, managing principal, and david graham, principal, from archos advisors, to explore the importance of change management in driving performance and innovation.

more donny shimamoto

“organizations don’t change; it’s the people within them that change,” says brown. this statement encapsulates the essence of change management, which brown defines as applying a structured approach to transition an organization from its current state to a desired future state to achieve specific outcomes.

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bissett bullet: keeping up appearances

today’s bissett bullet: “so many judgments are made of us as accountants by prospective clients, sometimes even before we open our mouths.”

by martin bissett

conclusions made about you by a potential client may be drawn from nothing more than the car you arrive in, for example, and that can be tricky. if the car is deemed too basic, the assumption will be that you’re not as successful as you say. too flashy a car, however, and the inference will be that you’re splashing your client’s cash – “no wonder she charges us so much, we’re funding her lifestyle!” it’s a hard one to get right but as a rule, the aim is to project prosperity, not opulence.

it is important to present as professional an image as possible. in addition to clean, well pressed clothes and fresh breath, taking out an up-to-date laptop, using the latest phone and taking notes with a good quality pen are all external indicators of who and what you are and what it would be like to work with you.

today’s to-do:

make sure that everything about your appearance is as professional as it could possibly be in order to create the right first impression with any potential clients.

see more bissett bullets here

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navigating the challenges and opportunities of a global workforce – accounting arc

accounting firms can thrive in an international economy by leveraging remote work and offshoring.  

accounting arc
with donny shimamoto
center for accounting transformation

in a recent episode of accounting arc, hosts byron patrick, liz mason, and donny shimamoto took a deep dive into the pros and cons of remote work and offshoring in the accounting profession. as experienced professionals who have successfully navigated the shift to remote environments, they provide key insights into the benefits and challenges of this new working landscape. 

more accounting arc

patrick, vice president of client success at the b3 method institute, has embraced remote work for over a decade. he shares his personal preference for the flexibility and efficiency it offers. “i can’t imagine a world in which i don’t work remote,” he confesses, highlighting how ingrained this mode of work has become in his professional life. read more →