cpa firm performance assessments: 15 core competencies, 21 questions

reeb-and-cingoranelli-with-cpatr-si-logo-200checklist: how to fine-tune your own firm’s performance management systems.

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

when evaluating people within a firm, “relative importance” is a way to differentiate expectations regarding the same competency for various levels within your firm. we decided the best way to drill down even further into a competency model was to share some of the details of our competency model with you.

more on performance management: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

it considers the following six levels within a cpa firm (each firm needs to choose whatever breakdown works best for them):

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14 smarter ways to use timesheet data

ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and aif you just pay people and move on, you’re missing critical information.

by ed mendlowitz

question: i keep timesheets for billing purposes but am not clear how i can use them to better manage my practice. how can i do this?

more practice doctor q&a: why more firms are trashing timesheets | how much overhead is too much? | when partners stop growing | clear billing procedures make collecting easier | change your thinking about ‘small’ clients | it’s not sales. it’s your duty | when staffers stagnate | when to hire an admin assistant | why the average fee doesn’t matter | 8 times when hourly billing trumps value pricing | 10 (nearly) painless ways to keep up to date with technology | 5 time management tips for an overworked accountant | running an accounting business | 14 ways to switch to value pricing

answer: analyzing time records is a very effective practice management tool and is an essential part of most professional services organizations. some people contend that timesheets should not be used since they should not be the basis of any pricing, with fees solely based on the value to the client.

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how to target what skills to develop now

reeb-and-cingoranelli-with-cpatr-si-logo-200bonus checklist: 12 competencies everyone in the firm needs.

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

in discussing how to become a more effective people manager and developer, the first question we ask is, “what skills and aptitudes are you trying to develop?”

more on performance management: 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

in other words, just saying to someone, “you need to improve” is weak advice.

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why more firms are trashing timesheets

recommended: two books to read.

by ed mendlowitz

question: i’ve read that many firms are no longer using timesheets. how do you feel about that?

more practice doctor q&a: how much overhead is too much?|clear billing procedures make collecting easier | change your thinking about ‘small’ clients | why adopting new technologies is a must | when fees don’t keep up with cost increases | lowballing and why it (usually) doesn’t work | why the average fee doesn’t matter | how to apply value pricing to bundled services | 8 times when hourly billing trumps value pricing | 14 ways to switch to value pricing | pricing, billing, costing: don’t blame clients

answer: there is a growing group of firms that no longer use timesheets. the leader of this movement is ron baker, who explains his reasons and provides a model in his many books, many of which i have read and recommend.

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the radical approach to bundling services

package your knowledge, and don’t forget client personality.

by jody padar
the radical cpa

how do you take that tax planning, that small business exper­tise or whatever insight it is that you own and package it so it’s similar to a product? that’s what the next generation of firms has figured out how to do.

i started doing this pre-cloud. i had to figure out a way to keep my customers engaged with me all year without doing book­keeping because i didn’t want to do bookkeeping. i productized my year-round tax services.

more getting radical: the radical approach to pricing | a radical close look at value pricing | get radical about pricinglet’s get radical about content | each social channel has a language | get ready for radical transparency | 5 radical ways to be social and strategic | how i got started being social | how social media transforms firms to their core | six competitive advantages for the radical cpa | radical tenet #1: embrace the cloud | radical customers are on their way | 5 radical transparencies; are you ready? | 4 questions radical firms must face | being radical is all about your customer | being radical starts with being the change | why start being radical now? | going radical: the 4 tenets of a ‘new firm’ | why should cpas be radical? | the roots of ‘radical’ cpas

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

i also took every piece of work i could take outside of tax season and separated it from the tax return. we do the work outside of tax season and charge for it as a separately stated item. today, so many firms are still doing accounting cleanup work that can be done outside of tax season in tax season and they’re not charging for it separately. i’ve heard firm leaders say, “oh, that’s part of doing a tax return.” no, it’s not. getting accurate books before you do a tax return should be priced and completed outside of tax season. it shouldn’t clog up your firm in march.

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what having your employees’ backs means

why failure is a value proposition.

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

i want to start by talking about the phrase “having your employees’ backs.” so what does this mean? simply that, as the boss, you will take the bullets publicly for your people’s mistakes. this is such a rare phenomenon that many of you have never experienced what i am referring to – a boss taking the heat for his or her people.

more growth & succesion: 5 harmful management attitudes (and how to fix them) | do cpa firms need management or leadership? | job 1 for the practice owner: client management

most of the time, when problems are uncovered, company cultures are “at the ready” to quickly identify someone to blame regardless of the situation. in these organizations, those with exceptional cya skills are the most highly valued. no, i did not misspell this acronym as it was not meant to be cia (as in the government intelligence agency or certified internal auditors), but rather those good at covering their butts (i guess i should have referred to it as cyb).

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the radical approach to pricing

calculator in shopping cartbonus checklist: the 3 prices you need to set.

by jody padar
the radical cpa

you should know your relative costs and assumptions to value. when i say, “know your cost,” you’re not going to know every freaking minute that it takes to do something. but you should know approximately what the accounting file is like.

when you’re thinking about pricing your cleanup work with either a cloud-based product or let’s say you’re not even in the cloud, you should have already done a diag­nostic on that quickbooks file or whatever accounting software the prospect is using.

more on radicalism: a radical close look at value pricing | let’s get radical about content | each social channel has a language | get ready for radical transparency | 5 radical ways to be social and strategic | how social media transforms firms to their core | 10 radical steps into the cloud | six competitive advantages for the radical cpa | radical customers are on their way | the market is moving toward the radicals | 5 radical transparencies; are you ready? | being radical is all about your customer | being radical starts with being the change | why should cpas be radical? | the roots of ‘radical’ cpas

you also should analyze the five traits of their financial personality:

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5 harmful management attitudes (and how to fix them)

how common management pitfalls hurt firms and employees.

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

how do attitudes, misconceptions and bad habits get in the way of our learning to be better managers?

related: do cpa firms need management or leadership? | job 1 for the practice owner: client management

here are five common attitudes, practices and perceptions we find:

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a radical close look at value pricing

pen ready to fill in blank timesheetbonus checklists: 5 reasons not to manage employees by timesheet and 4 factors of fixed pricing.

join the survey; get the results:
pricing strategies and billing rates

by jody padar
the radical cpa

ron baker and ed kless of the verasage institute are the hands-down experts on value pricing. they do a phenomenal job of explaining how it works and why you shouldn’t track time. i’ve done it for the last eight years and i absolutely love it. i would never go back to time and billing. my quality of life has changed dramatically because of it. what it’s done for the culture of my firm can’t be measured. it’s an intangible. i started doing it because i figured out that there had to be a better way to sell my services. i didn’t want to sell myself by the hour and i found out that it worked without reading all the economic theories. so i continued.

more on radicalism: get radical about pricing | make radical connections | let’s get radical about content | each social channel has a language | get ready for radical transparency | 5 radical ways to be social and strategic | how i got started being social | how social media transforms firms to their core | six competitive advantages for the radical cpa | radical tenet #1: embrace the cloud | radical customers are on their way | 5 radical transparencies; are you ready? | 4 questions radical firms must face | being radical starts with being the change | why start being radical now? | going radical: the 4 tenets of a ‘new firm’ | the roots of ‘radical’ cpas | the first 3 questions i should have asked before starting my own practice

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

the technology is only getting faster and better. eight years ago my payroll only took two minutes using paycycle. i had to ask myself: how could i make money on it? i believe that the pricing model finally is going to change. ron baker was the early adopter and started this 20 years ago. i believe the technology has now caught up. if firms don’t change our pricing model, we’re either going to have 25,000 customers or we’re not going to make any money if we continue to charge by time.

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do cpa firms need management or leadership?

differentiating between the two, and the two most common styles of management.

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

let’s start out with a straightforward question. what is the difference between management and leadership?

from one point of view, leadership is far different than management. for example, leadership might be all about developing a vision for the organization, being innovative, motivating others, empowering those around you, focusing on developing the people around you instead of just developing yourself, looking for positive ways to change, doing the right thing, and keeping the forest in view and not just see the trees.

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clear billing procedures make collecting easier

tips for handling everything from late payers to extra services to minimum fee schedules.

by ed mendlowitz

question: can you give me some suggestions on overall firm pricing and billing methods?

more practice doctor q&a: there’s more to growth than marketing | how to make staff a team again | before you even think about selling your practice | how to make annual staff evaluations work | change your thinking about ‘small’ clients | why adopting new technologies is a must | when fees don’t keep up with cost increases | lowballing and why it (usually) doesn’t work | what goes in a client’s permanent file? | why the average fee doesn’t matter | how to apply value pricing to bundled services | 6 ways to take a client beyond tax prep

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

answer:  here’s how we’ve handled the billing and collection process at my firm.

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get radical about pricing

two happy businessmen looking at digital tablet at desk in officeforget about measuring by time.

by jody padar
the radical cpa

“forget about pricing and think about what people buy.”

customers are not buying our time. they may be buying our expertise. but they’re really buying a solution to their problem. famed management consultant peter drucker says, “a customer never buys a product by definition, the customer buys a satisfac­tion. satisfaction of a want, he buys value.” he’s buying a good feeling.

more on radicalism: make radical connections | let’s get radical about content | each social channel has a language | get ready for radical transparency | 5 radical ways to be social and strategic | how social media transforms firms to their core | 10 radical steps into the cloud | six competitive advantages for the radical cpa | radical customers are on their way | 5 radical transparencies; are you ready? | 4 questions radical firms must face | being radical is all about your customer | going radical: the 4 tenets of a ‘new firm’ | why should cpas be radical?

when lipstick leaves the manufacturer, it’s a solution. when it crosses the counter in a department store, it’s hope. from this perspective, how do we make our services into products or solutions? that’s essentially what you are doing with bundling and packages. you are productizing a service. read more →