today's features

empower staff to make mistakes (safely)

older man and younger man having meeting at desk

think of it as teaching judgment.

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

question: recently a colleague asked me: “how do you teach judgment?” and before i could respond, he answered it himself with “you can’t teach judgment!”

more: 47 types of business valuation to provide | referral fee? forget it | how much is your tax practice worth? | merge in lower-priced work without losing out
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response: everyone working for you has and uses judgment – they have homes, families, organizations they belong to and they manage their career. each of these requires their exercising judgment many times a day. they all have judgment.
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seven things you must know about ai

be serious, not amused.

by hitendra patil
rise of the aiccountants

unless you live under a stone, you would have heard about all the craze chatgpt has created recently. and most likely, you, too, are amused by it.

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an artificial intelligence-powered tool, it is one of the first that allowed people to directly interact with ai in a familiar way how we use chat functions on mobile phones and websites. this ease of access and usage gave it a huge fan following. moreover, it triggered a tsunami of new ai tools emerging all over the internet.
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remote work will see cuts; pe will trickle down

child with stuffed animal pointing at woman's computer screen

corporate form of governance is seeing more acceptance.

by marc rosenberg
the rosenberg map survey

editor’s note: every year, the rosenberg map survey asks the industry’s top consultants to share their observations from cpa firms across the country. how do you think the next 12 months will unfold? also, how would you assess the last 12 months?

  • private equity shows signs of trickling down to sizeable local firms (say $15-30 million firms).
  • the aging of baby boomers – ages 57-75 – continues but at some time in the next five years or so, their tremendous wave of retirements will abate somewhat and there may be fewer sellers.

more: three ways firms can succeed in 2024 | firms must choose best workplace model | outsourcing, remote work will help firms grow capacity, revenue | private equity leading to corporate-style cpa firms | five ways staff shortages are changing firms forever | partner incomes surge 11.4%
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  • artificial intelligence has ramped up its awareness in the cpa firm market. though many have warned of the negative impact of ai, its upward trend is relentless and knows no bounds.

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why you need progress billing

smiling woman wearing glasses, looking at computer screen

seven steps to setting it up and four benefits.

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

there are many things that are critical for a successful client service engagement. in my mind, there are two that should be at the top of your list.

more: sixteen marketing activities to try | make your practice better | eleven marketing strategies for smaller firms | five questions for developing your marketing plan | you only have four strategies | the damage that traditional fee methods do
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number one is providing the client with a progress report or reports. number two is making sure that you progress bill and provide a change order if the scope of the engagement changes. doing both ensures that you will have a happy client and get paid promptly for your services.
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four things to know about social media

man's hand writing social media strategies on a whiteboard

talking to prospects when prospects can talk back.

by bruce marcus
professional services marketing 3.0

editor’s note: 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 was privileged to have a long relationship with bruce w. marcus, who was ahead of his time in his thinking and practice in marketing for accounting. we are publishing some of the late expert’s evergreen work, which retains wisdom for the present.

there are four things to know about what we now call the social media.

first, it’s media – a means of communication, a medium, not of itself a magic carpet. which means that its value lies in its ability to convey ideas and facts to a vast world of viewers. which means, as well, that we’re back to the old computer nostrum of “garbage in, garbage out.” or to paraphrase another (if contrarian) view, it’s not the medium, it’s the message.

more: how and why client service teams work | when clients think they know marketing | how to put target marketing into context | everyone in your firm is marketing | accountants vs. lawyers: who wins the marketing battle? | professional services marketing requires flexibility | how to set marketing objectives
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second, it substantially changes the world of marketing. in the old marketing, we talked to people who couldn’t really talk back (other than by buying or not buying what we were selling). very primitive and cumbersome.
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five ways to target the low-hanging fruit

ripe apples are hanging on a branch covered with first snow

easy tips you can implement right now.

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

if business has slowed for you, it’s not just you. with people finishing their holiday preparations, getting ready for school vacations and trying to keep from falling to the latest batch of colds making the rounds, it’s all most of us can do to stay on our routines.

more: eight ways to build busy-season stamina | five things that clients don’t know about accountants | you’re missing 60% of your revenue | beyond compliance: six tips for adding value | track six figures to test your marketing | eight things to give new clients | four ways small firms can beat large ones | five emotional skills for entrepreneurs | transform your marketing with crm | five kinds of small thinking | five tests: how open are you to change?
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as entrepreneurs, we still need to make payroll, meet our budget goals and get enough cash in to keep our doors open. so how can we cash in on the low-hanging fruit?
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bissett bullet: beware scope creep and seep

today’s bissett bullet: “‘while you’re there, could you just …?’”

by martin bissett

the scope creep is all of those seemingly small requests that fall outside of your agreement, for which you generally do not charge, out of a desire to please a new client or to avoid an awkward conversation. seep occurs when you volunteer to do that extra work and it becomes an issue when we are too busy doing that free work over and above the original scope to spend time winning any paid-for new work.

when presented with requests for additional tasks, it is important to say that a particular task is not within the original agreement but that absolutely, you would be very happy to raise a new invoice or undertake a new project for them.

today’s to-do:

practice confidently responding to a can you just …?request with a client so that the conversation feels natural when it next occurs.

see more bissett bullets here

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top 20 tough choices for the partner comp committee

man, woman, man having serious discussion around conference table

production isn’t all that matters.

by marc rosenberg
the rosenberg practice management library

increasingly, cpa firms are adopting the compensation committee system for allocating partner income. firms are finding that systems such as formulas, pay based on ownership percentage or pay-equal no longer work.

more: voting on ownership basis? three better methods | what partners do and don’t deserve | tell potentials what partnership takes | fifteen big questions for your next strategy session | five steps to transition to partnership | disturb the present to improve the future
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if there is one overarching cause for this significant trend, it’s that firms are understanding that their partners need to be something more than production machines. in addition to bringing in business, managing a client base and working billable hours (all of which continue to be important values in a compensation committee), partners need to excel in intangible areas such as helping staff grow and develop, developing specialized expertise and teamwork. the compensation committee is one of the best systems available to cpa firms to allocate income based on this diverse array of performance criteria.
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the big 3 success tips for 2024

three coworkers wearing suits, smiling and talking

profitability is just part of the picture.

by matt rampe
the rosenberg map survey

over the next 12 months, three big disruptions will shake the accounting industry.

more: firms must choose best workplace model | tech, capital will drive accounting profession growth | ‘great shakeup’ in cpa firms on the way | pe, consolidations to keep impacting accounting profession
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fortunately, there are at least three ways that firms can prevail.

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are you excited about tax season?

woman working at two monitors

if not, take time to determine why.

by ed mendlowitz
tax season opportunity guide

successful people are happy with their practices and what they do and get joy from interacting and helping clients. i know a lot of accountants who continuously complain about tax season – yet they make most of their money during the period.

more: nine tax season resources that get forgotten | eight ways to charm a client | you’re only as good as your last screw-up
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do they expect someone to knock on their door with a wheelbarrow of money to hand them? if they are financially secure, why do they keep working? if they are not, then, duh! either do it or find something else, but stop complaining. better yet, look at all the benefits from what you do (if you need me to tell you the benefits then find something else to do).
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treasury ig sees progress at irs

bar charts
comparison of individual return inventory carried over to the next filing season

backlogs cleared, fraud detected.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

the treasury inspector general for tax administration has issued a report on the 2023 filing season, and it is generally complimentary to the irs.

more: vcs plunk $60 million into ai-powered ‘autonomous’ tax prep | tax pros are expanding and earning more | with fresh funding, irs shows service improvements | how tax practitioners became cybersecurity risks | top tax vendors caught red-handed selling private taxpayer data
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one big accomplishment: by feb. 2, 2023, the irs had cleared the entire carryover inventory of unprocessed individual tax returns received in 2022 – a backlog of 447,000 paper returns and 445,000 amended returns.
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sixteen guidelines for naming conventions

hands on keyboard

why they matter so much.

by penny breslin
it’s not just the numbers

one of the most time-consuming parts of reconciliation is attempting to discover why or where to allocate expenses. you want to find and pay the correct vendor. you also want to be sure that you have the vendor’s correct name and tax id number when 1099 reporting time rolls around, yet it won’t be easy to do so if you do not have a consistent vendor naming convention.

more: revisit your back office support procedures | every back office support client needs a playbook | creating a back office support playbook | strengthen client ties with workflow tools | understand your online marketing options | narrow your prospects by choosing a vertical | build your team, then choose your clients | how back office support adds value
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consistent naming conventions are a critical component of good file management. the same is true if customer names are in the accounting program. any list really needs to have consistency of entry. duplicates and linking to the wrong record are common mistakes that take time to find and fix.
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rate your personal purpose

young man facing image of himself

bonus: experts discuss challenges for new leaders.

by martin bissett
passport to partnership

the passport to partnership study collated a number of responses in a conversational style. the need for commitment is showcased below and was repeated many times in various different ways.

so many use us as a stepping stone and we’re now trying to determine who those are at the interview stage.

more: nine checkpoints before every prospect meeting | thirteen ways to show commitment | clients can’t grow without you | seven mistakes in winning new fees | how to develop your communication abilities | five questions for measuring partner potential
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proof – if any were needed – that long-term commitment is not a given in the next generation of accounting professionals.

one question we ask is: would we want to pass our firm on to someone like this?
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