today's features
marketing & sales

twenty questions to ask before starting your marketing plan

businesswoman sitting on table while talking with four coworkers

make sure you’re prepared.

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

here are 20 basic questions to ask yourself and your partners before engaging a marketing consultant:

  1. what is our firm’s mission?

more: five ways smart marketing boosts your firm’s enterprise value | marketing’s role in staffing and recruitment | seven ways that marketing helps you retain clients | five ways to make partners fall in love with marketing | losing can help you win more | eight areas to cover for personal goals | service quality: the key to client retention | how life cycle changes your marketing | clients buy solutions, not features
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

  1. is our mission clearly stated and easily understood by the market?
  2. what is our firm’s image in the market?

read more →

special

what leadership looks and feels at cpa firms

three men seated at table in office and talking

thirty ways that firms are developing staff into partners.

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

“before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. when you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” – jack welch

“good employees make mistakes. great leaders let them.” – anonymous

we are probably the millionth people to form a list of important leadership qualities, but we want to share what we have learned from working with cpa firms for over 20 years.

more: eleven things that good mentors do | give the recognition your staff needs | the importance of great bosses | how remote work is impacting accounting firms | make work flexibility work for everyone | why staff leave cpa firms … and how to stop them | how to solve the big disconnect in talent management | what relevance means for staffing in accounting | how accounting staffing has changed
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many of these traits are geared to partners and firm management, but many apply to staff as well. read more →

outlook & analysis

how accounting firms are dealing with retirement

older businessman sitting at desk smiling as wall clock indicates 5 minutes to retirement

burnout is driving some increases.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

retirement’s great! long awaited, well deserved.

more: next five years are critical for accounting firms | staffing turnover’s down, but why? | what’s your firm worth? private equity wants to know | the new pipeline: outsourcing and offshoring | is this the last year of accounting’s golden age?
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

but it’s not so great if you’re not the one retiring. at accounting firms, retirement often means trouble.

  • there may be no one to replace the retiree.
  • there may not be a succession plan in place.

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2022年世界杯抽签

bissett bullet: was it worth it?

today’s bissett bullet: “how do you determine the probability of marketing success?”

by martin bissett

if you run an event for 100 people and say, 20 of those people make an inquiry about your firm as a result, say five of these inquiries reach proposal stage and even one of those proposals becomes a grade a client, you know that running a similar event in the future has a high probability of producing a similar result.

forecasting in this way allows you to make an informed decision as to whether your choice of marketing is a worthwhile activity, taking into account what it will cost you to execute and whether you or someone else in your firm have time to see it through.

if you don’t know what marketing is right for you, test. pick one or two forms of marketing at a time that you have a gut feeling about and test them over a period of three to six months. review the results and really start to understand which are the best methods for you.

today’s to-do:

choose a marketing method to test. include it in your marketing strategy for the next three to six months and review the results to determine its probability of success.

see more bissett bullets here

read more →

pricing, fees & billing rates

who needs to understand scope?

don’t make the mistake of allowing a partner to scope the engagement alone.

by jody padar
radical pricing – by the radical cpa

partners, managers and accounting professionals must all understand scope to deliver the right amount of work for the engagement.

more jody padar |the radical cpa

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

everyone needs to be aligned. everyone needs to know what the customer ordered, how to deliver it and where the work ends.

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news

koziel to succeed melancon as aicpa ceo

mark koziel, currently president and ceo of allinial global, is returning to the aicpa as ceo in 2025, succeeding barry melancon, who retires after 30 years, the longest tenure on record.

koziel joined allinial global in 2020 after 14 years with the aicpa, where he served as executive vice president for firm services. he started his cpa career at lumsden mccormick cpas in buffalo, n.y.

more mark koziel: when cpas won’t change | gear up for growth with jean caragher


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outlook & analysis

next five years are critical for accounting firms

how deeply are you investing in your future? how are you treating the “three levels” of partners?

by allan koltin
the rosenberg national survey of cpa firm statistics

the next 12 months will start with a handful of firms breaking out of the pack and substantially raising starting salaries for new accountants in a way never seen before (see e&y’s recent announcement on staff salaries). the domino effect will play out here because if you raise first-year salaries to second-year compensation levels, your second-year staff will need to be paid like third-year staff, and this move will go all the way up to senior managers and principals.

editor’s note: every year, the rosenberg national survey of cpa firm statistics asks the profession’s top consultants two sets of questions:

    • how do you think the next 12 months will unfold? trends? predictions? other thoughts?
    • how would you assess the last 12 months? trends? observations? struggles?

more: staffing turnover’s down, but why? | what’s your firm worth? private equity wants to know | the new pipeline: outsourcing and offshoring | is this the last year of accounting’s golden age?
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

the firms that are “uber” profitable will have an easier time funding this change than their peers. however, if you want to win the important war for talent (i mean attract, keep and grow future stars!), you will now need to pay up for them in a way we never envisioned (simple supply and demand economics in play).
read more →

special

microsoft refreshes copilot with wave 2

revolutionize your workflow by automating tasks, enhancing accuracy and boosting productivity.

by rick richardson

microsoft copilot has been a competitive alternative to chatgpt since its inception, sometimes surpassing openai’s product. but copilot has trailed behind chatgpt’s advancements – until now.

more tech this week: thomson reuters brings al to audit solutions | new in-flight earbud adapter ideal for travelers | new tech turns bombed-out rubble into blocks for new homes | discovery in california could power 375 million electric vehicles | lexar ssd expands storage for pro-level video | five new google maps and waze features | new warehouse robot could revolutionize efficiency | new pacemaker powered by light, no batteries
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

in a live event called “microsoft 365 copilot: wave 2,” microsoft revealed all the next improvements to its ai assistant, which will benefit both business and individual users.
read more →

audit & assurance

give your audit teams tasks that increase business acumen

business-mindedness helps you identify risks.

by alan anderson, cpa
transforming audit for the future

i’ve previously described a task i have teams perform at the end of an audit. after everyone shares their insights about what they learned about that client and their operations, i ask everyone to complete this phrase:

“if i were running this business, i would ______________.”

 

more: are you using the right business model? | give advice while remaining independent | the new formula for an accounting business | don’t risk losing good employees for bad clients | four questions to make your firm more successful as a business | say adios to audit fee pressure | deliver more audit value by getting out of the conference room | six essential elements in audit planning | before the audit: more than just planning | five crucial attributes for successful audit leadership | put the ethics code to work for your clients and your firm | is audit in crisis because of definitions?
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

here are a few of the ideas i’ve heard audit teams come up with in that exercise:

read more →

mergers & acquisitions

want to merge? here are 23 things to request

this is your starting point.

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

question: what do you ask for when considering a merger?

more: i’m just starting out; why join an association? | don’t blame the client for your location | who to hire when it’s time to grow | the top tip for reviewing tax returns | 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 | higher fees to start: ten ways to make your tax season better
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

response: this is a “you show me yours and i’ll show you mine.” you should have this information fairly well organized.

also, look at it critically and try to imagine what a prospective partner would say, and how you would react if this were someone else’s information that were being presented to you.
read more →

outlook & analysis

staff turnover’s down, but why?

the aftermath of the great resignation leaves many questions.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research
rosenberg national survey of cpa firm statistics

as the pandemic wound down, there was a pretty big shakeup at cpa firms. almost a fifth of employees left their firm. some moved on to similar positions. some got canned. and some ditched the whole profession in a search for satisfaction elsewhere.

more: what’s your firm worth? private equity wants to know | the new pipeline: outsourcing and offshoring | is this the last year of accounting’s golden age?
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

charles hylan – managing director of the growth partnership, which conducts the rosenberg national survey of cpa firm statistics – hazards a guess, based on his experience with cpa firms, that “a large number are leaving the profession altogether.” among all firms surveyed, i.e., firms with over $2 million in billings, “a whopping 75 percent of staff turnover is voluntary.”

read more →

accounting influencers

richard kopelman: aprio’s plans for global conquest | accounting influencers | part 2 of 2

from $70 milliion to $450 million: the power of positivity, strategic planning, and going international.

subscribe to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 podcasts anywhere: apple, google/youtube, spotify, iheart, deezer, amazon music, audible, player fm, audacy, rss.

accounting influencers
with rob brown

richard kopelman, ceo and managing partner of pe-owned aprio, shares his philosophy of staying positive and never giving up, the importance of having a well-written strategic plan, and his vision of truly global accounting firms.

see part 1: richard kopelman: inside aprio’s bold makeover | more accounting influencers with rob brown | aprio sells majority stake to charlesbank capital partners  | cited: mindset: the new psychology of success

in the second part of a two-part accounting influencers series, kopelman tells rob brown that a growth mindset drives aprio’s tremendous revenue growth from $70 million to $450 million.

read more →