management

how to get paid faster this tax season

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stamp paid - 3dit’s good for business and considerate to clients.

by ed mendlowitz
tax season opportunity guide

tax season is a business and businesses need to be paid. it is harder to justify prices when providing services rather than products. products are usually priced before delivery while many times services are priced after delivery, i.e. performance.

many accountants price returns before they are worked on, usually basing the fee on last year, or a rate schedule. sending a bill with the return establishes the relationship that you should be paid promptly for the work done.

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how to ‘go digital’ when partners demand monthly p&ls on paper?

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technology security with internet digital signature as artwhy 75% of multi-owner firms have already gone to online monthly financial reports.

by roman h. kepczyk
quantum of paperless

improving firm efficiency means that the owners have to get on board. one of the more obvious opportunities is the delivery of the firm’s own financial reports.

too many firms still print a hard copy of the monthly financials and distribute them to each owner, many of whom physically store these documents in their office. read more →

40 ways to make your cpa firm profitable

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money tree growing in the middle of green meadowby marc rosenberg
retirements & buyouts

it has been said that organizations should never make profitability their goal. why? because profitability should be the result of an organization’s efforts, not its goal. create and maintain a world-class organization that satisfies the clients’ needs – and profits will result.

that’s just, may i say, poppycock.

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accounting firms run on more than checklists alone

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business man pointing the text: duplicate successhow savvy firms capture their best practices and foster continuous improvement.

by roman h. kepczyk
quantum of paperless

every firm has accountants who are 10 percent, 20 percent or even 50 percent more productive in their departments than other personnel because they have simply “figured it out.”

more on tech spending: going paperless means convincing clients first | how to cut tax prep costs with scanners | making digital tax process easier is all about the workflow | why firms need document retention standards | intranet is the best place for firm knowledge | digital fax has benefits you may be ignoring | wireless is hot, and here’s how to handle it | how safe is your internet lifeline? | new tech tools for the 24/7 accounting firm | when to adopt microsoft’s new office apps

unfortunately, when these people leave the firm, their unique knowledge of specific processes and shortcuts goes with them. read more →

women must see politics as leadership to get ahead

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leadership skills and womenfour reasons women hold themselves back.

by ida o. abbott
sponsoring women: what men need to know

many women are uncomfortable calling attention to their achievements and ambitions, dislike politics, have difficulty asking others for a career boost or underestimate the importance of powerful backers. this makes it harder for potential sponsors to recognize how worthy these women are of their support.

more on sponsoring women for leadership: 5 ways gender bias plays out at cpa firms | 3 reasons why men don’t pick women protégées | men advance 2 to 1 over women without sponsors | 18 ways sponsors can help their protegees | the 6 market advantages of women-led firms | beyond mentoring: why sponsoring women for leadership matters

some women hurt their own chances for sponsorship by failing to let sponsors know what they want and why they merit it. sponsors are drawn to star performers who display confidence and a drive to succeed. where a man might insist he is the right person for a job and ask to be promoted, a woman who is equally or even better qualified may downplay her qualifications for the job. instead of aggressively pursuing promotions and opportunities, she waits to be asked, and then, when asked, may turn the offer down. why? read more →

2015 forecast: healthy revenue gains nationwide for firms of all sizes

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business hand holding hot chart in crystal ball

exclusive to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

tax and accounting firms across the nation are projecting in the new “national map survey of cpa firm statistics” steady revenue gains through the end of 2014 and into the new year.

a big chunk of cpa firms are increasing their reliance on consulting services as a fee generator during the profession’s third year of steady expansion in 2013, according to the report, best known as “the rosenberg survey” for its founder, 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 contributor marc rosenberg. read more →

18 ways to blow a partnership opportunity

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by ed mendlowitz

question: i have been working for a one-owner cpa firm for the past eight years and want a partnership, but it hasn’t been offered. how should i approach it?

response: i had a couple of rather long discussions with this practitioner. why, i don’t know. i suppose i was being polite to the person who told him to call me.

here is some additional information before i give my response: read more →

deciphering the current state of the cpa firm merger market

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by marc rosenberg
cpa firm mergers

with 80 percent of first-generation firms never turning over to a second generation of owners, it’s no wonder that merger mania continues unabated. each year sees increased merger activity over the one previous.

“merger mania” is particularly prevalent among the top 10 to 25 firms in the largest 75 markets in the u.s. and canada, partly due to the “new normal” – an economy that remains too sluggish to satisfy the ambitious growth targets of these top performers. but acquiring talent and niches is equally as important a reason for mergers to these larger firms, as is increased revenue.

sellers, however, remain hesitant.

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mirror, mirror on the wall

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11 weekly self-assessment questions for successful professionals.h

by august aquila
the effective partnership

when’s the last time you talked to your partners about the “mirror questions”? we all know that it’s easy to kid ourselves about how well we’re doing. but when we have to look ourselves in the mirror, well, it’s another story.

rather than giving the partners the questions they should answer, we suggested that they come up with their own self-assessment. specifically, we wanted them to devise questions they could ask themselves each week to evaluate how well they had performed. in the end, we came up with 11. read more →

mergers: 11 lessons from done deals

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if they had it all to do over again…

by marc rosenberg
cpa firm mergers

as you might suspect, in 20 years of consulting to cpa firms, several dozen mergers of my clients have taken place.

from time to time, i meet with the managing partner of the firm that was my client and ask them how the merger went, what they would do differently and what advice they would give to firms contemplating a merger.

here are some choice morsels… read more →