management

partner problem? first, ask yourself these 21 questions

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dealing with dysfunctional partners: the six-step process.

by august aquila
creating the effective partnership

as much as you would like to, you cannot ignore them; nor can you accept them as they are. doing that would be unfaithful to your core principles and ultimately cause more harm to the firm than any one of them is worth.

that leaves us with three options: rehabilitate them, fire them or place them outside of the firm. but first, be sure it’s not you.

read more →

12 reasons cpa firm staff meetings are a waste of time

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four quick fixes and a magic bullet.

by august aquila

the fact of the situation is that too much time is wasted in meetings that don’t accomplish anything. we meet, we talk and we leave. no one takes minutes, there is no follow-up and we are all glad that another meeting is over. don’t get me wrong; i am not a meeting basher. a meeting can be an effective way to make sure you are on course to achieve firm and departmental objectives and use your “bully pulpit power” as the managing partner. read more →

what makes a top 100 firm?

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six guesses. only one right answer.

by marc rosenberg
the rosenberg survey

of the 45,000 cpa firms in the u.s., an elite group of these firms, referred to as the top 100 (in terms of annual revenues), is publicized by several media groups. what do they have in common? what are they doing right? read more →

good ideas can come from anywhere

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ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and areading a lot of magazines keeps thinking fresh.

by ed mendlowitz
“tax season opportunity guide“

question: why do you read so many magazines that have nothing to do with accounting? i noticed this from your blogs and references you make in your speeches.

answer: i read a lot because i like to, and because i view it as part of my job of bringing ideas to clients to help them in their businesses and because i am always looking for ideas to help my business grow. ideas are not specific to an industry. read more →

the top eight ways firms are improving profits today

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and 12 elements essential for success.

by marc rosenberg
rosenberg map survey

there are many ways to improve profitability in most cpa firms.  but there are only four, time and time again, that have the highest impact:

  1. drive top-line revenues and stop worrying about expenses.  increased revenues drop directly to the bottom line, whereas costs in a cpa firm are mostly fixed and difficult to trim back. read more →

partner retirements and buyouts: today’s 24 major deal points

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what 80% of firms agree on.

by marc rosenberg
the rosenberg survey

if partner compensation is the single most critical and sensitive aspect of cpa firm practice management today, then a close second is partner retirements and buyouts – the money partners receive for the purchase of their ownership in the firm when they retire or leave the firm due to death, disability, withdrawal or expulsion.

the amount of money involved is quite significant.  roughly 80% of all firms consider the value of the firm to include: read more →

solving the partner compensation puzzle

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start with this 20-item checklist.

by marc rosenberg
author of “cpa firm management & governance“

if you ask the partners, they will tell you that the most critical and sensitive aspect of cpa firm practice management is the allocation of partner income.

because of the sensitivity of partner compensation, firms change various aspects of their allocation system quite often.  for this reason, the smart firms include wording in their partnership agreements on partner compensation that is very short and quite general.  this way, the firm doesn’t have to revise the partnership agreement every time a change is made.

it’s a complicated task. there are seven different systems in use today, three basic tiers, a couple ways firms are calculating bonuses, and at least a dozen other items to ponder and work through.

here is a checklist of decisions that the best firms are making to determine the compensation of each partner:

read more →

identifying the right new partner in a 26-point checklist

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responsibilities, abilities, and deliverables.

bringing in a new partners is part art and part science. marc rosenberg, after studying thousands of cpa firms, has a few suggestions on the science, with a series of checklists covering intangible, financial, legal, practice development, production, client management, technical, administration, and supervision-related benchmarks. read more →

5 tips to managing and motivating virtual team members

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by sandi smith leyva, cpa
accountant’s accelerator

it’s not uncommon for even the smallest of businesses to have employees and contractors all over the world.  right now, i have an employee in the ukraine, two employees in san jose, a virtual admin in orange county, a warehouse team in indiana, a transcriptionist in las vegas, partners in new york, chicago, missouri and atlanta, and a coach in sydney, australia.

in the last few months, i‘ve moved from san jose, calif., to plano, texas, while my team stays put.   and it won’t hurt my business one tiny bit. here are five tips to help your virtual team play at their best. read more →

the 15 rules for partner teamwork

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no lone rangers, no prima donnas.

how healthy is your firm’s partnership? 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 contributor marc rosenberg, cpa, has been asking that question for 20 years at more than 700 firms by now. he has a few ideas. in fact, he has a checklist of 15 items by which to measure the strength and sustainability of any accounting practice. how well does yours measure up?

the tried-and-true rules for successful partner teamwork

1. partners agree on a common vision, goals and a set of firm practices, which are followed by all partners, even if each partner doesn’t agree 100%.

2. key firm personnel are viewed as team players, particularly in servicing clients.  clients are viewed as clients of the firm, not the individual.

3. people rarely go on sales calls alone.
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10-point checklist for bringing in a new partner

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the steps to take today to exit gracefully in the future.

by mark rosenberg
how to bring in new partners

succession planning has hit cpa firms hard.  as baby boomer partners approach retirement age, they naturally are focusing on who can take their place and eventually write their retirement checks.

there are two primary exit strategies for partners: 1) sell or merge out of existence. or 2) stay independent, retire and get bought out by younger partners who write the partners’ retirement checks with smiles on their faces.

the vast majority prefers method no. 2, but unfortunately, this option is not available to many partners and firms.  for various reasons, these firms have not developed new partners to take their place.

here is a 10-point checklist for what firms need to do to bring in a new partner: read more →