partner

how to get partners all on the same page

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monthly meetings may be the solution.

by ed mendlowitzed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and a
“tax season opportunity guide“

question: there seems to be disagreement among our partners on important issues in running our practice and we never seem to have time to discuss it or work things out. we are a three-partner firm with 15 employees and no one is designated as managing partner.

answer: a suggestion is to have monthly partner meetings out of the office and an annual retreat. both of these have been covered previously but i will add some new ideas here. 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 →

what does being a partner mean?

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how to set and enforce standards of performance.

by robert j. lees and august j. aquila
creating the effective partnership

partners are the culture in a professional services firm – what they believe, what they reward, what they do and how they do it determines what and how things get done.

but, one of the problems we consistently hear about is the lack of clarity in what being a partner means. and, in the absence of clarity the partners typically fill the gap by doing what they think it means, with all of the differences of thought and behavior that inevitably brings. 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 →

10 ways to achieve partner accountability

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卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 contributor marc rosenberg knows how to be succinct, as well as insightful. pondering the question of accountability in a cpa firm partnership, he quotes the legendary david maister, ““if people are not prepared to be held accountable for what they do, it is unlikely they will achieve much.” 

but then he adds his own epigram: “if there are no consequences for failing to achieve a goal, then it is less likely that the goal will be accomplished.”

that said, he presents a new checklist:

the 10 main ways that firms achieve partner accountability 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.
read more →

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 →

the 9 building blocks of a winning vision that the big four have discovered

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learn more about the research findings

and that you can use too.

by august j. aquila and robert j. lees
creating the effective partnership

what should a compelling vision contain?

while we still see some visions that talk about becoming the leading player in a state or region, we are seeing a real recognition that a vision is a lot more than the statement we used to see firms use across accounting and the other professional services firms sectors.

more creating the effective partnership: the politics of an accounting firm partnership  |  nine rules to creating highly effective partnership teams   |   audacious vision and grand purpose prove essential to cpa success | are you creating a sustainable firm? | the debilitating effects of denial at accounting firms | the five psychological hurdles that cpa firms must confront today

consider, now, the common ideas from the visions of the big four firms:

read more →

27 tough questions for evaluating the performance of a managing partner

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including: managing partner evaluation forms, parts 1 and 2.

by marc rosenberg
cpa firm management & governance

this is really an upward evaluation.  like all upward evaluations, people evaluating the managing partner should be limited to those in a position to offer informed input.  this means that at firms of fewer than 10 to 15 partners all the partners will probably want to participate.  but once a firm gets beyond 10 to 15 partners, an increasing number of partners may not be in a position to respond to the evaluation factors listed in the form.

more cpa firm management & governance:  18 things partners owe their firms – and each other   |  17 ways to measure a partner  |  how the structure of an accounting firm changes through the years    |    congratulations! your firm needs a human resources director    |    the 19-point marketing director job description    |    checklist: how the best managing partners and firm admins work in concert     |    21 questions for managing the managing partner    |    no partner vote needed: 17 decisions best left to the managing partner alone    |    new rules: 13 items that should be in your managing partner’s job description    |    when is it time to shift your firm from partnership-style to corporate-style governance?    |    not every firm needs a general patton    |

firms with management or executive committees may wish to limit the evaluation to the partners on those committees.

once you have decided who will be allowed to participate in the evaluation, each partner should complete the evaluation forms.  read more →