pay

top 20 tough choices for the partner comp committee

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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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staff wages hit record high

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line chart
payroll services staff hourly earnings

their bosses aren’t seeing the same increases.

by beth bellor
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

going into the new year, the average american is doing somewhat better. earnings are up a bit; unemployment is down a bit.

more: despite staffing crunch, firms freeze pay raises | tax & accounting firms grow for 9th straight month | tax & accounting profession grows, but wages don’t | tax and accounting pay advancing at 5.9% pace | accounting jobs up 4% for year
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for employees in the tax, accounting and bookkeeping business, things are more complicated. pay for employees overall? usually down, way down. but pay for staff in every sector? all-time highs.
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despite staffing crunch, firms freeze pay raises

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line chart
average hourly earnings of all employees in the accounting profession. hint: don’t show this chart to recruits.

 

millennials say compensation isn’t the most important thing. employers say, “heard.”

by beth bellor

suppose you’re a leader in a field that has fretted for months over staff shortages. would you put on your thinking cap, plug it in for a while and come up with… frozen pay?

more: tax & accounting firms grow for 9th straight month | tax & accounting profession grows, but wages don’t | tax and accounting pay advancing at 5.9% pace | accounting jobs up 4% for year
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strangely enough, that’s what the latest tax and accounting profession earnings data show. compared to previous months, the trend is stagnant or even down. the only bright spot was in payroll services staff, which also added bodies – but cut hours.

(how’s that song go? if it weren’t for bad luck?)
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tax & accounting firms grow for 9th straight month

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line graph
overall accounting profession employment

 

bookkeeping is playing the tortoise game.

by beth bellor

bit by bit, the accounting profession is growing. despite a staffing shortage. despite an uncertain economy. despite everything, tax and accounting firms are steadily adding to headcounts.

more: tax & accounting profession grows, but wages don’t | tax and accounting pay advancing at 5.9% pace | accounting jobs up 4% for year
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as tax and accounting professionals begin planning for the year ahead, the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research team is fielding a new survey to check the pulse of the profession, detect emerging trends, and identify the best success strategies going into 2024.
join the survey. get the results.
click here to launch the 10-minute survey.

according to the latest data mined by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research, new highs were reached in september in employment overall, staff, cpa firm staff, bookkeeping, women overall and women in cpa firms. staff also hit a new mark for hourly earnings.

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ai and the future of advisory

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or, ‘the real battlefield: ai’s inroads into value creation within accounting’

by ric payne

four university professors sat the 3.5 version of chatgpt for the cpa exam in may. and it failed. rather badly, it turns out! averaging a score of 53.1 across all sections.

however, it passed when the same researchers repeated the experiment on the upgraded chatgpt version 4.0 only a month later. rather impressively, actually.  with an average score of “the chatbot received an 87.5 in the part that rated highest, auditing and attestation (aud),” the researchers reported.

more on artificial intelligence: chris vanover: question the why or stay with the status quo | ai + mri = diseases that doctors might miss | the art of prompt engineering for accountants | staff need good pay and tlc | two words define your work future in the ai world | becky livingston launches “the b2b marketer’s guide to ai” | getting real: accounting tech decisions you need to make today | generative ai: should you avoid it or adopt it? | the disruptors: al anderson on the new manifesto for accountants | should accountancy account for sustainability? | firms rev up expansion plans | what an a.i.-powered workforce means for accountants | jody padar: build a practice that works for you, not vice-versa. | ai systems just for accounting in development | ai is not your enemy |

more 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 coverage here.

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this is a very interesting development for several reasons.

first, it’s amazing how quickly chatgpt has improved. i doubt a human, even a smart one, would achieve a 32 percentage point improvement in an examination score in just a few months. this performance improvement begs the question: are we looking at the likelihood of close to 100% shortly? read more →

staff need good pay and tlc

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table of responses

they’re scarce. here’s how to keep them happy.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

it’s no news to the accounting industry that staff and professionals are hard to find and hard to keep from wandering off to some other firm.

more: survey: accountants economic outlook brightens | the 7 categories of cybersecurity solutions firms need | understanding the full cost of a data breach | research: accounting pros cautiously optimistic about generative ai | how auditors can beat ai | why the u.s. must act now to protect our online privacy
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and the law of supply and demand hasn’t failed to rule, according to the global talent trends 2023 survey of the association of chartered certified accountants: scarce employees expect a good salary, good treatment and a chance to work outside the office.

identifying and dealing with these employees’ expectations is essential to a continuous and successful flow of business. the survey found five challenges to that flow.
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jason deshayes: what we’re doing isn’t working

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create opportunities for others by getting out of the way.

subscribe to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 podcasts anywhere: apple, google, spotify, iheart, deezer, amazon music and audible, player fm, audacy, gaana (india), and boomplay (africa).

see the disruptors

the disruptors
with liz farr

by age 35, jason deshayes, cpa/pfs, cfp, cka, was already co-owner of a cpa firm in albuquerque. he “hit the magic shangri la that we’re all working for.” but it wasn’t right for him. he was bored with the long hours and felt he wasn’t growing. he wasn’t able to think about his firm the way he wanted to. so he and his partner sold their firm.

more podcasts and videos: heather satterley: you’ve got to meet people where they are | bill penczak: stop forcing smart people to do stupid work | sandra wiley: staffing problem? check your culture | scott scarano: first, grow people. then firm growth can follow | jody padar: build a practice that works for you, not vice-versa | ira rosenbloom: with m&a, nobody wants a fixer-upper | peter margaritis: the power skills every accountant needs | joe montgomery: find the sweet spot of the right clients, right services and right prices | marie green: your bad apples are ruining you | megan genest tarnow: hire for curiosity rather than compliance | clayton oates: one way to keep clients for life | randy crabtree: follow these three rules to keep employees happy | erik solbakken: yes, you can work less and make more | donny shimamoto: future firm growth requires a mindshift | jennifer wilson: empower young workers to build the firm everyone loves | mike whitmire: re-think your hiring and training practices | hector garcia: success strategies of a quickbooks youtube superstar | blake oliver: why tax work yearns to be free| private equity explodes in u.k. | brannon poe: the status quo must go  | accounting nerds, unlock your super powers  | disruptor: jason statts shakes up the status quo | think small to think big with matt wilkinson | when financial statements go extinct with corey schmidt | can geraldine carter save accountants from themselves? | re-inventing accounting with tyler anderson

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

today, he’s coo at cook wealth, a hybrid wealth management and tax firm. providing both types of services means that they don’t deal with “this weird thing, where the client’s in the middle, and they have to be the conduit for information going both ways.” he says that getting his cfp has “been so enriching.” deshayes added, “i love what i do, and it’s because i was willing to drop stuff so other people could learn the stuff i learned, and so i could do fun stuff.”  


click “play” to see: what jason deshayes talks about when he’s talking about a “forward-thinking enterprise.” (via wordclouds.com)

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how to boost profits by (omg) sharing the upside

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workers of the world unite.

by bill penczak

about a decade ago, the managing partner of our $100 million firm and i were discussing compensation and commission for our five business development professionals. he and i were in complete agreement that there should be no cap on commission or compensation – even if that compensation level with their base and commission was at par with or even exceeded that of the partner group.

more: 12 points of a good compensation plan | rate managing partners in six areas | eight ways managing partners make a real difference | five reasons that leaders fail | eleven things partners must do | seven keys to becoming an equity partner | how to achieve partner unity | the seven building blocks of a great partnership
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“if they’re making money, we’re making money,” he said. “why would i want to limit that?”

anyone who agrees with that premise should continue to read below. if not, feel free to move on to the next 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 article or the ny times short crossword.

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heather satterley: you’ve got to meet people where they are

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stop saying yes to everything and start saying yes to yourself.

subscribe to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 podcasts anywhere: apple, google, spotify, iheart, deezer, amazon music and audible, player fm, audacy, gaana (india), and boomplay (africa).

see the disruptors

the disruptors
with liz farr

heather satterley is well-known for being an accounting tech expert. but tech isn’t the only skill accountants need today and for the future. “you can have great technology skills, but if you don’t have people skills and those softer skills, that’s going to be a problem,” she said.   

more podcasts and videos: bill penczak: stop forcing smart people to do stupid work | sandra wiley: staffing problem? check your culture | scott scarano: first, grow people. then firm growth can follow | jody padar: build a practice that works for you, not vice-versa | ira rosenbloom: with m&a, nobody wants a fixer-upper | peter margaritis: the power skills every accountant needs | joe montgomery: find the sweet spot of the right clients, right services and right prices | marie green: your bad apples are ruining you | megan genest tarnow: hire for curiosity rather than compliance | clayton oates: one way to keep clients for life | randy crabtree: follow these three rules to keep employees happy | erik solbakken: yes, you can work less and make more | donny shimamoto: future firm growth requires a mindshift | jennifer wilson: empower young workers to build the firm everyone loves | mike whitmire: re-think your hiring and training practices | hector garcia: success strategies of a quickbooks youtube superstar | blake oliver: why tax work yearns to be free| private equity explodes in u.k. | brannon poe: the status quo must go  | accounting nerds, unlock your super powers  | disruptor: jason statts shakes up the status quo | think small to think big with matt wilkinson | when financial statements go extinct with corey schmidt | can geraldine carter save accountants from themselves? | re-inventing accounting with tyler anderson

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

one of those softer skills that will be a key skill for the future is problem-solving, which requires keeping an open mind to “look at not just facts and figures, but look at tools, resources, people and pull them all together,” she explained. no one can be an expert at everything, so having “a wide network of really awesome professionals” is vital for filling in any gaps “to get the job done.”  

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bill penczak: stop forcing smart people to do stupid work

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challenge your people and keep the work interesting or risk losing them. 

subscribe to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 podcasts anywhere: apple, google, spotify, iheart, deezer, amazon music and audible, player fm, audacy, gaana (india), and boomplay (africa).

the disruptors
with liz farr

too many accounting firms have “smart people doing stupid work,” according to bill penczak, a veteran sales and marketing professional. the founder and chief insights officer for mica ventures said to think about the effort it takes to get an accounting degree and get your cpa, and contrast that with the years of mindless work that many new hires are required to do, especially if they go into audit, he said. “one of the reasons why there’s such a talent shortage is because the market has figured this out,” and no one wants to do that stupid work, penczak said.

more podcasts and videos: sandra wiley: staffing problem? check your culture | scott scarano: first, grow people. then firm growth can follow | jody padar: build a practice that works for you, not vice-versa | ira rosenbloom: with m&a, nobody wants a fixer-upper | peter margaritis: the power skills every accountant needs | joe montgomery: find the sweet spot of the right clients, right services and right prices | marie green: your bad apples are ruining you | megan genest tarnow: hire for curiosity rather than compliance | clayton oates: one way to keep clients for life | randy crabtree: follow these three rules to keep employees happy | erik solbakken: yes, you can work less and make more | donny shimamoto: future firm growth requires a mindshift | jennifer wilson: empower young workers to build the firm everyone loves | mike whitmire: re-think your hiring and training practices | hector garcia: success strategies of a quickbooks youtube superstar | blake oliver: why tax work yearns to be free| private equity explodes in u.k. | brannon poe: the status quo must go  | accounting nerds, unlock your super powers  | disruptor: jason statts shakes up the status quo | think small to think big with matt wilkinson | when financial statements go extinct with corey schmidt | can geraldine carter save accountants from themselves? | re-inventing accounting with tyler anderson

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

besides making smart people do stupid work, penczak said many of the firms he works with are realizing that they need to do a better job with mentoring and career development, as well as simply having more conversations with their people.

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use organization charts to rewrite the future

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woman's hand drawing an organization chart

how do people view themselves?

by ed mendlowitz
77 ways to wow!

an effective way to review key staff is to have them separately draw up two organization charts to see how they view their role.

more: what clients don’t know about cost variances | why and how to track payroll costs | use constraints to make improvements | the role of strategy in pricing | wow clients with trend analysis | 26 ways to wreck a financial projection | three ways to run a break-even analysis | price not always the top consideration in a sale | when an owner dies without a buy-sell agreement | due diligence is in the details | manage better with the right financial tools
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the first chart is what they think their role is showing who they report to, who reports to them, lateral associates and support personnel. the second chart is what they would like it to be. rarely would the two be the same.
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