practice-management

checklist for running a practice

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poe’s book provides a step-by-step guide.

by ed mendlowitz
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 practice doctor

question: do you have a simple checklist that i could use as a guide to run my practice?

more practice doctor q&a: everyone needs strategic planning | help clients, increase revenue: make sure everyone on staff knows your firm’s full menu of services | i made partner, now what? | 19 ways to stop wasting reviewer time | how to sell your practice | when a client balks at necessary work | how to advise an executor | 14 ways to use timesheet data | why more firms are trashing timesheets | how much overhead is too much? | when partners stop growing

answer: actually my monthly q&a newsletters is a great and easy way to get information on how to run your practice. also my 101 book with my first 101 q&as is another great resource.
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8 ways to wrestle software subscriptions into submission

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one question leads to another.

by donny c. shimamoto
intraprisetechknowlogies

budget talks between accounting and information technology departments can get pretty complicated. accountants know budgets; it folks know it. not many people know both.

related: it hardware gets even more complex (great!) | how accounting geeks and techie nerds can play nicely together

but you don’t have to know both if you know the right questions. one area of special concern is budgeting for subscriptions to software.

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what does being a partner mean?

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aquila how to engage partners in the firms future clip square cvrpartners persuade their people to join them on the journey and to play a part in building a better firm.

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

just as the partners need to engage with the firm’s vision so do the firm’s people. but, like everyone, they actually engage with people not words. so, effective partners continually engage with their people, regardless of their level and role. they go out of their way to create a personal bond, sharing personal information and operating with honesty and integrity in all of their interactions.

creating the effective partnership: every partner’s first question: ‘what’s in it for me?’ | the 9 building blocks of a winning vision that the big four have discovered | 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 read more →

survey results: cpa firms accelerate growth

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the national map survey of cpa firm statistics -- the rosenberg survey
click for full report

the 2014 national map survey shows widening divide between large and small firms.

exclusive to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
the national map survey of cpa firm statistics

marking the third consecutive year of quickening expansion since the recession, cpa firms are posting 6.7% revenue growth, according to the latest results from the national map survey of cpa firm statistics reported here exclusively by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间.

screen shot 2014-09-26 at 2.04.17 pm

“the national map survey of cpa firm statistics: the rosenberg survey” is well known and well respected within the national cpa industry, due to its solid reputation for accuracy, thoroughness and high participation rate. exactly 75% of the firms in this year’s survey participated in 2013. this allows for more accurate year-to-year data comparisons. all of these characteristics, plus the highly sought-after executive summary, make “the rosenberg survey” a must-read for any entrepreneurial-minded cpa firm. the survey captures data from participating firms of all revenue ranges, from solo practitioners to those with over $20 million in net fees. read more →

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 →

are bad clients driving you crazy?

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angry businessman on the phone16 ways to tweak your compensation systems to get and keep the right clients.

if your partners are putting up a fight to keep clients who should be let go, take a look at your compensation system. it’s not just about billable hours.

august aquila, creating the effective partnership, suggests 16 tweaks to your firm’s compensation system. while the list is not exhaustive, it does provide criteria that firms can consider beyond revenue. read more →

running an accounting business

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ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and aquestion: i am the managing partner of my accounting firm by default. no one else wanted to do it. i am trying to manage things but i have a full schedule, am shorthanded on staff and continue to do a reasonable amount of marketing. i am overwhelmed. how do others do it?

response: i purposely left off the size of the firm because my response applies to every size firm – those with two partners on up to large firms with upward of 50 partners. no matter the size of your practice, it is a business and needs someone dedicated to running it. smaller firms need less time, possibly less skills and perhaps one of the partners can fill in this role. larger firms need a person who spends substantially all of their time running the business, but not necessarily a partner. read more →

ten things every firm needs to make clear firmwide

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the main categories of information for internal communications and management. by bruce w. marcus professional services marketing 3.0 while the substance of information varies from firm to firm, there are 10 categories that cannot go unconsidered:

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 →

3 steps to business clarity amid the sea change in accounting

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by sandi smith leyva, cpa
accountant’s accelerator

with labor day closing in, it’s a good time to take stock of where we stand for the year, plus re-group as needed before the 2014 busy season is upon us.  with so many changes in software, politics, tax laws, and global standards, it’s pretty easy to feel a little disorganized.

more for soloists and small firms:  the five essential skills accountants need today  | the seven essential components of a simple marketing plan for accountants  | take six big steps to go beyond compliance services     |     when your business needs to be rebooted  |   two steps to easy cross-sells   |   the hot new tech product for automated data entry   |   five value-add service areas to take you beyond bookkeeping   |   six money-making strategies to take you beyond quickbooks   |   proactive ways to get more referrals   |   the three biggest money leaks in your practice   |   new client opportunities with mobile apps   |   six questions to launch your summer strategy sessions   |   what most accountants miss in the five simple steps to get more clients   |   accountants, do you know your opportunity number? | five ideas to reduce client price-sensitivity | rise to the top with a fresh elevator speech | four ways to practice entrepreneurial perseverance | 5 mistakes to avoid when seeking new clients  | the top 12 business card blunders accountants make | seven tips to keep the clients you have | how to attract clients like a magnet | eleven easy ways to deliver more value to clients

here are three steps to help us take stock of our foundational business goals, re-evaluate our big picture, and get us centered as we enter the next quarter. 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 →

collecting past due fees

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ed mendlowitz, cpa, abv, pfs
author of “implementing fee increases“

question: client didn’t pay his bills to me, doesn’t return my phone calls, and his secretary keeps sending me the tax notices he gets with notes of “when are you going to take care of them?”  i tell her that i need the client to call me before i can do any more work and she ignores this and keeps sending me the notices and other tax correspondence he gets. i don’t want to tell him i am dropping him because then i don’t think i’ll ever be paid.  every year he goes on extension and he usually pays me half of what he owes when he sends me his tax info, but the past due amount has really accumulated to about three year’s fees.  what should i do about getting paid? read more →

why good accounting firms make bad decisions

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the dysfunctional partner team and three ways to get them back on track.

you’ve tried management by committee. and by now, you know it doesn’t work. in a new analysis of cpa firm management practices, marc rosenberg finds, “management by committee rarely works.”

there must be a better way. and, yes, there are a few. here is a five-point spectrum of approaches that firms use to make decisions. one of them may work for your firm.

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