best practices for mandatory retirement

time to retire clock facethe work retired partners should – and shouldn’t – do if they stay on.

by bill reeb and dominic cingoranelli
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 / succession institute

once “fair” retirement benefits have been determined, for this moment in time, we can move on to the next step in building our succession plan. the reason i mention that we are simply putting stakes in the ground is because as we set additional stakes in the ground, those new stakes might require us to rethink a decision made when setting a previous stake.

more on performance management: how retirement issues affect succession planning | how partner ratings factor into equity | the pitfalls of equity allocation and reallocation | develop your employees or suffer the consequences

for example, if the firm later establishes premium perks for past owners who want to continue to work for the firm after sale of ownership, then that might require reassessing the retirement benefit calculation agreed to when setting that earlier stake (because in the end, the retirement benefit is about the whole package offered, not just one component).
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survey results: client retention drives today’s pricing strategies

maximizing revenue comes second. profits, third.

by rick telberg
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 pricing strategy study
join the survey. get the details.

raising rates is risky. but so is not raising rates. you have to raise them right and at the right time. and not on a willy-nilly whim. you need to think about it. you need a rationale.

in search of reasonable rationales—rationales that work—卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 is asking practitioners for the rationale behind their pricing strategy. and they are being generous in their response. most say that strategies were lacking or could be improved. read more →

how retirement issues affect succession planning

an old-school bronze justice scale with inequal stacks of moneyif you believe your firm will be dysfunctional without you, now is the time to fix it.

by bill reeb, dominic cingoranelli, and tommye barie
the succession institute

when we take our clients through succession planning, eventually the focus turns to implementing the best practices for running a firm – but first we normally have to start with short-term retirement issues.

more on performance management: succession: the questions to care about | how partner ratings factor into equity | the pitfalls of equity allocation and reallocation | cpa firm performance assessments: 15 core competencies, 21 questions | what having your employees’ backs means

why? because typically you won’t get any buy-in for change until the partners have looked at whether the current retirement system is paying at least roughly a fair market value to the near-term retiring partners.

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survey results: chaos in tax & accounting pricing

z_pricing survey logo with shadow
join the survey. get the results.

consistently inconsistent strategies.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

if there’s one especially surprising result from the new 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 price strategies and trends survey, it’s that over a third of responding accountants say they lack a consistent strategy for setting rates.

the survey remains open as we continue to gather more in-depth data. join the survey. get the results

but to put it another way, they have a consistent strategy of adjusting rates as necessary to accommodate the needs of both the cpa firm and any given individual client.

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succession: the questions to care about

track and field athletes passing relay baton. studio shot over white.bonus checklists: 5 rules to govern a succession plan. 8 keys to an effective compensation system.

by bill reeb and dominic cingoranelli

we’ve seen a lot of frequently shared, misdirected advice on commonly discussed succession issues. we would rather stop focusing on symptoms and start focusing on resolving the root cause issues that a good succession plan should address.

more on performance management: 7 succession questions to ignore for now | hazards of not reallocating equity | develop your employees or suffer the consequences | how to target what skills to develop now | what having your employees’ backs means

our solution: the robust succession framework

first and foremost, good succession management is a function of good business operating practices. over and over, we find successful firms – including many that have even effectively retired partners in the past – that are overlooking some very important best practices.
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7 succession questions to ignore for now

serious-looking businessman in front of empty conference roomthere’s some misdirection in succession management out there.

by bill reeb and dominic cingoranelli
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 / succession institute

you can’t go a week without seeing some article or blog focused on succession management and everyone seems to have a different opinion as to what is important when addressing succession. so, we thought it was time we challenged some of the more common misconceptions.

more on performance management: how partner ratings factor into equity | hazards of not reallocating equity | the pitfalls of equity allocation and reallocation | develop your employees or suffer the consequences | 5 harmful management attitudes (and how to fix them) | do cpa firms need management or leadership?

the first thing most authors want to focus on with succession is the development of future leaders. then the dialogue will shift quickly to mentoring programs, leadership training and more. well, it would be hypocritical for us to disagree with this because we actually develop and conduct these kinds of programs. however, training such as this is only valuable after many other issues are addressed first. so, while it is important, i guess the best phrase to describe this is “first things first,” and this is not first by any stretch of the imagination.

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nine factors for dividing the partner pie

cut pie chart on plate flanked by fork and knifehow to decide who gets how much voting power.

by bill reeb and dominic cingoranelli

people who can lead, develop, train and supervise others are worth much more than those who can just make themselves faster, better and stronger.

equity ownership allocation is a critical success factor if you expect your firm to continue after you leave.  for many firms, reallocation of equity ownership is or will be an important part of succession planning.  while it can cause some anxiety for your owners’ group as you go through the process, it’s better to confront the issues now, to help ensure that your firm is in good hands after your leave. it’s not necessarily easy, but it must be addressed for long-term success.

more on performance management: hazards of not reallocating equity | the pitfalls of equity allocation and reallocation | develop your employees or suffer the consequences | cpa firm performance assessments: 15 core competencies, 21 questions | do cpa firms need management or leadership?

when you are deciding which partners should have more say (or less say, which is just as important), you need to consider issues such as whose judgment partners trust, who is pulling the wagon, who consistently acts in the firm’s best interest, or who is viewed as a current or future leader. with this in mind, here are nine areas to evaluate or each partner: read more →

the hazards of not reallocating partner equity

unbalanced brass scales“this stage is usually when the crap hits the fan in many organizations.”

by bill reeb and dominic cingoranelli
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 / succession institute

let’s look at the common pitfalls we find with ownership distribution, using scenarios to drive home various points. let’s say we have a five-partner firm.

the ownership and age is as follows:

partner                                 equity                 age

senior partner 1 (sp1)           35%                    65

senior partner 2 (sp2)           35%                    63

junior partner 1 (jp1)            15%                    53

junior partner 2 (jp2)            10%                    48

junior partner 3 (jp3)              5%                    42

first of all, many firms would die for this kind of age split as – unfortunately – many firms have partners much closer in age than this 23-year range example. but continuing on, let’s say senior partner 1 (sp1) wants to retire at the end of this year. if this would occur as it does in many firms, we would be scrambling for additional partners. but for the sake of this discussion, let’s say we just addedjunior partner 3 (jp3) last year and we will add jp1 immediately after sp1’s retirement with an ownership interest of 5 percent.

so, if this were to occur without unusual intervention, the new ownership percentages would look something like this a year later:

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tax & accounting firms wrestle fewer price increases from clients

following a short-lived surge in rate hikes, clients push back and competitors swoop in.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

after hitting record billing rates in february, the nation’s tax and accounting firms are facing new resistance to price increases, in which the industry seems to be taking one step back for every two steps forward, according to a new 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 analysis.

the renewed pricing pressure suggests toughened competition in the marketplace and an overall softness in the economy as firms try to push up prices but have difficulty making them stick.

the latest data parsed by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research shows billing rates off by half of 1 percent, the seventh such decline in the last 12 months, leaving rates essentially unchanged in the last year.

the problems in raising and holding prices come after a strong surge last year in which fees rose 3 percent from march to october, according to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research.

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when two partners isn’t enough and three is too many

statue of scales of justice

the pitfalls of equity allocation and reallocation.

by bill reeb and dominic cingoranelli

i want to address the issue of equity – how it is commonly allocated to begin with, and then making adjustments to it over time.

for many firms, the idea in the beginning is that “all the partners are the same, so their ownership should be the same.” when the firm starts out with only a shingle, this is a very fair premise. so, for the sake of this column, let’s start out with a two-partner firm and build from there, talking through the common issues that arise in the area of distributing equity ownership.

more on performance management: develop your employees or suffer the consequences | cpa firm performance assessments: 15 core competencies, 21 questions | how to target what skills to develop now | what having your employees’ backs means | 5 harmful management attitudes (and how to fix them) | do cpa firms need management or leadership? | job 1 for the practice owner: client management

start with two

the most common approach would be for the two partners to split the ownership 50/50. the reason why this often works so well is because the two people who join together often are brought together because of their complementary skills. for example one might be very technically competent and the other more marketing savvy. together they make a great team – one, without the other, is less effective.

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five ways to raise your prices

money roll, calculator and magnifying glasshint: you don’t have to do it all at once.

by michelle long and sandi leyva

we know some of you might be afraid to raise prices, but there are some painless ways for both you and the client.

more small firm growth strategies: building reputation to build your business | 3 killer lead generation channels | your existing clients are your best leads | need more business? focus on referrals

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here are five:

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develop your employees or suffer the consequences

businesspeople discussing chartsevery employee, for developmental purposes, needs to directly report to somebody.

by bill reeb and dominic cingoranelli
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 / succession institute

you may have established a competency model for your firm, but how do you use it to develop your people? let’s walk through what an action plan might look like to drive that development.

it is common for firms to have talented partners and principals.  depending on the firm’s size and organization structure, things start getting fuzzier from a competence perspective from there on down the organizational chart.

more on performance management: cpa firm performance assessments: 15 core competencies, 21 questions | how to target what skills to develop now | what having your employees’ backs means | 5 harmful management attitudes (and how to fix them) | do cpa firms need management or leadership? |  job 1 for the practice owner: client management

for example, some firms have a strong management group with a gap in talent starting at the senior or supervisor level. others might experience their talent gap at the manager level because everyone who shows any self-starting initiative or promise is moved to a principal position early on. it doesn’t matter the size of your firm, you will likely be feeling a big gap or drop in talent somewhere in your organizational chart.

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how spiritual value affects pricing

padar_valuepricingbonus checklist: 34 sources of client value.

by jody padar

what we miss the most when we don’t value price is the intan­gible value, that spiritual value.

more on radicalism: radical pricing fixes cash flow problems | keep scope creep and seep from hurting bottom line | the radical approach to bundling services | get ready for radical transparency | 5 radical ways to be social and strategic | 10 radical steps into the cloud | six competitive advantages for the radical cpa | 5 radical transparencies; are you ready? | being radical starts with being the change | going radical: the 4 tenets of a ‘new firm’ | the first 3 questions i should have asked before starting my own practice

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

if it’s lacking in your firm, ask yourself these nine questions:

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