here’s what you’re looking for: 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

charts & graphs

new surge in wages, hours, hiring

screen shot 2014-03-10 at 4.08.47 pm
tax, accounting and bookkeeping employment, through february 2014

the u.s. tax, accounting and bookkeeping industries are turning out to be one of the brightest spots in the nation’s economy, adding jobs faster than all but a handful of sectors, according to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 sources.

here 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 reports on:

  • current hiring trends in each of the bookkeeping, tax, payroll and cpa segments of the industry.
  • average hourly wages for key segments.
  • typical hours worked per week.
  • and trends concerning women in the accounting workforce. read more →
outlook & analysis

top 100 firms grow 8%

top 100 firms revenue growth, annual percentage change
top 100 firms revenue growth, annual percentage change

while payrolls lag.

the nation’s top 100 tax and accounting firms advanced total revenues by 7.8% in 2013, totaling $53.9 million, while expanding payrolls only 5.5%, according to the industry-leading accounting today study.

the gap between revenue growth and headcounts suggests that firms are banking profits as never before even as organic expansion lags.

in other highlights from the study: read more →

busy season management

tax season quality controls: turning a cost into a money-maker

fact-checking adds little value. so why are you spending so much time on it?

by ed mendlowitz
how to review tax returns

too many otherwise very smart tax preparation operations confuse the two primary types of tax-return quality-control reviews: reviews for content and reviews for issues. each type of review requires a different discipline. one of them costs you money and the other can make you money, lots of it. read more →

busy season management

new survey findings: tax season price wars

accountants scramble as competition surges for bread-and-butter tax work.
join the survey; get the results.

_top 10 tax season issues

by rick telberg
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

pricing and fee pressures are surging as the hot-button issues this tax season, according to the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer.

to be sure, late or unprepared clients remain the single biggest issue, with 48% of more than 500 practitioners surveyed in february citing it, followed by tardy 1099s and k1s at 35%. those metrics are little changed from last february.

but this year, 31% of practitioners are complaining about pricing and fee pressures, which is triple the year-ago 10% figure.

related research
is the tax prep business topping out?  the number of filings by tax professionals appears to have slowed or even reversed.
tax season metrics shift for the better:   key indicators point to a better 2014 than 2013.
practitioners plot fee-pressure countermeasures:  competitors vie for clients on price and promises.

read more →

outlook & analysis

survey: is the tax prep business topping out?

the number of filings by tax professionals appears to have slowed or even reversed.
screen shot 2014-03-06 at 12.56.57 pm

combined with data from the irs, it appears to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 that the price-sensitive bottom of the tax market is getting raked over the coals this year. and it may represent an historic shift.

cch’s top federal tax analyst, mark luscombe, agrees, “it’s possible that tax professionals are trading away quantity for quality. they may be doing fewer returns, but focusing on the higher-value work.” read more →

outlook & analysis

survey: tax season metrics shift for the better

key indicators point to a better 2014 than 2013.

last year at this time, 43% of practitioners were already scrambling to put more clients on extension than the year before, according to the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer.

卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer survey findings:

this year, only 25% are expecting an increase in the number of extensions. read more →

busy season management

survey: how tax pracs battle new fee pressures

competitors vie for clients on price and promises.

file7411252893790by rick telberg
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

while the tax prep market is rife this year with competitive lowballing, many seasoned and established professionals are fighting back with grit and guile.

mostly, they still expect to improve upon last year’s results, but it won’t always be easy. and last year was so awful that many had expected 2014 to be a cakewalk. well, it’s not the cakewalk many expected.

卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer survey findings:
tax season price wars: accountants scramble as competition surges for bread-and-butter tax work.
is the tax prep business topping out?  the number of filings by tax professionals appears to have slowed or even reversed.
tax season metrics shift for the better:   key indicators point to a better 2014 than 2013.
join the survey; get the results.

a nine-partner firm with three offices stretching from vermont to arizona is feeling the heat on fees from competing firms. “while we don’t want to lower fees to a break-even scenario,” says one partner, “we are lowering fees where needed if we believe the client will be long-term.” the partner also voices “concerns with obtaining qualified experienced staff, resulting in some of our staff work being done by top-level management. this is driving our profit per client down.” read more →

client service opportunities

how to find new clients on social media

leadtail2

study shows cfos’ key interests and topics for conversation.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

new research into chief financial officers’ habits on twitter shows their favorite topics of conversation, how they describe themselves and their top sources of information.

any one of those could be an opportunity to make a connection, maybe even make a new client, according to business development experts. 

read more →

outlook & analysis

the cpa’s responsibility in creating good governance

by sean stein smith

scandals that have rocked public and regulatory confidence in the business community are not difficult to name: aig, lehman brothers, the “london whale.”

good governance, the argument goes, can be the difference between mediocre performance and outstanding performance. it can even be the difference between staying in business and going under.

read more →