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outlook & analysis

thanks for the feedback on today’s sevenkeys cpa webinar

seven keys logothanks to everyone for joining us for the webinar, “how to generate, nurture and close new business.”

watch for the link to the recording.

your early feedback has been very helpful!

  • “relevant useful content – ability to act on today.”
  • “it was very informative, allowed me to see the things we as a firm are doing right and some things we need to focus more on. the guest speaker was also fantastic and really knew the subject matter.”
  • “good content, but needed more questions answered and give more examples of strategies that work in the acctg” field.”
  • “i was impressed with what you know, how much you know about it & how well you articulate your message.”
  • “it is very timely for our firm since we are in the process of re-doing our website and starting to embrace social media.”

the next event is july 25, “how to protect your clients from competitors / client service, satisfaction & retention.”

see the full schedule here.

– rick telberg

outlook & analysis

in this week’s newsletter: life after data entry

see this week’s research update newsletter

rick telberg
rick telberg

in comments this week, subscribers are sharing ideas about the end of data entry, the new staff shortage, and the problems of mixing business with friends or family.

cheryl biondolillo is looking forward to the end of keying-in. “i will be glad when it becomes a reality,” she says. “it feels likes a waste of time being a data entry person.”

noting that “finding qualified staff is back in focus in 2013,” dan gaffney sees small and mid-sized firms changing their steadfast ways and looking at flexible staffing models.”

and, “after 30 years in the business,” janice page refuses to mix business with family or friends. “i have decided that i hate being the accountant for friends and family. i don’t ask the questions i should ask, i don’t say the things i should say, i say the wrong things at the wrong times, i know too much about how they spend their money and i don’t know how to bill.”

– rick telberg
president / ceo

outlook & analysis

the five psychological hurdles that cpa firms must confront today

patrick j. mckenna
patrick j. mckenna

denial, perfectionism, precedent, competence and agility.

by patrick j. mckenna
professional services firm consultant and author

the professional services sector is undergoing a fundamental change. accounting firms are navigating a tough financial climate, suppressed growth rates, and declining demand. previous downturns have been transitory, as the industry has been able to recover within a few years.

however this time the landscape has changed and the professional sector is not expected to return to previous levels of growth for a long time.

adapted from the introduction to “how to engage partners in the firm’s future: the secrets every leader needs to know,”  by august j. aquila and robert j. lees

whatever kind of economist-speak you prefer, there’s no getting around the fact that now is a scary time to be the leader of an accounting firm. read more →

outlook & analysis

new math for accountants: 3×3=10

how some cpas are leveraging principles and metrics as trusted business advisors.

by edi osborne
mentorplus

there’s a new formula for the business acumen needed to improve the overall performance of an organization: 3 x 3 = “10” in business performance. are you an accountant who “gets” this new math?

more from 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 on business advisory services: give business clients something to talk about [video]   |   the accounting profession promise that could change everything   |  score your firm on eight critical success factors   |  the cloud won’t make you into a superhero   |  the client-centric firm of the future [video]   |  the big mistake cpas make in client service   |

business owners are looking for an accountant who understands that for a business to be a “10,” they have to have the 3 x 3 fundamentals down pat. business owner expectations are on the rise, and client satisfaction may take a hit as these minimum expectations become the status quo.

to win in any game you have to know three things: read more →

outlook & analysis

in this week’s research update: discerning between trends and news

to see this week’s research update, click here.

in this week’s edition of research update, the top trends are all about staffing, with two items: (1) the re-emergence of staffing shortages as a challenge to accounting firm growth; and (2) the new eagerness detected among accounting staffers to jump to a new job.

either way, it spells new challenges for cpa firms.

but the top news item of the week is the release of the aicpa’s financial reporting framework for small- and medium-sized entities. some may still recall the 40-year-old campaign for differential accounting standards as “big gaap, little gaap.” it’s news. but is it a trend? we hope it doesn’t take another 40 years to find out.

– rick telberg
president / ceo

charts & graphs

‘unprecedented demand’ for accounting grads

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cpa firm hiring tops 40,000 for first time ever.

by rick telberg

bolstering reports of a suddenly surging profession with a high demand for top talent, a new survey of colleges and firms by the aicpa shows that cpa firms are hiring a record number of graduates.

at the same time, the pipeline of accounting students is bulging, suggesting to some that the continuing high demand for new recruits can be met by newly minted graduates for the next few years.

this will come as good news to firms facing growing new-business opportunities, tougher competition and a growing need for entry-level staff.

it does not, however, help alleviate the catastrophic stall in growth dating back to the 1990s with the spread of the so-called 150-hour rule that has left the profession with a gaping hole in its succession and business continuity strategies. the profession, already facing a succession crisis due to the aging-out of the baby boomers, now finds itself with a dearth of 40- and 50-something senior managers and junior partners to take over management and control – a fact that a record supply of new graduates won’t correct for 10 or 20 years, if ever.

 

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the good news for hiring: pipeline fills with huge supply of talent.

the report shows: read more →

growth strategies

back to the future: staff shortages re-emerge as top worry for cpa firms

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preview image

a sign of economic recovery and increased competition.

bringing in new business and finding top-notch staffers to handle anticipated growth are emerging as the new, most pressing challenges for cpa firms today.

with a rebounding economy, the aicpa says in its new pcps “top issues survey” that client retention, which had been a significant concern for firms in the 2009 survey, has been overtaken by a tilt toward growth issues.

“finding qualified staff” was a top issue from 1997 to 2007 for all but the smallest firms, but disappeared entirely from top 5 lists in 2009. now it’s back.

read more →

outlook & analysis

accounting staffers show new signs of job restlessness

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preview image

some 37 percent of finance and accounting workers say they are likely to look for a new job in the next 12 months, an increase from 33 percent last quarter.

fifty-three percent say they are not likely to job search, falling five percentage points from the previous quarter.

confidence among u.s. finance and accounting workers decreased 2.4 points to 53.4 in the first quarter of 2013 after rebounding in the last quarter of 2012. read more →

outlook & analysis

barry melancon on the new ‘little gaap’

actually, don’t call it “little gaap.” officially, it’s the frf – which stands for financial reporting framework for small- and medium-sized entities. and it represents a new chapter in the saga for accounting standards tailored by size of entity.

in this video bite, aicpa ceo barry melancon explains what frf might mean for the profession.

for details, here are:

  • the official announcement of frf and
  • the aicpa’s complete report:

click to download the full aicpa report (pdf, 188 pages) read more →

outlook & analysis

it’s complicated: billing a friend

rick telberg
rick telberg

in this week’s edition of research update, ed mendlowitz takes on “how not to bill a client who is also a friend” with some tough love. 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 pro member katrina geety adds an additional practical strategy in comments.

also in comments, drew west adds a tech twist to last week’s “10 basic ways to boost profits.” and savannah, ga., cpa cooper glenn adds his voice to the chorus about the worst tax season ever.

 – rick telberg
president / ceo

p.s.: registration is now open for the 2013 sevenkeys to successful cpa firm management webinar series. the first one is june 27 and features practical tips for online lead generation. (as always, we guarantee you’ll be satisfied with the value, or your money back.)

leadership

the managing partner’s secret weapon in change management

august-aquila-headshot-large-copy-150x150
august aquila

by august aquila
 author of “leadership at its strongest”
and “how to engage partners in the firm’s future“

research shows that managing partners and marketing directors are still facing some major challenges when it comes to getting their firms to implement change. why?

here are four key issues firm leaders today face.

1. getting partners to buy in.
2. creating a firm vision that gets all partners on the same page.
3. helping develop a culture of accountability.
4. being asked to accomplish too many goals.

when the managing partner and the chief marketing officer work together they have a better chance of being successful in these areas. you may ask what do these four factors have to do with the marketing director? and i would answer – everything.

overcoming these four issues will make the firm more competitive, efficient and profitable. here’s how the best managing partners work with their marketing directors: read more →

outlook & analysis

tax season 2013: “we wuz robbed!”

from this week’s research update newsletter. for the rest of the newsletter, click here.

rick telberg

we’re still licking our wounds and counting our losses from the worst tax season ever. it may mark a watershed, as well, in long-term trends.

卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 has found meaningful signs that the tax prep industry is losing market share. now comes hitendra patil, coo at pransform inc., an accounting technology developer, who has crunched some 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 data. noting the irs received 1.9 million more e-filed returns this year, and multiplying by the $246 price of a typical itemized 1040 with a schedule a and a state return, you get $467 million. that’s millions that didn’t go to accountants.

many accountants today must feel today like boxer max schmeling’s manager in 1932 when the heavyweight title bout went the wrong way: “we wuz robbed!”

– rick telberg
president / ceo

p.s.: if you plan to be in las vegas for the aicpa practitioners symposium, please join us sunday, 2-4 p.m. for a sevenkeys cpa workshop. save $100 on registration with code “ubz.”

correction: this post corrects two errors in the newsletter version of this article, which reported the dollar figure in billions instead of millions and rounded it incorrectly. hitendra’s math was sound. the typos are ours. thank you karen, michael, ed, and the many more who so graciously brought this to my attention.