outlook & analysis

the five essential skills accountants need today

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above and beyond accounting, you need business know-how.

by sandi smith leyva, cpa
accountant’s accelerator

we’ve worked super-hard on gaining our accounting, tax, and auditing skills.  those skills alone will keep us working as employees for someone else, but what if we want to go out on our own or grow our business beyond what we have now?

more for soloists and small firms: 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 five skills to consider adding to your toolbox so you can get ahead faster. how do you rate in each of these areas?

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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 →

building a bridge or welding girders together?

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building a bridge to somewhere…

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

screen shot 2013-08-07 at 3.13.01 pm
buy the report – $165. free shipping.

the more that partners are engaged with the firm’s future the better they perform. so, the picture of the firm’s future has to be compelling. it has to persuade people that they want to play a part in making it a reality.

more on partnership management:  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

nearly all of the firms we know agree with the sentiment but getting the partners engaged isn’t always easy. so, how do firms go about engaging the partners and making sure they remain that way? read more →

getting to the next stage

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sometimes change is improvement – sometimes it isn’t. but it’s always inevitable. by bruce w. marcus professional services marketing 3.0 the movement to replace hourly billing with value billing is accelerating. firm mergers, consolidations, new boutique firms that bear little … continued

the low-ball pricing game is for losers

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when to let the next accountant take the losses.

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

question: a client of 10 years was paying a fixed fee that was now a little less than half of our time charges. also, there had been a gradual scope creep with additional services being forced on us without any extra fees. the cpa had not received an increase in six years because of the client’s constant complaining that the fee was too high. the client just told us they had a quote from another firm that was half of ours, and said if we didn’t match it, they would leave us. what should we do? read more →

the seven essential components of a simple marketing plan for accountants

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start with an excel spreadsheet.

by sandi smith leyva, cpa

it’s quite common for accounting firms — even the regionals — to have no marketing plan in place. the marketing plan might very well be, “get as many referrals as we can.” or it might be a number for each partner — which is not a marketing plan. or it might be, “if it’s not busy season, i’ll go to my networking group.” none of these are plans. they are individual marketing tasks and components.

the number of companies that do not have fully functioning marketing plans is certainly not surprising because marketing by cpas was illegal – and considered quite sleazy — in most u.s. states until about the 1970s. so we are a profession that has always been behind on our marketing skills.

now that most of us need to market, the relief is we can do it on our terms, using excel spreadsheets, with a bunch of numbers, adding in some deadlines, and creating a very organized process, just how we accountants like things.

so here are seven components of the kind of marketing plans i like to create. we start with an excel spreadsheet. read more →

accounting industry extends two-year growth trend

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but cpas lag behind non-cpas.

get the accountants’ business outlook: join the survey; see the results.

by rick telberg
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

screen shot 2013-08-06 at 7.34.21 pmthe tax and accounting industry is extending a two-year expansion by adding 2,500 new jobs in the latest month, according to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research.

in this report:

  • employment trends for the public accounting, bookkeeping, tax and payroll sector of the economy.
  • licensed cpa firms are lagging in growth behind non-cpa accounting providers.
  • employees book more hours.
  • but wage growth gets cut back.
  • more jobs and better pay for higher-paid positions and for men; fewer new jobs and smaller pay increases for women and production workers.
  • cpa firms add to headcounts more slowly than non-cpa firms, grant lower pay increases, and hire back fewer women.

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what i’ve learned from my clients

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by sandi smith leyva
accountant’s accelerator

i feel extremely fortunate to have such a wonderful set of clients that i have learned much from the last few years.

more for soloists and small firms: 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 is a list of lessons learned that i hope will inspire you to work with your clients in new ways.

read more →