outlook & analysis

44 critical criteria for accounting staff performance evaluations

by

question: do you work from a checklist when you’re conducting staff performance appraisals?

response: silly question. checklists? do i have checklists?

seriously, staffing is a big concern, and i believe many smaller firms settle and hire the wrong people, which i’ve written about and probably beaten to death expressing my views.

more practice doctor q&a: why i don’t hire on experience  |  5 time management tips for an overworked accountant  |  staff training starts with doing something  |  11 business-getting tips for the young staffer  |  when staffers don’t listen to you  |  questions and answers on selling a practice to staff members  |  measuring growth in yourself, staff and partners  |  complaining client? no wonder!

here is a checklist to get you started.

read more →

a real-world approach for the smaller firm

by

the myth of “niche marketing.” by bruce w. marcus there is much ado, these days, about niche marketing and target marketing and using mailing lists and knowledge management. how does it all come together to make sense for the smaller … continued

6 biz dev metrics accountants should measure

by

business diagramme with magnifying glass, workplace businessman.yes, you can do marketing with a spreadsheet and a checklist.

by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

one way to help accountants embrace marketing is to fill training sessions with spreadsheets and numbers, things that most accountants love working on. there’s a lot of insecurity around learning marketing, but when accountants hear they need to do some spreadsheets first, they dive right in.

more on small-firm growth strategies: 5 areas to improve client acquisition success  |  are accountants newsworthy? you bet!  |  when accountants don’t know they don’t know  |  seven hot lead generation methods for accountants   |  what stage of business are you in?  |  8 essential ingredients for your new client welcome kit  |  4 ways small firms can surpass larger firms  |   rebuttal: the 3 most unused marketing methods for accountants

here are six numbers we suggest you track: read more →

today’s 15 essential deal points in accounting firm mergers

by

with 5 specifics on price and 5 on compensation.

by marc rosenberg
cpa firm mergers

there can be an almost unlimited number of  terms that both sides in a merger of accounting firms can haggle over. and sometimes they do.

more on cpa firm firm mergers:  do cpa firm mergers really work?   |  6 steps to handle staffing problems in a merger  |  13 ways cpa firm mergers can go wrong  |  nuances and idiosyncrasies: the top 12 issues that complicate mergers  |  talking merger? the basic 7-item agenda for the first meeting  |  10 special implementation issues in a merger of equals  |  in merger talks: 13 essential questions small firms must ask larger firms

but these days, only 15 really matter. get past these 15 and you’re on track to close a reasonable deal. still, be warned: the devil’s in the details. read more →

23 reasons clients really need you for taxes

by

ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and aquestion: this is not a question that an accountant asked me, but a fellow traveler on my vacation. he was using a tax preparation service and wasn’t happy and felt he could do just as well by doing his own tax return. i told him there were many benefits to using a tax professional like a cpa or ea that were well worth the extra cost. so my question to myself is “what are they?”

response:  people with rental property, unincorporated businesses, investments that generate k-1s, grantor trusts, substantial investments in marketable securities or large retirement accounts and 401(k) balances need to engage a professional firm, and this checklist is directed toward those clients. read more →

accounting sector tops 5% annual growth rate

by

firms now recovered about 9 in 10 jobs lost in financial collapse.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

the u.s. tax, accounting and bookkeeping industries have recovered nearly 89 percent of the jobs lost in the economic crisis, according to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 sources.

卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 careers and hiring outlook

job satisfaction and retention benchmarks

join the survey get the results button 24pt

 

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.

the u.s. economy as a whole added 209,000 jobs in july. in addition to the growth of 47,000 jobs in professional and business services, increases were seen in the manufacturing, retail trade and construction sectors. the unemployment rate remained stable at 6.2 percent, down from 7.3 percent a year earlier. read more →

how to know it’s time to scrap your old server

by

and the six recommended actions before moving to the cloud.

kepczyk
kepczyk

by roman h. kepczyk
quantum of paperless

in almost every firm, the core computers used for all applications are internal file servers. down time for a day or two is a disaster. if that out-of-service stoppage stretches to a week or more, your partner income will suffer measurably.

simply put, mission-critical servers utilized for tax, audit, time and billing, and email have, at most, an effective five-year life. read more →

do cpa firm mergers really work?

by

6 metrics to measure success. procrastinators’ 3 myths. and 5 steps you can’t skip.

by marc rosenberg
cpa firm mergers

as a generation of aging baby boomer partners marches towards retirement, thousands of firms are seeking the only exit strategy available to them – merge into another firm. thus has a voracious appetite for mergers been created at all size levels, particularly:

  • sellers who are sole practitioners (remember, 30,000 of the u.s.’s 45,000 aicpa-member firms are solos and a huge percentage of those are at an advanced age) and multipartner firms billing under $2 milllion a year.
  • buyers with annual revenues of $3 milion and more.

do mergers work?

well, that’s what doing a merger successfully is all about – asking the “right” questions.
look at the reasons why the merger was done in the first place and see if those goals were met.

good examples of the “right” questions: read more →

is it time to regulate ‘forensic’ accountants?

by

troubling problems in the forensic accounting profession and the certification industry.

by wm. dennis huber
capella university

significant prob­lems are surfacing within the forensic accounting profession and the forensic accounting certification industry, undermining both the profession and the industry.

four factors are combining to cause confusion among not just forensic accountants, but also the users of forensic accounting services: (1) the disparity in the legal statuses of the certification corporations; (2) the qualifications of their directors and officers; (3) the educational, experience and examination requirements; and (4) the (non)existence and (non)enforceability of codes of ethics and standards of practice.

it may be time for the national association of state boards of accountancy to step in.

read more →

5 reasons gen y will make or break your firm

by

and two make-or-break questions for your firm’s future.

by hitendra patil
pransform inc.

have you heard of “generation y”? anyone who was born between 1980 and 2000 is a millennial and they will be the majority of your staff within the next few years, if not already. they have grown up with technology, the information explosion and diversity. what they studied for their degrees is far vaster than what you studied.

more from this author:  3 ways amazon’s new fire phone hints at the future of accounting  |  the 8 traits creating the firm of the future today  |  get more done, make more money: stop doing these 17 things  |  what shopping habits reveal about accounting clients  |  create your “not-to-do’s” list

simply, they think and act radically different than older generations in at least five ways that are already beginning to reshape the profession. read more →