five questions for grading prospects

pipeline in shape of a dollar sign

remember, a list is not a pipeline.

by martin bissett
business development on a budget

so you’ve done all the work to get yourself composed and prepared to go out and generate new opportunities, find new business and new clients. now what? how will you know who to contact for the first step?

answer: your pipeline.

more: be clear about your roi proposition | keep business development going during busy season | walk the commitment walk | two steps toward mastering selling | thirteen ways to show commitment | clients can’t grow without you | seven mistakes in winning new fees | how to develop your communication abilities | five questions for measuring partner potential | five ways to rally your firm to its culture | when would-be partners aren’t candidates | make your expertise a new-client magnet | don’t think of it as selling
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many partners think they have a pipeline, but they don’t. what they actually have is just a list of prospects they’ve

  • met with,
  • would like to meet with or
  • have worked with in the past.

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eight steps to putting back office support into place

three young people talking in an office

includes details for the client operations manual.

by penny breslin
it’s not just the numbers

moving from compliance to reliance services is not an easy task. if you are feeling a bit overwhelmed at this point, that’s okay. however, the joy of offering back office support (bos) services and working closely with clients to help them meet their goals is well worth the effort. having a strong team, clear procedures and technology that works for you are the building blocks that allow you to succeed in this endeavor.

more: after you check your cybersecurity, help others | cover these five areas of information security | three examples: pricing your bos value add | use timesheets for productivity, not billing | revisit your back office support procedures | federated search: what it is, why it matters | accounting tech tools to minimize your pain | do your apps play well with others? | it’s ok to have favorite clients | ten questions for teamwork | yes, you can be an outsourcer
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the next layer is the clients – meeting with them, working with them and setting up the procedures to ensure that you are truly their advisor. when you carefully select your clients, take the time to understand their needs and goals, and hold them to a paperless work environment, both your team and clients will reap the rewards.
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five crucial attributes for successful audit leadership

as cpas, we exercise due professional care in all we do. when we perform audits, the bar is higher.

by alan anderson, cpa
transforming audit for the future

in my work with auditors around the country, and as i’ve thought about where audit is headed, i’ve developed a framework of five key attributes of successful leadership for audit. if we focus on these five attributes, i truly believe we can transform audit from the checklist exercise that it’s becoming into a service that genuinely adds value to our clients.

more: traditional audits don’t deserve premium billing | four basic understandings every auditor must master | put the ethics code to work for your clients and your firm | turning audit & accounting into assurance & advisory | wanted: great audit mentors | is audit in crisis because of definitions? | stop sending the wrong message to audit teams | closing the audit expectations gap
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let’s look at each of these five crucial attributes of successful audit leadership:

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tax pros handle 46.4% of e-filing

data table

 

the happy news for taxpayers: refunds are up.

by beth bellor
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

the tax deadline, as most americans define it, is drawing closer, and the country’s tax pros are gaining about 2 percentage points a week in market share of tax filings. go, accountants!

more: tax refunds, tax pro market share trending up | refunds up as tax pros tackle 41.5% of e-filingstax pros handle 37.7% of e-filings | tax pros file 33% of early returns
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the internal revenue service had received 54 million individual income tax returns, down 1.7 percent, as of march 1, the latest data available. it had processed 53.2 million returns, down 2 percent from one year ago. the 2024 season has been seven days shorter than the 2023 season because of a later start date.
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chatgpt for the reluctant accountant

two men looking at a computer screen

getting started is fast and easy.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

artificial intelligence has a lot in store for the accounting industry. ai is still in its infancy, but it’s also ready to start helping any cpa firm, even the low-tech solo shop.

more: cpas needed to help small biz adopt ai | revenue growth is top priority for small firms | survey shows that tech remains the great divide | can big data spot financial fraud? | accountants hopeful, concerned and confused about ai | the 7 categories of cybersecurity solutions firms need | research: accounting pros cautiously optimistic about generative ai | how auditors can beat ai
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you can start right now. you don’t need to invest anything other than the few minutes it takes to register to use chatgpt at chat.openai.com. it’s free. you can ask a question, and an astonishingly poignant and detailed answer will appear within seconds.

and there you are, on the cusp of 21st-century technology.
read more →

‘sales’ is not a four-letter word

woman listens as two clients speak

the five steps of the sales cycle and what you need to know.

by august j. aquila
price it right: how to value accounting services

for a long time, the word “sales” was not an accepted word in accounting firms. unfortunately, too many accountants associated sales work with some type of unprofessional and even unethical activity. fortunately, those days are long gone.

more: three pillars support a successful accounting firm | four questions for choosing your marketing audit strategies | four steps to a successful email marketing campaign | five reasons to implement change orders | make your practice better | eleven marketing strategies for smaller firms | five questions for developing your marketing plan | you only have four strategies
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the word “sales” is not a four-letter word; it is a professional activity. people who sell make a promise of some future deliverable: “i will do this and this for you.” in turbulent times, selling is a skill that accountants must learn to be successful. here is my definition of selling: “selling is problem solving.” nothing more and nothing less. it’s what you do every time you help a client with a problem. if you have been a successful new business developer, then you have been a successful salesperson.
read more →

randy crabtree: stress management for overworked accountants

tax chat ’24: how to pause and recharge when you hit the wall in tax season.


subscribe to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 podcasts anywhere: apple, google, spotify, iheart, deezer, amazon music and audible, player fm, audacy, gaana (india), and boomplay (africa).

with seth fineberg
for 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

randy crabtree, perhaps best known as the host of the unique cpa podcast, tells seth fineberg in this episode of tax chat ’24 that tax practitioners can avoid tax-season burnout with just a few simple shifts in their workflows.

more crabtree: follow these 3 rules to keep employees happy

more takeaways:

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the irs is coming! get your clients into compliance

10 million high-income taxpayers targeted.

by eric green

those of us in the know have been saying for a while now that the irs is sending a “wave” of tax notices, and you need to prepare your clients for compliance and, ultimately, remittance and resolution. well, that day has finally come.

the irs is launching its long-awaited effort to crack down on high-income taxpayers who have failed to file tax returns.

more in tax: eight steps to getting started with ai: a guide for tax professionals | what’s your value to your tax clients? | are you excited about tax season? | what the corporate transparency act means for accountants | train now before it costs you down the road | surge pricing: what works for uber could work for cpa firms | uncooperative partner might not be the problem | it’s time to fix the problem of qtips and llcs

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for practitioners, many taxpayers will be scrambling for help from tax professionals.  understanding how to handle these taxpayers when they come in will have a real impact on how painful the re-entry into the tax system is going to be.

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cpas needed to help small biz adopt ai

bar chart
which areas of your business would you expect to be the most and the least affected by artificial intelligence?

 

privacy, intellectual property concern many survey respondents.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

small businesses are getting more comfortable with artificial intelligence, according to a survey-based report from freshbooks.

“small business owners are less convinced that ai is coming for their jobs and/or the jobs of their employees,” the report says, “with two-thirds disagreeing that ai will replace them.”

more: revenue growth is top priority for small firms | survey shows challenges, priorities shifting | survey shows that tech remains the great divide | is the cpa business model the clog in the pipeline? | can big data spot financial fraud? | will unclogging the accounting pro pipeline kill mobility? | accountants bullish on income | 42% of accountants turn away work over staff shortages | accountants hopeful, concerned and confused about ai
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

still, in a bit of a contradiction, 44 percent of owners say they expect to hire fewer people in the future thanks to expected ai capabilities. and the larger the business, the more likely they will use ai to reduce payroll.
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create a bad website in ten easy steps

you have eight seconds to make a first impression. what kind do you want it to be?

by sandi leyva
the complete guide to marketing for tax & accounting firms

you can indeed get more business, more clients and more profits from your website. but not if you make these common mistakes!

more: eight steps to getting started with ai: a guide for tax professionals | how to weather any economic storm | ten ways to have more energy this tax season | seven steps to keeping your clients forever | give to receive, and eight more ways to boost sales | five things that clients don’t know about accountants | five ways to wow your clients | you’re missing 60% of your revenue | make the most of cpe conferences | beyond compliance: six tips for adding value
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whether creating a new site or updating your existing site, here are some common pitfalls to avoid.

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jason blumer & julie shipp: move leaders out of client service

intentionality can bring freedom and joy.

subscribe to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 podcasts anywhere: apple, google, spotify, iheart, deezer, amazon music and audible, player fm, audacy, gaana (india), and boomplay (africa).

the disruptors
with liz farr

when jason blumer and julie shipp joined forces to build blumer cpas more than a decade ago, they eschewed the traditional partnership structure, where decision-making power depends on ownership percentage. instead, blumer says, “we figured out the ownership is a legal reflection of the companies, but they do not reflect anything we do together in our roles.”

more podcasts and videos: james graham: drop the billable hour and you’ll bill morekaren reyburn: fix your marketing and fix your business | giles pearson: fix the staffing crisis by swapping experience for education | jina etienne: practice fearless inclusionbill penczak: stop forcing smart people to do stupid worksandra wiley: staffing problem? check your culture | scott scarano: first, grow people. then firm growth can follow |

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together, they also formed thriveal, a support community for accounting firm owners. blumer is the ceo and visionary for the firm and shipp is the coo and integrator. this separation of ownership from roles allows them both to be, as shipp says, “100% in my role and have 100% the authority of my role.”

read more →

revenue growth is top priority for small firms

bar charts

cost reduction? that’s on the list, too.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

as in years past, cpa firms of all sizes are putting revenue growth at the top of their priority lists.

the rest of their priority lists tells how they plan to get there.

more: survey shows challenges, priorities shifting | survey shows that tech remains the great divide | will unclogging the accounting pro pipeline kill mobility? | accountants bullish on income | survey: which niche’s the best niche? | ethics on sustainability puzzle some accountants | accountants hopeful, concerned and confused about ai
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according to the wolters kluwer 2024 accounting industry report, 61 percent of responding firms – 90 percent of which are small firms – are primarily aiming at higher revenues and profits. that’s 11 percentage points above secondary goals.
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