special

are you overthinking an m&a deal?

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two businessmen holding giant puzzle pieces in silhouette against a sunrisefive areas of focus.

by ira rosenbloom

this year so far has been a hot time for cpa firm mergers and acquisitions. firms in the m&a mindset and process may be in turbulent times as they confront many hurdles.

more: how to put the ‘success’ in succession
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unfortunately, some of these hurdles are self-created, especially for those seeking to merge into another firm or establish an exit. rather than waste mental and emotional energy overthinking – and risk walking away from a good deal for the wrong reasons – this is the time to turn that energy into smart thinking.
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the great resignation: five reasons accountants are quitting

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and five strategies for addressing attrition – before it strikes.

gauging the staff shortage:
how are accounting firms adapting?
join the six-minute survey. get the answers.

by bill penczak

firms are getting nervous and with good cause. as they plan for the 2022 busy season, audit and tax departments are realizing they may not have the resources to staff their jobs already on the books, much less any new work that comes about in the fourth quarter of 2021.

more on the staffing crisis: the digital toolset for hiring at a small accounting firm  |  learning how to hire amid covid  | how covid rewrites the rules for recruiting | new covid strategies for staff recruiting and retention | irs has recruiting problems, too | 12 signs it’s time to outsource | how aging boomers impact the accounting profession | why remote workers need retreats |

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there’s been a lot written in the past few months about the great resignation, but the turnover problem in cpa firms has been endemic before the pandemic. one recent report finds that turnover in the top 50 firms is 17%, and one in every six firms experiences an annual turnover of 20 percent or more. that means that one out of five people who attend the busy season kickoff event won’t be around for the next one.

here are five reasons your people are quitting your firm for other firms, for a job in industry, or to become a citizen of the gig economy and work virtually from a beach in thailand:

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google ads for new tax clients

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the simple, easy steps for getting started with google ads in time for busy season.


^ click to play | > listen and subscribe to the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 podcast here

with becky livingston

as the 2022 busy season begins to loom larger, this is a great time to get to know google ads, says becky livingston, 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间’ digital marketing guru says in this replay of recent 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 flash briefing webinar. flash briefings are fast-paced 30-minute conversations on urgent issues and quick answers.

more videos and podcasts: eisner ceo charly weinstein explains the private equity deal | flash briefing: a “call to arms” after private equity deal | bradley burnett: the “uncle billy” problem with the erc | the “ludicrously lucrative” employee retention credit | four ways to beat the staffing shortage | learning how to hire amid covid | let’s get real: kill saly | hitendra patil: national expert on client accounting services | sell service, not hours | leveraging knowledge, not just process | the irs backlog isn’t going away anytime soon |

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livingston walks you through the steps from beginning to end. start by defining your perfect client, then begin building the right offer for them, she says. after that, you can lay out a schedule and work on a budget. but start early, because if you’re looking for tax clients in the run-up to tax season, the best keywords will start to get pricey. by livingston’s estimates, 10 to 15 percent of accounting firms are already using google ad words. that may sound like a lot. but there’s still plenty of room for firms — especially local firms — to dive in and start landing new clients.

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five reasons you’re not swot-ready

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the tool works. but you need the prerequisites.

by steven e. sacks
the new fundamentals

cpa firms that seek to position themselves for the future must be brutally honest and self-aware. they might normally start with a top-down or bottom-up analysis of their operations. one tool that has been around forever is the swot analysis.

more: who needs another meeting? | 4 questions for cpa firm boards | are you productive or just busy? | the five big rules for powerpoint presentations | how aging boomers impact the accounting profession | accounting is a profession, not an industry
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

swot stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. there are benefits to this tool because it serves as a motivator to examine a situation (e.g., operational, cultural, financial), assess core competencies and capabilities, identify the need to (and key drivers of) change and enable – if conducted correctly – an organizational cross-section of input and insight.
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your firm needs a cas champion

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businessman explaining something on laptop to another manare your clients happy? have you told your staff?

by hitendra patil
client accounting services: the definitive success guide

unless you become the “cas champion” or make someone accountable to be one, your cas practice will not take off the starting blocks.

more: lower your costs by 75% with cas | how cas drives virtual cfo billings | the roi on identifying clients for cas | what clients need now, more than ever | how to launch cas in eight steps | survey: why some firms fall behind in cas | how to lead clients into client accounting services
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

and the single biggest initial challenge for the cas champ is how to communicate the value of cas to the firm’s future fortune to every stakeholder – be it partners, staff, clients or prospects. for this post, i will assume that your cas champ absolutely “gets it.”
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busy season forecast: more chaos

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busy season barometer: 53% report a “worse” year, compared with 31% reporting “better.”

ironically, the chaos translates into expanded business.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

it was a pretty bad busy season for most of the nation’s tax preparers. covid-19 was on the wane, but congress was on the job, jiggering tax rules even as the season was underway.

and, now, with the prospects of a federal government shutdown and a multi-trillion-dollar spending bill, 2022 is shaping up to be deja vu all over again.

more in surveys & research: pop quiz: can you find $330,000 for your clients? | automation without accountants | survey: your favorite desktop pc | remote work is here to stay | cpa firms reject staff vaccine mandates | salt: the small business disaster waiting to happen |

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to be sure, a good number of accountants are assuaged by more clients and more revenue. but the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 business barometer finds preparers experiencing a long, tough slog.

on the frontlines (from left): hochberger, wright, speed, frazier, widmann.

in all, 53 percent say they had a busy season somewhat worse (27 percent) or much worse (26 percent) than last year.

for some, it seems like a good time to call it quits. “thank you for all the love and support,” says one firm’s auto-responder to incoming emails.

“as some of you may know, this past few tax seasons have been nothing short of chaotic, to say the least,” the three-office, north carolina tax shop tells callers. “but i have enjoyed being able to assist each and every one of my clients.”

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a woman named wanda leaves an ira nightmare

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why estate planners may now need to re-think an uncountable number of revocable trusts in at least 30 jurisdictions.

by seymour goldberg, cpa, mba (taxation), jd
the practitioner’s guide to the ira distribution rules under the secure act

a kansas court case may make it necessary to redo many ira trusts and change them from revocable trusts to irrevocable trusts, affecting an untold number of estate plans in at least 30 jurisdictions. the case revolves around a woman named wand and a $93,314.48 promissory note to a bank.

wanda was living in a retirement home and getting by on medicaid when she died in 2003, leaving an estate that owed more than it owned. wanda’s ira accounts were set up to be payable to her revocable trust. but the court ruled that, because the estate’s assets were inadequate, the bank could seize wanda’s ira accounts.

more: why you really need a protective trust | irs updates pub. 590b on ira distributions | irs pledges to fix secure act 10-year rmd rule

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so, from an asset protection point of view, it may be worthwhile to use an irrevocable standalone trust, instead of a revocable standalone trust, as the beneficiary of an ira account. this may be especially true in jurisdictions that have adopted versions of the uniform trust code.

the reason this case is so important is that during an ira owner’s lifetime, ira accounts are protected from creditors, except the irs, of course. but there has never been a case prior to the kansas case in which the deceased ira owner’s creditors – other than the irs – could collect from a beneficiary of a deceased ira owner’s ira account unless the beneficiary the ira account of the deceased ira owner was his or her estate.

since many attorneys in the u.s. use revocable trusts in estate planning and not irrevocable trusts, there may be many revocable trusts that have been selected as the ira owner’s beneficiary of his or her ira account. based on the kansas case, it may be necessary to review an uncountable number of trusts and change them from revocable to irrevocable trusts.

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who needs another meeting?

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business meeting with people around table facing forwardbetter question: why?

by steven e. sacks
the new fundamentals

when in doubt, call a meeting. jeez! how many hours in the u.s. are cumulatively wasted on a daily basis with meetings?

more: 4 questions for cpa firm boards | are you productive or just busy? | the five big rules for powerpoint presentations | how aging boomers impact the accounting profession | accounting is a profession, not an industry
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

are they really necessary?

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