seven simple skills every professional can develop. six powerful reasons practice groups, not lone rangers, win the long game.
by bruce w. marcus
building a culture of growth and aspiration (pardon the word “marketing”) is a process that requires four elements: read more →
how to change your thinking to prevail over the most difficult circumstances.
perseverance is a skill that anyone can learn to not only survive, but thrive through life’s curves. when adversity strikes, it’s not what happens to you but how you respond to what happens to you that has the greatest impact on your life.
here are four specific ways you can change your thinking to persevere in the toughest of circumstances, from sandi smith leyva, cpa, creator of the accountant’s accelerator small-firm growth program. read more →
fact-checking adds little value. so why are you spending so much time on it?
by ed mendlowitz
how to review tax returns
too many otherwise very smart tax preparation operations confuse the two primary types of tax-return quality-control reviews: reviews for content and reviews for issues. each type of review requires a different discipline. one of them costs you money and the other can make you money, lots of it. read more →
accountants scramble as competition surges for bread-and-butter tax work.
join the survey; get the results.
by rick telberg
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
pricing and fee pressures are surging as the hot-button issues this tax season, according to the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer.
to be sure, late or unprepared clients remain the single biggest issue, with 48% of more than 500 practitioners surveyed in february citing it, followed by tardy 1099s and k1s at 35%. those metrics are little changed from last february.
but this year, 31% of practitioners are complaining about pricing and fee pressures, which is triple the year-ago 10% figure.
related research
is the tax prep business topping out? the number of filings by tax professionals appears to have slowed or even reversed.
tax season metrics shift for the better: key indicators point to a better 2014 than 2013.
practitioners plot fee-pressure countermeasures: competitors vie for clients on price and promises.
the number of filings by tax professionals appears to have slowed or even reversed.
combined with data from the irs, it appears to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 that the price-sensitive bottom of the tax market is getting raked over the coals this year. and it may represent an historic shift.
cch’s top federal tax analyst, mark luscombe, agrees, “it’s possible that tax professionals are trading away quantity for quality. they may be doing fewer returns, but focusing on the higher-value work.” read more →
key indicators point to a better 2014 than 2013.
last year at this time, 43% of practitioners were already scrambling to put more clients on extension than the year before, according to the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer.
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer survey findings:
- tax season price wars: accountants scramble as competition surges for bread-and-butter tax work.
- is the tax prep business topping out? the number of filings by tax professionals appears to have slowed or even reversed.
- practitioners plot fee-pressure countermeasures: competitors vie for clients on price and promises.
- join the survey; get the results.
this year, only 25% are expecting an increase in the number of extensions. read more →
competitors vie for clients on price and promises.
by rick telberg
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
while the tax prep market is rife this year with competitive lowballing, many seasoned and established professionals are fighting back with grit and guile.
mostly, they still expect to improve upon last year’s results, but it won’t always be easy. and last year was so awful that many had expected 2014 to be a cakewalk. well, it’s not the cakewalk many expected.
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer survey findings:
tax season price wars: accountants scramble as competition surges for bread-and-butter tax work.
is the tax prep business topping out? the number of filings by tax professionals appears to have slowed or even reversed.
tax season metrics shift for the better: key indicators point to a better 2014 than 2013.
join the survey; get the results.
a nine-partner firm with three offices stretching from vermont to arizona is feeling the heat on fees from competing firms. “while we don’t want to lower fees to a break-even scenario,” says one partner, “we are lowering fees where needed if we believe the client will be long-term.” the partner also voices “concerns with obtaining qualified experienced staff, resulting in some of our staff work being done by top-level management. this is driving our profit per client down.” read more →
the 15 good signs and 17 warning flags to look for.
for some reason, cpa firms seem to find it much more daunting to evaluate a merger involving their own firm than that of a client’s. but the same methods and procedures you’d use to advise a client can be put to use in considering your firm’s next merger or acquisition. here, marc rosenberg, in how to negotiate a cpa firm merger, lays out the pluses and minuses to look for in a deal… 15 pluses and 17 minuses, to be exact. read more →
study shows cfos’ key interests and topics for conversation.
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
new research into chief financial officers’ habits on twitter shows their favorite topics of conversation, how they describe themselves and their top sources of information.
any one of those could be an opportunity to make a connection, maybe even make a new client, according to business development experts.
economies of scale found in supply chain.
audit fees can be costly for many public and private companies, but an accounting professor has discovered a way they save some money when going through the process.
read more →
and nine strategies to fix the “problem.”
by ed mendlowitz
101 questions and answers
question: my partner seems to always be out of sync with me, but my biggest pet peeve is that he never does what he says he will do. do you have any suggestions?
response: some people are not cut out to be partners. they could be control freaks, someone who skipped kindergarten and read more →
by sean stein smith
scandals that have rocked public and regulatory confidence in the business community are not difficult to name: aig, lehman brothers, the “london whale.”
good governance, the argument goes, can be the difference between mediocre performance and outstanding performance. it can even be the difference between staying in business and going under.
top firms know the nine tenets of a healthy, sustainable growth-minded culture.
by bruce w. marcus
professional services marketing 3.0
the firms that want to grow and thrive must be turned into marketing machines – to have a culture that understands and supports a marketing effort.
a firm may be said to have a marketing culture when its professional staff: read more →