every compensation plan should be constructed to help the firm achieve its strategic goals, including servicing its clients and attracting and retaining the right people. read more →
tax, accounting and bookkeeping employment, through february 2014
the u.s. tax, accounting and bookkeeping industries are turning out to be one of the brightest spots in the nation’s economy, adding jobs faster than all but a handful of sectors, according to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 sources.
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. read more →
the right partner performance bonus plan encourages and rewards partners for achieving firm, team and individual goals, enabling the partners to see a clear cause-and-effect relationship between what they do, what it means to the firm and how they get rewarded.
unfortunately, in too many firms, partners can’t see these linkages. the compensation system is a failure.
consider, for a moment, these six questions for your firm: read more →
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 finds tight cost controls, slow wage increases and an influx of women workers.
by rick telberg 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
lifted by a steadily recovering economy and aggressive retooling, the nation’s cpa firms are adding staff at a 2.3% annualized rate, the strongest advance in a year, according to a new 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 study. but hours are unpredictable, wage growth is stalled and firms are trading higher-paid professionals for cheaper labor.
cpa firm employment trends, via 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
the study goes on to report new data, trends and analysis regarding:
– the total cpa firm workforce
– leverage ratios
– productivity efforts
– cost controls
– wages and hours
– women in the workforce
the challenge in designing the right system for the firm’s context is ensuring it motivates the partners to deliver the initiatives the firm needs to be successful.
if compensation is supposed to motivate and reward productive behavior and outcomes, and discourage non-productive behavior and outcomes, then you must ask yourself, “how well are we doing?”
we don’t claim that our recommended system is perfect since we know that the perfect compensation system does not exist. we do feel, though, that it encompasses the critical elements needed for leaders to better engage and reward partners.
we believe that if a firm wants to maximize its performance and keep its partners motivated and engaged, then it needs to design a compensation plan, which includes the following elements: read more →
most tax practitioners across the nation are preparing for the 2014 busy season with the hoping it can’t possibly be as bad as last year’s “worst tax season ever,” according to exclusive 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 polling.
about 61% of accountants today expect at least a “somewhat” or even “much” better season this year, according to the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer, a tracking poll now approaching its 11th year. some 26% expect no change from last year, and 13% are bracing for “somewhat worse” or “much worse.”
in the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 special report, responses and comments from more than 400 practitioners surveyed have been tabulated and analyzed. key findings:
pro member download
economic outlook for firms, clients, owners, and the nation in general.
practitioners’ forecasts for the upcoming season, compared with the forecasts from the same time a year ago and with 2013 actuals.
factors contributing to positive outlooks and factors contributing to negative outlooks.
top 10 challenges and concerns to prepare for and examples of how some practitioners are doing so
projections for key busy season metrics, including revenue, profit, client counts, extensions, revenue per client, and profit per client; compared with 2013 actuals and year-ago forecasts
the four key strategies shared by most practitioners with positive outlooks
the four important lessons learned from last year’s “worst tax season ever.”
if partner compensation is the single most critical and sensitive aspect of cpa firm practice management today, then a close second is partner retirements and buyouts – the money partners receive for the purchase of their ownership in the firm when they retire or leave the firm due to death, disability, withdrawal or expulsion.
the amount of money involved is quite significant. roughly 80% of all firms consider the value of the firm to include: read more →
if you ask the partners, they will tell you that the most critical and sensitive aspect of cpa firm practice management is the allocation of partner income.
because of the sensitivity of partner compensation, firms change various aspects of their allocation system quite often. for this reason, the smart firms include wording in their partnership agreements on partner compensation that is very short and quite general. this way, the firm doesn’t have to revise the partnership agreement every time a change is made.
it’s a complicated task. there are seven different systems in use today, three basic tiers, a couple ways firms are calculating bonuses, and at least a dozen other items to ponder and work through.
here is a checklist of decisions that the best firms are making to determine the compensation of each partner:
now five years since the banking crash that forced record layoffs at tax and accounting firms, new survey results from 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research show intensifying competition for talent, with more than 42% of accountants reporting that their firms are hiring and about half of all staffers ready to make a move.
chris hatcher
“there’s a labor shortage out there,” according to chris hatcher, a partner at louisville, ky., baldwin cpas. “finding good talent is hard.” hatcher says baldwin cpas is looking for professionals with ambition, which he defines as an “owners mentality.”
in this report, 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research:
– reports the percentage of firms hiring, cutting or holding steady on headcount in the next six to 12 months;
– gathers comment from a representative sample of professionals on key economic and business trends; and
– analyzes latent discontent in the ranks of staffers,
– propensity to seek a job change, and
– overall confidence in the job market. read more →
finance sector jobless rate falls to 4.7% from recession high 7.7% with the job market strengthening, career opportunities for finance, tax and accounting professionals are widening to places like seattle and phoenix, beyond traditional financial industry centers like new york according … continued
bolstering reports of a suddenly surging profession with a high demand for top talent, a new survey of colleges and firms by the aicpa shows that cpa firms are hiring a record number of graduates.
at the same time, the pipeline of accounting students is bulging, suggesting to some that the continuing high demand for new recruits can be met by newly minted graduates for the next few years.
this will come as good news to firms facing growing new-business opportunities, tougher competition and a growing need for entry-level staff.
it does not, however, help alleviate the catastrophic stall in growth dating back to the 1990s with the spread of the so-called 150-hour rule that has left the profession with a gaping hole in its succession and business continuity strategies. the profession, already facing a succession crisis due to the aging-out of the baby boomers, now finds itself with a dearth of 40- and 50-something senior managers and junior partners to take over management and control – a fact that a record supply of new graduates won’t correct for 10 or 20 years, if ever.
the good news for hiring: pipeline fills with huge supply of talent.