here’s what you’re looking for: marc rosenberg

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the importance of great bosses

do your employees want to spend time with you?

by marc rosenberg
cpa firm staff: managing your #1 asset

in most organizations, everyone reports to a specific individual. early in his career, marc rosenberg was the controller of a valve manufacturing company. the company grew to the point where he needed to hire an assistant controller. guess who that person reported to 100 percent? guess who was totally responsible for the success of that assistant controller? marc, in both cases. if that person failed because of no fault of marc’s, it still reflected negatively on him. marc was held accountable.

more: how remote work is impacting accounting firms | make work flexibility work for everyone | why staff leave cpa firms … and how to stop them | how to solve the big disconnect in talent management | what relevance means for staffing in accounting | how accounting staffing has changed
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but cpa firms operate differently, and therein lies the rub. staff have multiple bosses because each client they work on has a different team consisting of a partner, a manager and/or a senior. we call this the “who’s my boss” syndrome. staff often feel like they have no boss and therefore, no one is looking out for them. or they feel like they have too many bosses when each of their engagements is with a different team.

these are two of the many reasons mentoring is so important. one of the mentor’s jobs is to make their mentees feel like someone is looking out for them.
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how remote work is impacting accounting firms

remote worker at computer types on phone with dog nearby

question: can remote employees become partners?

by marc rosenberg
cpa firm staff: managing your #1 asset

remote work is undeniably changing how the cpa industry works. it’s been incredibly challenging for firms – from grappling with how to handle staff onboarding, training and mentoring to trying to maintain pre-pandemic client relationships and business development levels.

more: make work flexibility work for everyone | why staff leave cpa firms … and how to stop them | how to solve the big disconnect in talent management | what relevance means for staffing in accounting | how accounting staffing has changed
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in light of the pandemic that began in 2020, rosenberg associates surveyed more than 130 firms in 2022 asking them a multitude of questions about what options they are offering their staff (remote, hybrid, in-person) and how remote work has impacted various aspects of their business, including business development, client relationships and staff development. our findings were enlightening in many ways and provided great insights. here are some of the results from that survey as they pertain to flexible work options and the effects on their staff:

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make work flexibility work for everyone

woman working on laptop at home while cat looks out nearby window

bonus: a sample flexible work arrangement policy.

by marc rosenberg
cpa firm staff: managing your #1 asset

this post originally by convergencecoaching, cofounded and led by jennifer wilson; updated by rosenberg associates

what is work flexibility?

convergence coaching uses the terms “anytime, anywhere work” and “work flexibility” very similarly. both refer to increased flexibility around timing and location, around one’s work schedule and the place where work is done, while simultaneously meeting the needs of its staff and the goals of the firm.

more: why staff leave cpa firms … and how to stop them | how to solve the big disconnect in talent management | what relevance means for staffing in accounting | how accounting staffing has changed
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“we like to give people the freedom to work where they want, safe in the knowledge that they have the drive and expertise to perform excellently, whether they (are) at their desk or in their kitchen. yours truly has never worked out of an office and never will.” – richard branson

“be stubborn about your goals and flexible about your methods.” – anonymous
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how to solve the big disconnect in talent management

can you articulate your firm’s employee value proposition?

by marc rosenberg in collaboration with jeremy wortman, ph.d., owner of hrd initiatives
cpa firm staff: managing your #1 asset

“executives spend more time on managing people and making people decisions than on anything else – and they should. no other decisions are so long-lasting in their consequences or so difficult to unmake. and yet, by and large, executives make poor promotion and staffing decisions. at most, one-third of such decisions turn out right, one-third are minimally effective and a third are outright failures. in no other area of management would we put up with such miserable performance.” – peter drucker

more: what relevance means for staffing in accounting | how accounting staffing has changed
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what is talent management?

talent management is an umbrella term for how firms acquire talent, engage people in their firms, develop their skills and retain them. among many things, it addresses
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what relevance means for staffing in accounting

five young business people at work in an office setting.

seventeen ways to improve.

by marc rosenberg
cpa firm staff: managing your #1 asset

the business graveyard is littered with major organizations that missed the boat by failing to see cataclysmic game changers happening right before their eyes.

  • ice companies failed to get into refrigeration because they saw themselves in the ice business.
  • railroads missed out on autos and aerospace because they didn’t see themselves in the transportation business.
  • a ceo of digital equipment corporation said he couldn’t imagine why people would want a computer in their own house.
  • it took the wright brothers five years to get the u.s. government to even talk to them about their invention.

more: how accounting staffing has changed
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in all fairness it’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, to anticipate and accept massive changes like these.
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how accounting staffing has changed

businesswoman sitting on table while talking with four coworkers

and two major drivers of that change.

by marc rosenberg
cpa firm staff: managing your #1 asset

“treat people as they are and they will remain as they are. treat people as they can be and should be and they will become as they can and should be.” – goethe

“you see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up, such as dressing and the proper way of speaking and so on, the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she’s treated. i shall always be a flower girl to professor higgins, because he always treats me as a flower girl. but i know i can be a lady to you, colonel pickering, because you always treat me as a lady and always will.” – eliza doolittle in “my fair lady”

more: thirteen traits of partners you’ll want to keep | six rules for keeping partners happy and productive | why strategic thinking impacts your firm’s future | seven things good firms must do | five ways to separate accounting winners from losers | two factors determine firm profitability | don’t make firm profitability a goal | core values: why your firm needs them | five keys in compensating new managing partners | top 20 tough choices for the partner comp committee | voting on ownership basis? three better methods | what partners do and don’t deserve
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the ancient greek philosopher heraclitus said: “there is nothing permanent except change.” people fly and drive cars instead of using horses and carts. technology has replaced calculators, slide rules and the process for writing books. food is purchased at grocery stores instead of grown on farms.

drastic changes have occurred in the cpa industry as well. one of the biggest areas of change is how staff are managed and treated, as shown by this chart.
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pro member exclusive

help! a partner wants to retire really early

six shocked coworkers

how big should the buyout be?

by marc rosenberg
the rosenberg practice management library

question from a reader: we didn’t contemplate an owner leaving before normal retirement age unless it was because of death or disability or we had to fire them. however, as we were discussing hypotheticals at a recent partner meeting, we came to the uncomfortable conclusion that, currently, there’s nothing to stop owners from accumulating large buyout balances and just walking in one day and offering up their resignation pursuant to our partner agreement, thus entitling them to receive substantial buyouts as long as they give us a one-year notice. our vesting provision has a very limited penalty for early retirement: the buyout is reduced by 2 percent a year for every year before 60 they leave.

more: thirteen traits of partners you’ll want to keep | six rules for keeping partners happy and productive | five ways to separate accounting winners from losers | core values: why your firm needs them | voting on ownership basis? three better methods | fifteen big questions for your next strategy session
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

no matter what, we need to modify our agreement so that if someone wants to leave early, they can do so, but they must know there will be a stiff penalty. we don’t want our partners to see their vested buyouts as large savings accounts that can be withdrawn at any time. instead, we want them to see our buyout as a true retirement plan, one that is redeemed close to or at a normal retirement age. my current thinking is that we restrict it in a similar way to an employer-funded retirement plan. the first day you can withdraw is the day you reach 55½, subject to vesting provisions and stiff penalties for early withdrawal. we think there should be a minimum number of years as a partner in order to receive any buyout.
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six rules for keeping partners happy and productive

group of four business people talking to each other during a business meeting, with one man holding an electronic tablet in his hands with graphs and charts on the display

plus the first nine questions they must embrace for optimal profitability.

by marc rosenberg
the rosenberg practice management library

“when a corporation says move left, everybody takes a step left. in a partnership, when you say move left, three people go to the bathroom, four people move right and five people leave the firm.” – richard ungaretti, ungaretti & harris

more: why strategic thinking impacts your firm’s future | seven things good firms must do | don’t make firm profitability a goal | top 20 tough choices for the partner comp committee | tell potentials what partnership takes | disturb the present to improve the future
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in cpa firms, as the partners go, so goes the firm. the partners

  • bring in most of the business,
  • manage most of the client relationships and engagements,
  • develop and mentor the staff and
  • manage the firm.

if the partners don’t perform these functions effectively, it is virtually impossible to be profitable and successful.
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management

why strategic thinking impacts your firm’s future

what do “disturbing the present” and “paradigm shift” really mean?

by marc rosenberg
the rosenberg practice management library

roberto goizueta, the late chairman of coca-cola, and certainly one of the top two or three ceos of the last 30 years, said it best: “challenging the status quo when you have been successful is difficult. if you think you will be successful running your business in the next 10 years the way you did the last 10 years, you’re out of your mind. to succeed, we have to disturb the present.”

more: seven things good firms must do | five ways to separate accounting winners from losers | core values: why your firm needs them | voting on ownership basis? three better methods | fifteen big questions for your next strategy session
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

compared to most vocations, cpa partners make a pretty good living. their success has been attributable primarily to a combination of the following:

  1. bringing in business
  2. providing great service to clients, which results in client retention and moving clients upscale in terms of services
  3. strong technical skills
  4. developing staff into leaders
  5. strong interpersonal skills

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management

seven things good firms must do

six people meeting around office conference table

good management gets them there.

by marc rosenberg
the rosenberg practice management library

if partners of firms across the country were asked what the key was to the success of legendary fortune 500 companies such as general electric, coca-cola, ibm and countless others, i’m sure that the words “strong management” and “strong leadership” would dominate their responses. yet, ask those same partners to evaluate their own firms’ management, and if they are honest, their responses would not be very flattering.

more: five ways to separate accounting winners from losers | two factors determine firm profitability | five keys in compensating new managing partners | what partners do and don’t deserve | five steps to transition to partnership
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of all of the techniques for improving cpa firm profitability, none is more effective than strong management and leadership. yet, nothing is more elusive. why is this?
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five ways to separate accounting winners from losers

two women looking at laptop screen

how many of these are you expert in?

by marc rosenberg
the rosenberg practice management library

if cpa firms did everything “right,” they could easily double or triple their income. doing things right includes effectively bringing in clients, charging high billing rates, maintaining strong realization, high leverage of staff to partners and keeping expenses down. it’s the rare firm that does well in all of these categories.

more: two factors determine firm profitability | don’t make firm profitability a goal | top 20 tough choices for the partner comp committee |tell potentials what partnership takes | disturb the present to improve the future
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

the path to profitability is different for every firm. but the truly profitable firms are successful at achieving one or more of the following:
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