management

workflow tools can deepen client relationships

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pixelated blue text "workflow" on binary code backgroundbonus case study: how we work with our direct small business clients

by penny breslin
it’s not just the numbers

managing tasks and workflow through email, handwritten notes, telephone messages or walking down the hall is a recipe for disaster. a web-based tasking app, preferably linked to your document management system, allows the back office support to inspect what they expect:

  • recurring tasks done on time and accurate load leveling of resources
  • audit trail of work
  • set up, review, make notes, share information and complete tasks while maintaining the relationship with the client

more: find the best tech for your team and clients | choose your little black dress of technology | pick your favorite clients | keep the accountants focused on accounting | what do you want advisory services to be?
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tasking applications come on the market regularly and there are a few that are specific to the accounting industry. they can run the gamut in price ranges and capabilities. from advance flow to 17 hats, a firm large to small can find one that will work and fulfill 80 percent of their needs. below are some we work with and that get high reviews with our staff:
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the best tech for your team and clients

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blue glowing new technology background with particlesbonus: what all these acronyms mean.

by penny breslin
it’s not just the numbers

with accounting software and add-ons, from the standpoint of the person maintaining the “books,” the accounting program is the focal point. however, consider the focus of your business-owning client.

more: choose your little black dress of technology | going viral: today’s top marketing strategies | top ten types of clients (and 24 more reader suggestions) | meet the new bos | why ai is not the enemy

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their focus is operational. so, consider that for the business owner, the add-on is the accounting program. having the correct package of cloud-based programs turns the accounting program into a basic general journal that you, in your accounting hat, use to find any inconsistencies.

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do you know your turnaround time?

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cutting it is the shortest route to happier clients.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

todd rundgren sang, “i don’t want to work. i just wanna bang on the drum all day.”

i agree with half of that. i don’t want to work. however, i want someone else to bang on the drum all day for me. i’m not that ambitious.

the key to achieving hall of fame-level laziness is delegation.

more: tax season client meetings: kill them now | leadership growth is a two-way street | 12 subjective factors for pricing your next engagement | the six pillars for finance transformation | three strategies to keep emerging leaders engaged
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if i have no ambition to do anything, but want things to get done, someone else must do them. similarly, effective practice management is putting the right people in the right places accomplishing the right tasks at the right times. that’s a pretty damn good definition of effective laziness as well. there’s a subtle genius in that.

for example, our firm was looking at acquiring a really nice firm, where the two partners were working 100-hour weeks during tax season. as a result of the acquisition, they wanted to work fewer hours. they were preparing the vast majority of tax returns themselves, so we suggested having them act as reviewers instead. that would also transfer knowledge of the clients from them to us – a central objective of any successful acquisition.
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client hires new manager: you need a plan

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what they don’t know can hurt you.

by ed mendlowitz
77 ways to wow!

clients hire managers all the time. but getting started as a manager requires many skills, one of which is to review financial data and use it to control your department, division, or company.

more: do you need a forensic professional? | forensic techniques can be fraud deterrence | the hazards of poor internal controls | rule #1: start with cash | the priorities were backward | how to read a financial statement | 77 thoughts about client needs
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here is a way to get started.

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five ways to put success into succession planning

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a robust mentoring program can be critical.

three climbers helping each other up a hill

by bill penczak

legendary general electric ceo jack welch is reported to have lamented the choice he’d made in his successor, choosing someone based on their personality and ability to navigate the politics of the position instead of someone who could successfully lead the company into a brighter future. welch was correct. today, ge is a shell of its former self because of its leadership choice.

more: o.d. lanier: stepping into advisory | secret to success? a growth and abundance mindset | future firm growth requires a mindshift |the great resignation: five reasons accountants are quitting | five global cpa leaders: four survival strategies | planning for success in 2021 | do you have the guts to beat the covid crisis?
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welch’s one gaping failure as an otherwise stellar executive started me thinking about the current state of baby boomer-led and owned cpa firms, and how many of them are likely to commit the succession errors of ge. or worse, do nothing at all in terms of creating and sustaining a cpa firm into its next iteration.

as firms are giddy with the prospect of a new year and with covid in our rear-view mirrors, here are five considerations for generational succession of a middle market firm:

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do you need a forensic professional?

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numbers floating around man examining calculator with magnifying glassplus: four ways to improve your systems.

by ed mendlowitz
77 ways to wow!

various professionals and consultants can set up controls with in-house accountants, the cfo and financial professionals employed by the firm, but they then leave, and the organization is left with administering it. unless there is a highly disciplined and committed leadership within the company, the initial enthusiasm dissipates soon after.

more: forensic techniques can be fraud deterrence | anatomy of a fraud | how to explain internal controls to clients | organization minutes too often overlooked | the seven-minute financial statement | the kpi an absentee manager needs
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a trained forensic professional will detect flaws and cracks in systems and plug them up. they are also transaction-oriented, more than procedure-oriented, so they examine more closely how things are being done and look for subtle deviations from how they are supposed to be done. this skill should be employed in oversight and periodic monitoring of the controls they helped establish.
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the 12 big questions for 2023

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accounting leaders say these are the issues firms must face.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

as gale crosley of crosley+consulting notes in the 2022 rosenberg survey, we are in the midst of “an unusual year of high uncertainty, unpredictability and sapped energy among our profession’s leaders.”

more trends & outlook for 2023: the biggest change in accounting? personnel | look who’s making money now | merger minded? go out on top! |  capacity strategies drive change | who wants to be partner? not enough | private equity heats up m&a | top five trends |  compensation gets creative | cpa partners rejoice on surging fee growth | the office is over | accounting firms face up to private equity | irs hires will add pressures | consolidation brings challenges, opportunities |

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yes, indeed. the profession, once characterized as staid and stable, has been hit by a confluence of what crosley calls “four major thunderbolts,” to wit:

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forensic techniques can be fraud deterrence

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businessman manager using tablet check and control for workers with modern trade warehouse global business commerce concept or import-export commercial logistic.bonus: 11 examples of “control culture” services.

by ed mendlowitz

trained forensic professionals investigate accounting and financial transactions that are, or will become, subject to legal proceedings. it is an early step in a potential war, and many times it is the first shot.

more: six benefits of an internal audit | the ten financial controls that’ll make you a hero | five cash reports you can’t live without | when an audit is a great thing
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attorneys and c-level executives are often not familiar with forensic techniques and see them as a means to quantify a loss. financial forensics also provides a means to deter and detect fraud. today, i share my views on the value of forensic techniques used to deter fraud and encourage cvas to consider attending the cti’s forensic accounting academy™ or fraud risk management courses offered through the maff programs.
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what bogs down accountants

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and how to get unstuck.

by seth fineberg
special for 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

“what gets scheduled, gets done” is something i recently heard an accountant say. when it comes to feeling bogged down, there are no truer words in my opinion, but how many practitioners actually carve out time to just get unstuck?

more fineberg: your classic business model won’t allow growth |  accounting tech decisions you need to make today | you’re doing email wrong | when live events fail | who’s in control? you? or your clients? | time management rule #1 for accountants

more tech: major websites blocking content from ai crawlers | ai and the future of advisory | how much a data breach will cost you – directly and indirectly | strengthen client ties with workflow tools | the art of prompt engineering for a.i. accountants

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through all of my years covering the profession, year in and year out the largest blocker for most firms (which happen to be of the smaller variety) is time. not just the construct, but actually using time in the best possible way, which is a practice that seems to elude most accountants.

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anatomy of a fraud

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can you spot the five accounting weak points?

by ed mendlowitz
77 ways to wow!

in this fraud, ing, an extremely large and well-known financial services company, had approximately $8.5 million stolen from it by a single employee for a little more than four years.

more: six benefits of an internal audit | the hazards of poor internal controls | rule #1: start with cash | the priorities were backward | how to read a financial statement | 77 thoughts about client needs
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here’s how it worked:

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mike whitmire: re-think your hiring and training practices

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the disruptors: training can triumph over textbooks in the talent wars. 

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the disruptors
with liz farr for 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

mike whitmire wants to transform the role of accountants in industry from mere counting beans (though that’s not a bad skill to have) to an operational role that leverages accountant’s knowledge of company finances and operations to drive efficiency throughout an entire organization.

more:  hector garcia: success strategies of a quickbooks youtube superstar | blake oliver: why tax work yearns to be free| private equity explodes in u.k. | brannon poe: the status quo must go  | accounting nerds, unlock your super powers  | disruptor: jason statts shakes up the status quo | think small to think big with matt wilkinson | when financial statements go extinct with corey schmidt | can geraldine carter save accountants from themselves? | re-inventing accounting with tyler anderson

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whitmire, ceo, and co-founder of accounting software company floqast, inc., knows a thing or two about talent acquisition and development. before founding floqast, he managed the accounting team at cornerstone ondemand, a saas company in los angeles.

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outlook 2023: capacity strategies drive change

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clients benefit, but so do small firms and next gen staff.

by jennifer wilson
the rosenberg map survey: national study of cpa firm statistics

unless there’s another round of vaccines, we’ll see more covid-19 disruption as colder weather forces more firm activities indoors. more consolidation will happen as more firm leaders feel pressure to move their problems to a larger firm and the mega firms feel more pressure to keep up with the joneses and absorb more.

more: outlook 2023: top five trends | outlook 2023: compensation gets creative | outlook 2023: the office is over | 2023 outlook: private equity comes for accounting firms
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at some point, perhaps longer than 12 months from now, one or more of the super consolidators is going to falter, more than likely is some significant service failures as their lack of integration and acculturation drives turnover and a talent shortage beyond what they’re able to rescue. i hope this doesn’t happen, but it feels like some of these firms are facing a perfect storm of financial performance and growth expectations, high client demand, capacity issues and a less unified, disorganized leadership apparatus unable to respond to these challenges.
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six benefits of an internal audit

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number 6plus the principal tasks.

by ed mendlowitz

every business has a system of internal controls. very small businesses likely rely on luck and the honesty of their one or two office staff. small businesses rely on their independent auditors to check their system once a year and large companies employ one or more internal auditors on their staff.

more: the ten financial controls that’ll make you a hero | rule #1: start with cash | organization minutes too often overlooked | five cash reports you can’t live without | the priorities were backward | the seven-minute financial statement
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this post explains the internal audit process that applies to every size business. businesses have voluminous transactions; multiple people involved, companywide; and assets that need protection.
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