leadership

5 must-do’s for every managing partner today

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listsnew study shows merger mania and consolidation force new imperatives for the year ahead.

via bkr international

it’s no secret that the u.s. accounting industry is consolidating. with m&a comes an era of larger regional firms with more staff and more specific advisory services and clients than the general public accounting practice model our fathers and grandfathers knew.

more on the managing partner: the 9 ways managing partners leverage technology for a competitive edge  |  the 3 traits shared by 150 top managing partners  |  how the best managing partners lead by example  |  what successful managing partners do  |  managing partners reveal 11 strategies for getting their firms to the top  |  27 tough questions for evaluating the performance of a managing partner  |  essential advice for the new managing partner  |  eight new metrics to measure managing partner performance and potential

whether they want to conserve firm value for outgoing partners or grow for the next generation — or both — firm managing partners face difficult choices.

in a new study, members of bkr international reveal five important to-do items that need to take place within firms to support continued growth and excellent client service in the coming year and beyond. read more →

today’s 15 essential deal points in accounting firm mergers

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with 5 specifics on price and 5 on compensation.

by marc rosenberg
cpa firm mergers

there can be an almost unlimited number of  terms that both sides in a merger of accounting firms can haggle over. and sometimes they do.

more on cpa firm firm mergers:  do cpa firm mergers really work?   |  6 steps to handle staffing problems in a merger  |  13 ways cpa firm mergers can go wrong  |  nuances and idiosyncrasies: the top 12 issues that complicate mergers  |  talking merger? the basic 7-item agenda for the first meeting  |  10 special implementation issues in a merger of equals  |  in merger talks: 13 essential questions small firms must ask larger firms

but these days, only 15 really matter. get past these 15 and you’re on track to close a reasonable deal. still, be warned: the devil’s in the details. read more →

are bad clients driving you crazy?

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angry businessman on the phone16 ways to tweak your compensation systems to get and keep the right clients.

if your partners are putting up a fight to keep clients who should be let go, take a look at your compensation system. it’s not just about billable hours.

august aquila, creating the effective partnership, suggests 16 tweaks to your firm’s compensation system. while the list is not exhaustive, it does provide criteria that firms can consider beyond revenue. read more →

can you hear me now?

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eight reasons why accounting firms need to work on internal communications first. by bruce w. marcus a terrific definition of chaos is when a client asks two different people in your firm the same question – and gets two different and … continued

5 time management tips for an overworked accountant

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time management clock money dreamstime_xs_13009574

ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and aquestion: i am sure you heard this before, but i just can’t seem to get on top of my work – i am always behind and in addition, my income has been dropping.

i am a sole practitioner with no staff and don’t want any. i like what i do, but lately it seems i have been chasing my tail and losing some ground. my practice is 40% 1040s which are mainly done from mid-january to april 15. i do not file many extensions. another 40% are small businesses that i work on monthly. about half i go to and the other half send in their information or quickbooks files. 10% is payroll preparation for clients.

read more →

new times call for new cpa firm metrics

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how to fine-tune your management dashboard for effectiveness, innovation and growth.

dreamstime_xs_9983601.jpgby august aquila
creating the effective partnership

don’t kid yourself – it’s a new world out there. accounting firms need to become more transparent. partners and employees need to truly understand the firm’s vision and value proposition. they need to see how their daily actions move the firm toward its goals. mission and vision can no longer be vague, fluffy statements that mean nothing to your clients, employees and partners, and prospects.

this new environment requires firms to actually implement their goals by looking at specific objectives and measures. performance and execution are the key operatives. the old measures, by themselves, won’t do the job anymore. they are still valuable, but new measures are needed today. firms no longer compete with the firm down the street in terms of mere marketing. they now complete in how they manage the practice, treat their employees, win employees’ hearts and minds and provide a true learning environment.

what would it be worth to you if you had a system which could measure your business development and management efforts?  in short, measure how well you are implementing your firm’s strategy? read more →

what stage of business are you in?

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evolving from running a practice to leading a business.

by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

technology has allowed just about everyone to start their own businesses. we can do something part time, full time or in between. we can start and stop our businesses. we can be successful at lots of different business models. and we can go through stages of our business.

if you want to grow exponentially, or even linearly, you’ll need to progress. and before you can do that, it makes sense to figure out where you are now. here are five stages of business so you can see where you are now and where you want to go. read more →

running an accounting business

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ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and aquestion: i am the managing partner of my accounting firm by default. no one else wanted to do it. i am trying to manage things but i have a full schedule, am shorthanded on staff and continue to do a reasonable amount of marketing. i am overwhelmed. how do others do it?

response: i purposely left off the size of the firm because my response applies to every size firm – those with two partners on up to large firms with upward of 50 partners. no matter the size of your practice, it is a business and needs someone dedicated to running it. smaller firms need less time, possibly less skills and perhaps one of the partners can fill in this role. larger firms need a person who spends substantially all of their time running the business, but not necessarily a partner. read more →

how does your firm measure up?

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take gallup’s 12-question leadership test.

after using many different varieties of opinion survey, the gallup organization came to the conclusion a few years ago that the responses to just 12 questions can show why one organization, division, department or any other managerial unit is happier and more profitable than another.

on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being “no, or rarely,” and 5 being “yes, mostly,” how would you score? read more →

4 ways small firms can surpass larger firms

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by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

when i look through accounting today’s top 100 leaders list and the comments they have made about what they perceive to be the challenges in our profession, many of the answers are the same: change, talent and relevance are a few you’ll see. and they are all right to some extent, but there is a deeper systemic problem that i think could fix quite a few of these in one swipe. i’m not saying it will be easy, but it is a fairly straightforward problem once diagnosed.

the most interesting part is that the smallest firms are getting better at solving this than the larger firms. read more →

7 signs your firm is headed for an implosion

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plus: the 8 leadership traits driving firms toward destruction and 3 steps to fix the problem.

aquila
aquila

by august aquila
creating the effective partnership

many accountants could add to this list, but here are some of the surefire signs that a firm has weak leadership driving the firm toward implosion.

  1. the way partners resolve issues is by finger pointing
  2. the firm is in a spiral downward trend read more →

5 tech tools for managing remote staffers

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by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

when you are working out of your home and have reached the point where you want to hire someone, you have many options, but one of them may not be having employees come to your home to work. and although i have had employees working out of my home when i was single, it was not an option in 2010 when i was ready to hire an assistant. so i hired a virtual one.

today you might be surprised to know that my employees work from home two days a week each, and i only see them in person once a month. how do we do it? we keep our heads in the clouds. here are five tools that keep us seconds away while we’re miles apart. read more →