today’s bissett bullet: “if an accountant were to give a sales professional a half-day course on accountancy, how competent would the sales professional be in accounting? now reverse that scenario.”
by martin bissett
you learn as much about how to grow your client base in a half-day training course as i learn about credits and debits in the same timescale. you took four years, at least, to get the qualifications and letters after your name that you have now got. treat sales with the same level of respect. it is also a profession; it is also not mastered in half a day. invest accordingly.
today’s to-do:
take a look at how much support your fee-earning people in the firm have had in the last 12 months on understanding the process of sale, and then invest in more support.
emerging professionals and a gen x cfo explore mentorship, curiosity, and why success no longer wears a suit and tie.
sponsored by “it’s not just the numbers: how to move beyond the numbers and deliver real value for your clients.” by penny breslin and damien greathead. see today’s special offer
when you think of accounting, do you picture spreadsheets and number crunchers locked in back offices? think again.
in a special student-led edition of the accounting arc podcast, high school senior and center for accounting transformation intern arpan grewal joins college accounting student chayton farlee and seasoned professional nealy wheat, cae, sphr, for an energetic and thoughtful conversation about the changing face of accounting—and what it means to succeed today.
wheat, who serves as chief financial and administrative officer of the american society for nondestructive testing (asnt), shares hard-won career wisdom and personal stories to inspire the next generation. but this isn’t your typical “how i made it” narrative. instead, listeners are treated to an open dialogue about failure, growth, curiosity, and the power of building your network early.
“success is not a straight line,” wheat says. “it’s a lattice of opportunities, setbacks, and mentors.” read more →
tax guru art werner doesn’t pull punches—and when it comes to the state and local tax (salt) deduction limits in the proposed “big beautiful bill,” he’s sounding the alarm for tax pros across the country.
“this was the one area under the tax cuts and jobs act that had the most screaming going on,” werner says, referencing the uproar he witnessed during live lectures in high-tax states like new york and california. “they were really angry.”
while early rumors suggested the salt cap might rise dramatically—perhaps even to $40,000—the current proposal sets the limit at $30,000 for married filing jointly and $15,000 for married filing separately, tripling the current $10,000 cap. that might sound like a win… until you read the fine print.
if you recently passed the cpa exam, bar or other professional designation, congratulations. you put a lot of work and time into learning about the technical aspect of your profession.
unfortunately, what they didn’t teach you is how to build a professional practice, gain clients and understand client needs. these talents are just as important as being a good auditor, tax consultant or management consultant. read more →
the accounting profession will never resemble an automotive production line, perhaps for no other reason than we don’t look good in steel-toed boots. we’ll never be widget producers and, from my viewpoint, that’s a good thing. however, our position among the professional class shouldn’t blind us to the benefits of standardizing many of our services.
anyone who has been an accountant for any length of time has certainly seen enough to eliminate the need to reinvent the wheel every time they start a new engagement. an entire firm has even more institutional knowledge to draw from. you can develop reliable and repeatable recipes for different services and deliverables by capturing this institutional knowledge. this is standardization, and it makes your service offerings more efficient, cheaper, consistent and predictable – all good business practices. you’ll be able to predict with better accuracy the time frames required for new projects, and you’ll be able to scope out exactly what will be required to bring the project to a successful conclusion. read more →
key performance indicators (kpis) are shortcuts and tools to give managers a quick grasp of essential activities enabling greater control. whether a manager runs a business, not-for-profit, governmental unit, department or a small group, kpis can help the manager be more effective, achieve goals and better serve customers, stakeholders or others relying on the organization.
managers need to develop the kpis that will help them the most. this development should be based on what they are doing now (with some tweaking) so they get four or five numbers daily that will not take more than three minutes to absorb, assess and activate changes, if necessary. transparency and sharing the kpis will also draw team members into the process. read more →
as language evolves, clarity and authenticity are more important than ever.
this is a preview. the complete 1-hour video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to pro members | go pro here
sponsored by “it’s not just the numbers: how to move beyond the numbers and deliver real value for your clients.” by penny breslin and damien greathead. see today’s special offer
move like this with bonnie buol ruszczyk
for 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
in this episode of move like this, host bonnie buol ruszczyk welcomes cass bailey, ceo of slice communications, for an insightful discussion on how firms—especially those in professional services—can effectively communicate their organizational values in a way that resonates in today’s polarized environment. with deep experience in public relations, crisis management, and employee communication, bailey offers guidance for navigating sensitive topics while maintaining alignment between internal culture and external brand.
bailey opens the conversation by sharing slice communications’ journey from a traditional pr firm into a strategic communications agency. today, her team helps businesses manage both their public reputation and internal messaging, especially when facing scrutiny around workforce practices and company culture. read more →
occupational fraud remains one of the most pervasive and costly threats to organizations worldwide—and many companies may be underestimating the risk. a recent quick tech talks episode delves into key findings from the association of certified fraud examiners’ (acfe) 2024 report to the nations, uncovering the mechanics behind the world’s most common types of fraud and the staggering financial toll they exact.
“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”
there are three big keys to cpa firm success. the first two keys are:
strong firm management and leadership. management, which includes the entire management team, makes everything important in a cpa firm work, from having a great staff, great clients, growth, profitability, partner productivity and accountability, strategy, succession planning and more.
attracting new clients, retaining them, helping them grow and providing world-class service.
if you are a partner in your firm, you may already have asked yourself the all-important question: how can i successfully retire and have someone else take over the firm?
the partner who has a satisfactory answer to that question is the one who is committed not only to developing business and building the firm on a regular basis, but also to developing and preparing the next generation of professionals in the firm. read more →
accounting must abandon toxic traditions, prioritize people over profits, and rebuild its mentoring culture—or risk losing the next generation entirely.
this is a preview. the complete 1-hour video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to pro members | go pro here
sponsored by “it’s not just the numbers: how to move beyond the numbers and deliver real value for your clients” by penny breslin
yuri kapilovich didn’t set out to become #thefuncpa. it started as a casual hashtag when he shared photos from buses and bikes, but it stuck—especially after a networking event where attendees misread his booth sign and started calling him “the funk pa.” the nickname became a brand, but it also reflects his deeper mission: bringing humanity and humor back to a profession that’s burning out its best talent.
kapilovich, founder of kapilovich & associates, believes the root of accounting’s talent shortage is simple: misplaced priorities. “we, as a profession—especially in the larger firms—have lost sight of the fact that the number one asset we have is our people,” he says. “it’s not the clients.”
i’m fortunate to have two great former auditors working with me in accountability plus – my son tyler anderson and corey schmidt, who met working together as auditors. but that firm – like most firms – was focused on total hours worked and realization rates, and had no tracks for auditors who didn’t fit in the normal staff to senior to supervisor to manager to partner progression.
as corey told me, “tyler and i were good with workflow management and managing processes, and that’s what our firm should have had us focus on.” corey demonstrated that when he was assigned the employee benefit plan practice at that firm, and through his leadership, improved fee realization from 60 percent to 100 percent.
an estimated 10 to 12 million boomer-owned businesses are expected to transition over the next decade. that’s a massive wave of planning, liquidity events, and legacy questions. yet experts say most owners don’t engage advisors until they’re well into the deal process.
“by the time they come to us,they’ve often already signed a letter of intent,” laments randy a. fox, cfp, aep, founder of two hawks family office services,on a recent panel discussion for contributors to my new book, holistic guide to wealth management. “that shuts the door on a lot of the strategies that could have helped them keep more of what they built,” fox added.
fellow contributor and panel discussion guest christine nicholson, author, business consultant, and exit planning specialist, has worked with hundreds of owners. she sees the same distorted view of reality cloud their thinking — owners mistakenly assume their kids will take over and believe their business is worth far more than it really is.read more →