busy season 2015: top lessons learned so far

the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometerclick to join the survey; see the results
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer
click to join the survey; see the results

doing the tax season math: regs + staff + clients + tech + self = busy x busy x busy

 by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

the key lessons learned from the 11th annual 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer study are coming into clear focus.

more:
busy season 2015
comprehensive coverage

a. blair east
east

a.b. east, at manning elliott in vancouver, bc, canada, for example, took a lesson in smart management. he says he learned “the importance of having the right complement of experienced staff to delegate to so i can reduce my hours and deliver to clients on timely basis.” next year east will continue a very healthy policy: “i have been and will continue to mentor managers, seniors and juniors to advance their expertise on a quicker basis.”

most of the issues practitioners faced this year fit into seven main categories. what’s especially interesting is that the solutions vary from common sense to plain impossibility.

  1. affordable care act
  2. irs regs and congressional cruelty
  3. better staff, more staff
  4. clients
  5. management
  6. technology
  7. interrelated problems

here’s a summary of our findings: read more →

busy season 2015: fixing the tax system

tax frustrationhow tax professionals would remake the tax code. 

imagine there’s no deductions,
it’s easy if you try.
no 8965, no1095-a,
above us, only sky.
imagine all the cpas,
living for today

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

there’s nothing like another tax season to prod accountants into imagining about ways to reform the nation’s tax system. in the this year’s 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer, some cpas have specific suggestions; others are calling on the profession to take a leadership role in the national conversation.

register your comments here: 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 2-minute survey: fix the tax system

卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 is polling the profession with a two-minute survey asking for specific recommendations for changing the code, the regs, the instructions and the forms – whatever it takes to make life easier for cpas and the american taxpayer. (the call was not to reduce or increase taxes, just to simplify them.)

the earliest responses call for a diverse set of approaches: read more →

busy season 2015: new lessons in time management

the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometerclick to join the survey; see the results
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer
click to join the survey; see the results

lesson learned: plan, prioritize, repeat.

next question: key financial metrics for 2015 results.
join the survey; get the answers.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

they don’t call it “busy season” for nothing. it’s a frenetic, hectic, even hellish effort to herd client cats toward an unforgiving deadline.

when we ask 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 members what lessons they’re learning this year and what they plan to do about it next year, we hear a lot about time management. based on the survey, time management issues can be organized into eight main categories:

  1. disorganized offices,

    lisa toback cpa
    toback
  2. timing,
  3. staffing,
  4. scheduling,
  5. procrastination,
  6. poor planning,
  7. the need for time off and
  8. the desire to retire.

the solutions cpas will be implementing next year range from minor tweaks to complete overhauls, or even surrendering to retirement and calling it victory. read more →

tax season 2015 marks watershed in cpa firm digitalization

roman kepczyk , author of quantum of paperless at //m.g005e.com/shop/qop/
roman kepczyk , author of quantum of paperless

tax season 2015 may signal a landmark change in workflow automation.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

this year’s busy season could mark a turning point in the tax and accounting industry’s techno-history, with mainstream firms flooding into digital processes like optical character recognition, pdf bookmarking, and collaboration tools.

results from this year’s paperless benchmarking survey, conducted for the association for accounting administration by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 contributor roman kepczyk, author of quantum of paperless: the partners guide to accounting firm optimization, found a generally upward trend in the use of technology to avoid the carving of audit and tax prep data into stone or printing it out on paper. the survey compared responses in 2013 to foreseen usage in the busy season of 2015.

but which trends are trending the fastest? where are the rockets of digitalization?

read more →

busy season 2015: headaches from obamacare

affordable care act‘aca is pita bs for cpas.’ next year’s plan: ‘become a monk.’

next question: the smartest moves this busy season? join the survey; get the results

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

as busy season 2015 grinds down, tax prep professionals are grappling with myriad and continuing issues with new rules, thin staffing and difficult clients, according to the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 annual busy season barometer. but the new affordable care act seems to be causing the most widespread aches and pains among accountants.

read more →

accountants see solid business gains in 2015

business outlook 2015
accountants report new highs in confidence levels for themselves and their firms, while casting a darker outlook on their client base and the nation as a whole.

卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 strategy shift report: accounting firms around the world reap benefits of easing oil prices, government stimulus and innovation.

卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 strategy shift logo shadowby rick telberg
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

tax and accounting practitioners are heading into a new year and a new busy season markedly more confident and optimistic than they’ve been in years, according to the 10th annual 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 strategy shift report.

kathy bennett
kathy bennett

professionals from milwaukee to tucson and karachi to kampala are telling 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 of brightening business forecasts for their firms in 2015.

top trends in emerging business strategies
join the survey. get the results.

fully 71 percent of professionals say they are more than somewhat confident in the business and economic outlook for their firms, with a record 30 percent telling 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 they are “highly confident” for the prospects of their business.

to be sure, they are less certain about the prospects for their client base or the nation as a whole than they are for themselves, their families and their firms. read more →

reality check: achieving world-class growth requires real-world intelligence

why you can’t believe your own press clippings.

by gale crosley, cpa
crosley+co

ever run a race and immediately sense that you got off to an exceptionally fast start? it’s a good feeling, but if your goal is to beat out the competition there’s really only one way to know for sure how you’re doing. and that’s by marking your progress toward the finish line relative to the other racers.

the same can be said of efforts to grow your firm. to gauge your progress you have to get outside your own four walls and see how you measure up to the competition. read more →

benchmarking ‘elite’ cpa firms against the ‘mainstream’

the rosenberg map survey: national study of cpa firm statistics original the leading national compendium of cpa firm practice management benchmarks.
national map survey of cpa firm statistics

looking inside firms with income per partner over $500,000.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
rosenberg map survey

if you’re a firm with two or more partners wondering just how well your business compares to the cpa profession’s “elite” firms, you should be looking for a 5.2% revenue gain this year, according to the new rosenberg survey. and your revenue growth last year should have been at least 7.4%, excluding any changes that resulted from mergers.

the survey, based on activity at firms across the country with annual fees ranging from less than $2 million to more than $20 million, defines “elite” as the firms with income per partner of more than $500,000. by comparison, the average income per partner for the profession’s “mainstream” firms is $345,177.

the report provides comparisons for benchmarks including billing rates, partner-to-staff ratios, hours billed annually, staff turnover rates, men-to-women ratios, partner ages, client services and partner compensation.

read more →