Benefits packages play key role in attracting and keeping staff.
Which benefits matter the most? Join the survey; get the answers.
by Rick Telberg
On Careers
The accounting and finance profession is clearly struggling mightily to address chronic staff shortages and work/life balance issues. As a result, fringe benefits packages seem to be gaining increased importance in the battle for talent and competitive advantage.
To be sure, employers in the tax, accounting and finance fields face hiring pressures little different from those found in other industries. And the attitudes of CPAs are hardly unique to the CPA profession. The employment situation is a national, perhaps global situation, requiring broad new economic and social policy initiatives.
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Low overhead, easy entry may spur trend.
How many CPAs work at home? Join the survey; get the answers.
by Rick Telberg
At Large
Your mother was right: Accounting is a career you can always fall back on.
In fact, data from a U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) report show that tax preparation, accounting and bookkeeping services are among the most popular home-based businesses in the nation.
The report “The Impact of Location on Net Income: A Comparison of Homebased and Non-Homebased Businesses†culled sole proprietorships’ Schedule C tax returns for the 2002 tax year to compare home-based and office-based sole proprietorships. The data show that accounting services are among the top 30 employment areas in terms of numbers of home-based businesses and sole proprietorships.
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Manage your distractions, interruptions. How often do CPAs check email? Join the survey. Get the answers.
by Rick Telberg
Several times every day, CPAs across the nation ask themselves the same questions: “Should I finish what I’m doing? Or should I take a quick peek at my email inbox?â€
According to the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London, email may be the worst thing for productivity since… Hmmm, just a minute. I’m trying to remember…
Oh yeah! The researchers found that checking your email can be more damaging to office productivity than getting stoned. The experiment actually had subjects take an IQ test while undistracted; while distracted by emails, phone calls and other digital temptations; or while under the influence of the evil weed. While the undistracted came away with the highest IQ scores, the online digitized multitaskers performed less intelligently than their ad hoc stoner cohorts.
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With only one in 10 fully satisfied, they want a lot more than they’re getting. New study pinpoints buying plans. Join the study; get the benchmarks.
by Rick Telberg
No doubt about it, finance managers and CPAs love software. In the past couple of decades, accounting applications have gone from useful novelty, to powerful tool, to absolute necessity. No matter how much you like the good-old pencil-and-eraser solution, it just won’t meet today’s demands of financial regulations, tax codes and competitive urgency.
But that doesn’t mean that finance professionals love the software they’ve got.
Some do. Some don’t. Which means about one in three are in the market for something better. READ MORE →
