CPA Trendlines

AICPA/BSG Study Finds Advertisers Underestimate the Power of ‘Latent Response’

Marketers missing up to 55 percent of online ad response

NEW YORK (AICPA.org) – U.S. spending on online advertising is growing at more than 20 percent per year and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 15 percent through 2010. However, marketers are missing more than half of all responses.

In fact, 55 percent of follow up to online ads appears to occur up to 30 days after the ad has appeared, according to “Beyond the Click, Maximizing Advertising ROI in B2B E-Newsletters,” a new online advertising study by the electronic media group of the American Institute of Certified Public and Accountants (AICPA) and Bay Street Group LLC.

Download the AICPA press release: Marketers_Missing_up_to_55_Percent_of_Online_Ad_Response2.pdf

The executive summary, which includes additional notes on the research and the “Top 10 Recommendations to Marketers,” can be viewed at http://www.aicpalearning.org/profdev_news.asp?id=10360.

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Quote, Unquote: Loretta Doon

Doon

“The face of the accounting profession is increasingly female,” noted
Loretta Doon, CPA and CalCPA’s CEO. “More than 60 percent of new
licensees in California are women. Yet men still dominate the leadership
positions in accounting firms as well as corporate financial and
accounting departments.” READ MORE →

True Grit: The Essential Character Trait for CPAs

Do you have what it takes to succeed? CPAs share their secrets. Take the survey; join the discussion.

by Rick Telberg

It takes more than hard work and talent to succeed as a CPA in today’s world. It takes character.

Maybe “character” is an old fashioned word these days, but it seems to apply. CPAs hold a special place in the world. And with it, they bear a certain responsibility that should never be forgotten or ceded. To succeed as a CPA, you need it too.

“Never compromise your integrity,” advises Keith B. Campbell, a CPA and certified fraud examiner who runs a forensic accounting practice in Gulfport, Miss. “Be ready and willing to walk away from a client, an engagement, or even a job, rather than violate the core values you hold.”

Almost three in four CPAs identify integrity and good character as among the most important ingredients in a successful CPA career in our study on the employment landscape. It ranked second to people skills as the most often cited element of success and was identified by equal percentages of CPAs in public practice and those in other parts of the profession (business and industry, nonprofits, education and government).

“Knowing the right thing is most important, that entails ethics, not being opinionated and building relationships honestly,” says Gerald Gregor, senior staffer CPA in the government sector in Nutley, N.J.

George Gulisano, a senior executive with a small public practice firm in Coral Gables, Fla., emphasizes that “integrity is a cornerstone of the profession. In today’s corruption-filled culture, CPAs must steer clear of conflicts of interest and help reverse the public’s perception that CPAs as a profession are not capable of exercising independent oversight.”

A public practitioner, who also performs corporate controller work, says that accountants coming out of college must ask themselves, “What is your priority (purpose): money or ethical work product?”

Practitioners’ emphasis on integrity and ethics as career success factors jives with our previous report about a survey of certified fraud examiners. The survey found that 76 percent believe that financial fraud is more prevalent today than in 2002, before enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley accounting reform law, and only 3 percent believe that fraud is less prevalent today.

In our studies, practitioners also note that integrity is closely intertwined with the number one factor in career success: people skills.

Sonia Lukow, who works at a small public practice in Farmington, N.M., advises starting accountants, “Be confident when speaking to clients, yet be completely accurate in the information provided. If you don’t know the answer to a question, don’t just give a guess. Research everything you don’t understand. Establishing a reputation for integrity and accuracy will help create a solid client base.”

Integrity is also intertwined with being open to learning from others on the job. Joe Eckelkamp, managing partner of Eckelkamp & Associates in St. Louis, Mo., advises, “Try to learn something from every boss you have—whether it’s what to do or what not to do—and be prepared for the inevitable showdown between ethics and job security that everyone faces sometime in their careers.”

David Lingler, a senior executive with the Cassady & Schiller firm in Cincinnati, Ohio, points out the upside of working with high integrity: “…no one can take that from you, only you can lose it.”

Or, as John Wayne says in Stagecoach, “Well, there are some things a man just can’t run away from.”

YOUR TURN: Do you have what it takes to succeed? CPAs share their secrets. Take the survey; join the discussion.

[Copyright © 2007 Bay Street Group LLC. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission. First published by the AICPA.] READ MORE →

Top 10 Ways to Fire the Client From Hell

When all else fails… just tell them you’re moving to Yemen

Clients are the lifeblood of any business. Without them, your firm simply doesn’t exist. On the other hand, some clients are so bad that your business, not to mention your personal sanity, is better off without them. So what do you do when you have a client that pushes you to the brink? You fire them! Here’s how to give 10 of the worst offenders the pink slip without burning bridges.

1. The bargain shopper: As a general rule, the client who pays the least will expect the most. The words “I need this done cheap” should strike fear in your heart, not because of profit margins, but because this client will nickel-and-dime you within an inch of your life for extra work, support and other nuisances that were not in the original scope.
How to get out: This one’s simple: Raise your rates, if only for this particular client. The bargain shopper will move on to the next firm that offers a better price, as he’s concerned only with the bottom line, not the value of your work.

2. The client who can’t make deadlines: This client wants you to set his project at top priority because he’s on a tight schedule and needs to get something produced right away. You agree, assuming that you’ll have all of the READ MORE →

Holiday Cards? Try www.CharityCards.com

Sure you send out cards. But do you have a plan?

Law firm marketing consultant Larry Bodine is a big believer in maintaining year-round contact with clients and prospects. The holiday season is a perfect time to make another positive impression. Bodine reccommends charitycards.com, which send 10% of its revenue to a charity of your choice. It’s a win-win.

Typical firms buy anywhere from 25 to 25,000 cards each season. There are five major techniques common to all firms that run a successful and timely greeting card program. These techniques – plus valuable tips – will increase your efficiency throughout the process.

One of the keys is to treat this task as a project with all the planning, marketing timelines and budgets of any other major project. This is not an “add-on” program, but a key element of an integrated marketing plan.

The five techniques to implement a successful marketing campaign for client greeting cards are:

1. Create a Plan – Systematize the Process and Gain Commitment to a Timeline
2. Quantify a Budget
3. Maintain Your Client List
4. Incorporate Interest
5. Build Ownership

More at LawMarketing. READ MORE →

AccountantsWorld Launches Accounting Relief – Web 2.0

See the demo

Application allows accountants to collaborate with clients online

HAUPPAUGE, NY (www.accountantsworld.com) – AccountantsWorld has unveield a new web-based software product Accounting Relief®, which lets accountants collaborate with their small business clients to help them streamline accounting and manage their finances more effectively.

“Most bookkeeping programs are excellent—when the clients know what they’re doing. But most of the time they don’t, and that creates a mess. Accountants spend enormous amounts of time correcting the mistakes clients make before they can do their work and produce finished financial statements,” said Dr. Chandra Bhansali, CEO of AccountantsWorld. “When you consider the complete workflow that includes the work performed by accountants, the entire process of managing small business finances is marred with many problems and significant inefficiencies. Accounting Relief eliminates these issues and offers many new capabilities that benefit both accountants and their small business clients.”

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4 Steps to Getting the Fees You Deserve

Step 1: Don’t delay.

CPAs assess the Baby Boomer market. Join the study; get the benchmarks.

by Rick Telberg

It’s funny how CPAs can go to a client and discuss the intimacies of life and death, children and parents, bank accounts and bankruptcy, but when it comes time to talk about fees, the topic is buried, breezed over, or brushed off.

It’s easy to understand why. The CPA financial planner is there to talk about making money, not spending it. The focus is on helping the client, not funding the financial planner. The fee almost feels like an insignificant afterthought, a voluntary tip for service well rendered or a topic too mercenary to talk about.

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CPA, 76, crosses the country on bicycle to raise money for American Lung Association

Bob Jones and bike

Bob Jones spent the past summer on a coast-to-coast sight-seeing trip.

Nothing unusual about that, except for two things: He did it on a bicycle. And he’s 76 years old.

Jones, the managing partner for Towson-based Jones Hall Advisors and a life member of the MACPA, spent 48 days and 3,300 miles on a bicycle as part of last summer’s Big Ride Across America, a fund-raising event to benefit the American Lung Association. Starting June 25 in Seattle, 44 riders averaged 83 miles per day as they made their way to Washington D.C., where they crossed the finish line on Aug. 11.

Along the way, they saw, in Jones’ words, “some awesome scenery” and raised some serious cash. To qualify for the ride, each rider had to raise a minimum of $5,500 in donations. Jones, who suffers from chronic asthma, felt especially motivated: He alone raised more than $13,500 for the Lung Association’s cause.

“The American Lung Association’s research has aided in the development of medications that allowed me to do this, whereas 25 years ago I was close to death several times with asthma,” he said. “It was very important to me to be a part of this.”

Read the rest at the Maryland Association of CPAs…

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Staff Crunch Goes Global, Says Robert Half

Report Highlights International Skills Shortage, Retention Concerns

MENLO PARK, CA (Robert Half International) — Employers around the world are feeling the effects of a shortage of accounting and finance professionals, according to the Robert Half International Global Financial Employment Monitor.

More than half of the finance and human resources managers surveyed — 56 percent — reported difficulty finding skilled job candidates, and 43 percent expressed concern about losing top performers to other job opportunities. The situation is most severe in Asia, where more than four out of five respondents from both Japan (83 percent) and Hong Kong (82 percent) reported finding skilled financial professionals was a challenge.

The international study was developed by Robert Half International, the world’s first and largest staffing services firm specializing in accounting and finance, and conducted by an independent research firm. The survey includes responses from more than 5,000 finance and human resources managers in 17 countries throughout North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. The overall margin of error is +/- 1.4 percent, and the results are within 95 percent certainty.

The report indicates widespread difficulty finding skilled candidates and significant time and effort spent on interviewing and hiring. Currently, companies around the globe are spending an average of five weeks to fill staff-level accounting and finance positions and eight weeks for management roles.

“Recruiting and retaining top financial professionals may become more challenging in the years ahead due to increasing demand for this expertise and the potential retirement of millions of baby boomers around the world,” said Max Messmer, chairman and CEO of Robert Half International. “To build effective teams, employers will need to offer attractive compensation packages, as well as programs that support professional development and work-life balance.”

When asked to identify the most sought-after attribute for executives, respondents in nearly every country said experience in compliance was needed most. This underscores the increased international emphasis on corporate governance.

Managers in the United States reported the greatest difficulty hiring for executive positions. In response, companies are moving quickly to secure these candidates: U.S. respondents said their firms are taking six weeks to hire for management positions, two weeks less than the global average. READ MORE →

Poor Morale Adds Up to Even More No-Shows

CCH 2007 Unscheduled Absence Survey: Most Employees Call in “Sick” for Reasons Other Than Illness

RIVERWOODS, ILL. (www.cch.com) – Two-thirds of U.S. workers who call in sick at the last minute do so for reasons other than physical illness, according to the findings of the 17 th annual CCH Unscheduled Absence Survey. CCH is a leading provider of human resources and employment law information and services and part of Wolters Kluwer Law & Business (hr.cch.com).

The 2007 CCH Survey found that while 34 percent of people call in sick to work at the last minute due to “personal illness,” 66 percent are taking time off to deal with personal or family issues.

“Most people today are juggling the demands of busy personal and professional lives, and are trying to do their very best in both places,” said CCH Employment Law Analyst Pamela Wolf, JD. “Organizations need to stop the tug of war with people for their time, and become a partner to employees to help them, and the business overall, be more successful.”
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