NEW SURVEY RESULTS: Smartphones – Perks or Power Tools?

The votes are coming in: CPA firms are powering up their competitive profiles with full-featured mobile phones that can do it all.

Smartphones are proving to be a key ingredient for CPA success in today’s mobile world. But how do you manage the technology for maximum productivity and competitive advantage?

The initial responses are flowing in to our new survey, “Accounting Firm Mobile Phone Productivity Strategies.”

The survey is delving into some of the hottest questions in practice management today:

The questionnaire should take only about three minutes, but the results could be immensely useful to you and your firm. Join the survey; get the results. Check back often as the survey results come in.

Join the survey; get the results.

Check back often as the survey results come in.

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Posted on March 31, 2009
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11 Questions to Ask BEFORE Buying into an Accounting Practice

Whether you’re looking to grow your own practice or take a stake as a partner in the practice where you already work, a few key questions need to be asked, answered and considered.

And, as this list from a U.K. consultant proves, the basic economics of an accounting practice are well nigh universal.

So, whether you’re buying or selling, ask…

What services does any practice offer? In seeking to place a value on the goodwill of an accounting firm it is useful to look not just at its historic and projected performance, but also at its potential. Some key questions to consider are:

  1. Does it provide more than just a compliance service to its clients?
  2. Could it supply value added services?
  3. Could it get involved in the needs of its clients for investment, pensions, life insurance, mortgages, the inheritance tax planning sector, probate, litigation support and management accounting services, and of course, business advice?
  4. Rather than simply trying to protect its clients against paying too much tax, are they advised on how to make money?
  5. Is the business profitable?
  6. Looking inwards, what is the firm’s gross payroll cost? Is it more than one third of the turnover?
  7. Are the employees remunerated in line with the local competition?
  8. Do the key fee-earners have suitable restrictive covenants in their contracts of employment?
  9. Are the premises owned or rented? (If the answer is the latter, is there a heavy contingent liability in the lease?)
  10. What is the firm’s working capital requirement?
  11. Is the business managing its debt efficiently? The amount of working capital tied up in debtors is critical to most practices. It has a direct impact on cash flow and the overall level of funding required. Many firms are extremely lax and the level of debt within the average practice is far too high.

And, by the way, the going rate in the U.K. is much the same as in the U.S. — 0.9 to 1.2 times annual revenue (or “turnover” as they say there).

Source: Jeremy Kitchin – APMA


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Posted on March 30, 2009
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Six Yardsticks to Test Your Ethics

Look in the mirror and ask yourself…

Tom Hood, head of the Maryland CPA association, recently met with a class of college accounting students. They picked the topics: corporate scandals and fraud, which, in itself, it an encouraging sign that some of our hopes can rest easy in the next generation.

But some of what Tom delivered could be useful for anyone.

Tom posts:

We finished with tips for them to stay ethical (the mirror test) and have the courage to “do the right thing”:

1. Publicity test – how would your action look on national tv or in a headline?
2. Conscience test – listen to your inside voice
3. Parent test – if you had children looking over your shoulder would the be embarrassed?
4. Role Model test – would your role model approve?
5. Universality test – what if everyone did this?
6. Golden Rule – would you like to be treated this way?

And he left some recommended readings:

  1. Madoff fraud – Markopolis whistleblower memo (PDF)
  2. Sherron Watkins – memo about Enron
  3. MACPA’s Accounting Reform Task Force Report – circa 2002 during Enron-Worldcom – Download MACPA ACCOUNTING REFORM WHITE PAPER (PDF)
  4. Wired magazine – XBRL – Road Map for Financial Recovery
  5. Wired magazine – Recipe for Disaster: The Formula That Killed Wall Street

And, don’t miss Tom’s post on Transparency, Accountability, Efficiency: Time for a Revolution

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Posted on March 27, 2009
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NEW SURVEY RESULTS: How smartphones help CPA firms compete

Join the new survey here, get the top-line results.

A smartphone — like a BlackBerry, iPhone, or Palm — handles more than just phone calls. Accounting firms are finding that a well-managed mobile strategy adds competitive advantage, improves client service and satisfaction, and even helps maintain a sensible work/life balance

A new CPA Trendlines research project is yielding some interesting and useful early results.

For intance, we’ve been asking: “What’s the single most important thing that a smartphone helps accomplish for your firm?”

Here are a few snippets from the comments:

Join the new survey here, get the top-line results.

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Posted on March 27, 2009
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Robert Fligel: You got the first job meeting, now what?

Here are some sound do’s and don’ts.

by Robert Fligel, CPA

Robert Fligel, CPA

Fligel

Let’s face, this is a really tough economy and it’s very difficult to find a new job opportunity. What that means is more and more people are networking like crazy with family, friends, former co workers and the like. One of the natural outgrowths of this is the informational or exploratory meeting.

If you are having an informational job interview as part of your job search there are steps you should take to make the process more of a two way exchange of information. This will allow the company to learn about your expertise while allowing you to lean how the company may benefit your career. Here are some sound do’s and don’ts.

Continued at RF Resources.

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Posted on March 26, 2009
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NEW SURVEY LAUNCHED: How Accounting Firms Leverage Mobile Productivity

Smartphones are proving to be a key ingredient for CPA success in today’s mobile world.

But how do you manage the technology for maximum productivity and competitive advantage?

We expect to get the answers in our new research project, “Accounting Firm Mobile Phone Policies and Productivity.”

Click here to start the survey now. As always, participants will get an early peek at the topline results.

This survey will answer some of the burning questions in practice management today:

The questionnaire should take only about three minutes, but the results could be immensely useful to you and your firm.

Thanks again for your interest and support. Just click on this link to get started.

Sincerely,
Rick Telberg

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Posted on March 26, 2009
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How CPA business gets done today: With laptops and USB sticks at Starbucks

Some CPAs are ahead of the curve. Here’s one of them.

Kathleen Huston, head of McGuire Williams CPAs, posts:

Huston

Ah, how do you make tax meetings less painful and less dry?  Meet and greet at Starbucks. You get to swill some tasty java while giving some sage tax advice. This is the new meeting place chosen by the Gen-X society. So, I decided to GO WITH THE FLOW.

On Wednesday or Friday when I am already working remotely, I schedule meetings with those clients who are the city dwellers and many don’t even own a car.

First thing they want to know when scheduling a meeting is where the nearest Metro station is. Of course, our office is about 1 mile from the Springfield Metro. Not a walk in the park!

And since I need my daily Starbucks hit in the afternoon, a meeting at Starbucks is pretty palatable in my book. There is one close to my remote office and right at the Metro stop.

So, there I sit today across from a new tax client. We are both sipping coffee and typing away on our laptops. Then I swap my data stick between laptops.

And we had never met either, but he had our website page on his laptop screen when I got there. My bio and picture let him know who I was. I was no strange face in the crowd.

So, get connected … who needs an office anyway?

Visit McGuire Williams and their blog Life and Times of Accounting.

See original here.

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Posted on March 26, 2009
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