Eight structured steps that CPA firms can use to develop and nurture talent.
Unfortunately, even the best-intentioned mentoring initiatives can easily fizzle in the early stages, before delivering value to the participants and the organization at large, according to Molly Sargent of Norwalk, Conn.-based Professional Impressions Consulting.
Sargent
Molly has trained and coached thousands of financial professionals and client-facing executives in professional image, presentation skills, business etiquette and sales effectiveness. Since 1985, she has helped major accounting firms and Fortune 500 companies, including Aetna, American Express, AT&T, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Key Bank, MasterCard, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Prudential achieve breakthrough results.
With so much to gain, how can your firm initiate mentoring in a way that is successful and sustainable?
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As we go into the final stretch, most tax professionals are reporting that this busy season has been as good as or better than last year’s.
by Rick Telberg
But any achievement is tempered by the continuing concerns of white-knuckled clients and a reeling economy.
In Brewer, Maine, CPA Thomas Hicks is most worried this year about simply getting paid. “We have seen an approximately 33-percent increase in moderately sophisticated returns such as 1120 and 1120S, and a 50-percent increase in 1040s.” It seems the new returns are coming from clients leaving larger firms for the fees he can offer.
“Looking at the results of their operations for the year, I’m very concerned about the ability of these clients to pay our fees,” Hicks says. “Since we are a relatively small firm, we can insist on payment in advance – a retainer – and at the very least payment on delivery. But we’ve been getting some static from our long-standing clients.”
He has tried personally explaining to each of them that the general economic conditions do not allow his firm to extend credit. “Because we want to ‘be there’ for them,” he tells them, “we need to keep our staff salaries and expenses paid, to be ready when they do need us again.”
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Financial service firms — banks, investment advisors, insurance companies, etc. — account for three-quarters of the tax returns filed by all large corporations.
So why, then, is the IRS allocating only 15% of its corporate revenue agents to the sector? Especially considering that when audits are performed, the IRS reaps outsized gains?
The apparently lopsided distribution of revenue agents to the financial services group is described in a TRAC report based on documents and data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The report is available at http://trac.syr.edu/tracirs/newfindings/v14/
