The news about the economy is not as important as what you decide to do about it.

Boomer

Boomer

“Too often, accounting firms head immediately for the bunker and dwell on any negative news,” practice management consultant Gary Boomer says.

He tells firm leaders: “the challenge for you is to maintain personal confidence while building the same in your staff and clients.”

Boomer suggests six steps to take today:

1. Have a New Opportunities conversation with your clients. Discuss what they have and are grateful for.

2. List each client’s current dangers, opportunities and strengths – then select and focus on the top three.

3. Develop an action plan. Be creative.

4. Focus on progress and not perfection.

5. Agree to speak again with the client within the next 30 days.

“The uncertainty of the times is real,” Boomer says. “Fear should not cause paralysis, but rather motivation to take positive action. While some things are out of our control, how we react is not. Take time to think, write down your thoughts and act. In so doing you will devise a remedy for the present and a plan for the future.”

More at The Boomer Bulletin.

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Posted on May 28, 2009
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[VIDEO] Rapping flight attendant explains GAAP at Southwest Airlines annual meeting

As the CEO explained, “Now GAAP is fun!

Southwest’s upper management people decided that they should bring David Holmes, the famous rapping flight attendant, to the shareholders’ meeting in the role of “rhythmic ambassador” to explain actually what “Generally Acceptable Accounting Practices” are.

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Posted on May 28, 2009
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Top Seven Emerging Technologies for Accountants

According to Richard Oppenheim, writing at The Progressive Accountant, they are:

1. Cellular Telephony Getting Better

2. Wireless Charging by Induction

3. Picture Taking Goes on a Diet

4. Smart Cards Get Bigger and Smaller

5. GPS Getting Connected

6. Video Adapts Intelligence

7. Printed Words Are Being Reengineered

Get the full story at Emerging Technologies 2009.

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Posted on May 27, 2009
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What’s XBRL? Start thinking data, not reports

A great history lesson, primer and forecast… all in one.

XBRL Ficpa May 29 2009

View more OpenOffice presentations from Neal Hannon.

From Neal Hannon at the Gilbane Group.

(Slideshow not loading? Try this link: http://www.slideshare.net/nealhannon/xbrl-ficpa-may-29-2009-1493427?type=presentation.)

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Posted on May 26, 2009
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CPAs Get Serious about Twitter

Rule 1: Act professional. The world is watching.

Next, join our survey to find out more.

By Rick Telberg

Like 23 million others, accounting and finance professionals are flocking to the newest internet craze, Twitter, the so-called social media micro-blogging service.

Launched just three years ago, the Twitter phenomenon has swept up celebrities and politicians, wonks and geeks, and casual users as well as businesses. Even if you haven’t opened an account (yet), you’ve no doubt heard of a Twitterland filled with Tweeple Tweeting and Re-Tweeting Tweets. If you still need an introduction, try this popular YouTube video, “Twitter in Plain English.”

Twitter could still go the way of the Pet Rock or the Hula Hoop, but a lot of serious CPAs are taking the craze seriously.

Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter?

What are CPAs doing on line?

How and Why?

Join the survey; get the answers.

(Free. Confidential.)

CPA David Feil may be typical. (Or, is it “twypical” ?) A financial analyst for a Texas manufacturer, he signs in as “musiccpa,” reflecting a personal passion. But Feil uses Twitter just as much for keeping up with the pulse of business.

Chad Bordeaux, for instance, shares an accounting practice with his wife, Donna, in Lake Wylie, S.C. He reports picking up a couple new clients for tax season after they found him on Twitter. He talks about “online presence” like any business person might talk about highway billboards or a nice office location – it’s just another place to do business.

CPAs Jeff Elliott and Shane Eloe, meanwhile, represent a new legion of blogging Twitterers sharing what it’s like to confront the CPA exam and start a career in the profession. Their experiences are informative and even inspiring.

The AICPA itself runs several popular accounts, including AICPAnews, Young CPA Network, the Journal of Accountancy, CPA Letter Daily, 360 Degrees of Financial Literacy and Feed the Pig.

The Maryland Association of CPAs has been a pacesetter, Twittering as MACPA. CPA and author Diane Kennedy has over 5,000 followers. The St. Louis chapter of the Association of Government Accountants, under chapter president Anita Santiago, uses Twitter as part of its communications efforts.

Eventually, Twittering (or its technological successor) may become as common as faxing and email. But for now, people are still learning about it, and about what it can teach us.

Joey Brannon, who owns Axiom CPA in Bradenton, Fla., made a study of what people talk about when they talk about CPAs on Twitter. His findings are eye-opening. He says on his blog:

  1. If Twitter is still around in five years, a lot more CPAs will be using it. How do I know this? Because there are a lot of CPA candidates tweeting about their progress on the CPA exam. Once they pass, move into the ranks of staff accountants and start seeing clients, you can bet we’ll be hearing about their interactions in real time.
  2. Client service may not be the profession’s strong suit. Clients don’t like it when we’re not proactive. More than a few people are upset with their CPA because they owe taxes. There’s a lot of comparing going to the CPA with going to the dentist. Not exactly the frame of mind I want my clients in when they show up to meet with me.
  3. Community rules. There is a vibrant community of cool, friendly and helpful CPA’s out there more than willing to lend a hand, offer advice or provide that missing nugget of information. For those of us with small, niche practices having a network of like-minded colleagues who walk in our shoes every day is invaluable.

So CPAs might be well-advised to Twitter with a purpose, according to Kristy Short, a veteran public relations consultant. “They have to think of Twitter as a professional discussion forum and not a place to update casual, daily activity,” she says. “No one needs to know when they are getting a snack.”

So does it make “business sense” for CPAs? I asked on Twitter. Monica Lawver, “TheTaxCPA,” wrote back, remaining well within the 140-character convention: “Twitter sense: It provides an easy way to network with other professionals, and easy access to the latest acctg news.”

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Posted on May 26, 2009
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How Leaders Lead in Tough Times

Four traits for a new generation of management.

What’s the CPA outlook? Join the survey; get the results.

by Rick Telberg

If you’re feeling a little shell-shocked from this recession, you’re not alone.

All across the nation, accounting and finance professionals are dealing with the emotional fallout of cutbacks and layoffs, diminished expectations and dashed dreams. If this recession has been about anything, it’s been about failed institutions and failed systems.

But most of all – according to Rex Gatto, Ph.D., a workplace psychologist with a specialty in accounting firms – it has been about failed leadership. Powerful leaders have failed greatly – from Enron to Bear Stearns, Gatto told me.

It will take a new prescription to move forward, according to Gatto. But eventually, people will, indeed, move forward. And it will require a new kind of leadership.

HOW WILL YOU CELEBRATE THE END OF BUSY SEASON?

Join the survey; see the results.

(Free. Confidential.)

“True leaders,” Gatto says, “can be identified through their behaviors of listening, communicating, taking action, understanding the economic drivers and creating organizational passion. They understand the passion of people, they instill passion in people and they help organizations identify what their greatest strengths are.”

Gatto says that a leader today must be a “beacon” of hope and clarity. New leaders, Gatto told me in a follow-up e-mail, will need to be at least four things in the coming months:

1. Leaders of hope. They must be visible, and must explain to people how to get through this crisis. They will have to be frank, transparent in their dealings and creative. It is essential to help people understand that, while this is devastating, there is still a direction and a strategy of hope to survive.

2. Leaders need to be communicators. They must be able to over share information, to go up and down through various levels within their organizations and communicate a message of direction, economic success and business success. They will be required to help all levels of employees understand what the goals are for the next three to six months, what the possibilities are within a year and what people will be doing, specifically by product and service. They will have to help people to know who will be involved, how the organization will be altered, how people will work together and how consolidated jobs will be created and measured.

3. Effective leaders will need to build an organizational strategy for approximately six months, beginning today, and continuing next week and the week after, repeating the cycle every week. It is practical and realistic to focus on a six-month period of time, indicating that these are the kinds of things that have to be done today and for the next six months. If accomplished, success will ensue.

4. Leaders need to be specific about helping people to know how they will be evaluated and how success is measured. They need to be able to communicate the what, who, when and how of doing, and that the successes will be continually measured. People should put SMART (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, Time-bound) goals in place, making very specific, measureable actions so that it will be evident as to whether they are on the track to success or not. Leaders must have the leeway to go back and rethink in a very practical perspective what must be done now and how it must be accomplished.

Today accounting firms and finance organization are being restructured and re-conceived, consolidated, merged and re-formed.

“Through this rebirth of organizations,” Gatto says, “leaders have a great opportunity to go back and find out what their greatest strengths are, communicate them daily, instill the confidence of strength in people and lead people to utilize those organizational strengths to success.”

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Posted on May 22, 2009
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Eight New Rules for the Age of Turbulence

What are you doing to adjust to “The New Normal?“

By Rick Telberg

Since World War II, the United States has averaged about one or two recessions every decade. Over time, accountants and finance managers have become accustomed to operating on one of two strategies: upturn or downturn – one geared for growth, the other for contraction

But this time it could be different. Between the dot-com bust and credit crash, the old rules may no longer apply. Intuit CEO Brad Smith, for example, has been telling anyone who’d listen that we need to get accustomed to “a new normal.”

Now, two business gurus have laid out a new plan for this new terrain. In “Chaotics: The Business of Managing and Marketing in the Age of Turbulence,” authors Philip Kotler and John A. Caslione steal a phrase from Fed chief Alan Greenspan’s memoirs and set out a new case for a prolonged period of economic change and uncertainty that defies predictable cyclicality.

What’s YOUR personal strategy for beating the recession?

Sound off here; see what other CPAs are saying.

(Free. Confidential)

Accountants and accounting firms — professional services firms and knowledge workers – should be relatively well positioned for the New Normal. But they will need to adapt.

Kotler, a revered marketing professor at Northwestern’s Kellogg School, and Caslione, a mergers and acquisitions consultant, lay out a few core strategies for this new and treacherous environment that are especially relevant for CPA firms and finance departments.

Rule 1 – Keep recruiting. “Firms and finance departments need to focus on the bigger picture of long-term growth,” Kotler and Caslione say. And be careful about layoffs, because it’s expensive to re-hire and could be fatal if your best employees get scooped up by the competition.

Rule 2 – Keep training. Use the downtime to increase education and to re-tool for the changing business scene. “During downturns, people need new and more advanced skills and knowledge,” according to “Chaotics.” “And training certainly provides a morale boost, as well.”

Rule 3 – Keep talking. “Be honest with employees about difficult times,” they advise. Rumors are toxic. Nip them in the bud with candor.

Rule 4 – The CEO can’t do it alone. C-level executives and line managers need to be mobilized to meet with staff in small groups to interpret corporate strategy for the operational level and to stay focused on key tactical objectives.

Rule 5 – Nail down your core clients and markets. Focus on your main source of revenue. “Turbulence is not a good climate for venturing into new customer segments,” they say. “It’s time to secure the home front.”

Rule 6 – Push aggressively to win market share. Look at weakened competitors as a source of new business.

Rule 7 – Listen to clients and stakeholders. “Chaos has a way of changing everyone, including your core customers,” the authors say. “Their needs and wants are in flux.” Stay close. Redouble market research and customer satisfaction surveys. And try new advertising ideas. “You don’t want to find yourself relying on old marketing messages that no longer resonate.”

Rule 8 – Don’t cut business development. Maintain the marketing budget. Increase it if you can. “With the market being buffeted, your customers getting whipsawed, and your competitors making bold moves on your turf, turbulence is the worst time to cut anything in your marketing budget that targets your core customer segments. In fact, you need to add to it.” Shift money out of new customer segments if you need to.

And above all, stay alert and nimble. With change comes new and unforeseen opportunities. Customers have new problems. They expect you to come up with new solutions. Will you be ready?

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Posted on May 18, 2009
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What is Twitter?

Try this popular video. Almost 1 million others have.

For the uninitiated, here’s a quick primer on the micro-blogging social media service sweeping the internet:

Then join me and thousands of other accounting and finance professionals on Twitter, here www.Twitter.com/CPA_Trendlines.

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Posted on May 17, 2009
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Change is Exponential [VIDEO]

Did you know… ?

20 million viewers so far. Catch it if you haven’t already.

Originally produced as a slide show by three high school teachers. More about who made it here.

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Posted on May 15, 2009
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