This Week’s Top Ten Most Clicked Posts for CPA’s

What tax and accounting professionals are clicking on in the last seven days

  1. 10 (funny) reasons to avoid talking on the phone http://ow.ly/16DWw3
  2. For accountants, it’s all about execution these days http://ow.ly/1adfO
  3. How Life at Chili’s is Like a CPA Firm’s Service Model  http://ow.ly/16E8iy
  4. Will Yancey, CPA, Ph.D, web pioneer, dies at age 53. http://ow.ly/16zVpH
  5. A special report on social networking: A world of connections | The Economist http://ow.ly/16ADFQ
  6. Hit Song: If I Were An Auditor « The Summa http://ow.ly/16zhrH
  7. Happy Valentine’s Day for Accountants: A Love Song for Virtual CPAs http://ow.ly/16zKz3
  8. How Janet Jackson and Mick Jagger Attract Accountants – DiversityInc.com http://ow.ly/16AMde
  9. What accountants are clicking on… Top 10 Accounting News Links This Week : http://ow.ly/193YE
  10. AccountingWEB’s Level 2 10-Key Speed Test http://ow.ly/16zoNT

Source: CPA Trendlines via www.twitter.om/cpa_cpatrendlines

Take the Passionate Accountant Quiz

Can your clients tell if you are faking it?

Do you seek out opportunities to learn new things that will help your clients overcome their most difficult challenges?

Osborne

Selling value-creation advisory services is truly a slam dunk with most modern business owners, according to Edi Osborne of MentorPlus. The bad news is that, although most CPAs would say they are their clients’ most trusted advisor, few could answer the following questions in the affirmative.

Passionate accountant quiz:

1. Can you name your clients’ biggest competitors and outline their key differentiators?

2. Have you ever accompanied your clients to one of their industry conferences?

3. Have you ever signed up for a business seminar for you and your clients to attend together?

4. Do you routinely read your clients’ trade publications?

5. Do you routinely read business publications, such as Inc., Fast Company, or Fortune?

6. Do you monitor the activities of your clients and their industry with Google Alerts, and send them a note or pick up the phone to acknowledge the press they have received?

7. Have you ever come across an article that speaks to your clients’ issues and sent it to them with a personal note?

8. Have you ever sent them a personal note? Maybe a birthday card? Maybe an anniversary card of the day they became a client?

9. Have you ever conducted an employee exit interview on behalf of your client?

10. Do you have a copy of your client’s strategic plan? Are you included in meetings where the client discusses overall business strategy?

Give yourself 10 points for each of the questions to which you answered yes. If your total score adds up to 80 to 100 points, congratulations! You truly understand what it means to walk in your clients’ shoes and can be passionate about their success.

If you are in the 50- to 80-point range, you might want to consider adding a few of the ideas above to your annual client service plan.

If you are below 50 points, you cannot possibly relate to your clients’ business issues enough to be passionately involved in their success. I suggest you contact Edi immediately at edi@mentorplus.com.

via AccountingWeb

AICPA: Economic Outlook Remains Pessimistic among CPA Financial Executives

Prospects for Economic Recovery Continue to Recede as Recession Lengthens

DURHAM-CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Expectations among Certified Public Accountant executives for the U.S. economy remained pessimistic in the first quarter as the recovery proved sluggish amid signs of potential growth in manufacturing and a slightly improving outlook for organizations, according to a new nationwide survey conducted by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

“It is good to see signs of optimism, especially from the manufacturing sector,” said Carol Scott, CPA, AICPA vice president for business, industry and government. “Unfortunately 40 percent of our CPA members in business and industry — chief financial officers, controllers and CPA financial professionals – are now telling us that they do not expect their business to return to pre-recession levels until 2012 and beyond.”

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NY’s Graf Repetti in Deal with Zeidman, Lackowitz

Accounting Transition Advisors assists.

The Commercial and Tax Division of Zeidman, Lackowitz, Prisand & Co. with Ted B. Lackowitz, Steven Battino, George L. Klueg and K. Steven Wegert have merged their practice into the firm of Graf Repetti & Co. in New York.

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Savvy CPAs Focus on Back-to-Basics

it’s all about execution these days – doing the right things right.

by Rick Telberg

The frenzy of busy season and an uncertain economic outlook may be preying on the minds of accountants as their chief concerns right now. But, at the same time, many are forging ahead with a new sense of purpose and a clear-eyed view of the new business realities.

CPAs, like almost everyone else, appear to have been chastened by the big bank meltdown, and are taking a “back to basics” approach to their business lives. Maybe it’s all about execution these days – doing the right things right. For sure, the word “focus” seems to pop up frequently when I hear from CPAs these days.

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Newspaper Halts Deliveries. Sarbanes-Oxley Blamed.

SOX Compliance Goes Postal on New Mexico Papers

Melissa Aguilar reports in ComplianceWeek:

Aguilar

The Clovis News Journal—paper of record for Clovis, population 37,200—says that it cand no longer deliver newspapers to its subscribers. The reason? Sarbanes-Oxley.

“Due to the federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act and its required implementation locally by the U.S. Postal Service, the Portales and Clovis post offices no longer can provide same-day mailed service of the Portales News-Tribune and the Clovis News Journal,” according to the News Journal website.

But higher up the U.S. Postal Services ranks, a spokesperson says they’re misinterpreting the rules at the Clovis branch. You need to read it to believe it, here: Compliance Week.

Pennsylvania CPAs Launch Videos in Viral Ad Campaign

Members asked to help build buzz.

The Pennsylvania Institute of CPA’s image enhancement advertising campaign has gone online, designed to drive potential clients and employers to ineedacpa.org.

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Top 10 Accounting News Links This Week

What CPAs are clicking on…

  1. Will Yancey, CPA, Ph.D, web pioneer, dies at age 53. http://ow.ly/16zVpH
  2. Happy Valentine’s Day for Accountants: A Love Song for Virtual CPAs http://ow.ly/16zKz3
  3. Hit Song: If I Were An Auditor « The Summa http://ow.ly/16zhrH
  4. Calif CPA William Murray Charged with $13 Million Fraud http://ow.ly/16AcE3
  5. The Unseen Victims of No Estate Tax – WSJ.com http://ow.ly/16AbcR
  6. How Janet Jackson and Mick Jagger Attract Accountants – DiversityInc.com http://ow.ly/16AMde
  7. AccountingWEB’s Level 2 10-Key Speed Test http://ow.ly/16zoNT
  8. Will Your Tax Pro Get You Audited? – Forbes.com http://ow.ly/16AWpX
  9. A special report on social networking: A world of connections | The Economist http://ow.ly/16ADFQ
  10. Tax Report: The Unseen Victims of No Estate Tax – WSJ.com http://ow.ly/17ZEI

Source: CPA Trendlines Twitter news feed.

25 Magic Words for Career Success

Surprise: Hard work and knowledge aren’t Number 1. Neither are skills or knowledge.

by Rick Telberg

Above all else, the essential ingredient for career success as a CPA is not what you might think.

It’s not knowledge or ability; although you can’t be a CPA without either. It’s not hard work or integrity. But you won’t go far without them. In one word: It’s about “clients.”

No single word comes up more often when you ask for career advice from today’s working professionals than the word “clients.”

READ MORE →

Four New CPA Opportunities for the New Economy

CPA Mike Ramos sees government policies moving the economy in a new direction.

This will affect your clients’ business — and their business needs. Your opportunity is to provide a service to address those changing needs.

Four promising areas to consider:

1. Tax planning and compliance: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) — dubbed the stimulus package — brought major changes to the tax code. So does the Obama administration’s budget. The tax code overhaul offers significant opportunities in tax planning and compliance.

2. Services for state and local governments: Firms skilled in audits of state and local governments and the requirements of OMB Circular A-133 are well positioned to expand their practice. The ARRA’s reporting requirements go far beyond existing rules for those receiving federal funds. ARRA fund recipients have many questions.

3. Services for nonprofit organizations: Many nonprofits are receiving ARRA funding. They face the same issues facing state and local government receiving ARRA funds. Moreover, many nonprofits will face another challenge: preparing for their first A-133 audit.

4. Renewable energy: Keep your eye on wind, solar and other renewable energy sources. The Obama administration has signaled it will make significant investments in the rapidly growing renewable energy sector.

In these historic times, Ramos says, CPA firms that decline to change their pre-2007 business model risk being overtaken by competitors.

via Four Trends CPAs Need to Know.

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