Accounting Today’s fourth year for the list.
Top winners are to be announced at Accounting Today’s 2nd Annual Growth & Profitability Summit on Oct. 25-27 in Las Vegas.
The Best Accounting Firms to Work For list includes 50 small firms (15-49 employees), 45 midsized firms (50-249 employees) and five large firms (more than 250 employees).
Vault.com ranks accounting firms by “quality of life” issues.
Leading the way was Elliot Davis, which took the top spot in four categories, with WithumSmith+Brown and Deloitte each earning No. 1 rankings in three categories.
S&G Financial Services took the lead in two categories, and Armanino McKenna, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Rothstein Kass each grabbed one top spot in this year’s rankings.
FBI background checks for some PTIN registrants.
The IRS is airing proposed rules and user fees for fingerprinting and for taking the new competency examination.
Total fees, counting the IRS share and corporate contractors doing the work, are expected to be between $60 and $90 for fingerprinting and $100 and $125 for testing.
The IRS share of the fingerprinting fee is expected to be $33 and $27 for the test.
Maybe the 150-person firm in Bellevue, Wash., has found a winning formula.
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Tracy L. White
Clark Nuber is consistently ranked among one of Washington’s best places to work and the firm has an 88 percent retention rate. Tracy L. White, SPHR, Senior Director of Human Resources, shares insights into what it takes to build a dedicated staff:
Last chance to take care of yourself, your career, your firm — before busy season begins.
Robert Fligel
What are some of the things you have you been meaning to do for a long time but haven’t?
Robert Fligel at RF-Resources suggests, for example:
More at: RF Resources
The painful journey to a new era.
by Bruce W. Marcus
Professional Services Marketing 3.0
Bruce W. Marcus
In the years following Bates, accounting firms began a long and difficult process of learning how to market.
Accountants were still so steeped in the no-commercialization ethic that they tried to resist any form of marketing. They couldn’t, because other firms had started doing it, and were winning clients.
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“The ROI on social media is that you’ll still be in business in five years.”
Part of the world’s most watched social media video series; “Social Media Revolution” by Erik Qualman. Based on #1 International Best Selling Book Socialnomics by Erik Qualman. This is a shorter version that includes new social media statistics for 2011.
But it depends on your taste for risk.
Jean Caragher
by Jean Marie Caragher
Capstone Marketing
There are at least four types of opportunities your firm can pursue in considering new niche growth, each with its own level of risk:
1. Market penetration.
Better known as cross-selling, market penetration is providing existing services to existing clients. This is the least risky opportunity since you are already familiar with the service and the clients. For example, you may be developing a niche in the construction industry. Currently, succession planning is a firm specialty. This is a service needed by and could be offered to your builder and contractor clients.
2. Market development.
Provide existing services to new clients. This is a bit more risky since you need to learn about a new market segment. For example, you may currently offer retirement planning services to your current clients. This is a service needed by and could be offered to new business prospects.
3. Product development.
Provide new services to existing clients. This is also a bit risky since you need to learn a new service area.
4. Diversification.
Provide new services to new clients. This opportunity is the most risky since you are moving into a new line of business. Sarbanes-Oxley compliance work has provided many regional and local firms with opportunities to expand their bottom lines.
Caragher is president of Capstone Marketing, a partner with CPA Trendlines in the Seven Keys to Successful CPA Firm Management. This article is adapted from one that appeared in the AICPA Insider, which was excerpted from “Bull’s Eye: The Ultimate How-to Marketing Guide for CPAs,” available at Amazon.com.
And why it’s not product marketing.
by Bruce W. Marcus
Professional Services Marketing 3.0
The adjectives and comparisons and superlatives so common in product marketing have no place in professional services marketing.
The boast, even when there seems to be a foundation for it, rarely works. But professional services marketing can work when it’s designed to: READ MORE →
For their 25-year anniversary celebration, the folks at Camico malpractice insurance company are having some fun. Take a look and listen to the “E&O PL Blues.”
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Ok, it’s not Blind Willie Melon, but it’s fun.
More about Camico here:
Website: www.camico.com
Facebook: www.camico.com/facebook
Twitter: www.camico.com/twitter
For instance: Can your firm deliver?
by Jean Marie Caragher
Capstone Marketing
Niche marketing is the decision to use a mix of marketing tools to address a specific target: a niche in the market.
Using the information gathered in your marketing audit, answer the following questions prior to pursuing a particular industry or service specialization: READ MORE →
No, you don’t OWN your clients.
by Jason M. Blumer, CPA/CITP
Founder, THRIVEal +CPA Network
Chief Innovation Officer, Blumer & Associates CPAs
Jason M. Blumer
I’m learning a lot these days. For instance, I’ve learned the value of where my real assets are found.
An Australian colleague said he doesn’t call his clients “his” anymore. That is, he has realized something that many of us in the business are slow to accept – your clients are not your property and you do not own them. Ouch.
Why Do I Believe This?
Before we hit some practical aspects to this truth, 
let me discuss the deeper reasons for this new belief. With the Accountancy Revolution, I’m seeing that clients, or customers as I like to call them, have the freedom to make their own choices for their service providers. And I now believe this deeply.
Get the briefing paper on the “American Jobs Act.”
With hopes of stimulating national job growth in the near future, President Obama is urging Congress to pass a $447 billion jobs package.
Mark Luscombe
But many tax practitioners just want to know: Will all the rules, regs and forms be ready in time for the 2012 filing season?
“The administration wants Congress to act on this fast,” says CCH Principal Federal Tax Analyst Mark Luscombe, JD, LLM, CPA. “Tax relief aimed to help small businesses may be a key point for lawmakers to find common ground on this bill.”
“But it may be difficult for the IRS to administer some of the tax provisions if the package is passed,” he says.
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CCH Tax Briefing
on the “American Jobs Act of 2011″
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Preliminary results show downward pressure on rates and fees as much as 12% in some areas.
CPA Trendlines is working with Intuit to track the trends.
“This is the first time we’ve seen downward pressure since 2005 when we started this survey,” says Bill Teague at Intuit. “We see the pressures on all hourly rates and even some fixed fees.”
In some cases, Teague says, the average rate is lower even if the mode – the price point used by the majority of respondents – remains the same. Early results for hourly bookkeeping show the mode holding at $50, but the average dropping from $64 two years ago to $56.
Results from prior-year surveys are available for viewing: here for 2009, and here for 2007.
August Aquila
You can’t do it without your marketing director.
by August Aquila
Aquila Advisors
Research shows that managing partners and marketing directors are still facing some major challenges when it comes to getting their firms to implement change. Why? READ MORE →
Three things to know before jumping in.
by Jean Marie Caragher
Capstone Marketing
You can’t start thinking about selecting a niche until you have a firm grasp of your firm’s current situation. That’s why you need a marketing audit of your firm. A marketing audit might start with three key areas to focus on:
And 99 others worth watching.
Barry Melancon, president and CEO of the AICPA since 1995, again tops Accounting Today’s highly influential list of the highly influential.
1. Barry Melancon, president and CEO, AICPA
At the top of Melancon’s to-do list these days: XBRL, IFRS, globalization of the CPA exam, federal audit regulations, private company accounting standards, and growing the CPA brand and AICPA membership.
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INSTANT DOWNLOAD:Get the full Accounting Today list here (PDF, 15 pages), sponsored by SurePrep.
Here are the rest of the top 10:
2. Mary L. Schapiro, SEC chair
.
3. Leslie Seidman, FASB chair
4. Douglas Shulman, IRS commissioner
5. James Doty, PCAOB chair
6. Jim Kroeker, SEC chief accountant
7. Jim Metzler, AICPA VP of small firm interests
8. Hans Hoogervorst, IASB chairman
9. Mark Koziel, AICPA, VP of firm services & global alliances
10. Gary Boomer, CEO, Boomer Consulting
INSTANT DOWNLOAD: Get the full Accounting Today list here (PDF, 15 pages), sponsored by SurePrep.
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