A sign of a full economic recovery for the profession?
by Rick Telberg
Exclusive to CPA Trendlines
CPA firms are shaking off the effects of years of a fee-cutting death-spiral that halted growth, pinched profits and forced painful staff reductions.
Instead, firms are now pushing through some of the most aggressive price increases in years, led by audit services, followed by tax prep, bookkeeping and compilations. READ MORE →
Risks, service organizations and misstatements. [Free podcast for PRO members]
Special to CPA Trendlines
Practical accounting and auditing guidance from the Plain-English A&A update service by Dr. Thomas A. Ratcliffe, PhD, CPA 
AU-C Section 330: Performing Procedures in Response to Assessed Risks and Evaluating Audit Evidence Obtained
In implementing the clarified auditing standards in calendar-year 2012 and subsequent period audit engagements, practitioners need to have a clear understanding of what is required when performing audit procedures in response to assessed risks and evaluating the audit evidence obtained.
AU-C Section 402: Service Organization Audit Considerations
With the clarified auditing standards, when reporting entities use service organizations to provide services relevant to the audit, practitioners need to have a clear understanding of what is required in considering work performed by service organizations.
AU-C Section 450: Evaluation of Misstatements Identified
In the clarified auditing technical literature, practitioners have some clear responsibilities related to evaluating the effect of identified misstatements on the audit along with the effect of uncorrected misstatements, if any, on the financial statements.
[PRO MEMBERS: Click READ MORE to get the free 10-minute podcast.]
Business development for sole practitioners and small firms.
By Sandi Smith, CPA / Special to CPA Trendlines
If you’re a sole practitioner or small-firm operator, you’re probably very good at what you do — or you wouldn’t be in business today. But when it comes to marketing and selling yourself, well, many of us didn’t voluntarily sign up for that part.
As a matter of fact, some of us are resisting — kicking and screaming — marketing ourselves. So no wonder, for some of us, business is slow or not growing at the rate we’d like.
More for soloists and small firms from Sandi Smith at CPA Trendlines: The Top 12 Business Card Blunders Accountants Make • Seven Tips to Keep the Clients You Have • How to Attract Clients Like a Magnet • Eleven Easy Ways to Deliver More Value to Clients • Five Things Accountants Take for Granted That Costs Them Revenue• What’s in Your New Client Funnel? • What’s In Your Welcome Kit for New Prospects? • Five Fun and Easy Ways to Wow Your Clients • Six Ways to Give Yourself a Raise • Strategies to Stop Losing Business to Competitors
We all hope we will have enough referrals so that we will never have to sell ourselves. But in the last few years, referrals, even for those with huge followings, have slowed down. It’s past time that we work on more fully developing the marketing and selling function of our businesses.
As you do, here are five mistakes to avoid: READ MORE →
$427,000 in new business tied to web-driven content marketing campaign.
by Rick Telberg
Exclusive to CPA Trendlines
Top 10 firm McGladrey has taken the wraps off an under-the-radar marketing program that is producing dramatic results and serves as a case study for the rest of the profession.
At a conference in Orlando last month, Eric Webb, Senior Director of Communications & Brand, presented a 65-slide case study that shows since this effort began in 2009:
McGladrey attributes $427,000 worth of business to its content marketing process since July 2011.
“If the website is the center of the universe for all of marketing, the content — especially the original thought leadership type of content — is the cement of that foundation,” Webb says in describing the importance of content marketing.
The effort demonstrates the importance of better communication throughout the entire content production process and clear expectations for each content creator.
CPA TRENDLINES PRO MEMBERS: Click READ MORE to get the details and download the slide deck
The ideal management structure for a profitable CPA firm.
by Marc Rosenberg, CPA
Author of What Really Makes CPA Firms Profitable
The vast majority of CPA firms are well under 100 people and therefore don’t need the kind of formalized structure that larger firms need. But virtually all firms, regardless of size, need some minimum form of structure.
More like this: The Seven Signs of Great Leadership in a CPA Firm | The 10 Biggest Mistakes CPA Firms Make in Reading MAP Statistics | New Rosenberg MAP Survey Says CPA Firm Revenue Growth Re-Accelerating | Five Skills that Separate Winners from Losers in the Accounting Business | Don’t Ask a CPA What Profitability Means | The Essence of CPA Firm Profitability | Compensation Issues for the New Managing Partner | 20 Decisions for Your Firm’s New Partner Compensation Committee | Three Ways to Break Partner Gridlock in an Accounting Firm | What Partners Are Entitled To, and What They’re NOT Entitled To | How to Make Partner? | Why Accounting Firm Partners Are “Popping Prozac like M&M’s” | More…
There is a natural tendency for firms to minimize the role of management. There are several reasons for this: READ MORE →