December 3, 2012 - CPA Trendlines

CPA Trendlines Analysis: 40% of Firms Going to the Cloud

December 3, 2012

New data and analysis cited in CCH cloud technology report.

Accounting, tax and audit leaders are using cloud computing to improve speed, agility and collaboration, while also increasing productivity and profits, according to a new report on technology trends.

Nearly 40 percent of accounting and tax firms plan to migrate some systems to the cloud within the next 12 to 18 months, and about one-third plan to do so this year, according to market research and consulting firm Bay Street Group, which publishes CPA Trendlines. As recently as two years ago, the adoption rate was in the single digits. “The environment is changing rapidly,” CEO Rick Telberg points out. The research is cited in the latest edition of Partners Magazine, published by CCH.

The report also cites data and case studies from Tribridge IT services in Tampa, Fla.; Stambaugh Ness CPAs of York, Pa.; Steven Brewer & Co. CPAs of Salem, Ind.; Gamble & Livingston CPAs of Myrtle Beach, S.C.; and David Bergstein, CPA, CITP, director of strategic relations for Wolters Kluwer.

INSTANT DOWNLOAD: Click here to get the full report (PDF). READ MORE →

Seven Steps to Leverage the Power of Positivity in Your Firm, Your Career and Your Life

December 3, 2012

By CPA Trendlines Research

Success comes to those who go out and find it.

by Nick Keseric

So what’s wrong in being upbeat and positive? Nothing at all. This is not about rose colored glasses.

More on the entrepreneurial accountant: Nine Bridges to Cross in Business Development for Accounting Firms | If Business Development Is a Circus at Your Firm… | My Attitude??? What’s Wrong with My @#$%! Attitude? | Curious Minds Want to Know: Are You Helping or Selling? | The Six-Step Roadmap for CPA Change Agents | 20 Biz Dev Ideas for Your Career and Your Firm |

Given today’s world, if you are waiting for good things to happen to you, you better get a comfortable chair because that train isn’t coming towards you. Success comes from effort. Our own individual effort. And having a positive attitude and being upbeat plays a huge role in obtaining success.

This has as much to do with us as individuals as it does about us as a profession. The professionals in accounting are among of the most respected of all the professions. Given that foundation, how we deal with others can only enhance an already proud and powerful profession.

Six Reasons NOT to Plan for Succession

December 3, 2012

By Rick Telberg

Here’s how to get started today with four questions to know when you’re ready.

by August J. Aquila

It used to be that death and taxes were the only two inevitable events in life. But for owners of accounting practices there is a third – succession. There is no greater threat to the future of accounting firms than the failure to plan for succession.

august aquila - full size mug — August Aquila

More August Aquila on CPA Trendlines: How to Apply Sam Walton’s 10 Rules for Success at Your Firm | Nine Steps to Effective Succession Planning for the Small Firm | Thinking Merger? Look Before You Leap | Four New Checklists for Succession Planning | Partner Accountability: Seven Signs Your Firm May Be in Trouble |

Many small and medium sized firms have no succession plan. They have their reasons: READ MORE →

Four Ways to Practice Entrepreneurial Perseverance

December 3, 2012

By Rick Telberg

How to change your thinking to prevail over the toughest of circumstances

Perseverance is a skill that anyone can learn to not only survive, but thrive through life’s curves. When adversity strikes, it’s not what happens to you but how you respond to what happens to you that has the greatest impact on your life.

More for soloists and small firms: How to Win New Clients with a Freebie Strategy • The Success Secrets Women Already Know • Why You’re Missing Out on 98% of Your New Business Potential • The Missing Ingredient in Your Marketing That Will Make All the Difference • 3 Steps to Start Running on Millionaire Time • On the Road to a Stress-Free Life: Identify Your Character Strengths • The Power of Deadlines in Closing a Deal • His and Her Brains at Work in Tax and Accounting • 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Seeking New Clients • The Top 12 Business Card Blunders Accountants Make •

Here are four specific ways you can change your thinking to persevere in the toughest of circumstances, from Sandi Smith, CPA, “The Accountant’s Accelerator:” READ MORE →

Four Management Metrics that Fool Even the Best-Run Firms

December 3, 2012

By Marc Rosenberg

How looking at realization, billables, utilization, and labor costs can lead you astray.

by Marc Rosenberg, CPA
Author of “What Really Makes CPA Firms Profitable?”

If you’re striving to maximize profitably in your accounting firm (and who isn’t these days?), there a few important things you need to do.

CPA Trendlines PRO members get more [Go PRO here]: 19 Ways to Improve Accounting Firm Profitability • De-Bunking the Myth about Niche Marketing for Tax and Accounting Firms • Practice Development Is No Longer an Optional Activity • 10 Good Ways the Achieve Partner Accountability • Pick Your Partners Right to Begin With • The First Nine Questions Your Partner Team Needs to Embrace for Optimal Profitability • Profitability and The Value of Strategic Thinking • The Five Essential Building Blocks for Creating a Strong Accounting Firm • The Seven Signs of Great Leadership in a CPA Firm • Compensation Issues for the New Managing Partner •

And then there are four things that are just a total waste of time. Like these. READ MORE →

Why No One Listens to You

December 3, 2012

By Edward Mendlowitz

The new “listening deficiency epidemic.”

Question: I notice that most of the time my staff doesn’t listen when I talk. How can I make them listen?

Response: I find this issue very widespread. I believe there is an epidemic of people not listening, not just staff.

Who’s Better at Marketing? Lawyers or CPAs?

December 3, 2012

By Bruce W. Marcus

Is the question ludicrous?

by Bruce W. Marcus
Author of Professional Services Marketing 3.0

Looking at the question from a different point of view, the international consultant Patrick McKenna, said, “If you’re trying to determine which of the two professions (lawyers or accountants) are the more advanced in their marketing prowess, I’m sorry but I think the very question is ludicrous. Be it accountant, consultants, architects or lawyers, it really doesn’t matter. My experience confirms for me that when you think of marketing prowess you can divide any of the individuals or firms, in any of those professions (not by profession but by mindset) . . . into three categories: hawks, doves and ostriches.”

More for CPA Trendlines PRO members: Even a Random Disaster Can Be Controlled with Risk Management • Managing Risk in Client Relations • Your Clients Love You? What If You’re Wrong? • The Three Degrees of Risk • Four Essential Habits for Building Client Trust • The Nine Hallmarks of a Marketing Culture • The Four Cornerstones to Building A Marketing Culture • Getting the Client is Only Half the Battle • Practice Development: It’s Not Rocket Science • Nine Fundamentals for a Healthy Marketing Culture in an Accounting Firm •

Silvia Coulter, head of the Legal Sales And Service Organization, and a pioneer in selling legal services, agrees with McKenna. “That having been said, if you seek an answer on one side or the other with the assumption of Patrick’s response, then I will say accountants, in general, are more in touch with reality — because of the numbers. Therefore, whether they choose sexier marketing approaches than lawyers, may not matter. It’s who knows the client best and who can best retain and grow client share. Lawyers have all the answers in front of them and yet still after all this time, spend countless dollars on marketing people who know little about marketing, ignore those clients who make up 80% of their firms’ revenues only to chase new business which we all know is far costlier to acquire. READ MORE →

Daily Archives: December 3, 2012