Monthly Archives: December 2014

How to Establish a Sponsor-Protégée Relationship

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business man and woman reading news in magazineFour keys for starting from scratch.

By Ida O. Abbott
Sponsoring Women: What Men Need to Know

Most leaders engage in sponsorship and have been sponsored themselves, so the nature of a sponsor-protégée relationship should be familiar.

MORE ON SPONSORING WOMEN FOR LEADERSHIP: 3 Roadblocks to Women and Men Working Together Well | Why Women Resist Networking and Powerful Role Models | Women Must See Politics as Leadership to Get Ahead | Mommy Bias Persists | Different Standards, Double Binds Challenge Women | 5 Ways Gender Bias Plays Out at CPA Firms | 3 Reasons Why Men Don’t Pick Women Protégées | 18 Ways Sponsors Can Help Their Protegees | The 6 Market Advantages of Women-Led Firms | Beyond Mentoring: Why Sponsoring Women for Leadership Matters

Generally speaking, you sponsor women just as you do men. You may have to make a little more effort up front, and you might need to adapt to the impact of motherhood and other sex-related differences, but the strategies and tactics that sponsors use to help women move ahead are not much different than those for men.

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Top 21 Reasons Clients Switch Tax Accountants

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dissatisfied disapproval angerdissatisfied disapproval angerdissatisfied disapproval anger????????????????angry man at pc Dollarphotoclub_68204440 72dpiHow many of these do you need to fix in your firm?

By Ed Mendlowitz
How to Review Tax Returns

Clients have many choices, including the choice of a tax preparer. Every new client an accountant gets is because that client left – fired! – their previous accountant.

Here is a listing of 21 major reasons why clients switch accountants. Ask yourself how many of these mistakes you could correct immediately and think about what that might be worth. READ MORE →

Great Tax Prep Reviewers Aren’t Just Born

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htrtr cvr clipFive traits of the best tax season managers.

By Ed Mendlowitz
How to Review Tax Returns

Reviewing tax returns is a key part of tax preparation. It also is an area vulnerable to major bottlenecks and backlogs. Inevitably, firms have more preparers than reviewers. The latter are highly skilled professionals who are more difficult to train or find. Therefore, you must consider ways to reduce review time, even at the expense of adding preparer time.

The best tax season managers know how to: READ MORE →

Accounting Firms Run on More than Checklists Alone

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Business man pointing the text: Duplicate SuccessHow savvy firms capture their best practices and foster continuous improvement.

By Roman H. Kepczyk
Quantum of Paperless

Every firm has accountants who are 10 percent, 20 percent or even 50 percent more productive in their departments than other personnel because they have simply “figured it out.”

MORE ON TECH SPENDING: Going Paperless Means Convincing Clients First | How to Cut Tax Prep Costs with Scanners | Making Digital Tax Process Easier Is All About the Workflow | Why Firms Need Document Retention Standards | Intranet Is the Best Place for Firm Knowledge | Digital Fax Has Benefits You May Be Ignoring | Wireless Is Hot, and Here’s How to Handle It | How Safe Is Your Internet Lifeline? | New Tech Tools for the 24/7 Accounting Firm | When to Adopt Microsoft’s New Office Apps

Unfortunately, when these people leave the firm, their unique knowledge of specific processes and shortcuts goes with them. READ MORE →

Non-Equity Partners Have Important Role to Play

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Businesspeople having a meeting over coffee sitting together at a table discussing a document, young man and two middle-aged women presentPercentage of women in partner roles is on the rise, but they’re still underutilized.

CPA Trendlines Exclusive

Partner positions in CPA firms are ever so slightly going increasingly to women and non-equity partners, who have some of the same authority and prestige as full partners, but don’t hold equity stakes in their firms.

MORE FROM THE MAP SURVEY: Geography Plays Part in Firm Success | Financial Services Up at Largest Firms, Down at Smaller Ones | Big Firms Keep Getting Bigger

Non-equity partners are in place at 49 percent of all CPA firms with multiple partners, up from 46 percent the year before, while women hold partnership positions at 16.4 percent of firms in 2013, up from 15.6 percent, according to the current “Rosenberg Survey: The National MAP Survey of CPA Firm Statistics.” READ MORE →

Why I Became a Consultant

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By Ed Mendlowitz The CPA Trendlines Practice Doctor While I was working full-time early in my accounting career, I was also picking up clients that I did on the side, also known as moonlighting. One of the clients was a … Continued

Accounting Marketing Takes a New Step in the Evolutionary Process

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Learn how to recognize and participate profitably in the incoming tide.

By Bruce W. Marcus

Professional Services Marketing 3.0? This from someone who has written, spoken, railed against jargon and gimmicks?

Well, yes, because in this rapidly changing economic environment, intensely competitive landscape and highly charged computer age, it’s the best way to define significant evolution from one distinct period to the next. But, that’s exactly what’s happened – and is happening – with CPA firms. And in management practices, business models and structure as well. READ MORE →