693 Search Results for payroll

Five Questions About Facing Challenges

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We all have to do it.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

When challenges come our way, regardless of what shape or form they arrive in, our world seems to lose a bit of brightness, there’s a little knot in the gut and a sense of peace broken.

MORE: The Real Math Behind the Sales Pipeline | Five Questions for Grading Prospects | Be Clear About Your ROI Proposition | Keep Business Development Going During Busy Season | Health, Wealth, Stealth: Challenges on the Path to Partnership | Don’t Let Recurring Fees Kill Your Practice | Rate Your Personal Purpose | Five Ways to Make Selling Easier | Six Keys to Getting a Proposal Accepted | Tell the World Your Worth
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The question is, if we were watching our own responses to these trials, would we appoint ourselves as the next partner of the firm?

Let’s examine five checkpoints to test your own, or your staffers’, abilities to overcome challenges.
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Busy Season Barometer Offers Clues for Better Business

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workers in busy office

Take a tip from a peer.

By CPA Trendlines Research

The CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer: Emerging Issues, Opportunities, and Trends is more than just a survey of the state of the industry at CPA firms across the nation. It also offers clues to what firms are doing to make the busy season better, easier and more profitable.

The clues are in the comments – open-ended answers where practitioners tell us what they’re doing, how they’re feeling and where they’re going.

MORE: Tax Practitioners Say Happy Days Are Here … Again | The IRS Is Coming! Get Your Clients into Compliance | End Tax Season Meetings with Clients … Seriously | Brandon Hall: Firms Try to Make Too Much on Tax Prep | Eight Steps to Getting Started with AI: A Guide for Tax Professionals | FTC Nails TurboTax for ‘Free Filing’ Scam | If Only the IRS’s Tax Pro Were Useful | ID Theft a Problem for IRS Even When It Doesn’t Exist
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One of the best questions is “What are you doing differently this year?” Each answer reflects an attempt to make the best of a stressful situation – the annual tax season.

Here are a few quotes to think about, categorized by how well various respondents’ seasons are going this year. Each is an idea that might make your year better.
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Firms Culling Clients as Staffing Woes Persist

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man in suit exiting office building

Others tap outsourcing, training clerical staff as solutions.

By CPA Trendlines Research

Early results from the CPA Trendlines 2024 Busy Season Barometer: Emerging Issues, Opportunities, and Trends are showing a painfully persistent problem with staff shortages, though it seems the hardship may have improved a bit since last year.

MORE: Revenue Up at 59% of Accounting Firms … and More Good News | Compensation’s Up, but Up Enough to Retain Staff? | Are Accountants Charging Too Little? | ChatGPT for the Reluctant Accountant | CPAs Needed to Help Small Biz Adopt AI | Revenue Growth Is Top Priority for Small Firms | Is the CPA Business Model the Clog in the Pipeline?
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This year, like last year, survey respondents are reporting staffing as the second most common concern. Last year, it was reported by 47 percent, almost tied with the main concern: late or unprepared clients.

This year, uncooperative clients still rank first, at 50 percent, but staffing concerns have dropped to 37 percent.
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Even with Value Pricing, Time Tracking Matters and Here’s Why

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Higher productivity equals higher capacity, which drives faster turnaround times. Faster turnaround times create happier clients. 

By Frank Stitely
The Relentless CPA

Employee productivity plays a huge factor in managing WIP (work in progress). Because capacity is the denominator in the Lean Six Sigma equation, and employee productivity is a big factor in capacity, employee productivity becomes a big factor in determining turnaround time.

MORE: End Tax Season Meetings with Clients…Seriously | Get Clients to Understand Firm Processes … or Say Goodbye | Train Now Before It Costs You Down the Road | Keep Clients from “Balance Due” Shock | It’s OK to Say No to Clients (Even the Large Ones) | You Train Your Clients, Whether You Mean To or Not | Business Owners Face One of Three Exits | How Small Firms Can Win the Talent Wars | Do You Know Your Turnaround Time?
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First, let’s dismiss all the consultants from the room who tell us that time tracking and productivity metrics don’t matter. Mostly, these consultants have never managed or owned CPA firms. Rarely have they worked in firms for any length of time. They have never known the struggles of meeting payroll during the first pay period in February when employee hours are up, but the tax season money is not rolling in yet. Goodbye. Don’t let the door hit you in the butt on the way out, or do let it hit you. That’s up to you. I hope it’s a heavy door.

Here’s an example that shows why time tracking and productivity metrics matter:

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Tax & Accounting Profession Keeps Growing

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line chart
Overall profession employment

 

More workers, with some making quite a bit more money.

By Beth Bellor
CPA Trendlines Research

Winter doldrums didn’t seem to affect the tax and accounting profession, which saw several sectors hit new hiring highs in February.

Elsewhere in the nation, total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 275,000 in February, nudging the unemployment rate up to 3.9 percent. Professional and business services saw little change for the month.

MORE: Accounting Hiring Hits Another High | Staff Wages Hit Record High | Despite Staffing Crunch, Firms Freeze Pay Raises | Tax & Accounting Firms Grow for 9th Straight Month | Tax & Accounting Profession Grows, but Wages Don’t | Tax and Accounting Pay Advancing at 5.9% Pace | Accounting Jobs Up 4% for Year
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Overall accounting profession employment at a record 1,163,600 was up 1,000 or 0.1 percent for the month and 29,600 or 2.6 percent for the year. Employees averaged 35.9 hours per week, down 6 minutes or 0.3 percent for the month but up 6 minutes or 0.3 percent for the year. Their earnings hit a new high of $41.41, up 21 cents or 0.5 percent for the month and 34 cents or 0.8 percent for the year.
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CPAs Needed to Help Small Biz Adopt AI

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bar chart
Which areas of your business would you expect to be the most and the least affected by artificial intelligence?

 

Privacy, intellectual property concern many survey respondents.

By CPA Trendlines Research

Small businesses are getting more comfortable with artificial intelligence, according to a survey-based report from FreshBooks.

“Small business owners are less convinced that AI is coming for their jobs and/or the jobs of their employees,” the report says, “with two-thirds disagreeing that AI will replace them.”

MORE: Revenue Growth Is Top Priority for Small Firms | Survey Shows Challenges, Priorities Shifting | Survey Shows That Tech Remains the Great Divide | Is the CPA Business Model the Clog in the Pipeline? | Can Big Data Spot Financial Fraud? | Will Unclogging the Accounting Pro Pipeline Kill Mobility? | Accountants Bullish on Income | 42% of Accountants Turn Away Work Over Staff Shortages | Accountants Hopeful, Concerned and Confused about AI
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Still, in a bit of a contradiction, 44 percent of owners say they expect to hire fewer people in the future thanks to expected AI capabilities. And the larger the business, the more likely they will use AI to reduce payroll.
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Brandon Hall: Firms Try to Make Too Much on Tax Prep

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Try for a 10-15% margin.

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The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Brandon Hall says that the reason accountants have such long and grueling busy seasons is that “firms try to make way too much money at tax prep.” Firms don’t have enough capacity to deliver on services, so everyone – including the partners – ends up working a ton of hours.

MORE PODCASTS and VIDEOS: James Graham: Drop the Billable Hour and You’ll Bill More | Karen Reyburn: Fix Your Marketing and Fix Your Business | Giles Pearson: Fix the Staffing Crisis by Swapping Experience for Education | Jina Etienne: Practice Fearless Inclusion | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Sandra Wiley: Staffing Problem? Check Your Culture | Scott Scarano: First, Grow People. Then Firm Growth Can Follow | Jody Padar: Build a Practice that Works for You, Not Vice-Versa |

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Because partner pay isn’t included in payroll, the margin on tax prep is likely much worse than the 30-35% that shows up on the income statement. Hall’s target for the 2024 filing season is just 10-15% margin on tax prep.

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