40% of small businesses shun accountants. The reason: They’d rather handle accounting on their own. Instead of working with an accountant as a full business partner, most small businesses only look to them for specific services and support, such as accounting, bookkeeping, and taxes.
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Tom Ratcliffe Also: ISA 610 – Using the Work of Internal Auditors; and ISRS 4410 – International Guidance on Compilation Engagements. Listen free to the current podcast here. by Dr. Tom Ratcliffe, Ph.D, CPA Plain-English Accounting Bi-Weekly Report Executive Summary: Commitments and Contingencies: Addressing Some Special Issues – Preparers of financial statements often encounter issues that need to be reflected in financial statements related to commitments and contingencies. ISA 610: Using the Work of Internal Auditors – Preparers of financial statements often encounter issues that need to be reflected in financial statements related to commitments and contingencies. ISRS 4410: International Guidance on Compilation Engagements –The International Auditing & Assurance Standards Board finalized revisions to ISRS 4410 related to performing and [...]
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The world demands rapid change. by Bruce W. Marcus Professional Services Marketing 3.0 It’s not difficult to understand in this economic environment why the word change looms so large in professional services dialogue. The nature of the accounting profession, rooted as it is in history and tradition, can be fairly rigid, and resistant to innovation. But the times seem to have accelerated the need for new ideas and structures to cope with new economic and social problems and opportunities. The accounting profession, even as we know it today, is practically pre-historic, and is now so bound by traditions, rules, regulations, and laws, that any suggestion of serious structural change is seen as a virtual assault on the professions. The rigidity [...]
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Plans for 2013 center on tighter management, new investments. With a better 2012 behind him, Jim McGowan at McGowan and Baker in Davis, Calif., says, “We have invested in tech solutions which make the process of tax prep more predictable and efficient.” So he’s only half kidding when he says his big plan for next year involves approaching retirement. This will mean changes in the way I approach things and change is not always easy.” His main goal: “Try to work less.” Thomas Westfall at Westfall Financial Service in Cincinnati will be looking for ways to “get returns in and out of the office faster” since he added a slew of new clients this year. Bob Quarte a partner at [...]
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Does your firm get “it”? Quiz your partners and staffers. by Edi Osborne Mentor Plus Everywhere I go, experts in the profession have a debate about what percentage of the profession really gets “it?” The veritable “it” is the future of the profession. Firms that get “it” have a good grasp on what is critical to thrive in the future. Some experts say fewer than 20% of firms get “it.” Others will stretch that number to 40%. Only you know for sure where your firm stands (score yourself at the end). Here are eight critical areas of focus that indicate if your firm gets “it.” 1. Succession Strategy – Your firm has a clear path to succession with future leaders [...]
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Hint: It’s not an “event.” by Bruce W. Marcus Professional Services Marketing 3.0 In the context of professional services practice and marketing, change is alteration of a process, practice, or condition that varies from the past. First, for all the talk about change, and all the writing and talking and handwringing about change, it becomes clear that too many professionals see change as an event, finite, an end in itself. In fact, change is not an event that’s arbitrarily made to happen, but a process — the result of which is that something changes. Most often, and with rare exceptions, that process leads to an evolution, and sometimes, even revolution (such as professional firm advertising, long forbidden – now common).
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For first time in six years, clear majority enjoy a “better” season.
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