Overcoming the Five Hurdles to Advisory Services

Face these issues to achieve firm growth.

The smartest route to advisory:
Join the survey. Get the roadmap

By Donny Shimamoto, CPA, CITP, CGMA
The Center for Accounting Transformation

Are you tired of feeling overwhelmed and stuck in the compliance workload, unable to provide valuable insights to your clients? Do you feel that your firm has the potential to grow and create a lasting impact, but capacity issues hinder your progress? 

MORE DONNY SHIMAMOTO:  How Trusted Advisors Transform Businesses | The Future of Accounting: A Vision of Trust, Clarity, and Hope | Donny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a Mindshift | AI, OCR, NLP & CPAs: Oh My!   |  Accounting Nerds, Unlock Your Super Powers  | Early Adopters Gain an Edge in Audit | Dustin Wheeler: For Serious CAS Success, Hire Tech Teams | CSR for CPAs: The Missing Ingredient | Donny Shimamoto Explains How ‘Agile’ Applies to CPA FirmsStaff Retention for Remote Workers | Why the Future is in Risk Advisory |  Ready for Non-CPA “CPA” Firms?
GoProCPA.com Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

You’re not alone. Many accounting firms are struggling with the same challenges. But what if there was a way to break through these barriers and elevate your firm to new heights? Read on to discover how to overcome the challenges associated with providing advisory services and transform your firm into a thriving, client-centered business.
READ MORE →

Three Fundamental Questions to Ask in Audit

Are you teaching your team the real work or just the compliance work?

By Alan Anderson, CPA
Transforming Audit for the Future

Instant download:
The New Manifesto for Accountants.

When I started in accounting, we wrote audit programs out by hand, and we thought about what it was we needed to do to carry out our audit procedures.

And then, the firm got a copy machine. That started the arts and crafts period of public accounting.

MORE: The Big Issues in Audit: Frustration, Inconsistency and TechnologyFive Ways to Increase Audit Efficiency | Early Adopters Gain an Edge in AuditTalent Retention: Five Tips for an Audit AdjustmentSix Benefits of an Internal Audit | The Ten Financial Controls That’ll Make You a Hero | Five Cash Reports You Can’t Live Without | When an Audit Is a Great Thing
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Because we were going to do the same as last year, every year we would make a copy of last year’s hand-written audit program, cut out the sign-offs, tape that on a new page, make sure to draw the lines for the sign-offs, and then we’d make a copy of that. Then we had our audit program for the new year.

READ MORE →

Jody Padar: Build a Practice that Works for You, Not Vice-Versa. 

If you can’t change your pricing or your customers, it doesn’t matter how efficient you are

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music and Audible, Player FM, Audacy, Gaana (India), and Boomplay (Africa).

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr for CPA Trendlines

Jody Padar, the author of The Radical CPA, has been shaking things up in the accounting world for years. But today, firms are at a boiling point, limited by supply and demand. “You only have so many people doing the work. And what are you going to do? You can’t make the work up. It’s got to get done,” Padar said.

MORE: Jody Padar here

PODCASTS and VIDEOS:  Peter Margaritis: The Power Skills Every Accountant Needs | Joe Montgomery: Find the Sweet Spot of the Right Clients, Right Services and Right PricesMarie Green: Your Bad Apples Are Ruining YouMegan Genest Tarnow: Hire for Curiosity Rather Than ComplianceClayton Oates: One Way to Keep Clients for LifeRandy Crabtree: Follow These Three Rules to Keep Employees HappyErik Solbakken: Yes, You Can Work Less and Make More | Donny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a MindshiftJennifer Wilson: Empower Young Workers to Build the Firm Everyone LovesMike Whitmire: Re-Think Your Hiring and Training PracticesHector Garcia: Success Strategies of a Quickbooks YouTube Superstar | Blake Oliver: Why Tax Work Yearns To Be FreePrivate Equity Explodes in U.K. | Brannon Poe: The Status Quo Must Go  | Accounting Nerds, Unlock Your Super Powers  | Disruptor: Jason Statts Shakes Up the Status Quo | Think Small to Think Big with Matt WilkinsonWhen Financial Statements Go Extinct with Corey SchmidtCan Geraldine Carter Save Accountants from Themselves?Re-Inventing Accounting with Tyler Anderson

GoProCPA.com Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

The old business model was taking whoever walked in and billing by the hour. But today, we don’t have the capacity. “There’s so much work out there,” she explained.  “I have not heard any accountants say that they are looking for work. They’re all saying, ‘Stop, go away. I don’t have the resources to serve you.’”
READ MORE →

How to Transform Your Team into Trusted Advisors

woman ladder binoculars city view outlook vision success climb AdobeStock_57204649.jpegAre you looking in the wrong place?

The smartest route to advisory:
Join the survey. Get the roadmap

Or scan this:

Launch survey

By Donny Shimamoto, CPA, CITP, CGMA
The Center for Accounting Transformation

There’s a secret lurking in the depths of the public accounting world. A hidden treasure, a powerful weapon that can catapult your firm to new heights of success. It’s called “advisory services.” And yet, despite its immense potential, many firms are not yet experiencing its transformative power. Why? Because they’re looking in the wrong place.

MORE DONNY SHIMAMOTO:  How Trusted Advisors Transform Businesses | The Future of Accounting: A Vision of Trust, Clarity, and Hope | Donny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a Mindshift | AI, OCR, NLP & CPAs: Oh My!   |  Accounting Nerds, Unlock Your Super Powers  | Early Adopters Gain an Edge in Audit | Dustin Wheeler: For Serious CAS Success, Hire Tech Teams | CSR for CPAs: The Missing Ingredient | Donny Shimamoto Explains How ‘Agile’ Applies to CPA FirmsStaff Retention for Remote Workers | Why the Future is in Risk Advisory |  Ready for Non-CPA “CPA” Firms?
GoProCPA.com Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

The truth is, advisory services are not just about technical skills and compliance knowledge. It’s a whole different game. And if you want to play and win, you need to invest in your team’s development and give them the tools they need to become trusted advisors.
READ MORE →

Train Your Clients Before They Train You

Taking unscheduled phone calls and meetings wrecks your bottom line and theirs.

By Frank Stitely
The Relentless CPA

Many of the behaviors you rationalize as good client service are just desperate measures to avoid losing bad clients.

MORE: Why Time Tracking Still Matters | Business Owners Face One of Three Exits | How Small Firms Can Win the Talent Wars | Six Ways to Create a Millennial-Friendly Firm | Do You Know Your Turnaround Time?
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

However, clients are trainable – at least as trainable as Jack Russell Terriers. That is to say they’re somewhat trainable. However, like Jack Russell Terriers, you train clients or they’ll train you. Somebody’s getting trained. Here’s an example of how that works.
READ MORE →

Family Business Needs Real Advisors

Can you be more than just an accountant? https://cpatrendlines.com/2023/05/21/advisory-work-for-family-businesses/

Discover today’s best strategies for advisory services
Join the 10-minute survey. Get the results.
Launch the Advisory Services Success Survey here

By Donny Shimamoto, CPA, CITP, CGMA
Center for Accounting Transformation

The world of accounting is more than just crunching numbers and balancing the books. For those who have chosen this profession, there is a calling to be more than just an accountant. The calling is to be a trusted advisor, to be someone who is impactful and rewarding, and to be a problem solver.

MORE:  The Future of Accounting: A Vision of Trust, Clarity, and HopeDonny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a Mindshift | AI, OCR, NLP & CPAs: Oh My!   |  Accounting Nerds, Unlock Your Super Powers  | Early Adopters Gain an Edge in Audit | Dustin Wheeler: For Serious CAS Success, Hire Tech Teams | CSR for CPAs: The Missing Ingredient | Donny Shimamoto Explains How ‘Agile’ Applies to CPA FirmsStaff Retention for Remote Workers | Why the Future is in Risk Advisory |  Ready for Non-CPA “CPA” Firms?
GoProCPA.com Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

One of the most meaningful transformations that accountants can bring about is with family-owned businesses. These businesses often face unique challenges that can be difficult to navigate. As trusted advisors, accountants and CPAs can help provide guidance on stabilizing cash flow, transitioning the business to the next generation, and even having difficult conversations with family members who may not be equipped to run the business.

READ MORE →

Marie Greene: Your Bad Apples Are Ruining You

Don’t be afraid to fire poor performers to appreciate great performers.

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music and Audible, Player FM, Audacy, Gaana (India), and Boomplay (Africa).


The Disruptors

With Liz Farr for CPA Trendlines

Marie Greene founded Connected Accounting in 2019 out of a desire to create a new kind of accounting firm where firm culture and “reliable, reliable, reliable” customer service were the highest priorities.

“What is your culture? Who do you want to have on your team?” are questions leaders need to consider when seeking out new team members or deciding who to fire, says Greene. She advises firm owners to remember the message it sends when poor performers are retained because “the good people also leave because you keep the bad apples.”

MORE: Megan Genest Tarnow: Hire for Curiosity Rather Than ComplianceClayton Oates: One Way to Keep Clients for LifeRandy Crabtree: Follow These Three Rules to Keep Employees HappyErik Solbakken: Yes, You Can Work Less and Make More | Donny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a MindshiftJennifer Wilson: Empower Young Workers to Build the Firm Everyone LovesMike Whitmire: Re-Think Your Hiring and Training PracticesHector Garcia: Success Strategies of a Quickbooks YouTube Superstar | Blake Oliver: Why Tax Work Yearns To Be FreePrivate Equity Explodes in U.K. | Brannon Poe: The Status Quo Must Go  | Accounting Nerds, Unlock Your Super Powers  | Disruptor: Jason Statts Shakes Up the Status Quo | Think Small to Think Big with Matt WilkinsonWhen Financial Statements Go Extinct with Corey SchmidtCan Geraldine Carter Save Accountants from Themselves?Re-Inventing Accounting with Tyler Anderson

GoProCPA.com Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Greene recognized that not everyone in a firm wants to be a partner, especially today when “we see partners work crazy hours” and rarely enjoy the benefit of a lighter workload that used to come with becoming a partner.
READ MORE →

The Future of Accounting: A Vision of Trust, Clarity, and Hope

https://cpatrendlines.com/2023/05/08/the-future-of-accounting-a-vision-of-trust-clarity-and-hope/Let’s own the unknown.

Donny Shimamoto, CPA, CITP, CGMA
Center for Accounting Transformation

In a world where trust and integrity are more valuable than ever, the accounting profession stands tall as a beacon of hope. It’s a field where ethics and client interests reign supreme, and these core values set accountants apart from other business consultants. But the future of accounting is evolving, and as we embrace this change, we must not betray the very trust that forms the foundation of our profession.

MORE:  Donny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a Mindshift | AI, OCR, NLP & CPAs: Oh My!   |  Accounting Nerds, Unlock Your Super Powers  | Early Adopters Gain an Edge in Audit | Dustin Wheeler: For Serious CAS Success, Hire Tech Teams | CSR for CPAs: The Missing Ingredient | Donny Shimamoto Explains How ‘Agile’ Applies to CPA FirmsStaff Retention for Remote Workers | Why the Future is in Risk Advisory |  Ready for Non-CPA “CPA” Firms?
GoProCPA.com Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

The future of accounting is about more than just crunching numbers and balancing books. It’s about transforming the role of accountants into business service providers, offering comprehensive solutions that go beyond the traditional realm of accounting. It’s about helping clients find peace of mind, vision, clarity, and hope in the face of uncertainty.

READ MORE →