MANAGEMENT

Hold Staff Accountable If You Want Them to Listen to You

By

woman speaking and giving direction to subordinate

Concrete steps for effective staff management.

By Ed Mendlowitz
202 Questions and Answers: Managing an Accounting Practice

Question: My staff doesn’t listen to me. To be able to manage and control my business, I need them to prepare a monthly schedule of what they plan on doing that month. I further need to know each morning if they did what they were supposed to do the previous day, and whether there was anything not done, or anything extra that wasn’t planned on.

MORE: When Selling a Firm to Staffers Is Tricky | Want to Merge? Six Steps to Take | How to Start Providing Family Office Services | Every Accounting Firm Needs Quality Control | No One Listens to You? Change How You Talk | 47 Types of Business Valuation to Provide | Thirteen Things to Consider Before You Sell Your Practice
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My problem is that they don’t give me the schedule and then don’t call or email me to tell me what they did. I really need to know this stuff and can’t figure out how to get them to do it. What can you suggest?
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Top Performers Lead in Leverage, Culling, Outsourcing

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two hands on keyboard, two hands doing other work with calculator

The causative difference? Look at the amount of work delegated downward.

By CPA Trendlines Research

The AICPA’s 2023 National Management of an Accounting Practice (MAP) survey has detected some of what distinguishes firms that stand out as top performers.

The survey defines top performers as the top 25 percent of firms based on net remaining per partner.

MORE: Business Booming, but Not as Much as Last Year | Busy Season Barometer Offers Clues for Better Business | End Tax Season Meetings with Clients … Seriously | FTC Nails TurboTax for ‘Free Filing’ Scam | Can’t IRS Online Accounts Be More Useful? | Taxpayer Assistance Centers: A Good Idea That Should Be Better | Tax Pros Are Expanding and Earning More
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More, More, More

What makes a CPA firm a top performer? In a nutshell, more:

  • More leverage of partner expertise
  • More culling of clients
  • More CPAs in the firm

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Why Accountants Should Be Nice to Journalists

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woman interviewing man in front of full-wall city window

Or else you’ll turn into a pumpkin – or something.

By Bruce Marcus
Professional Services Marketing 3.0

EDITOR’S NOTE: CPA Trendlines was privileged to have a long relationship with Bruce W. Marcus, who was ahead of his time in his thinking and practice in marketing for accounting. We are publishing some of the late expert’s evergreen work, which retains wisdom for the present.

Your mother raised you to be nice to everyone, and you’ve always been taught to be nice to journalists. Answer their questions. Tell them everything. Stop what you’re doing and cooperate. Be polite.

That’s the conventional wisdom. You’ve even read that in The Marcus Letter. But are there ever times to tell the press to bug off, and leave you alone? Maybe.

MORE: When There’s a Leak in Your Firm | Creating the Perfect Ad | How Hard Do You Work to Keep Your Clients? | When Clients Think They Know Marketing | How to Put Target Marketing into Context | Everyone in Your Firm Is Marketing | Accountants vs. Lawyers: Who Wins the Marketing Battle? | Professional Services Marketing Requires Flexibility | How to Set Marketing Objectives | How Marketing in Accounting Has Evolved | Accountants Don’t Sell Soap.
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On the face of it, the media seems to have all the power. They speak to a lot more people than you do, and they do it with what the general public accepts, usually unquestioningly and with little reason, as objectivity.
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Are Accountants Charging Too Little?

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pensive woman staring while surrounded by various denominations of floating currency

Size matters in partner income. (AICPA MAP)

Hourly billing on the decline but still holding on.

By CPA Trendlines Research

By all indications,  CPA firms are outperforming the general economy by a very satisfying margin.

But are they charging enough?

MORE: ChatGPT for the Reluctant CPA | CPAs Needed to Help Small Biz Adopt AI | 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 Cozy Up to Clients with CAS | Accountants Torn Over 2024 Economy, Offer Advice | Accountants Bullish on Income
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All categories of median net fees show substantial increases from 2021 to 2023 in the latest AICPA National Management of an Accounting Practice Survey:

  • Net client fees leaped up 24 percent.
  • Net client fees earned since prior year: up 15 percent.

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Courting a Client? Don’t Give Too Much Away for Free

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businesswoman shakes client's hand across desk, both seated

What to say instead.

By Ed Mendlowitz
202 Questions and Answers: Managing an Accounting Practice

Question: I usually give away too much info at a meeting to get a new client.

MORE: How to Start Providing Family Office Services | Higher Fees to Start: Ten Ways to Make Your Tax Season Better | Three Ways to Start an Accounting Practice | Free Consultation? Not Always | Referral Fee? Forget It | How Much Is Your Tax Practice Worth? | Merge in Lower-Priced Work without Losing Out
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We simply answer too many of their questions during the initial meeting. We don’t know how much info to give away so the possible new client will get hooked and not take the information and run to somebody else.
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Make It ‘Productive Season’

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Don’t be busy. Be productive.

By Seth Fineberg
At Large

At this time of year, most accountants are considered to be mired in an annual waterboarding-like ritual known as “busy season.” While the moniker has long stirred ire, one way to rally against its implication is to take a good look at what being “busy” means. Moreover, why not make it more productive?

MORE FINEBERG: It’s Time to Do the Uncomfortable | Jeremy Sulzmann: Can Intuit Mend Fences with Accountants at QB Connect? | Meet Basis, the New AI Bookkeeper on the Block | Is This When Accountants Start Taking Freshbooks Seriously? |You’re Doing Email Wrong | Careful … You May Be Advising! | When Live Events Fail | Getting Real: Accounting Tech Decisions You Need to Make Today | Accounting Tech Doesn’t Have to Be Daunting |Who’s in Control? You? Or Your Clients?

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Perspective is everything. And while I’ve noticed more accounting professionals making concerted efforts to have more of a life/work balance, it is apparent that much of the work that contributes to being “busy” could evolve into productivity.

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