Four Simple Game-Changers to Modernize Your Practice

Focus on the client experience.

By Blake Oliver
with David Leary

My mom is in her 70s and still gets the taxes organized for her household. She’s been using the same 10-partner firm for the past 30 years. Like many small firms, hers had no succession plan, so it recently merged with a big firm – top 25. As you may imagine, her recent tax season experience was disappointing. She submitted all her documents on time and then didn’t hear anything from her new accountant for weeks. Finally, she received a return to review and was shocked to see herself marked down as blind. My mom is NOT blind. There were other errors in her return, including a missing real estate transaction. Clearly, it had not gone through a proper review process.

MORE: Nine Ways to Measure Client ExperienceHow the Pandemic Changed Firm Mindsets | Twelve Clues It’s Time to Outsource or Offshore | Yes, You Have the Staffing for CAS | Why Firms Shy Away from CAS | Hook Your Firm on CASCan You Identify Real CAS Prospects? | 8 Ways to Create Your CAS Practice | Do You Value Your CAS Value?
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My mind exploded, wondering how such a large, well-known firm didn’t have a better quality control process in place. I’m guessing they didn’t even have a workflow management solution. After sharing this story with several CPAs at other large firms, I learned that my mom’s situation was not all that unusual.

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Don’t Let Clients Dictate Tax Workflow

https://cpatrendlines.com/2014/02/02/marcus-metrics/Ask the right questions and stick to your processes.

By Frank Stitely
The Relentless CPA

Who makes the errors in your firm? Staff obviously, but that’s half of the answer. Clients are a major source of tax return errors. Clients cause errors in three ways:

  1. Errors of omission
  2. Errors of commission
  3. Errors in attitude

MORE: Make Fewer Mistakes, Increase Revenue and Capacity | How Small Firms Can Win the Talent Wars | Easy Ways to Avoid ‘Done But’ Tax Returns | Six Ways to Create a Millennial-Friendly Firm | Do You Know Your Turnaround Time?
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Every tax season, we finalize and deliver returns only to hear from the client, “I think I might have forgotten to tell you that we had a baby last year.” Does this happen to you? This is a client error of omission. Unintentionally, clients withhold important information.
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Effective Communications in the Age of COVID

Misunderstandings and shortcuts in the workplace can create a hostile and stressful environment.

By Steven E. Sacks
The NEW Fundamentals

With more people using mobile devices for communication shortcuts, are we facing troublesome challenges in speaking in a recognizable language in the U.S.?

MORE: Why Proper Communication Is Critical | Syncing Up for the COVID Era | The New COVID-19 Workplace: Are You Prepared? | How to Create Effective Internal Communications | Profit Is Not a Mission | Confronting Leadership: Not Such a Bad Thing | New Opportunities for a ‘New Normal’ | Is Trust Elusive?
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While it may be convenient for some, for others it leaves them scratching their heads. I am not seeking to be a public scold. However, if you want your communication to be effective, then understand your audience, situation, and topic.

This is especially relevant with teams working virtually, and at a distance, in the Age of COVID.
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NEW & UPDATED! COVID-19 Crisis Toolkit

https://inovautus.com/ffcratoolkit-cpatrendlines/
Click to learn more | Save $50 with code CPATRENDLINES20

Guidance, templates, client letters and emails, phone scripts, conversation starters, best practices for your firm – available through CPA Trendlines.

CPA Trendlines is partnering with Inovautus Consulting, a nationally recognized leader in marketing and business development programs for accounting firms, to offer a new client COVID-19 client communications and practice management toolkit that will be updated continuously for the duration of the Coronavirus crisis.

Save $50 today with discount code CPATRENDLINES20
Click here to learn more

The “FFCRA+ Toolkit” was launched with coverage for the Families First Coronavirus Response and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Acts, and will include coverage of all future crisis-related legislative, regulatory, and business impacts.

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3 Rules for Asking Great Tax-Return Questions

Preserve your sanity, amaze your clients.Question marks

By Frank Stitely

Asking clients great questions is central to Ruthlessly Efficient Workflow Management (R.E.W.).

More: There Are No Easy Answers  |  The 3 Biggest Tech Failures of Accounting Firms  |  Debunking the Demise of the CPA Firm  | How to Thrive as a 21st-Century Firm   |  7 Steps to Effective Project Management  | How Many Tax Preparers Do You Need?   |  WIP-ing Clients Into Shape

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Great client questions can save hundreds of hours of time during tax season and prevent projects from falling behind schedule. Here’s an example of questions done badly.

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Banish the Idea that Selling Is Difficult

Two businessmen shaking handsDon’t take rejection personally.

By Martin Bissett
Business Development on a Budget

If winning new clients is simply a matter of being yourself, why is selling so difficult for accountants? Well, it’s a combination of several factors, but there are two main reasons.

MORE ON BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: How to Win Your First Client | 5 Ways to Make Selling Easier to Swallow | You’re Selling All the Time

First, accountants have not traditionally been required to sell. Maybe your practice has grown by referral – business has come to you and you haven’t had to do much to win that business. Unfortunately, however, business doesn’t always walk through the door; you don’t know how often it will, or what caliber it will be when it does.
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