Compensation

Who Will Do What by When?

By

six people around work table

How to implement your firm’s strategic plan.

By Matt Rampe

After laying out major strategic priorities for how the firm can move toward its vision, the natural next step is to refine and define those plans. This is the beginning of the Implement stage, perhaps the most important stage of all.

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FORTUNA ACCOUNTING CHECK-IN

Sal had been at Fortuna Accounting since the beginning, and Bill knew he wasn’t great at accountability. It wasn’t that Sal didn’t want things to be better; it just seemed like he would do a lot of talking without a lot of acting on the things expected of him. With all the work and hopes that had been invested into their strategic planning so far, Bill wanted to make sure it didn’t all go to waste in the execution phase.

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What Goes Into M&A Valuations

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Overhead view of people solving a large jigsaw puzzle

Plus vetting candidates.

By Domenick J. Esposito
8 Steps to Great

Let’s take a deep dive into what you need to know about merger combinations, which are as much about the addition of talent as they are about the addition of clients.

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CPA Firm Valuations

The two typical valuation components in most merger combinations are capital and goodwill.

  • Capital is straightforward: It is a firm’s accrual-based capital adjusted for the fair market value of fixed assets, work in process and receivable reserves. It is paid as cash or a note (in some cases the note bears interest), over a relatively short term.

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Four Downsides of a Production Orientation

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Hand moving triangle along beam to indicate balance between price and value

Where to focus instead.

By August Aquila
MAX: Maximize Productivity, Profitability and Client Retention

An emphasis on production (billable hours) can have negative consequences for an accounting firm. An emphasis on billable hours causes professionals to focus on internal measurements, i.e., the number of hours charged to a client, and not external measurements such as client satisfaction.

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They also emphasize the technical aspect of accounting work and keep professionals from developing a marketing mindset. Let’s look at the four negative consequences of a production orientation.
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The Talent War Has a Side Nobody Is Talking About

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woman speaking and giving direction to subordinate

BONUS: A career ladder below partner.

By Hitendra Patil

Around the 150th conversation I had with firm owners about staffing – I counted for a while before I stopped – and a pattern became obvious. The firms struggling most with retention were almost always struggling with the same two things: no visible career path for anyone below the partner track, and no honest answer to the question of where the firm was going.

PE-backed firms have ready answers to both.

  • Career path: You will grow into a larger organization with more titles, more specialization and more upward movement.
  • Firm direction: toward scale, through acquisitions, toward an eventual liquidity event.

These are not always the right answers for every person. But they are clear answers. Clarity has real pull when someone is sitting across the table weighing their options.

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Shape Partner Behavior through Compensation

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manager holding up carrots in front of employees

Does your firm have the right mix?

By Domenick J. Esposito
8 Steps to Great

Visualize your partner group fitting into a bell curve.

MORE by Domenick J. Esposito
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In Quartile #1, you have the stallions – the very high performers who produce outstanding contributions to the firm year in and year out. These equity partners want to win and know how to do it.
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