Partner Retirements and Buyouts: Today’s 24 Major Deal Points

What 80% of firms agree on.

By Marc Rosenberg
The Rosenberg Survey

If partner compensation is the single most critical and sensitive aspect of CPA firm practice management today, then a close second is partner retirements and buyouts – the money partners receive for the purchase of their ownership in the firm when they retire or leave the firm due to death, disability, withdrawal or expulsion.

The amount of money involved is quite significant.  Roughly 80% of all firms consider the value of the firm to include: READ MORE →

3 Steps to Business Clarity Amid the Sea Change in Accounting

By Sandi Smith Leyva, CPA
Accountant’s Accelerator

With Labor Day closing in, it’s a good time to take stock of where we stand for the year, plus re-group as needed before the 2014 busy season is upon us.  With so many changes in software, politics, tax laws, and global standards, it’s pretty easy to feel a little disorganized.

More for soloists and small firms:  The Five Essential Skills Accountants Need Today  | The Seven Essential Components of a Simple Marketing Plan for Accountants  | Take Six Big Steps to Go Beyond Compliance Services     |     When Your Business Needs to Be Rebooted  |   Two Steps to Easy Cross-sells   |   The Hot New Tech Product for Automated Data Entry   |   Five Value-Add Service Areas to Take You Beyond Bookkeeping   |   Six Money-Making Strategies to Take You Beyond QuickBooks   |   Proactive Ways to Get More Referrals   |   The Three Biggest Money Leaks in Your Practice   |   New Client Opportunities with Mobile Apps   |   Six Questions to Launch Your Summer Strategy Sessions   |   What Most Accountants Miss in the Five Simple Steps to Get More Clients   |   Accountants, Do You Know Your Opportunity Number? | Five Ideas to Reduce Client Price-Sensitivity | Rise to the Top with a Fresh Elevator Speech | Four Ways to Practice Entrepreneurial Perseverance | 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Seeking New Clients  | The Top 12 Business Card Blunders Accountants Make | Seven Tips to Keep the Clients You Have | How to Attract Clients Like a Magnet | Eleven Easy Ways to Deliver More Value to Clients

Here are three steps to help us take stock of our foundational business goals, re-evaluate our big picture, and get us centered as we enter the next quarter. READ MORE →

27 Tough Questions for Evaluating the Performance of a Managing Partner

Including: Managing Partner Evaluation Forms, Parts 1 and 2.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Management & Governance

This is really an upward evaluation.  Like all upward evaluations, people evaluating the managing partner should be limited to those in a position to offer informed input.  This means that at firms of fewer than 10 to 15 partners all the partners will probably want to participate.  But once a firm gets beyond 10 to 15 partners, an increasing number of partners may not be in a position to respond to the evaluation factors listed in the form.

More CPA Firm Management & Governance:  18 Things Partners Owe their Firms – And Each Other   |  17 Ways to Measure a Partner  How The Structure of an Accounting Firm Changes through the Years    |    Congratulations! Your Firm Needs a Human Resources Director    |    The 19-Point Marketing Director Job Description    |    Checklist: How the Best Managing Partners and Firm Admins Work in Concert     |    21 Questions for Managing the Managing Partner    |    No Partner Vote Needed: 17 Decisions Best Left to the Managing Partner Alone    |    New Rules: 13 Items that Should be in Your Managing Partner’s Job Description    |    When Is It Time to Shift Your Firm from Partnership-style to Corporate-style Governance?    |    Not Every Firm Needs a General Patton    |

Firms with management or executive committees may wish to limit the evaluation to the partners on those committees.

Once you have decided who will be allowed to participate in the evaluation, each partner should complete the evaluation forms.  READ MORE →

Collecting Past Due Fees

Ed Mendlowitz, CPA, ABV, PFS
Author
ofImplementing Fee Increases

Question: Client didn’t pay his bills to me, doesn’t return my phone calls, and his secretary keeps sending me the tax notices he gets with notes of “when are you going to take care of them?”  I tell her that I need the client to call me before I can do any more work and she ignores this and keeps sending me the notices and other tax correspondence he gets. I don’t want to tell him I am dropping him because then I don’t think I’ll ever be paid.  Every year he goes on extension and he usually pays me half of what he owes when he sends me his tax info, but the past due amount has really accumulated to about three year’s fees.  What should I do about getting paid? READ MORE →

Why Good Accounting Firms Make Bad Decisions

The dysfunctional partner team and three ways to get them back on track.

You’ve tried management by committee. And by now, you know it doesn’t work. In a new analysis of CPA firm management practices, Marc Rosenberg finds, “Management by committee rarely works.”

There must be a better way. And, yes, there are a few. Here is a five-point spectrum of approaches that firms use to make decisions. One of them may work for your firm.

READ MORE →

Back to the Future: Staff Shortages Re-Emerge as Top Worry for CPA Firms

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A sign of economic recovery and increased competition.

Bringing in new business and finding top-notch staffers to handle anticipated growth are emerging as the new, most pressing challenges for CPA firms today.

With a rebounding economy, the AICPA says in its new PCPS “Top Issues Survey” that client retention, which had been a significant concern for firms in the 2009 survey, has been overtaken by a tilt toward growth issues.

“Finding qualified staff” was a top issue from 1997 to 2007 for all but the smallest firms, but disappeared entirely from Top 5 lists in 2009. Now it’s back.

READ MORE →

The Three Biggest Money Leaks in Your Practice

Sandi Smith Leyva
Sandi Smith Leyva

Start with a clean spreadsheet.

By Sandi Smith, CPA
Accountant’s Accelerator

There are dozens (and maybe hundreds) of ways your practice can leak money. Here are three ideas that are fairly simple to implement and may be some great goals for you to consider.

More for soloists and small firms: New Client Opportunities with Mobile Apps  /  Six Questions to Launch Your Strategy Sessions  /  What Most Accountants Miss in the Five Simple Steps to Get More Clients  /  10 Ways to Add a “Money Maker” Hour to Your Day  /  11 Sources of Wealth We Can Celebrate  /  Nine Value-Adds to Command a Higher Fee  /  How to Design Your Business Around Your Strengths  /  How to Make It Easy for Clients to Hire You   /  12 Fast, Low-Cost Tips for a Stress-Less Practice  

READ MORE →

The 10 Basic Ways to Boost Profits at an Accounting Firm

The new practice management discipline.

by August Aquila
Author of Leadership At Its Strongest

No profits, no mission, as one of my partners is fond of saying.

While leadership, balanced life, outstanding client service and efficient processes are critical for success, they mean nothing if the firm is not sufficiently profitable to make investments for the future and compensate performers. I want to focus on ten ways to make your practice more profitable.

These ten areas form the basis of a practice operational review. READ MORE →