Compensation, work-life balance among the factors.
Are your employees satisfied? How sure are you? Nearly 48 percent of respondents in a new CPA Trendlines survey say no, not really. Their answers range from deep dissatisfaction to on the fence. READ MORE →
By Ed Mendlowitz
The CPA Trendlines Practice Doctor
QUESTION: Most of my clients are either tax returns or small business clients. The number of individual tax returns grows each year, but I seem to be standing still with business clients. For every new one I get, I lose one. Otherwise, I have about a 6 or 7 percent turnover. Is there anything I can do to keep them?
RESPONSE: I think small business clients need extra hand-holding from us because they are really alone.
To develop and nurture talent: It’s more than just lunch.
Unfortunately, even the best-intentioned mentoring initiatives can easily fizzle in the early stages, before delivering value to the participants and the organization at large, according to Molly Sargent of Rowayton, Conn.-based Professional Impressions Consulting.
Sargent has trained and coached thousands of financial professionals and client-facing executives in professional image, presentation skills, business etiquette and sales effectiveness. Since 1985, she has helped major accounting firms and Fortune 500 companies, including Aetna, American Express, AT&T, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Key Bank, MasterCard, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Prudential achieve breakthrough results.
With so much to gain, how can your firm initiate mentoring in a way that is successful and sustainable? READ MORE →
Today’s best career advice: join the survey; get the answers.
by Rick Telberg
At 20 years old, the world was a blank canvas with vast opportunities for Sal Inserra. He thought he knew exactly what he wanted in life.
“Until,” he once told me, “I was set straight.”
Like many CPAs, Sal owes much of his career and success to a few key mentors who guided him early on.
Today — as the kids head back to school and college, and as the rest of us wind up our summers and look ahead to the fall — it may be a good time to salute the mentors who help steward a great profession to the next generation. READ MORE →
Get certified. Apply early and often. Join the survey; get the results.
By Rick Telberg
I’m looking over the early responses to our new CPA Careers survey and one stands out for its practicality and wisdom. This from a veteran senior finance manager at a Fortune 1000 company is, I think, 18 pieces of the best advice I’ve ever heard.
1. For the accountant who is not a CPA yet: If you’re not a CPA already, make it a goal.
2. If you need hours, apply to every accounting firm that you could drive to or are willing to move close to.
3. Apply beginning in mid-April, after busy season, when accounting firms clean house. READ MORE →
Download the sample client satisfaction survey.
by Ed Mendlowitz
Question: Is there any value to sending clients a survey?
Response: Yes. Our firm sends a survey with every deliverable to a client. We want to know what they think and how they feel about our service.
I think your best friends are the clients that complain. This gives you an opportunity to correct any deficiencies or exceptions.
One time a long time very good client put on the survey that we were great but our fees were high. I immediately met with him, reviewed our charges, had the time runs and details of everything extra we had been doing beyond the scope of our engagement, and the value to the client. In the following year he recommended two clients to us! I don’t believe we would have gotten the referrals had he not complained.
Here is a sample of a survey we’ve used: READ MORE →
Clients say: Not as long as you think.
If you’re a finance manager on the client side, what do you say?
by Rick Telberg
Are most CPAs fooling themselves?
If you ask a CPA, as CPA Trendlines has been doing since 2006, how long they typically keep a client, you’ll get a fairly consistent answer through the years.
If you ask a client how long they’ve worked with their current CPA firm, you’ll also get a fairly consistent answer.
The problem is: The CPA and the client disagree. READ MORE →
What you need to know. How finance executives pick accounting firms: Join the survey; get the answers. by Rick Telberg Here’s some good news for accounting firms: Most companies stick with their CPA firms for at least five to 10 … Continued