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Can a Service Center Model Solve Audit Staffing Shortages?
Providing superior client service eliminates the perception of audit as a commodity.
By Alan Anderson, CPA
Transforming Audit for the Future
Most firms have abysmal project management, which makes it nearly impossible to see if there’s any room to take on extra work. Plus, piling all the work into busy season means your people already work far beyond 40 hours a week. And, if you’re relying on timesheets as a measure of capacity, you may not be capturing the time your staff eats because the work is taking more than 40 or even 60 hours in a week to complete.
MORE: Don’t Take on Audits in an Industry You Don’t Understand | Four Questions to Make Your Firm More Successful as a Business | Say Adios to Audit Fee Pressure | Deliver More Audit Value by Getting Out of the Conference Room | Six Essential Elements in Audit Planning | Before the Audit: More Than Just Planning | Five Crucial Attributes for Successful Audit Leadership | Put the Ethics Code to Work for Your Clients and Your Firm | Is Audit in Crisis Because of Definitions?
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During the 2020-21 COVID-19 pandemic, some audit firms had to lay people off, or reduce work hours as projects got canceled or curtailed. But the long-term trend for years has been a shortfall in talent that will only get worse. Burnout from overwork is the number one cause of employee turnover.
Analyze Your Firm to Keep It Current
Does everyone have the same vision?
By August J. Aquila
Price It Right: How to Value Accounting Services
I have discussed some of the issues behind developing an effective website. If your partners can’t agree on the overall points of the website, it merely means that there are different visions for the firm within the firm. The best way to overcome this obstacle is to conduct a self-analysis.
MORE: What Makes a Great Website? | Losing Can Help You Win More | Eight Areas to Cover for Personal Goals | Service Quality: The Key to Client Retention | How Life Cycle Changes Your Marketing | Clients Buy Solutions, Not Features | Make Sure You Know What You Will Get from Your Marketing | Three Pillars Support a Successful Accounting Firm | Clients Have Six Reasons for Needing You | Six Ways to Market Your Technology Consulting Practice | Sixteen Marketing Activities to Try | The Four Steps of Your Personal Marketing Process
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You can use the following questions at a firm retreat. Hand out the questions to the retreat participants prior to the meeting. Ask the retreat participants to write out the answer to each question. Then have open discussions about the questions and their answers, and try to come to some agreement. Here are the questions:
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What Relevance Means for Staffing in Accounting
Seventeen ways to improve.
By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Staff: Managing Your #1 Asset
The business graveyard is littered with major organizations that missed the boat by failing to see cataclysmic game changers happening right before their eyes.
- Ice companies failed to get into refrigeration because they saw themselves in the ice business.
- Railroads missed out on autos and aerospace because they didn’t see themselves in the transportation business.
- A CEO of Digital Equipment Corporation said he couldn’t imagine why people would want a computer in their own house.
- It took the Wright Brothers five years to get the U.S. government to even talk to them about their invention.
MORE: How Accounting Staffing Has Changed
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In all fairness it’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, to anticipate and accept massive changes like these.
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Implement These Two Daily Rituals
BONUS: Lists to help you focus and measure.
By Sandi Leyva
The Complete Guide to Marketing for Tax & Accounting Firms
There’s something special about the word ritual. It sounds sacred, like you wouldn’t dare break it.
It sounds a little mysterious, as if there’s a component you can’t quite control. And it sounds colorful, like something full of character that you would never get bored of.
MORE: Three Ways to Follow Up with Prospects | Are You Throwing Away Profits? | Three Steps to Becoming a Millionaire | How to Use ChatGPT to Create Images | Create a Bad Website in Ten Easy Steps | Leverage Your Strengths to Beat Stress | Are You Crossing Off Your Business Bucket List? | Ten Ways to Make Your Business Irresistible | Five Ways to Target the Low-Hanging Fruit | Are Your Revenue Projections Realistic?
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.
We don’t think about rituals much when it comes to business, but I think we should. What rituals could you create in your business that will rev up your revenues? Here are two ideas to get your engines started.
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Bissett Bullet: A.C.C.O.U.N.T.S.
Today’s Bissett Bullet: “A pipeline is essentially a list of people we would like to bring value to, but how can we use it to forecast new business?”
By Martin Bissett