Some of these might stick around even when they’re no longer necessary.
By Rick Richardson
The top ten ‘soft’ factors small business owners are looking for before they buy.
By Laurie McCabe
SMB Group
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Punch up your communications.
By John Higgins
CPA Crossings
In this segment we’re going to review how to add a visual to a chat/post message. In this day and age of visual messaging, emoticons, giphys and so forth, they’ve added that capability to the Teams app, so let’s take a look at how it’s actually designed to work.
This could be just what your clients need.
By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud
You may have heard about virtual CFO services. It’s a concept that’s been around for a while now that allows CPAs and accounting firms to offer CFO services to smaller businesses that may not yet be able to afford a full-time CFO.
MORE: The Only 3 Metrics You Need | How to Attract Clients Like a Magnet | 6 Steps for Sales and Conversion | The Right Way to Onboard New Clients | 4 Ways to Bill Clients | How to Evaluate Workflow Management Software
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.
What is a Virtual CFO?
Virtual CFO (or VCFO for short) stands for virtual chief financial officer. A VCFO provides outsourced accounting services at a high level for businesses.
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Will you be ready when the demographics shift?
By Steven E. Sacks
The NEW Fundamentals
The 2016 presidential campaign had been engulfed in the battle for and against political correctness. What people thought but never verbalized – at least in a large company of people – had made the art of conversation more difficult. College campuses, the bastions of higher learning and the incubator for dissenting opinions resulted in additions to our lexicon, with such terms as “safe places” and “trigger warnings” in order to preclude the rise of “micro-aggression.” Legislation is trailing the changes taking place in the LGBTQ community, and decades after protective laws were passed, there still exist hostile work environments for women and minorities.
MORE: Effective Communications in the Age of COVID | Why Proper Communication Is Critical | How to Create Effective Internal Communications | How to Select Your Firm’s Board | Trust Is a Key Organizational Ingredient | Real Influence Vs. Immediate Gratification | Fake It ‘Til You Make It: An Ultimate Goal? | 4 Ways to Boost Job Satisfaction | Have You Gauged Your Staff’s Enthusiasm? | Why Knowledge Maintenance Is Key
Today’s college students are exposed to greater on-campus diversity than in the days of my contemporaries, so one would think that there would be greater understanding and flexibility in human interaction. This really is not the case. If students think that tough challenges exist on campuses, wait until they graduate and enter the real world.
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Do you agree?
By Hitendra Patil
Accountaneur: The Entrepreneurial Accountant
For years, I have been interacting with accounting firm owners and partners day in, day out from firms of all sizes, all over the country, and catering to a wide variety of industries and professions.
MORE ON ENTREPRENEURIAL STRATEGY: Client Accounting Services Poised to Surge in Post-Corona World | 20 Ways to Grow Your Firm in 2020 | 3,771 Accountants Help Uncover CAS Success Secrets | A.I. vs. Auditors | How to Be Ready for Real Artificial Intelligence | How Accountants Can Ride the Artificial Intelligence Wave | Blockchain: What You Need to Know Now
Some have been in practice for several years. Some are just starting. But all of them are seeking success at the top of their agenda.
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Shift your mindset for COVID-era client services. Stop thinking about selling and start thinking about helping.
By Ty Hendrickson
What is the number one reason that accountants get stuck providing transactional services?
Mindset.
Now, I’m not one of those gurus that preaches mindset and how if you want something in your life, all you have to do is visualize it. That’s not the mindset I’m talking about here. I’m talking about the mentality that accountants “feel bad” for charging someone for their expertise and advice.
MORE: The REAL Problems Created in a Remote Workforce | Can You Really Grow Without Adding Clients? | 4 Reasons to Welcome Rejection |
While this is not a new problem, it has bubbled to the surface amidst the Covid-19 crisis. In the vast majority of my conversations with firm owners recently, I hear the same line over and over again, “I’ve spent so much time talking to my clients about loans and explaining their options that I’ve hardly gotten any tax work completed. Now, I have to charge them $1,000 for those conversations, and I just don’t feel like I can do that because I know the financial situation they are in right now. I feel bad.”
What?!?!
Almost three in four accountants now foresee a deeper downturn for the U.S. economy.
BUSY SEASON BAROMETER:
How accountants are battling the Coronavirus recession
Join the survey. Get the answers.
By CPA Trendlines Research
New CPA Trendlines 2020 Busy Season Barometer results bear bad tidings for CPA firms, their clients, and their families. The forecast is not good. Accountants know numbers, and the numbers they are seeing do not bode well.
MORE BUSY SEASON 2020: Busy Season Benchmarks in Free Fall | FIinal RS eFiling Stats: The End of Tax Season? | Say Hello to the New 24-Month Busy Season | 9 Big Ways the IRS Could Help Accountants | The Mystery of 10 Million Missing Tax Returns | Tax Pro E-Filings Down 20 Percent | IRS Web Traffic Doubles over Year-Ago | COVID Drowns IRS in New Filings | Percent | IRS Web Traffic Doubles over Year-Ago | COVID Drowns IRS in New Filings | 2020 Tax Season Comes to a Screeching Halt | The Tax Season 2020 Dumpster Fire | Tax Pros Fall Behind 6.2% in Returns Filed
As the U.S. braces for a summer surge in coronavirus infections, the economy is crashing – with GDP down at an annual rate of 33 percent last quarter, and a 10 percent drop from the first quarter – the worst declines in more than 70 years of record-keeping. And new jobless claims in the latest week rose by 867,000 to 17 million.
Self-reflection is useful. Self-criticism, less so.
By Bill Reeb
A couple of years ago, when I was consulting onsite with the executive team, one of the managers pulled me aside and asked me for some personal advice. She said, “I am thinking about asking to go part time because the stress of this job is really getting to me. What do you think they will say?”
MORE: Why We Risk Change | Work ‘Better,’ Not ‘Harder’ | What a Pro Knows | Don’t Let Opportunities Become Detours | COVID Crisis Requires New Mindsets | What Are You Giving Priority? | Don’t Let Others Block Your Path
I told her that I thought they would be willing to do whatever she wanted. But then I added, “What are the owners or your direct boss doing to create this stress?” Here was the conversation that followed:
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CPA Trendlines Special Offer: 20% off for Sales Seed’s New Prospects and Lead Nurture Bootcamp.
Tax and accounting firms seeking to develop their advisory services can take advantage of a new program offered by The Sales Seed and led by CPA Trendlines expert contributor Ty Hendrickson. Registration closes Sunday, Aug. 2, so you’ll need to hurry. CPA Trendlines readers are getting a special discount of $100.
Major declines in all KPIs: Clients, revenues, profits, revenue per client, and profit per client.
BUSY SEASON BAROMETER:
How accountants are battling the Coronavirus recession
Join the survey. Get the answers.
By CPA Trendlines Research
Last year’s busy season was complicated, no doubt about it. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the IRS shut-down made life difficult for tax practitioners. But ultimately, they had a good year. A good 56 percent enjoyed an increase in clientele, and only 16 percent saw a decrease.
Flash forward to the annus horribilis, aka 2020. According to this year’s CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer, only 46 percent of accountants are gaining clients — a 10-point reversal from last year. And another 25 percent are losing clients – a 15-point swing from 2019.
MORE BUSY SEASON 2020: FIinal RS eFiling Stats: The End of Tax Season? | Say Hello to the New 24-Month Busy Season | 9 Big Ways the IRS Could Help Accountants | The Mystery of 10 Million Missing Tax Returns | Tax Pro E-Filings Down 20 Percent | IRS Web Traffic Doubles over Year-Ago | COVID Drowns IRS in New Filings | Percent | IRS Web Traffic Doubles over Year-Ago | COVID Drowns IRS in New Filings | 2020 Tax Season Comes to a Screeching Halt | The Tax Season 2020 Dumpster Fire | Tax Pros Fall Behind 6.2% in Returns Filed
It’s impressive that so many tax offices have actually expanded their clientele during such hard times. And it’s not surprising that so many have lost clients.
What happened?
