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LEADERSHIP

Do You Know Your Turnaround Time?

Cutting it is the shortest route to happier clients.

By Frank Stitely
The Relentless CPA

Todd Rundgren sang, “I don’t want to work. I just wanna bang on the drum all day.”

I agree with half of that. I don’t want to work. However, I want someone else to bang on the drum all day for me. I’m not that ambitious.

The key to achieving Hall of Fame-level laziness is delegation.

MORE: Tax Season Client Meetings: Kill Them Now | Leadership Growth is a Two-Way Street | 12 Subjective Factors for Pricing Your Next Engagement | The Six Pillars for Finance Transformation | Three Strategies to Keep Emerging Leaders Engaged
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If I have no ambition to do anything, but want things to get done, someone else must do them. Similarly, effective practice management is putting the right people in the right places accomplishing the right tasks at the right times. That’s a pretty damn good definition of effective laziness as well. There’s a subtle genius in that.

For example, our firm was looking at acquiring a really nice firm, where the two partners were working 100-hour weeks during tax season. As a result of the acquisition, they wanted to work fewer hours. They were preparing the vast majority of tax returns themselves, so we suggested having them act as reviewers instead. That would also transfer knowledge of the clients from them to us – a central objective of any successful acquisition.
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FEATURED

Tax Season Client Meetings: Kill Them Now

Man working hard at office deskLet’s try to spike phone calls and emails while we’re at it.

By Frank Stitely
The Relentless CPA

What did Dorothy and her friends fear in the Wizard of Oz? “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” Dorothy feared the wrong things if she’s a partner in a CPA firm. We don’t see much wildlife in our offices during tax season unless you count fast food delivery people and the occasional crazy client.

MORE: Make Your Firm Faster, Smarter, Richer … with Millennials | Seven Ways to Beat Staffing Shortages | The Happier, Saner, Richer Tax Firm | Avoiding Projects Hung Up in Process | Teaching the Meaning of ‘Done’
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We should really fear the events that destroy our priorities and drain hours from productive work. Meetings and phone calls and emails, oh my! Let’s look at why these communication methods are so destructive from a practice management standpoint.
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FEATURED

Make Your Firm Faster, Smarter, Richer … with Millennials

You need them as clients … and employees.

By Frank Stitely
The Relentless CPA

Do you know why millennials can’t buy houses?

  • Avocado toast is expensive.

MORE: Seven Ways to Beat Staffing Shortages | Who’s Your Most Valuable Employee? | ‘Quick Questions’ and Other Client Sins | When Clients Create Errors | How We Killed the Tax Season Client Meeting | Why Small Firms Can Win the Talent Wars
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How many millennials does it take to change a light bulb?

  • None. They accept it for what it is.

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FEATURED

Seven Ways to Win the Talent Wars

How small firms can beat the staffing shortage.https://cpatrendlines.com/2020/09/18/better-talent-drives-better-results/

By Frank Stitely
The Relentless CPA

The following story brought tears to my eyes while I sat in a Barbados resort drinking some alcohol concoction. Was it the alcohol talking or the happy ending where I got a profit distribution check? Maybe a little of both.

MORE: Who’s Your Most Valuable Employee? | How to Implement the Laziness Equation | The Happier, Saner, Richer Tax Firm | ‘Quick Questions’ and Other Client Sins | How to Train Clients | Avoiding Projects Hung Up in Process | When Clients Create Errors
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The afternoon before I left for beautiful Barbados, the partner group of our outsourced accounting practice met for a state of the practice meeting conducted by our director of outsourced accounting.
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FEATURED

Who’s Your Most Valuable Employee?

Don’t be the fool in the room.

By Frank Stitely
The Relentless CPA

We have been heavily in the numbers so far. Let’s take a break from that to discuss a factor that, while not heavily numeric, plays a big factor in managing WIP – employee productivity. Because capacity is the denominator in the Lean Six Sigma equation, and employee productivity is a big factor in capacity, employee productivity becomes a big factor in determining turnaround time.

MORE: How to Implement the Laziness Equation | The Happier, Saner, Richer Tax Firm | Avoiding Projects Hung Up in Process | Teaching the Meaning of ‘Done’ | Why Millennials Are the Answer | Calculating and Cutting Turnaround Time
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First, let’s dismiss from the room all the consultants, who tell us that time tracking and productivity metrics don’t matter. For the most part, these consultants have never managed or owned CPA firms. Rarely have they worked in firms for any length of time.
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