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The Hidden Costs of the Virtual Accounting Firm

Happy business professionals giving high five hand slap

Save by combining a retreat with CPE.

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

With a brick-and-mortar company, there are a number of standard costs that you would expect to have, such as rent or mortgage, utilities, building repairs, furniture, technology, etc. The total amount of these kinds of costs typically falls in the range of 3-4 percent of the company’s annualized revenue. That amount can be pretty significant for a lot of companies.

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Some business owners may think they can save the company all of that money by going remote, but I personally believe that’s a terrible idea. While it’s true that a distributed company doesn’t have the costs that come with having a physical space, the very nature of a remote work environment results in a completely different and unique set of needs that should be considered in the company’s annual budget.
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MANAGEMENT

Create an Accountability Chart for Your Firm

It beats an org chart and here’s why.

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

“Getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats – these are all crucial steps in the early stages of buildup…” – Jim Collins, “Good to Great”

When Adam and I first started the company, we didn’t have much organizational structure. We didn’t need it. But as the company grew, it became necessary to develop an organizational structure. There’s a great quote by Michael E. Gerber in his book “The E-Myth Revisited” that says, “Without the Organization Chart, confusion, discord and conflict become the order of the day.”

We got to a point where we realized that Adam and I didn’t have clarity around our individual roles, and we were overlapping one another. We needed to have clearly defined roles for one another, as well as the people who were working for us. Lack of clarity can cause a loss in production.
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MANAGEMENT

Put an Accountability Chart in Play

Three questions to ask about each role.

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

“Getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats – these are all crucial steps in the early stages of buildup…” – Jim Collins, “Good to Great”

MORE by Jody Grunden
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

When Adam and I first started the company, we didn’t have much organizational structure. We didn’t need it. But as the company grew, it became necessary to develop an organizational structure. There’s a great quote by Michael E. Gerber in his book “The E-Myth Revisited” that says, “Without the Organization Chart, confusion, discord and conflict become the order of the day.”
READ MORE →

PRO Member Exclusive

Give Your Leaders Time to Lead

people gathering in the shape of an arrowPut the right people in the right seats. You might have to create some seats.

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

As our team was growing and we reached over 30 team members, we recognized the need to establish a formal leadership team. When we were smaller, it worked fine for Adam and me to be the primary decision makers, but as our client base and workload grew, we realized we would become a bottleneck and slow things down.

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At that point, we made a conscious effort to transition our daily tasks and client responsibilities to other team members so we could remove ourselves from the weeds and focus on the higher-level view of the company.
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MANAGEMENT

DiSC Profiles Boost Staff Effectiveness

Overhead view of five people in a meeting

Better communication comes from better understanding.

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

Working in a remote environment can be great, and it can also have its challenges. Communication is one of the biggest hurdles distributed companies have to overcome. To tackle this issue head on, Summit CPA has implemented many initiatives.

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One of our favorites is the DiSC profiles. Let me start off by telling you a little bit of the background on the DiSC profiles.
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PRO Member Exclusive

Three Ways to Protect Client Files from Cyberthreats

Technology Security with Internet Digital Signature as Art

Make technology your ally.

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

Have you ever been contacted by the IRS with the FBI involved? I can tell you from firsthand experience that it’s a bit alarming when that happens.

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We were once contacted by the IRS because they thought our server had been compromised. When the field officer who came to our office asked to see our server, we explained that we didn’t have a server. She was a little surprised by that information and then asked where we kept our files. We explained that we use cloud storage and programs designed specifically for encryption and security.
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PRO Member Exclusive

A Virtual CFO Might Be the Answer

Three people speaking by videoconference

It might not be just one person.

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.

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What is a Virtual CFO?

Virtual CFO (or VCFO for short) stands for a virtual chief financial officer. A VCFO provides outsourced accounting services at a high level for businesses.
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MANAGEMENT

Three Metrics for Measuring Staff

They must work in harmony.

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

If you want to grow your accounting firm, it’s important to evaluate the effectiveness of your process on a regular basis. You want to be aware of what’s working well and what’s not. You also want to continually be improving upon your services over time.

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There are three things you can specifically monitor when it comes to the effectiveness of your team. Here’s how we do it at Summit CPA Group. Maybe these ideas will work for you too.
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