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ADVISORY & CONSULTING

Fine-Tuning the Subscription Fee Model

How CPA Jamie Lopiccolo’s subscription pricing models manage client expectations and the firm’s cash flow.
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With Steven Sacks
The NEW Fundamentals: Thriving in Disruption

James (Jamie) N. Lopiccolo, CPA, CGMA
Lopiccolo

Jamie Lopiccolo, the managing member of a small Midwest firm, has been employing a subscription-based model for more than four years to invoice clients for services rendered. In addition to positioning the CPA as the client’s partner for success, it also encourages those who employ the system to provide maximum value in each client interaction, rather than focusing on getting as much money or billable hours as possible. Catch another conversation with Lopiccolo here: Sell Service, Not Hours.

MORE: Blake Oliver: Why Tax Work Yearns To Be Free| Private Equity Explodes in U.K. | Brannon Poe: The Status Quo Must Go  |  Accounting Nerds, Unlock Your Super Powers  | Private Equity vs. the CPA Firm Partnership The FinTech Flood: Accounting Will Never Be the Same  |  Think Small to Think Big with Matt Wilkinson | Your Sales Tax Headaches Are Only Just Beginning | When Financial Statements Go Extinct with Corey Schmidt  |  Can Geraldine Carter Save Accountants from Themselves? |  Re-Inventing Accounting with Tyler Anderson |  Turning Client Service into New Revenue

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The approach is to both manage expectations by the client and ensure a normalized cash flow for the firm. Additional benefits include a more strategic approach to dealing with new clients because they are getting the full picture of their business’s needs.

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FEATURED

Listen to Learn

Four people meeting for business lunchEffective networking is an art.

By Steven E. Sacks
The NEW Fundamentals: Thriving in Disruption

There is no one right way to effectively network. You can join boards, attend conferences and sign onto various electronic forums, among other ways. No matter how you decide to get yourself out there, the critical factor is the approach you take. Asking others, “How may I help you?” is the positive, proactive way to establish relationships.

MORE: Build the Framework to a Solution with Five Answers | Try for Success, Not a Win
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You as the networker are seeking to build a relationship. If the other person or group benefits from your effort, think of it as an investment for the future. If you are looking for an immediate quid pro quo, it will become transparent to the other party. When you offer assistance, be authentic and sincere in your words and actions. Follow through on your promises.
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Build the Framework to a Solution with Five Answers

Woman and man shaking hands across a deskAvoid last-minute decision-making.

By Steven E. Sacks
The NEW Fundamentals

CPA firms often believe the most crucial part of negotiations to close a deal happens at the final stage of talks. But in order to have a satisfactory conclusion, you must set the tone at the beginning stage with an honest and forthcoming discussion based on mutual benefit – with an underpinning of respect and trust.

MORE: Try for Success, Not a Win
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For young professionals, it is never too early to evaluate your negotiation aptitude. Think about this as a process with key milestones. This gives you the chance to make modifications along the way and to avoid the last-minute pressures of bargaining that can remove the advantages you have created. Adhering to a game plan will reduce the chances of objections from the other party, or even worse, the backing out of an arrangement that you considered to be a “lock.” This can be applied to discussions involving a promotion or a pay increase.
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Try for Success, Not a Win

Three people speaking by videoconferenceKeep your eyes on the real goal.

By Steven E. Sacks
The NEW Fundamentals

We enter into negotiations every day without realizing it, whether it is on a professional or personal basis. Irrespective of whether it is a contractual transaction between a company and vendor or if a husband and wife are deciding on which couch to buy, each side is seeking to gain something. Neither side may get everything it wants because an all-or-nothing-at-all approach will be a barrier to making any progress.

MORE: Civility Goes a Long Way | Don’t Overlook Office Relationships | How to Deliver Authentic Value | Why Deadlines Get Missed | Five Reasons You’re Not SWOT-Ready | Are You Productive or Just Busy? | Accounting Is a Profession, Not an Industry
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Negotiating involves getting and keeping agreements that work for all parties. You can reach an agreement, but the issue is whether you can maintain the agreement and the relationship built around it. Both sides need to have a sense of victory or, at the very least, feel they have not lost, because if this should occur then further conflict will result.
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Civility Goes a Long Way

Business people laughing at lunch in a cafe outdoorsBad reputations spread more quickly now.

By Steven E. Sacks
The NEW Fundamentals

Technology has overtaken the traditional forms of communication that include face-to-face interaction, telephone conversations and of course, the handwritten or typed note slipped into an envelope, affixed with a stamp and dropped in the mailbox.

MORE: Don’t Overlook Office Relationships | How to Deliver Authentic Value | Making the Jump from Small to Mid-Sized Firm | What Sets Your Firm Apart … If Anything? | Why Deadlines Get Missed | Too Busy? You May Need to Reprioritize | Is It Time to Outsource? | Five Reasons You’re Not SWOT-Ready | Who Needs Another Meeting? | 4 Questions for CPA Firm Boards
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But wait. How can professionals succeed if the situation calls for in-person interaction if they have not been given the necessary training in the art of a conversation? Whether you are involved in a job interview or entertaining a potential client over a meal, how you exercise the appropriate behavior will determine whether a relationship is forged or tossed on the pile of failed results.
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CLIENT ACCOUNTING SERVICES

CAS or CAAS? Getting Clarity

CPA Judy Trepeck explains why client accounting services (CAS) should really be called client accounting and advisory services (CAAS).

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If providing value-added services is the motivating factor, then why not identify, define and structure it so CPAs understand what they can deliver and so clients will understand what to expect from their CPA?

With Steven Sacks
The NEW Fundamentals

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FEATURED

Don’t Overlook Office Relationships

Two businesspeople meeting over coffeeThey’re simple, but not easy.

By Steven E. Sacks
The NEW Fundamentals

Business can usually be conducted by phone, videoconference or in person. It really doesn’t matter the approach; what is important is how you comport yourself – irrespective of whether the individual(s) with whom you are dealing are superiors, peers or subordinates.

MORE: How to Deliver Authentic Value | Making the Jump from Small to Mid-Sized Firm | What Sets Your Firm Apart … If Anything? | Why Deadlines Get Missed | Too Busy? You May Need to Reprioritize | Is It Time to Outsource?
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I can’t tell you how many times I have witnessed conversations that were best conducted behind closed doors. The old adage of praise in public, criticize in private is underused or completely ignored.
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How to Deliver Authentic Value

Female executive greeting coupleConsider it from the client’s perspective.

By Steven E. Sacks
The NEW Fundamentals

Do you ever wonder if events you attend have an air of authenticity around them or are they simply staged? What about the options offered on new cars or the latest and greatest upgrades to a tech gadget? Is the hype greater than the actual product? Is what is considered innovation really just an incremental change that competitors can duplicate, albeit with minor modifications?

MORE: What Sets Your Firm Apart … If Anything? | Why Deadlines Get Missed | Five Reasons You’re Not SWOT-Ready | Are You Productive or Just Busy? | Accounting Is a Profession, Not an Industry
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As for professional services firms, are they providing a unique service in a unique fashion? Today, clients are looking at the cost of traditional audit and tax work. Because they are commoditized services, the decision is price-driven, so lowballing becomes routine for firms.
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MANAGEMENT

Making the Jump from Small to Mid-Sized Firm

Businessman reading and reclining on part of red arrow trending upwardBigger firms require bigger thinking.

By Steven E. Sacks
The NEW Fundamentals

There has been talk about consolidation within the accounting profession for the last several years. Will the Big 4 become the Big 2, or will there be the Big One?

MORE: What Sets Your Firm Apart … If Anything? | Why Deadlines Get Missed | Too Busy? You May Need to Reprioritize | Is It Time to Outsource? | Five Reasons You’re Not SWOT-Ready | Who Needs Another Meeting? | 4 Questions for CPA Firm Boards
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Or, on the other hand, will there be a combination of regional firms whose size will be in the neighborhood of the Top 10 or Top 15 firms that are considered super-regional firms – and who may consider themselves direct competitors to the Big 4?
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OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Private Equity vs. the CPA Firm Partnership

Watch the video or listen to the podcast.

Follow CPA Trendlines Podcasts on Apple Podcasts here or grab the RSS feed here.

With Steven Sacks
For CPA Trendlines

The CPA profession is entering another period of shifts in how firms will attain growth levels – the main force being the influx of private capital entering the accounting profession, according to David Bergstein, CPA, CITP, CGMA.

MORE: The FinTech Flood: Accounting Will Never Be the Same | The Disruptors: Re-Inventing Accounting with Tyler Anderson |  The Disruptors: How to Scale with New Padgett COO Amanda Aguillard | Eat that Frog: Asking for a Prospect Meeting | Growing Revenue Through Client Service | Lease Accounting Is About to Get Very Real | Google Ads for New Tax Season Clients | Exclusive: Eisner CEO Charly Weinstein Explains the Private Equity Deal  | Flash Briefing: A “Call to Arms” after Private Equity Deal | Four Ways to Beat the Staffing Shortage, with Pasha Malik

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New, external investments will change the way firms are structured, operated, and financially managed, as well as granting them increased capabilities to make more strategic decisions, Bergstein tells Sacks for CPA Trendlines.

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