MANAGEMENT

Why You Need Progress Billing

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smiling woman wearing glasses, looking at computer screen

Seven steps to setting it up and four benefits.

By August J. Aquila
Price It Right: How to Value Accounting Services

There are many things that are critical for a successful client service engagement. In my mind, there are two that should be at the top of your list.

MORE: Sixteen Marketing Activities to Try | Make Your Practice Better | Eleven Marketing Strategies for Smaller Firms | Five Questions for Developing Your Marketing Plan | You Only Have Four Strategies | The Damage That Traditional Fee Methods Do
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Number one is providing the client with a progress report or reports. Number two is making sure that you progress bill and provide a change order if the scope of the engagement changes. Doing both ensures that you will have a happy client and get paid promptly for your services.
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You Have to Manage Three Kinds of Procedures

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Smiling woman using smartphone

Need help with internal procedures? Here are three apps for organizing them.

By Penny Breslin
It’s Not Just the Numbers

There is a symbiotic relationship between your technology and your processes. You have to consider both, or you won’t get the full benefit.

MORE: Federated Search: What It Is, Why It Matters | Creating a Back Office Support Playbook | Strengthen Client Ties with Workflow Tools | Understand Your Online Marketing Options | Narrow Your Prospects by Choosing a Vertical | Build Your Team, Then Choose Your Clients | How Back Office Support Adds Value
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McKinsey Global has been researching the impact of automation around the world, and (no surprise) found that when companies try to retrofit technology to fit into existing processes, “companies end up with a patchwork of incongruous technology tools that automate separate and distinct parts of the process. This approach is fine for capturing the first 5 percent or so of automation’s impact. But unlocking the full potential requires a fundamentally different way of thinking. To capture that potential, managers must be willing to re-engineer their processes completely.”
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Make Your Practice Better

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two seated men looking at laptop screen together

Are you helping clients achieve their goals?

By August J. Aquila
Price It Right: How to Value Accounting Services

There is only one person who can make your practice better. That person is you if you are a sole practitioner. If you are a multi-partner firm, then it’s up to all the partners and senior staff. Let’s explore how you get your firm to the next level.

MORE: Five Tips for Cross-Selling and Upselling | The Four Steps of Your Personal Marketing Process | How Does Your Firm Measure Up? | Six Questions Before Asking for All the Referrals You Deserve | Five Rules for a Marketing Orientation | Ten Keys to Marketing Success
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Do you tolerate mediocrity?

Tolerating mediocrity is the death of many good firms. Whenever and wherever you see it in your firm, stamp it out fast.
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Federated Search: What It Is, Why It Matters

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computer screen littered with icons
Take a look at your team’s desktops.

 

Imagine a world without subfolders.

By Penny Breslin
It’s Not Just the Numbers

Much has been done to help people deal with information overload. Desktop search tools have made it easier to find a piece of data hidden among all the other data stored on your system. But what about all the data available on portals, stored in shared drives, and trapped in business applications, let alone the valuable information stored in various employees’ heads?

MORE: Creating a Back Office Support Playbook | Tech Tips for Back Office Support | Decoding Accounting Tech (and All Those Acronyms) | Digital Marketing Strategies Level the Playing Field | Eight Tasks to Delegate Today | Advisory Services Done Your Way | AI Is Not Your Enemy
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This information is vital to your firm. Employees need this data to do their jobs, and they need it quickly.
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Train Now Before It Costs You Down the Road

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Your time investment now could reap dividends during tax season. 

By Frank Stitely
The Relentless CPA

We’ve all heard it.

Ask if an assigned project has been completed and get the, “It’s done, but …” followed by a few reasons why said project is still – let’s be honest – incomplete.

MORE: Keep Clients from “Balance Due” Shock | Stop Clients from Performing “Favors” | Control Your Time: Avoid Ambush Meetings and Calls | Make Fewer Mistakes, Increase Revenue and Capacity | Six Ways to Create a Millennial-Friendly Firm
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Let’s examine how we got a “done but” society. A lot of this will sound like, “Back in my day, sonny …” old man nonsense, and a lot of it is.

However, I promise you a solution after my sociological exploration of 21st-century culture. You won’t need a degree in sociology to understand this.

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“Done” Only Has One Meaning

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“Done but” increases WIP and turnaround time. Profits go … well, you know.

By Frank Stitely
The Relentless CPA

In my last book, I recommended hiring younger staff. In that book, I cautioned that you might have to teach very simple tasks like breathing and using the bathroom to your newbies.

MORE: Keep Clients from “Balance Due” Shock | Stop Clients from Performing “Favors” | Who Needs Fall Tax Planning? Clients … and You | It’s Okay to Say No to Clients (Even the Large Ones) | Control Your Time: Avoid Ambush Meetings and Calls | Make Fewer Mistakes, Increase Revenue and Capacity
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One reader posted that she didn’t believe it was the responsibility of an admin department to teach bathroom use. She was new to this hot new writing technique called sarcasm, but she did a great job making my point that you have to teach your staff a lot of basic things.

One of those teaching tasks is the meaning of “done.”

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Do You Really Want That Client?

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Sometimes you should consider saying no.

By Ed Mendlowitz
The CPA Trendlines Practice Doctor

We all want additional business, but sometimes the client should be vetted to determine if it is a good fit for your firm and if there are any danger signs.

MORE ON MARKETING: Want More Tax Clients? Here’s How | Bundle Tax Services with Financial Planning | How to Begin a Business Valuation | How to Offer Conflict Resolution | Get Your Clients Talking About Retirement | How to Assist Investment Clubs | When Clients Remarry | Seven Questions to Suggest Estate Planning | Four Reasons to Perform Tax Projections

Following is an eight-point checklist that could help you in making a decision to accept the client.
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