MANAGEMENT

“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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Uncooperative Partner Might Not Be the Problem

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WHY are they unwilling to help?

By Ed Mendlowitz
202 Questions and Answers: Managing an Accounting Practice

QUESTION: My tax partner gives me a hard time when I ask her for assistance. Is there anything I can do to get her to be more responsive?

MORE:  Merge in Lower-Priced Work without Losing Out | 20 Things You Need for a Business Valuation
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RESPONSE: This can apply to every research question asked by anyone in the firm. Besides tax, it can be for audit, internal controls, succession planning or any other client service area.

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Four Considerations for Effective Client Culling

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2023: The year “cull” was no longer a four-letter word for CPA firms.

By Bill Penczak

It finally happened.

For at least the past dozen years, I’ve heard CPA firm partners’ bold talk about culling their clients in order to ease staffing issues, focus on larger, more profitable engagements, or rid the firm of the PITA clients, which has nothing to do with animal rights and more about protecting their people from those who are a Pain ____  _____  _____ (complete the next three words on your own, and you can skip Wordle for today).

MORE: Partner Accountability: The Only Two Things That Really Matter | How to Boost Profits by (OMG) Sharing the Upside | Dustin Verity: Keep an Open Mind and Constantly Learn | Secret to Success? A Growth and Abundance Mindset | The Six Essential KPIs for Managing Partners | Your Marketing Sucks: Six Reasons Why | Nine Smooth Moves to Build Client Satisfaction
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A recent study was published that indicated only 1 percent of CPA firms could adequately staff their engagements. And while more firms are migrating to offshore models to get work done, more are actually culling clients, but without a measured process for doing so.  

Here are some suggestions for successful extrication of clients who are wearing down the profitability and the morale of firms: 

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Keep Clients from “Balance Due” Shock

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With just a little advanced marketing, you can get paid year-round AND have more satisfied clients.

By Frank Stitely
The Relentless CPA

When I talk with prospective clients in any medium, I lead with tax planning. I don’t care if I’m meeting them, calling them or emailing them. I lead with tax planning. The number one complaint clients have about CPAs and tax preparers is a lack of planning. They get tax returns and nothing else.

MORE: Stop Clients from Performing “Favors” | Who Needs Fall Tax Planning? Clients … and You | Get Clients to Bring Tax Docs Early…Yes, EARLY | Why Time Tracking Still Matters | Make Fewer Mistakes, Increase Revenue and Capacity | Six Ways to Create a Millennial-Friendly Firm
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The fun part is seeing the reaction when I mention planning. I tell them that they can know the results while there’s still time to change the results. Tax season is no longer stressful because they know the answers in advance about refunds and balances due.
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Harper & Co. CPAs: The Perspective of a Non-Accountant is Imperative

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“The perspective of a non-accountant is imperative.”

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music and Audible, Player FM, Audacy, Gaana (India), and Boomplay (Africa).


Transformation Talks
With Donny Shimamoto
Center for Accounting Transformation

Center for Accounting Transformation
Center for Accounting Transformation

Glen Harper, CPA, says businesses should be willing to reinvent themselves and that diverse perspectives can be a valuable asset. The owner of Harper & Company CPAs should know: He’s had to embrace both philosophies to become successful. 

MORE TRANSFORMATION TALKS:  Menlo Innovations: Improve Office Culture by Overhauling Internal Reviews | Dustin Wheeler: For Serious CAS Success, Hire Tech Teams | Chase Birky: Overcoming Paralysis By Analysis | Dustin Verity: Keep an Open Mind and Constantly Learn | James Ross: CSR for CPAs: The Missing Ingredient | O.D. Lanier: Stepping Into Advisory | Mike Maksymiw: The Secret to Success? A Growth and Abundance Mindset | Paul Mueller: From Tax to Transformation

MORE PODCASTS & VIDEOS: CAS or CAAS? Getting Clarity | The Seller’s Guide to Getting the Best Price for Your Firm | Doing Nothing Is Not an Option  | Why the Future Is in Risk Advisory | Fine-Tuning the Subscription Fee Model | Thinking Smart about New Tech: Byron Patrick | 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 PartnershipThe 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 | See all podcasts and videos here

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In a recent episode of Transformation Talks, Harper tells host Donny Shimamoto, CPA, CITP, CGMA, who is also the founder and managing director of Intraprise TechKnowlogies LLC and the founder of the Center for Accounting Transformation, that a good advisor can help you see your business from a different perspective and identify opportunities that you may have missed. He said after some self-reflection, he needed what his successful clients already had–a CEO.

Enter Julie Smith.

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Internal Communications Are Underrated

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Ten categories of information your firm needs to manage … and how to make it happen.

By Bruce Marcus
Professional Services Marketing 3.0

EDITOR’S NOTE: CPA Trendlines was privileged to have a long relationship with Bruce W. Marcus, who was ahead of his time in his thinking and practice in marketing for accounting. We are publishing some of the late expert’s evergreen work, which retains wisdom for the present.

A terrific definition of chaos is when a client asks two different people in your firm the same question – and gets two different and conflicting answers.

MORE: Manage Knowledge as a Marketing Tool | How to Put Target Marketing into Context | Everyone in Your Firm Is Marketing | Professional Services Marketing Requires Flexibility | How to Set Marketing Objectives | Nine Fundamentals for a Healthy Marketing Culture in an Accounting Firm
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Another form of it is when there’s a crisis, and the media calls and gets somebody on the phone who hasn’t been briefed – but who answers the questions anyway. There’s real horror for you.

A managing partner bemoans the fact that his or her clear and well-defined vision of the firm has become so diluted by the time it gets transmitted down the line that there’s cause to wonder if everybody is working for the same firm.
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