OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Great Tax Prep Reviewers Aren’t Just Born

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htrtr cvr clipFive traits of the best tax season managers.

By Ed Mendlowitz
How to Review Tax Returns

Reviewing tax returns is a key part of tax preparation. It also is an area vulnerable to major bottlenecks and backlogs. Inevitably, firms have more preparers than reviewers. The latter are highly skilled professionals who are more difficult to train or find. Therefore, you must consider ways to reduce review time, even at the expense of adding preparer time.

The best tax season managers know how to: READ MORE →

Non-Equity Partners Have Important Role to Play

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Businesspeople having a meeting over coffee sitting together at a table discussing a document, young man and two middle-aged women presentPercentage of women in partner roles is on the rise, but they’re still underutilized.

CPA Trendlines Exclusive

Partner positions in CPA firms are ever so slightly going increasingly to women and non-equity partners, who have some of the same authority and prestige as full partners, but don’t hold equity stakes in their firms.

MORE FROM THE MAP SURVEY: Geography Plays Part in Firm Success | Financial Services Up at Largest Firms, Down at Smaller Ones | Big Firms Keep Getting Bigger

Non-equity partners are in place at 49 percent of all CPA firms with multiple partners, up from 46 percent the year before, while women hold partnership positions at 16.4 percent of firms in 2013, up from 15.6 percent, according to the current “Rosenberg Survey: The National MAP Survey of CPA Firm Statistics.” READ MORE →

Why I Became a Consultant

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By Ed Mendlowitz The CPA Trendlines Practice Doctor While I was working full-time early in my accounting career, I was also picking up clients that I did on the side, also known as moonlighting. One of the clients was a … Continued

Leader Training Is Time Well Spent

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leader addresses co-workersFour questions to test your leadership culture.

By Robert J. Lees, August J. Aquila and Derek Klyhn

Being a good coach is just one of the expectations firms must have of their partners. They are expected to be leaders, as well.

MORE ON LEADERSHIP: Managing Partners Must Remember Partners’ Needs | 5 Questions About Your Firm’s Direction | Like Herding Cats: Partners Must ‘Walk Together’

While most of the partners we know understand and accept that need, not everyone does, and not everyone understands what being an effective leader means.

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