Help your clients account for marketing costs.
By Sandi Smith Leyva
The Accountant’s Accelerator
One of the value-added services we can offer clients is to align their chart of accounts with their tax form so that the numbers are easy to pull off at tax time. But there’s an even bigger opportunity if we take a deeper look. READ MORE →
Valuing a CPA firm for partner retirement purposes is much different than a valuation for merger purposes.
By Marc Rosenberg
Retirements & Buyouts
Profitable, attractive firms, generally under $2 million, sold in a market with many potential buyers, will often fetch 110 percent to 150 percent of fees.
If this is the case, why do CPA firms value goodwill for retirement purposes at no more than 100 percent of fees and usually, 80 or 90 percent of fees? Here are six good reasons why:
EY and UT Austin top professors poll.
In considering job offers from competing accounting firms, the most highly sought-after students weigh three criteria equally, and it doesn’t much matter whether the offer is for big money or whether it’s from a Big Four firm anymore, according to a leading survey of several hundred college accounting professors.
Students today consider compensation and benefits, “work/life balance and a family-friendly environment” and a desirable geographic location each about equally, according to the 33rd Annual professors Survey for 2014 by Public Accounting Report.
The difference is barely discernible, PAR reports. On a scale of 0 through 10, with 10 being the most important, professors marginally differentiated between the three in order of importance. They rated compensation and benefits an average of 8.10, quality of life/family-friendly environment 8.09 and desirable geographic location 7.99. READ MORE →
9 factors that ensure retirement plans will pay off.
By Marc Rosenberg
Retirements & Buyouts
When a partner group crafts their firm’s partner retirement plan, they are hopeful that the plan will play an important role in their financial futures. They are guardedly optimistic that their buyouts will be realized.
But the path toward the retirement payday is a perilous one. Many actions are necessary and a number of obstacles must be overcome for a firm’s partner retirement plan to pay off. READ MORE →
By Ed Mendlowitz
The CPA Trendlines Practice Doctor
QUESTION: Occasionally I get a new client in an area I am unfamiliar with. How do I find out what I do not know?
RESPONSE: This happens to everyone and probably more often than we expect. Thankfully we will continue to get new business and getting clients in areas we are unfamiliar with enables us to grow.
MORE PRACTICE DOCTOR Q&A: 10 Do’s and Don’ts for Making Small Business Clients Happy | Client’s Difficult Daughter Balks at Bill | 6 Simple Steps to Impress a Prospect | 10 (Nearly) Painless Ways to Keep Up to Date with Technology | When a Staffer Stops Listening | 10 Ways to Get New 1040 Clients | Making Meetings More Productive | Tax Return Reviewer Ticking and Tying
Here is what I suggest: READ MORE →