OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

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11 weekly self-assessment questions for successful professionals.h

By August Aquila
The Effective Partnership

When’s the last time you talked to your partners about the “mirror questions”? We all know that it’s easy to kid ourselves about how well we’re doing. But when we have to look ourselves in the mirror, well, it’s another story.

Rather than giving the partners the questions they should answer, we suggested that they come up with their own self-assessment. Specifically, we wanted them to devise questions they could ask themselves each week to evaluate how well they had performed. In the end, we came up with 11. READ MORE →

Threat or Opportunity as H&R Block, Liberty Jump into Bookkeeping Services?

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Liberty Block logosWhat it means for independent tax and accounting firms.

By Hitendra Patil
Pransform Inc. 

The accounting profession in the U.S. has been shaken up by announcements from Liberty Tax Services and H&R Block that they are entering into core bookkeeping and accounting services business.

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The news came as a surprise to many and I had a few discussions with some accounting professionals, especially smaller firms and some solo practitioners, on what they think of this new development. READ MORE →

What a CPA Firm Is Worth

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calculatorLook at the revenue stream. Goodwill is another story.

By Marc Rosenberg
Retirements & Buyouts

To illustrate a CPA firm’s value, let’s use an example of a plain-vanilla or average firm:

  • Annual revenues: $6 million.
  • Six partners with ages spread evenly between 45 and 62.
  • Average partner income: $350,000.
  • Ratio of professional staff to partner is 3.5.
  • Firm is located in a city with a population in excess of 1M.
  • Clients are all in common industries such as manufacturing, real estate, health care, etc. No niches or specialties.
  • Services are all traditional annuity types such as accounting and tax.
  • The firm’s accrual basis capital, primarily WIP and A/R, is $1.2M.

Now, let’s compute the value.

READ MORE →

6 Simple Steps to Impress a Prospect

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Ed Mendlowitz CPA The Practice Doctor Q and AHow to walk in with head start.

By Ed Mendlowitz
The CPA Trendlines Practice Doctor

QUESTION: How do you make a presentation to get a new client when you do not know everything you should about the client’s business?

RESPONSE: No one can know everything about everything. Smaller firms have a harder time but they can reach out to others in their firm, or even partners in similar firms who have the knowledge to assist in the proposal, or friends in larger firms.

Here are six simple steps to learn as much as you can about a prospect and their industry.  READ MORE →