THE PARTNERSHIP

Why Do You Want to Be Partner?

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Businesswoman sitting on table while talking with four coworkers

Our expert council weighs in on preparation.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

The skill in producing financial reports is limited by the quality of the information presented to the CPA by the client. The motivation of the client to influence that financial information comes in many forms, some intentional and some unintentional. Competence comes first in being able to resist pressure and present a true and accurate position of the client’s organization.

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Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? But there’s a twist.
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Ten Benchmarks of Firm Profitability

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young woman seated at laptop counting money

Plus four reasons you should want to follow them.

By Marc Rosenberg
What Really Makes CPA Firms Profitable?

“Rich people stay rich by living like they are broke. Broke people stay broke by living like they’re rich.” – Mark Cuban

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To state the obvious, the goal of a CPA firm’s management is to achieve the firm’s desired profit level. No one disputes this. But where the rubber meets the road is achieving those profits. This post explains how to do this.
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Twelve Keys to Strategic Planning

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businessman turning compass labeled "strategy" like a steering wheel

What do you want it to do for you?

By Marc Rosenberg
Strategic Planning and Goal Setting for Results

“No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else.” – P. T. Barnum

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To begin strategic planning, partners must first address and agree on several critical decisions. Do they want:

  • A firm that is committed to strategic planning being the pillar of the firm’s future success? Or are you in the school that says “yeah, strategic planning is nice, and we should do it, but it’s secondary to partner productivity and performance”?

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Overcome Health, Wealth and Stealth Challenges

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Why we need them.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

Now we move on to our sixth “C” in the passport to partnership – challenges.

Again the heading has more than a single application, which we’ll explore here.

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Ultimately, the partners interviewed in our research broke “challenges” down into two key areas:

  1. The ability for a manager to pull the firm out of the mire when there’s a problem
  2. The ability for a manager to pull the client out of the mire when there’s a problem

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Nineteen Thoughts on Recruiting CPA Firm Staff

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two businesswomen seated across desk from each other

Plus six training and 11 leadership development best practices.

By Marc Rosenberg
The Rosenberg Practice Management Library

“Treat people as they are, and they will remain as they are. Treat people as they can be and should be and they will become as they can and should be.” – Goethe

“You see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up, such as dressing and the proper way of speaking and so on, the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she’s treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins because he always treats me as a flower girl. But I know I can be a lady to you, Colonel Pickering, because you always treat me as a lady and always will.” – Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady”

There are three big keys to CPA firm success. The first two keys are:

  1. Strong firm management and leadership. Management, which includes the entire management team, makes everything important in a CPA firm work, from having a great staff, great clients, growth, profitability, partner productivity and accountability, strategy, succession planning and more.
  1. Attracting new clients, retaining them, helping them grow and providing world-class service.

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The third key is the focus of this article: staff.
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Nine Steps to Bringing in a New Partner

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two men talking in an office

Look around your firm for candidates; don’t wait for them to come to you.

By Marc Rosenberg
The Rosenberg Practice Management Library

If you don’t trust someone, they should not be your partner. Let’s start with a very basic, standard concept in the business world: a partner is an owner. In any business, not just CPA firms, ownership is not free. Because partners are owners, it’s fair and reasonable for them to purchase a part of the firm – for money – to acquire an ownership share.

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Before structuring the financial part of the buy-in, work out what the requirements are for becoming a partner.

Too many firms jump right in and decide how new partners should buy in before firming up their criteria for qualifying as a potential partner in the first place. That’s a big mistake.
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Ten Ways to Hold Partners Accountable

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man, woman, man having serious discussion around conference table

Making partner doesn’t mean it’s time to kick back.

By Marc Rosenberg
The Rosenberg Practice Management Library

Partner accountability addresses what is expected of each partner, how partners will be managed so that expectations are met and what the consequences will be for failure to meet these expectations.

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We have interviewed hundreds of partners on partner accountability. We frequently ask them if they would like the firm to have partner accountability. A response we often get is a derivation of: “Yes, I’m all for partner accountability (long pause …) as long as it doesn’t affect me!”

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Sixteen Responsibilities of Accounting Partners

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four people standing in office building and talking, two of them holding tablets

Plus 15 aspects of teamwork.

By Marc Rosenberg
The Rosenberg Practice Management Library

“Average players want to be left alone. Good players want to be coached. Great players want to be told the truth.” – Doc Rivers, NBA basketball coach

“You can’t put in what God left out.” – Terri Mathes, former English professor at DePaul University

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A common agenda item at partner retreats is the clarification of what it means to be a partner in the firm. I’m sure I’ve covered this a hundred or more times in one form or another. Based on my work with firms, I am constantly revising and updating the material that follows.
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How to Buy Out Partners (in 31 Steps)

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No one said it would be easy.

By Marc Rosenberg
The Rosenberg Practice Management Library

When firms call us for help on their partner agreement, we immediately ask: “Do you want help with your entire partner agreement or just the retirement/buyout part?” Many firms hesitate because they had only one part in mind.

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We have written an entire book devoted to CPA firm retirement/buyout plans. If you are interested in a comprehensive resource on crafting a proper retirement plan that adopts CPA firm industry best practices, visit the CPA Trendlines shop to purchase “CPA Firm Retirement/Buyout Plans.”
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Keep Ownership Percentage Out of Partnership Agreements

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man writing in notebook

Twelve best practices for compensation committees.

By Marc Rosenberg
The Rosenberg Practice Management Library

“If you like a person, you say, ‘Let’s go into business together.’ Humans are a social animal after all, but such partnerships are fraught with danger.” – Brian Tracy

Buying a family home is one of the the biggest investments most people make in their lives. And because most of us are not real estate experts, we protect ourselves by engaging an attorney to ensure that the purchase is handled correctly. We don’t hesitate for a moment to invest a nominal amount of attorney fees to hire an expert.

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Protecting Your Business

Being a partner in a CPA firm should be no different. Think about it. Based on data from a recent Rosenberg MAP Survey, here is a rough idea of the value of a partner’s ownership in a $10 million firm:
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