Robert Fligel: Private Equity Shakes up M&A

Opportunity or threat? It depends.

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With Rick Telberg
For CPA Trendlines

Private equity takeovers of accounting firms are changing the rules for the CPA business, impacting succession plans, shifting talent strategies, and reshaping the competition, according to Robert Fligel, CEO and founder of RF Resources, one of the nation’s leading advisors.

MORE: Dustin Verity: Keep an Open Mind and Constantly LearnSecret to Success? A Growth and Abundance Mindset | O.D. Lanier: Stepping Into Advisory | From Tax to Transformation | Early Adopters Gain an Edge in Audit | Why the Future is in Risk Advisory | Four Strategies for a Future Ready Firm Clayton Oates: One Way to Keep Clients for LifeRandy Crabtree: Follow These Three Rules to Keep Employees HappyErik Solbakken: Yes, You Can Work Less and Make More

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In this exclusive interview with CPA Trendlines, Fligel, a veteran dealmaker in the vast and active New York market, explains what PE firms may not want you to know, why CPA firms are suddenly so much in demand, and the often-uncertain outlook for owners, staffers, and the profession.

For some, PE is an opportunity. For others, a threat. Fligel helps sort it all out.

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Time Management Rule #1 for Accountants

The “one big thing” you can do to take back control.

By Seth Fineberg
At Large

Accountants are constantly being told about “the one thing” they need to do to improve their professional lives, and in my view, the simplest and most powerful is to firmly adhere to deadlines that you determine for your clients. Not the IRS’s deadlines, not any governing body… You!

MORE SETH FINEBERG:  Plan to Go ‘Live’ Post Tax SeasonWhy VC Is a Bigger Threat Than AI  |   What Does Taking Control of Your Firm Mean? | Accountants Need Each Other More Than Ever | Marchternity: Just Say ‘No’Some Thoughts on In-Person Events | So You Think You Know Accountants? | What Bogs Down Accountants

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The one change tax pros need to consider making going forward is setting their own deadlines – for themselves, for their firms, and, especially, for their clients.

All signs seem to indicate this year’s tax season was, comparatively, the most “normal” over the past three years. But tons of tax pros continue to stress, struggle, and even reconsider staying with tax work at all. While it may seem like a huge step, you would be surprised that by just having clients adhere to your deadlines, and no other due date, the level of stress will be reduced exponentially. This may not be a new tactic, but firms I’ve spoken to who decided to engage in telling clients about their deadline, and not the IRS’s, experienced a sense of relief not felt in years, if ever.

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Joe Montgomery: Find the Sweet Spot of the Right Clients, Right Services and Right Prices

An engaged team with a great culture is better than landing at the perfect ratio of payroll to revenue.

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The Disruptors
With Liz Farr
for CPA Trendlines

Before Joe Montgomery started his firm, he had an epiphany.

He asked himself, “Why would I ever want to own a firm, if that’s what it looks like?”

He saw firm leaders chained to their desks, working long hours and dealing with waves of turnover.

“There’s got to be a different way to do it,” he thought.

After too many 100-hour weeks with a wife and three kids he never saw, he reached his breaking point and exited his family firm to start his own firm and his coaching business, GroupUp 

MORE: Megan Genest Tarnow: Hire for Curiosity Rather Than ComplianceClayton Oates: One Way to Keep Clients for LifeRandy Crabtree: Follow These Three Rules to Keep Employees HappyErik Solbakken: Yes, You Can Work Less and Make More | Donny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a MindshiftJennifer Wilson: Empower Young Workers to Build the Firm Everyone LovesMike Whitmire: Re-Think Your Hiring and Training PracticesHector Garcia: Success Strategies of a Quickbooks YouTube Superstar | Blake Oliver: Why Tax Work Yearns To Be FreePrivate Equity Explodes in U.K. | Brannon Poe: The Status Quo Must Go  | Accounting Nerds, Unlock Your Super Powers  | Disruptor: Jason Statts Shakes Up the Status Quo | Think Small to Think Big with Matt WilkinsonWhen Financial Statements Go Extinct with Corey SchmidtCan Geraldine Carter Save Accountants from Themselves?Re-Inventing Accounting with Tyler Anderson

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His focus in his accounting firm and in GroupUp is finding that sweet spot of the right clients, right services and right prices. The first step is “making sure we have the right people in the right structure with the right motivators behind it. Those three components can build an unstoppable team,” Montgomery explained. Next, he said, “on the client side, we do the right service that’s in our wheelhouse, that we can consistently deliver to the right client…and for the right price, so we have enough money coming in the door.”

With that structure in place, Montgomery said, firm owners “can get out of production and lead the firm,” changes that can lead to “you running a firm that gives you more freedom.”

A key to making those changes is to be willing to delegate and empower. “We advise our clients to outsource and grow and scale their business,” Montgomery said. But many firm owners fail to practice what they preach. By failing to build out an empowered team, he explained, “We have a bunch of worker bees, and we become extremely busy, too.”

12 More Takeaways from Joe Montgomery

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Transferring Business Interests to Optimize Estate Taxes

couple sitting across desk from advisorStrategic estate planning could save your clients millions.

By Anthony Venette, CPA/ABV

We stand at the precipice of the largest wealth transfer in American history. Millions of business owners are struggling to write the next chapter of their companies and their legacies. Prudent gift and estate tax planning can be the difference between creating generational wealth and squandering it. Gifting privately held business interests to a child or children can be an effective and tax-efficient way to maximize wealth transfer and achieve legacy planning goals.  

MORE: Enhance Wealth by Mitigating Taxes | Your Client’s Instincts Are Wrong | Preserving Wealth Is a Different Mindset | Three Approaches to Investment Consulting | Cashing Out: Your Business Clients’ Five Big Issues
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That being said, many business owners are unaware of the benefits of gifting interests in their businesses rather than cash. Here are four important reasons why gifting business interests can be advantageous: 

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Help Business Clients Lower Property Tax Assessments

profile of man shouting TAX and other, starred-out wordsSome property owners pay inaccurate property tax levels by as much as 20% to 30%.

By Josh Malancuk with JM Tax Advocates

With cash-starved states and municipalities looking under every nook and cranny for revenue, manufacturers with lots of fixed assets and personal property are generally taking it on the chin when it comes to their property tax assessments.

MORE: Six Kinds of Loan Covenants | 26 Ways to Wreck a Financial Projection | Three Ways to Run a Break-Even Analysis | Price Not Always the Top Consideration in a Sale | When an Owner Dies Without a Buy-Sell Agreement | Due Diligence Is in the Details
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Many of your business clients, especially manufacturers, sense their assessments are too high. But most don’t have the time, resources or expertise to challenge their assessment through the protest or appeal process before the deadline. And so, overpayments continue for another cycle and then again, and again and again. That’s what assessors count on. But you owe it to your clients to keep your assessors accountable through available appeals and to help them avoid overpaying taxes year after year.

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Family Business Needs Real Advisors

Can you be more than just an accountant? https://cpatrendlines.com/2023/05/21/advisory-work-for-family-businesses/

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By Donny Shimamoto, CPA, CITP, CGMA
Center for Accounting Transformation

The world of accounting is more than just crunching numbers and balancing the books. For those who have chosen this profession, there is a calling to be more than just an accountant. The calling is to be a trusted advisor, to be someone who is impactful and rewarding, and to be a problem solver.

MORE:  The Future of Accounting: A Vision of Trust, Clarity, and HopeDonny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a Mindshift | AI, OCR, NLP & CPAs: Oh My!   |  Accounting Nerds, Unlock Your Super Powers  | Early Adopters Gain an Edge in Audit | Dustin Wheeler: For Serious CAS Success, Hire Tech Teams | CSR for CPAs: The Missing Ingredient | Donny Shimamoto Explains How ‘Agile’ Applies to CPA FirmsStaff Retention for Remote Workers | Why the Future is in Risk Advisory |  Ready for Non-CPA “CPA” Firms?
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One of the most meaningful transformations that accountants can bring about is with family-owned businesses. These businesses often face unique challenges that can be difficult to navigate. As trusted advisors, accountants and CPAs can help provide guidance on stabilizing cash flow, transitioning the business to the next generation, and even having difficult conversations with family members who may not be equipped to run the business.

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Menlo Innovations: Improve Office Culture by Overhauling Internal Reviews

Focus on strengths and talents to determine areas of growth.

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Transformation Talks
With Donny Shimamoto
Center for Accounting Transformation

Center for Accounting Transformation
Center for Accounting Transformation

Staff and employee annual reviews help assess where teams need additional help, guidance and development. If only they weren’t so painful…

MORE: Dustin Verity: Keep an Open Mind and Constantly LearnSecret to Success? A Growth and Abundance Mindset | O.D. Lanier: Stepping Into Advisory | From Tax to Transformation | Early Adopters Gain an Edge in Audit | Why the Future is in Risk Advisory | Four Strategies for a Future Ready Firm
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Enter Menlo Innovations, an IT consulting firm and custom software development firm that appears to have found a better way to analyze team performance and deliver constructive feedback. In the latest episode of Transformation Talks, Dan Roman and Andy Burns discuss Menlo Innovation’s Prosperity Project, an innovative employee-driven performance review process.

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