STRATEGY

Hitendra Patil: No New Tech. No New Growth.

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Technology is disrupting the profession, but for the better.

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The Disruptors
With Liz Farr for CPA Trendlines

The silver lining of the pandemic is that it forced accountants to move to the cloud and to develop distributed labor models, changes that are here to stay, Hitendra Patil, author of Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide, tells CPA Trendines in the latest episode of The Disruptors.

MORE:  Mike Whitmire: Re-Think Your Hiring and Training Practices | Hector Garcia: Success Strategies of a Quickbooks YouTube Superstar | Blake Oliver: Why Tax Work Yearns To Be Free| Private 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 Wilkinson | When Financial Statements Go Extinct with Corey Schmidt | Can Geraldine Carter Save Accountants from Themselves? | Re-Inventing Accounting with Tyler Anderson

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We can’t fight the rapid technological changes – we can only leverage them to provide better service and insights to our clients, Patil says.

PRO Members always get all nine top takeaways, Patil’s bona fides, and the full transcript.
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Donny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a Mindshift

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We can’t keep going the way we’re going.

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The Disruptors
With Liz Farr for CPA Trendlines

Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, says that one of the COVID pandemic’s benefits is accelerating technology adoption.

MORE: Jennifer Wilson: Empower Young Workers to Build the Firm Everyone Loves | Mike Whitmire: Re-Think Your Hiring and Training Practices | Hector Garcia: Success Strategies of a Quickbooks YouTube Superstar | Blake Oliver: Why Tax Work Yearns To Be Free| Private 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 Wilkinson | When Financial Statements Go Extinct with Corey Schmidt | Can Geraldine Carter Save Accountants from Themselves? | Re-Inventing Accounting with Tyler Anderson

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With the ongoing talent crunch, technology is one of the ways firms can get the work done with fewer people, as firm owners seek to create a sustainable balance “because we can’t keep going the way that we’re going.”

PRO Members always get all the top takeaways, details on the guest, and the full transcript.

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The 12 Big Questions for 2023

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The questions aren’t new, but the answers should direct your strategy.

By CPA Trendlines Research
The Rosenberg MAP Survey: National Study of CPA Firm Statistics

As Gale Crosley, of Crosley+Consulting, notes in the 2022 Rosenberg Survey, we are in the midst of “an unusual year of high uncertainty, unpredictability and sapped energy among our profession’s leaders.”

MORE OUTLOOK 2023: The 12 Winning Traits of a Great CPA Firm | What Accounting Firm Start-Ups Are Doing Right | Workflow Is a Problem. So Why Aren’t Firms Buying Solutions? | Top Five Trends | Compensation Gets Creative | CPA Partners Rejoice on Surging Fee Growth | The Office Is Over | The Great Resignation or a Reshuffling? | Accounting Firms Face Down Private Equity |

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Gale Crosley
Crosley

The profession, once characterized as staid and stable, has been hit by a confluence of what Crosley calls “major thunderbolts,” to wit:

  • disruptive technologies
  • shifting economic conditions
  • non-traditional competition
  • fast-moving regulation
  • extensive talent constraints
  • work-from-anywhere options
  • unexpected market demand
  • private equities investing in firms
  • baby boomer retirements

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Fine-Tuning the Subscription Fee Model

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How CPA Jamie Lopiccolo’s subscription pricing models manage client expectations and the firm’s cash flow.
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With Steven Sacks
The NEW Fundamentals: Thriving in Disruption

James (Jamie) N. Lopiccolo, CPA, CGMA
Lopiccolo

Jamie Lopiccolo, the managing member of a small Midwest firm, has been employing a subscription-based model for more than four years to invoice clients for services rendered. In addition to positioning the CPA as the client’s partner for success, it also encourages those who employ the system to provide maximum value in each client interaction, rather than focusing on getting as much money or billable hours as possible. Catch another conversation with Lopiccolo here: Sell Service, Not Hours.

MORE: Blake Oliver: Why Tax Work Yearns To Be Free| Private Equity Explodes in U.K. | Brannon Poe: The Status Quo Must Go  |  Accounting Nerds, Unlock Your Super Powers  | Private Equity vs. the CPA Firm Partnership The FinTech Flood: Accounting Will Never Be the Same  |  Think Small to Think Big with Matt Wilkinson | Your Sales Tax Headaches Are Only Just Beginning | When Financial Statements Go Extinct with Corey Schmidt  |  Can Geraldine Carter Save Accountants from Themselves? |  Re-Inventing Accounting with Tyler Anderson |  Turning Client Service into New Revenue

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The approach is to both manage expectations by the client and ensure a normalized cash flow for the firm. Additional benefits include a more strategic approach to dealing with new clients because they are getting the full picture of their business’s needs.

More Takeaways:

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Your Tax Season Success Plan Starts Here, Now

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Hayden

Now that everyone has (hopefully) had time to recover, there are four important steps to take to help next tax season go as smooth as possible

By Christopher Hayden
Managing Partner, Hayden Nelson & Yoder

Christopher Hayden, CPA, CMA, CGMA is the managing partner of Hayden Nelson & Yoder, a CPA firm based in Pennsylvania, at hnycpas.com.

To avoid sugar-coating it, tax season is stressful. Long work hours, back-and-forth with clients and mountains of documents can keep accounting professionals in the office for 20 or more additional hours each week. And this tax season felt extra-stressful with all the tax law changes, not to mention explaining to clients who had huge capital gains why they owed taxes.

But once the busy tax season is over, it’s time to review processes and take action to help the remainder of the year go smoothly.

MORE: Civility Goes a Long Way | Don’t Overlook Office Relationships | How to Deliver Authentic Value | Why Deadlines Get Missed | Five Reasons You’re Not SWOT-Ready | Are You Productive or Just Busy? | Accounting Is a Profession, Not an Industry
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Before that, allow a few weeks to:

  • Rest
  • Relax
  • Recover

Make sure to give team members a pat on the back, especially if it’s their first time going through the madness of tax season or they went above and beyond this year.

However, once everyone has recovered enough, it’s time to go through the following steps: READ MORE →

Seven Steps to Indispensability

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two women sitting across a desk from one anotherAnd the six benefits that will accrue.

By Gary Bolinger
Profit in Disruption

Being seen by a client as indispensable has at its core two factors:

  • the client’s perception that you understand their most important things and
  • that you are key to helping them achieve them and stay on track.

MORE: How Do You Rate on the 34 KPIs for Client Relationships? | The Key that Unlocks Client Advisory Services | If You Can’t Explain It, No One Will Buy It | The Three Types of Advisory Services Clients Need Today
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Success is a perception that varies with individuals. For control freak entrepreneurs, feeling successful is a big deal and if we can help them feel more in control and thus more successful, then we are well on the way to them seeing us as indispensable.
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The Big Battles Ahead for Corporate Finance

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Advisory board members say it’s happening “whether a CFO chooses to do it or not.”

By The Center for Accounting Transformation
improvetheworld.net

According to a group of corporate finance professionals, one of the most significant issues facing corporate finance teams is refocusing team members toward higher-value work such as interpreting data and advising on issues and solutions rather than allowing them to continue performing rote, manual tasks.

Related:  Top Issues for 2022: Talent, Time, and Transformation

Learn more about the Center’s Audit Advisory Board or view the Center’s transformation courses.

“The biggest risk that is clear to me is to continue the antiquated and outdated people strategies, performance, process, understanding, lagging platform adoption, and not understanding the deep relationships that we need to build instead of keeping the status quo,” offered Chris Ortega, CEO of Fresh FP&A. “To me, that is 100% the biggest risk that we now face in the accounting and finance  space.”

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The Three Types of Advisory Services Clients Need Today

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How to use the whole-of-client approach.

By Gary Bolinger
Profit in Disruption

Planning for positive change and why people do what they do (or don’t) is fundamental to advisory services.

MORE BOLINGER on ADVISORY: You Can’t Separate the Business from the Client | Tell Managers What Ownership Means | Clients: What Accountants Don’t Understand | Why Accountants Fail at Consulting | Advisory vs. Low-Value Clients | What + Who Leads Firms to Better Service | How Accountants Are Profiting in Disruption | Ask the Right Question(s) | Seven Elements of Engagement for CPAs | True Advisory Work Isn’t Just Consulting

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Your clients have both personal and business goals. Over time you should assist the client in achieving both business and personal goals.
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