CPA Trendlines

Today's Features

Automation Is Key to CAS

It’s about the best way to serve your clients.

By Hitendra Patil
Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide

Q: What are some common challenges or obstacles that arise when providing client accounting services, and how can I overcome them?

MORE CAS Q&A: How to Get Clients to Adopt CAAS Tech | There Are Only Three Growth Strategies | How Much Advice Should Your Firm Provide? | CAS Marketing Is Different. Here’s How
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A: The only challenge/obstacle that matters when providing CAS is clients not experiencing differentiated value from your CAS offering. Everything you do in your CAS practice is to ensure you don’t face this challenge.
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POLITICS & GOVERNMENT

IRS: Let the Sun Shine In … and Out

We need clear answers, not just an info dump.

By CPA Trendlines Research

Could the Internal Revenue Service be a little more transparent?

MORE: SURVEY: Busy Season Looking Good | IRS Has Big Plans for Its $80 Billion | Can’t IRS Tax Pro Accounts Do More? | Hello? IRS? Anybody Home? | Taxpayer Assistance Centers Need Upgrade | At the IRS, Short on Staff Means Short on Service
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National Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins thinks so, and her reasons go beyond mere functionality.
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MARKETING & SALES

Business Won’t Come to You

A proactive approach is where many fall short.

By Martin Bissett
Business Development on a Budget

Have you noticed all of those titles in the local bookstore or at the airport offering us the “key” to this and the “key” to that, the “six keys” to one thing, and the “four keys” to another?

MORE: Where Is Your Next Money Coming From? | Forged in Fire: The Pains of Leadership | A Lesson in Customer Service and Reputation | Prioritize Your Prospects | Good Enough Is Not Enough
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It also seems that every book is a “game-changer” now, to the point where it is difficult to understand what the game is anymore, never mind how to play it.
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OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

SURVEY: Busy Season Looking Good

**How’s your busy season so far?** Some 59% report better than last year, with 18% calling it “Much Better.”

Join the survey. Get the results.

Some are raising fees and trimming unprofitable clients.

By CPA Trendlines Research

As we get close to the end of the tax season, tax pros are telling us that for the first time in years, things are going pretty well.

MORE: IRS Has Big Plans for Its $80 Billion | Can’t IRS Tax Pro Accounts Do More? | On Business Outlook, CPAs Are Confident … and Concerned | Tax Pros Offer Advice for Small Businesses | Busy Season Barometer Finds Many CPAs in Transition | More CPAs See Worsening Economy | Has Early Tax Season Optimism Peaked?
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According to the late-March stats of the CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer, with data streaming in from over 500 practitioners across the country, a heady 18 percent say this year is much better than last year, and another 41 percent acknowledge that this year is at least somewhat better.
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CHARTS & GRAPHS

Average Tax Refunds Down 10%

Returns by tax pros are one of the only positives.

By Beth Bellor
CPA Trendlines Research

The average tax refund is down 10 percent, but it’s just part of a pattern. Virtually every piece of data the Internal Revenue Service reports weekly is in the red.

MORE: IRS Has Big Plans for Its $80 Billion | Tax Pro E-filings Up 3% | Pros Handle 45% of Income Tax Returns | Can’t IRS Tax Pro Accounts Do More? | Hello? IRS? Anybody Home? | Taxpayer Assistance Centers Need Upgrade
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The agency has received 90.1 million individual income tax returns as of March 31, the latest information available, down 1.3 percent from the same period in 2022. It has processed 89.7 million returns, up 0.4 percent.
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ADVISORY & CONSULTING

Three Ways to Run a Break-Even Analysis

How to tell what the profit should be.

By Ed Mendlowitz
77 Ways to Wow!

Break-even analysis is a budgetary process designed to tell you how much sales are needed to break even, and how much you will make or lose if you exceed or fall short of this “break-even” sales amount. Properly used, it can become a very potent tool.

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In a break-even analysis, all costs and expenses must be separated into “fixed” and “variable” categories. Designations such as “Costs of Goods Sold,” “Selling” or “General and Administrative” are irrelevant.
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Chase Birky: Overcoming Paralysis by Analysis

Be the author of your own story and chart a path not subject to the control and opinions of others.

^ Click to play video | > Play the podcast and follow CPA Trendlines Podcasts on Apple Podcasts here or grab the RSS feed here.

Transformation Talks
With Bill Penczak
Center for Accounting Transformation

Entrepreneurs in the accounting profession are rare, according to Chase Birky, president and CEO of Dark Horse CPAs. And he should know.

He had to take an uncomfortable step outside of his own comfort zone to become one.

MORE: Secret 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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After starting out in audit at a Big 4 right out of college, he decided it was no longer what he wanted to do.

“I started an audit specifically, you know, not really having a great idea of what audit truly was, you know, because you take the courses in your undergrad, and you know, you have a section of it on the CPA exam,” Birky explained. “But what that material is versus what the job is, you know, are two very different things.”

POLITICS & GOVERNMENT

IRS Has Big Plans for Its $80 Billion

The CBO projects $180 billion more in revenues.

By CPA Trendlines Research

The IRS has revealed its Strategic Operating Plan for FY2023-2031, the period when the service will expend the $80 billion infusion granted by the Inflation Reduction Act.

MORE: Can’t IRS Tax Pro Accounts Do More? | Hello? IRS? Anybody Home? | Taxpayer Assistance Centers Need Upgrade | At the IRS, Short on Staff Means Short on Service | Why the IRS Is Still Doing Data Entry By Hand | News on IRS Is Maybe Sort of a Little Bit Good
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The SOP is big, but is it big in the right places?
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ADVISORY & CONSULTING

Six Ways CAS Grows Revenue

BONUS: Results of a professionwide survey.

By Hitendra Patil
Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide

The cloud makes it possible – no, it makes it inevitable – for smart business owners to focus on their core business and let professional accountants take care of accounting, including transactional work (to be done accurately).

MORE: Get Sticky with CAS | The Why Behind Your CAS Why | Who Is the Professional?
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This new possibility gives rise to CAS opportunities for accountants to work in collaboration with business owners in real time.
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CHECKLIST

How Do Firm Leaders Learn?

The four essential pillars for continuous learning

By W. Michael Hsu, CPA

As a firm leader, you know that you need new software, services, processes, and tactics…something that is going to take your firm to the next level. But how do You get there?

MORE W. MICHAEL HSU: Seven Principles to Work Less and Achieve More | How Do Firm Leaders Learn? | Why Your Approach to CAS and CFO Services Is Wrong | When it Comes to Pricing, it’s About ‘Can’t Afford Not To’ | Your Client Base Is Global |

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The tools and processes you use to get you to the next level have to come from or are signed off by You. So, who is teaching you? If you took the leap into a new service area and don’t know where you will land, you can’t turn to staff. They are looking to You for the answers.

PRO Member Exclusive

Adobe Announces “Creator-Friendly” Generative AI Tools

How can AI overcome copyright infringement issues?

By Rick Richardson
Technology This Week

Adobe has unveiled Firefly, a new suite of generative AI tools it hopes will encourage more design professionals to embrace rather than fear this cutting-edge technology.

Why it matters. As generative AI has swept the globe, artists have had difficulty adapting to it. While some view it as a useful tool, others see it as a threat to jobs and a kind of thievery.

(Wait, where have we heard that before?)

MORE TECH THIS WEEK: ChatGPT: What It Is. Why You Need to Know. | Russia-linked Ransomware Back with a Vengeance | Amazon AWS: The Mainframe Killer? | Amazon Launching Its First Internet Satellites | Russian SolarWinds Hackers at It Again | NASA Finds a $10 Quintillion Asteroid | Firms Must Balance Benefits, Risks of Emerging Technology | Microsoft and Google Go to War
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Adobe wants to address two obstacles that are preventing business usage of the technology with Firefly: worries about copyright issues and the absence of professional-grade tools.

PRO Member Exclusive

Waiting to Exhale (i.e., Can April 19 Hurry Up?)

Make the days leading up to the tax deadline less stressful with these apps.

By Beth Ziesenis
App of the Week

If you’re reading this, then you’re probably not surprised April is Stress Awareness Month. It was created to bring attention to the effects of stress and so we can all collaborate on ways to find relief.

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SEE ALL: Apps of the Week here |
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While stress can manifest itself in a variety of ways, there are a few that are most common.

“Stress that’s left unchecked can contribute to many health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and diabetes,” according to MayoClinic.org.

Well, app lovers rejoice because tech is available that’s designed to help you pay attention to your most valuable asset: you.

PRO Member Exclusive

Ten Steps to a New Managing Partner

How to execute a smooth, graceful transition.

By August J. Aquila
What Makes a Great Partnership

One of the most difficult events that a firm faces is the transition of power from one managing partner to another, especially when it’s the first time. Knowing when to pass the baton and how to pass it are critical decisions every firm will have to make.

MORE: Five Ways to Keep Your Edge as a Leader | Five Reasons That Leaders Fail | Eleven Things Partners Must Do | Seven Keys to Becoming an Equity Partner | How to Achieve Partner Unity | The Seven Building Blocks of a Great Partnership
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The most important thing you can do at this point is to plan, plan and plan some more for the transition. The sooner you lay out your plan, the easier it will be for you to achieve it.
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