Today's Features
MARKETING & SALES

Five Practice Building Basics Revealed

two men standing and shaking hands

Plus a quick quiz about your marketing.

By August Aquila
MAX: Maximize Productivity, Profitability and Client Retention

Some firms go from one marketing activity to another without much success. The firms that are successful do the basics very well. Like any athlete in spring training, accountants and consultants need to practice the basics of building their practices.

MORE by August J. Aquila
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

 

Here are the basics:

  1. Creating opportunities to meet people

READ MORE →

MANAGEMENT

Why MAP Programs Are Worth Your Time

woman speaking to handheld microphone in room full of people

There’s more than CPE to consider.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Call Me Before You Do Anything: The Art of Accounting

I attend Management of Accounting Practice (MAP) CPE programs. In many instances these do not qualify toward the mandatory CPE requirements. Who cares?

MORE by Ed Mendlowitz
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

 

I go because I want to make more money, work more effectively, service clients better, excite and retain staff, and have more fun doing what I love to do and have to do anyway.
READ MORE →

ADVISORY & CONSULTING

Oz Demirdoven: Why U.S. Firms Lag the World in Advisory | The Disruptors

Success breeds complacency – and obsolescence.

Sponsored by True Advisor: The Definitive Success Guide for Client Advisory Services by Hitendra Patil

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS.
True Advisor: Buy now | Learn more

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Success, long the defining strength of U.S. accounting firms, is fast becoming their most dangerous liability, according to Oz Demirdovan, a PKF executive with a global portfolio.

Flush with steady profits, deep client rosters, and decades of compliance-driven demand, many firms see little reason to change—just as the ground beneath them shifts, Demirdovan tells Liz Farr in this episode of The Disruptors.

MORE DISRUPTORS: Candy Bellau: The $350 Pricing Mistake that Nearly Broke this Boutique Firm | The Disruptors | Poe: What P.E. Really Wants from Firms | The Disruptors  | Blake Oliver: Build a Biz that Runs Without You | Daiber: Use Succession as a Growth Strategy | Cannon: Busy Season is Self-Inflicted | Carroll: When One Person Can Break the Firm | Rampe: Build a Roadmap Even When the Road’s Not There | Chang: Killing SALY, One Agent at a Time |

MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network

The paradox is stark: the very stability that built the profession now insulates it from the urgency to adapt, leaving some of its most successful players at greatest risk of falling behind.

Demirdoven has worked in accounting worldwide, spending more than five years at Allinial Global. From his perspective, the most striking difference between accounting in the U.S. and the rest of the world isn’t just our complex regulatory environment.

“The biggest difference isn’t only regulation, it is mindsets,” he explains. “I would say, in North America, especially in the United States, firms are still very compliance anchored.”   READ MORE →

CLIENT ACCOUNTING SERVICES

CAS Tech Gap Widens as Firms Race Toward Real-Time Advisory

Download the full report

New report finds outdated systems are limiting insight, slowing workflows, and putting firms at a competitive disadvantage.

By CPA Trendlines

Accounting firms that fail to modernize their technology stacks risk losing ground as client accounting services shift rapidly toward real-time advisory, according to a new report from Ace Cloud Hosting and CPA Trendlines.

Download the full report here

The report finds that outdated, spreadsheet-heavy workflows and disconnected systems are no longer just inefficient—they are actively limiting firms’ ability to deliver insight, manage risk, and compete in advisory services.

“Technology is no longer an IT decision. It is a strategic one,” the report states.

Advisory Demands Real-Time Data

The sharpest divide is emerging around data speed. While compliance work can still run on monthly or quarterly cycles, advisory services depend on continuous data. Firms relying on delayed reporting are producing outdated insights, weakening decision-making and client value.

READ MORE →

PRICING, FEES & BILLING RATES

Price By What You’re Worth

Disruptive? We’re OK with that.

By Jody Padar
Radical Pricing  – By The Radical CPA

The familiar is always more comfortable than something new. Shifting your pricing model is bound to be disruptive because the billable hour is what we know and have always known. It is the default billing model of every new firm. It’s comfortable, familiar, embedded in our DNA and seems like the easiest billing solution.

Certainly, there are some pros to billing by the hour. Profits remain relatively stable. If you work 40 hours, you know you’re going to bill and hopefully be paid for those 40 hours. There’s a clarity and certainty to it. But there are only so many hours in a week. By embracing the billable hour, you’re putting a profit ceiling on your firm.

READ MORE →