CPA Trendlines

Today's Features

Rubik Yeriazarian: Smaller Firms Offer Big Opportunities for Rapid Skill Development in Forensic Accounting | Accounting ARC

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Accounting ARC
With Donny Shimamoto.
Center for Accounting Transformation

For many accounting professionals, the Big Four firms represent the pinnacle of success—a destination for those with high aspirations. But for Rubik Yeriazarian, CPA, CFE, CFF, they were just the beginning. Specializing in forensic accounting, Yeriazarian knew from his college days that this was the path he wanted to follow. “Back when I was in college, Big Four were the only firms that offered forensic accounting,” he recalls. “I knew that was my ticket in.”

MORE ACCOUNTING ARC

At the Big Four, Yeriazarian was exposed to complex forensic cases that shaped his career. He learned the ropes in an environment that offered vast resources and support, but something was missing. “You have a lot of support at a Big Four, but I felt like I needed more hands-on experience,” Yeriazarian says. This realization led him to a boutique firm—a move that many of his peers questioned.

CLIENT ACCOUNTING SERVICES

CAS Can Play a Critical Role in Clients’ Vendor Selection

The needed skills are already part of the accountant’s skill set; they just need to be applied outside of the finance function.

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

Historically, vendor selection has been primarily driven by operations or IT teams. However, recent research by the Chief Executive Group for the CFO Leadership Council shows that Finance Teams play a critical role in vendor selection. Forward-thinking CAS teams should take a cue from these Finance Teams and broaden their service offerings to help clients be more successful.

MORE Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA | MORE CAS | MORE CFO Services

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How Finance Teams Support Vendor Selection

As shown in Figure 1 below, more than 7 of 10 Finance Teams are involved in the final selection of vendors and products. Many people often see Finance’s involvement as just the final stamp of approval, but the research clearly shows that Finance Teams are involved throughout the purchasing process.

GROWTH STRATEGIES

Ingrid Edstrom: True Wealth Is Not Financial | The Disruptors

Work-life balance means integrating work and life so that the work we choose to do expresses who we want to be in the world.

This is a preview. The complete 1-hour video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members.

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The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Ingrid Edstrom wants accounting to be not just a more sustainable profession but one that’s regenerative. “This idea of sustainability is really operating from the idea that things can continue to perpetuate as they are,” she explains. A firm may be financially sustainable, “but at what cost to our families, to our personal health?”

MORE PODCASTS and VIDEOS: Caleb Jenkins: Firm Growth Requires Owners to Shift Roles | Chris Hervochon: Be the Leader You Want to Work For | Ira Rosenbloom: Don’t Merge for the Money | Adam Lean: Get Out of the Accountant’s Trap | Geraldine Carter: Charging More is Better for Your Clients | Vimal Bava: When Working Smarter, Not Harder, Is the Only Option | Dawn Brolin Says Grow Your Firm by Shrinking It | Jason Blumer & Julie Shipp: Move Leaders Out of Client Service | James Graham: Drop the Billable Hour and You’ll Bill More | Karen Reyburn: Fix Your Marketing and Fix Your Business | Giles Pearson: Fix the Staffing Crisis by Swapping Experience for Education | Jina Etienne: Practice Fearless Inclusion | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Sandra Wiley: Staffing Problem? Check Your Culture | Scott Scarano: First, Grow People. Then Firm Growth Can Follow |

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The regenerative approach recognizes “that we’ve already passed a threshold of harm that needs to be healed,” Edstrom says. “Regenerative accounting is starting to reframe those ideas around ‘What does it look like to go about business in a different way that is truly life-supporting for all peoples and our planet, rather than being extractive of our planet and exploitative of our peoples?'”

MARKETING & SALES

Four Reasons Accountants Struggle with Selling

Reframe your thinking.

By Martin Bissett
Business Development on a Budget

Let’s take a look at the last 20-plus years of my experience and my research as to where new clients come from in an accounting practice. I don’t think there are going to be too many shocks here.

MORE: Think of It as Service, not Selling | Eight Questions for Personal Preparation | How to Prepare for Partnership | Stop Waiting for Business to Come to You | Are You Projecting Confidence? | Do You Deliver on Your Website’s Promises? | Showing Leadership through Customer Service | Firm Not Thriving? Five Fixes | The Real Math Behind the Sales Pipeline | Five Questions for Grading Prospects | Be Clear About Your ROI Proposition | Don’t Let Recurring Fees Kill Your Practice | Two Steps Toward Mastering Selling | Nine Checkpoints Before Every Prospect Meeting
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What I’ve found is that 82 percent of all new clients in a given year who come into an accounting firm come in from a referral source. This may be a bank or a lawyer or some other source, perhaps an existing client, who has recommended that a particular business meet with your firm and come on board as a client.
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PRO Member Exclusive

New Warehouse Robot Could Revolutionize Efficiency

Mytra’s innovative system lessens the need for forklifts, maximizes storage space and automates heavy-lifting tasks.

By Rick Richardson
Technology This Week

The warehouses of the world are surprisingly empty spaces. There’s a lot of material in these vital nodes of the complex global commodities of our transportation system, but there’s also a lot of vacant space on the floor between their racks. The space is there to make room for the forklift, the workhorse of the warehouse, which must have room to maneuver when lifting and carrying pallets loaded with hundreds or thousands of pounds of merchandise. A forklift needs plenty of space and a professional driver to do a mundane but dangerous task.

MORE: New Pacemaker Powered by Light, No Batteries | Microsoft Patents an Encryption System to Block Visual Hacking | Recently Discovered Antibiotic Spares ’Good’ Bacteria | Is NASA About to Make Air Travel Cheaper? | Startup Creates Legolike Brick That Can Store Air Pollution | AI Displacing More Jobs in Banking Than Other Sectors | Your Brain Can Store 10 Times More Than Anyone Thought | How Many EV Charging Stations Will We Need? | Google Launches New Private Space Feature | Microsoft Discovers a Security Flaw Impacting Android Apps | What Is an AI PC, and Should I Get One? | Fool’s Gold May Not Be So Foolish Now | AI-Engineered Enzyme Could Be Solution to Plastic Pollution
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A new robotics firm recognizes an improved approach to warehouse management. Mytra, a company created by former employees of Tesla and Rivian, wants to automate and combine warehouse activities by using a robot and a storage rack system to improve the efficiency of product movement. This could also make the forklift obsolete.