CPA Trendlines

Today's Features

Tax and Accounting Priorities Shifting in Turbulent Times

Three actions that firms can take.

By CPA Trendlines Research

A multinational Thomson Reuters survey of tax professionals has found accounting firms shifting their priorities after a year of unexpected developments and before a year of unexpected developments.

That’s a lot of unexpected developments.

MORE: Report: Efficiency Still the Top Priority for Accounting Firms | Is Tech Causing Both CPA Shortage and Low Salaries? | Staffing Tops List of Woes at CPA Firms | Why the Dry Pipeline? It’s About Time | Whole Person Retention: When It’s Not Just the Money | Seven Enticements to Keep Talent On Board | Disruptors: Talent Crisis? What Talent Crisis? | Seven Steps to a Stronger Future
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In 2023, the annual survey saw firms and their clients hunkering down for a year of post-COVID-19 unknowns, a recession that never came, inflation that wouldn’t quit and interest rates that persisted at uncomfortable heights.

This year, it looks like firms are reassessing where they stand and where they are going. Times are turbulent – technologically, economically, politically, environmentally – so recovering from the past and preparing for the future are going to require some changes.
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POLITICS & GOVERNMENT

Imagine! The National Tax Advocate Does

(You may say she’s a dreamer, but she’s not the only one.)

By CPA Trendlines Research

One word keeps popping up in National Tax Advocate Erin M. Collins’s introduction to her annual Objectives Report to Congress.

The word is “imagine,” and Collins’s dream depicts an IRS that is a only bit more feasible than John Lennon’s dream of a world with no countries or religion.

MORE: Art Werner: Maximizing Fringe Benefits | Is the IRS Mismeasuring Phone Service? | IRS Makes Big Progress But … | Business Booming, but Not as Much as Last Year | Busy Season Barometer Offers Clues for Better Business | Tax Practitioners Say Happy Days Are Here … Again | The IRS Is Coming! Get Your Clients into Compliance | End Tax Season Meetings with Clients … Seriously | Brandon Hall: Firms Try to Make Too Much on Tax Prep | Eight Steps to Getting Started with AI: A Guide for Tax Professionals | FTC Nails TurboTax for ‘Free Filing’ Scam
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But you can still sing along …

“Imagine a taxpayer or a representative receiving a text message

… or email referring the taxpayer to their online account,
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MARKETING & SALES

Bissett Bullet: Setting The Agenda

**Today’s Bissett Bullet: “Take control of the first meeting with a potential client by gently setting the agenda at the beginning.”**

By Martin Bissett

Having no agenda means that a meeting can flow in the wrong direction and it may be difficult to steer the conversation back to where you need it to be. There is a real danger that you will leave without getting what you came for. Setting out the agenda in too formal a tone, however, will do you no favors either. A prospective client who is meeting you for the first time may feel on the back foot and the meeting will be closed down before it’s even started.

The word “gently” is key here. Setting out three things you’d like to cover during the meeting and asking your prospective client if that agenda suits them rarely meets any kind of resistance.

Today’s To-Do:

Practice setting out the meeting agenda with a colleague so it feels natural when you gently steer your next prospect toward staying on track.

See more Bissett Bullets here

ACCOUNTING ARC

Regenerative Accounting: Ingrid Edstrom Pioneers a Holistic Approach to Financial Practices

Non-traditional thought leaders discuss innovative strategies for aligning values and professional work.

Accounting ARC
With Donny Shimamoto
Center for Accounting Transformation

Donny Shimamoto, CPA, CITP, CGMA, hosts Ingrid Edstrom and Matthew Heggem, two accountants who are redefining the boundaries of their profession. Their discussion provides a deep dive into innovative approaches to accounting that emphasize social impact, equity, and sustainability.

MORE: Accounting ARC: Decoupling DEIB: A Nuanced Approach with Jina Etienne | Accounting ARC: What Tech-Savvy Accountants Know |Accounting ARC: Where in the World Are You Seeing This? | Accounting ARC:Breaking Barriers – How Becky DuPree’s Love for Data Analytics and Her Identity Shaped Her Professional Path | Accounting ARC: Forecasting Finance & the 2034 Accounting Landscape | Accounting ARC: Top 10 Strategies for Managing Growth | Accounting ARC: Busting the Big 4 Myth | Accounting ARC: Exploring AI’s Role in Modern Accounting | Accounting ARC: Unraveling the Collapse of Silicon Valley Bank | On a Mission: Introducing Accounting, Reaction, Comedy (ARC) | Harper & Co. CPAs: The Perspective of a Non-Accountant is Imperative | Menlo Innovations: Improve Office Culture by Overhauling Internal Reviews | Dustin Wheeler: For Serious CAS Success, Hire Tech Teams | Chase Birky: Overcoming Paralysis By Analysis |

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Edstrom, founder of Priestess of Profits, has transitioned from traditional accounting to business strategy, consulting, and coaching. Her firm focuses on helping accounting professionals shift their limiting beliefs and align their work with their values. Edstrom explains, “I no longer work for a living; I show up in my highest self in service, whether I’m getting paid for it or not.”

PRICING, FEES & BILLING RATES

Five Reasons to Ditch Timesheets for Good

You get what you measure.

By Jody Padar
Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA

When you measure time on timesheets, you are measuring a scarce commodity. There are only so many billable hours in a week.

MORE: Productize Services for Consistent Client Value | Digitize Clients for Standardization | Six Steps to Creating a Standardized Practice | Four Ways Automation Pushes the Paradigm Shift | Are You the Key Signal Caller for Your Clients? | Value Pricing Requires Defining Your Clients | How Value Pricing Impacts Your Employees | 6 Steps to Start Value Pricing | What Are You Selling? | Three Critical Factors Drive the Value Pricing Trend
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By measuring billable hours, you’re living in a world of scarcity. This is bound to affect your firm, both internally and externally.