CPA Trendlines

Today's Features

Give to Receive, and Eight More Ways to Boost Sales

These tips work for referrals, too.

By Sandi Leyva
The Complete Guide to Marketing for Tax & Accounting Firms

Networking is an essential part of building your business.

Whether you network locally, nationally or internationally, there are some tips that are common to all businesses:

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1. Be crystal clear about what you do and how people can use you. Also know exactly who your ideal client is in case you’re asked. If you don’t do this, you’ll leave people scratching their heads about you and they won’t know how to connect with you even if they want to.
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OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

2024 OUTLOOK: ‘Specialization Is the Future’

Audit troubles meet staffing shortages; uh-oh.

By Carrie Steffen
The Rosenberg MAP Survey

EDITOR’S NOTE: Every year, the Rosenberg MAP Survey asks the industry’s top consultants to share their observations from CPA firms across the country. How do you think the next 12 months will unfold? Also, how would you assess the last 12 months?

There are a couple of interesting stories on the horizon. First is the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s crackdown on audit deficiencies and how that will play out vs. a push to ease some of the requirements to become a CPA.

MORE: Remote Work Will See Cuts; PE Will Trickle Down | Three Ways Firms Can Succeed in 2024 | New Energy Comes from New Ways of Doing Business | AI for Accounting Automation Will Be Significant | A 40-Hour Workweek Is Feasible | It’s Time for a New Business Model
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With a perception of the quality of audits declining and the number of CPA candidates dropping, how will the profession reconcile the pressure to improve quality with fewer people to do the work and the proposed solution of lowering the threshold to become a CPA?
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CLIENT ACCOUNTING SERVICES

Accountants Cozy Up to Clients with CAS

Survey respondents tell us what their clients want from CAS that they don’t get from other services.

By CPA Trendlines Research

Accountants are using client accounting services (CAS) to get closer to their clients, according to early results from the CPA Trendlines Outlook 2024: Emerging Issues, Opportunities and Trends survey.

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The survey doesn’t exactly ask about CAS leading to a closer relationship with clients, but responses to various questions indicate just such a result.
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ADVISORY & CONSULTING

Best Practices for Source Doc Permissions and Handling

Four steps to asserting control.

By Penny Breslin
It’s Not Just the Numbers

Permissions are key. In our company only three people have a connection to their local C drive from our managed server. Also, we can track who is logged in, from where, how long and what they accessed.

MORE: Sixteen Guidelines for Naming Conventions | Revisit Your Back Office Support Procedures | Federated Search: What It Is, Why It Matters | Accounting Tech Tools to Minimize Your Pain | Do Your Apps Play Well with Others? | It’s OK to Have Favorite Clients
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If documents are in our cloud storage, the permissions to download them can be turned off. Viewing is done from within the document storage app. Nothing is perfect. They can still take a screenshot but we attempt to keep things as closed as possible while still allowing for work and efficiency.
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MARKETING & SALES

Two Steps Toward Mastering Selling

It’s a new skill. You have to practice.

By Martin Bissett
Business Development on a Budget

If winning new clients is simply a matter of being yourself, why is selling so difficult for accountants? Well, it’s a combination of several factors, but there are two main reasons.

MORE: Rate Your Personal Purpose | Nine Checkpoints Before Every Prospect Meeting | Three Questions about Conversion | Six Keys to Turning Prospects into Clients | Don’t Overlook Internal Communication | Why Firm Culture Matters for Partners | Competence Is Step One of Seven
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First, accountants have not traditionally been required to sell. Maybe your practice has grown by referral – business has come to you and you haven’t had to do much to win that business. Unfortunately, however, business doesn’t always walk through the door; you don’t know how often it will, or what caliber it will be when it does.
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