Consulting

Most Tax and Accounting Firms Are Relying on Pay Raises in a Losing Battle for Talent

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Hiring in the management consulting sector slows, but remains positive. Tax & accounting sector shrinks workforce.

By CPA Trendlines Research

The professional services industry is accelerating a quiet but consequential reshaping toward higher-end advisory services and away from low-end compliance work.

ASK CPA Trendlines A.I.: Where do accountants go when they quit?

Consulting firms have added more than 27,000 jobs over the past 12 months, pushing total headcount to 1.56 million. In contrast, the accounting, bookkeeping, and payroll sector remains stuck near 1.155 million employees, a plateau that has persisted for much of the past three years, according to a new analysis by CPA Trendlines Research.

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Five Ways Your CAS Practice Traps You

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Know the pitfalls … and how to avoid them.

By W. Michael Hsu, CPA

Are you working tirelessly but not seeing the benefits and results you deserve? Essentially, do you feel trapped in the cycle of your business? If so, you’re not alone.

MORE: Review Your CAS: When, What, How | Be Serious About AI, Not Amused | How to Offer Proof to CAS Prospects | How to Market CAS to Existing Clients | 12 CAS Profitability Killers | How Weekly CAS Reports Help Businesses | CAS: Much More than Bookkeeping
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Many firm owners, as well as the entrepreneurs they serve, feel exhausted by their business, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

In this article, we’ll identify common signs that your business is trapping you, and show you how to optimize for freedom. By addressing these issues and implementing some simple strategies, you can reduce stress, achieve more and live a life you love.

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O.D. Lanier: Stepping into Advisory

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Transformation Talks: A leader at one of the fastest growing firms in the country describes transforming his career, pros and cons of building versus buying and the four (or five) steps to becoming a consulting firm.

 


Transformation Talks
With Bill Penczak
Center for Accounting Transformation

Center for Accounting Transformation

How does an accounting expert journey from audit and Big Four to starting his own firm and becoming a consultant? Odysseus (O.D.) Lanier, a founding partner of one of the fastest growing firms in the country, describes his start, why he left “boring” auditing (but why it is critical experience), as well as what he sees as pros and cons in building a consulting firm versus buying a consulting firm.

MORE on McConnell Jones: Five Global CPA Leaders: Four Survival Strategies

MORE VIDEOS & PODCASTS:  Why Doing Nothing Is Not an Option | Blake Oliver: Why Tax Work Yearns To Be Free| Private Equity Explodes in U.K. | Brannon Poe: The Status Quo Must Go  |  Accounting Nerds, Unlock Your Super Powers  | Private Equity vs. the CPA Firm Partnership The FinTech Flood: Accounting Will Never Be the Same  |  Think Small to Think Big with Matt Wilkinson | Your Sales Tax Headaches Are Only Just Beginning | When Financial Statements Go Extinct with Corey Schmidt  |  Can Geraldine Carter Save Accountants from Themselves? |  Re-Inventing Accounting with Tyler Anderson |  Turning Client Service into New Revenue

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Why are CPAs moving from tax and audit to get into consulting? Lanier said the bottom line is that consulting is lower risk with a higher margin.

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Why Accountants Fail at Consulting

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Couple meeting with investment advisor.The move requires commitment and resources.

By Gary Bolinger

Most all CPAs in public practice talk about transitioning away from traditional compliance services to offer more advisory services.

MORE: Advisory vs. Low-Value Clients | What + Who Leads Firms to Better Service | How Accountants Are Profiting in Disruption | Ask the Right Question(s) | Seven Elements of Engagement for CPAs | True Advisory Work Isn’t Just Consulting
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When I have talked to firms in the past few years and I ask about percent of total firm revenues in A&A, tax and advisory, the percentage for A&A and tax constitutes a significant majority of total fees. But advisory alone is usually 10 percent or less.

Even then, those advisory consulting fees are generally closely tied to some aspect of compliance. So, I’m not sure that I would really say that’s advisory. So, with all the talk – for maybe the last 20 years – about the need to grow advisory revenues, why are the revenues so low in relation to compliance services?
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How to Offer Second Opinions

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Two people sitting across from each other at a deskIt’s an old service under a new consultant label.

By Ed Mendlowitz
The CPA Trendlines Practice Doctor

Second opinions are just that – an outside look at a client’s business or personal situation.

MORE ON MARKETING: Offering Elder Care Assurance Services | How to Counsel on Retirement Planning | Investment Clubs and How to Counsel Them | Offering Second Marriage Assistance | What You Need to Start a Financial Planning Discussion | Tax Projections: How and Why
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We used to call them second opinions and promoted them as such. We no longer do that, but offer this as a separate and distinct service or product such as we do for performance measurement services. We feel that the difference is how the service is marketed, not how it is performed for the client.
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