Make Cybersecurity a Client Service Option

Illustration of computer security threatsCheck your own system first, then help others.

By Penny Breslin
It’s Not Just the Numbers

In 2020, like many businesses, we went remote. My remote team of excellent ladies in Chennai, India, had to go even more remote than they already were. When India shut down, I figured I was out of business. We promise our cybersecurity is job number one to our accounting and financial firms. We have a highly controlled work environment, except for the day care and under 3’s occasionally looking for Mum. I did not think sending our employees home would work.

MORE: How to Safeguard Client Information | How to Create Effective Communication Systems | Set Expectations with an Anticipatory Set | Four Steps for Controlling Source Documents | How to Use OneNote to Create a Firm Playbook | How to Develop Procedures for BOS | Top Tech Tools for Building Your New BOS Business
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But thank the universe, many of our clients had no problem as long as we could figure out the security. They had been working with the same team of ladies. They saw them on Zoom and communicated daily on Slack. So, in 48 hours we went through an internal change to allow that to happen.
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Cancer Vaccine Available by 2030?

Imagine a world without cancer. Is it possible?

By Rick Richardson
Technology This Week

A ground-breaking group of new vaccines for a variety of illnesses, including cancer, might save millions of lives, according to researchers. A major pharmaceutical company expressed confidence that vaccines for ailments including cancer, cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases, as well as others, will be available by the end of this decade.

MORE TECH THIS WEEK:  ChatGPT: What It Is. Why You Need to Know. | Russia-linked Ransomware Back with a Vengeance | Amazon AWS: The Mainframe Killer? | Amazon Launching Its First Internet Satellites | Russian SolarWinds Hackers at It Again | NASA Finds a $10 Quintillion Asteroid | Firms Must Balance Benefits, Risks of Emerging Technology | Microsoft and Google Go to War
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Studies into these vaccinations are also “very promising,” according to some researchers, who claim that the COVID-19 jab’s success has “unspooled” 15 years’ worth of development in just 12 to 18 months.

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How the Pandemic Changed Firm Mindsets

Businesspeople having a meeting over coffee sitting together at a table discussing a document, young man and two middle-aged women presentTake mindful advantage.

By Hitendra Patil
Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide

Coronavirus caught the entire world totally unprepared for its aftermath. The impact on economies is unfathomable. Accounting firms are not immune to this unprecedented situation. The deadly pandemic led to “working for home” a requirement for accounting firms. The alternative was a risk to life itself.

MORE: Twelve Clues It’s Time to Outsource or Offshore | Matching Your Tech to Your CAS Clients | Six Steps to Spreading CAS Awareness | Hook Your Firm on CAS | Can You Identify Real CAS Prospects? | 8 Ways to Create Your CAS Practice | Do You Value Your CAS Value?
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Firms scrambled to make technological arrangements to make remote working possible. It was a systemic shock to the decades of operating models of accounting firms. But over about four to six months into the pandemic, several firms recognized that it is possible to achieve good results by remote working.
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Outlook 2023: The Unstoppable Forces behind M&A

Is it the pot size or the players?

By Gary Adamson

The people challenges will intensify with firms looking more to offshoring and beefing up their campus recruiting efforts to chase fewer graduates. Remote work is here to stay – the focus will be on doing it better in terms of work management and people expectations/management.

MORE: OUTLOOK 2023: Top Five Trends | OUTLOOK 2023: Compensation Gets Creative | OUTLOOK 2023: The Office Is Over | 2023 OUTLOOK: Private Equity Comes for Accounting Firms
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Firms will be evaluating how to “keep our culture” in the face of a remote work environment or perhaps the question is what does our new culture look like. M&A is off to the races with pent-up demand because of COVID-19 and the private equity money entering the market. The people portion of the deal will be more important than the client portion.
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The Office Is Over

road in grassland

Plus a worrying note on salaries.

By Marc Rosenberg
The Rosenberg MAP Survey: National Study of CPA Firm Statistics

Every year, we ask 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? And how would you assess the last 12 months?

MORE: OUTLOOK: Private Equity Comes for Accounting Firms
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Here are my thoughts regarding 2023:

  1. Firms will continue to struggle with all facets of remote work. Firms will never get back to working in the office as a norm, not because of COVID-19, but because their people – especially partners – don’t want to work in the office full-time.

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The Great Resignation or a Reshuffling?

How many in-person days make sense for your firm… and who decides?

By Steven E. Sacks

The concept of “quiet quitting” is now mainstream thought. Summer 2022 is over, and with it, for many companies and their workers, their remote work arrangements.

MORE: Four Accountability Steps for Firm Success | How to Build a Standout Team | Five Keys to Becoming a High-Performing Firm | Assessing Your Firm | The 4 Traits of Great CPA Leaders | Why Leaders Must Ensure Clarity | Incremental Vs. Exceptional Success
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Many recognizable companies have sought to get back to some normality. Some want workers to return to the office full-time, some have asked for a two- to three-day in-office arrangement, and some have viewed remote work as successful and see no reason to change anything for the foreseeable future.

Workers will not easily accept these changes.

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Yes, You Have the Staffing for CAS

number 5 drawn in sandFive ways to make it easier.

By Hitendra Patil
Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide

When we asked firms what is stopping you from offering client accounting services, their top response was that they don’t have the staffing.

MORE: Six Steps to Spreading CAS Awareness | Finding Profits in CAS | CAS Is an Upgrade Pitch | Why You Can Be a Virtual CFO | Clients’ New Expectations | What CAS Is and Isn’t
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The #1 CAS killer that emerged from the CAS survey results is, unfortunately, also the most misconceived perception. It is a myth.
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