management Archives - Page 4 of 47

Management Styles: Partnership vs. Corporate

January 4, 2016

BONUS CHECKLIST: 25 best practices for managing partners.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Retreats

In firm management and governance, we find two distinct management styles: partnership vs. corporate.

Partnership style. Democracy heavily impacts the way partnerships are governed. In a democracy, every partner has a vote and there is a “majority rules” mentality. A system of checks and balances prevents leaders from becoming dictators. The “citizens” want a reasonable amount of input into decisions.

MORE ON RETREATS: 30 Marketing and Growth Questions to Cover at a Retreat | How Marketing for CPA Firms Is Different | Why Create a Marketing Plan? | Thinking of Merging? Discuss It At a Retreat | How to Take Action After a Retreat | 12 Simple Rules for a Retreat | Leave Your Retreat With a To Do List | Every Retreat Needs a Leader, But Who? | Retreats Are No Place for Clowns | Who Should Participate in a Retreat? | Retreat Logistics: How Long, What Kind? | What Should CPA Firms Discuss at Retreats? | Why Do CPA Firms Conduct Retreats?

In a partnership style, partners have “certain inalienable rights” like:
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Be Happy with Your Tax Practice

January 1, 2016

By Edward Mendlowitz

Or target the source of your discontentment.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Tax Season Opportunity Guide

Successful people are happy with their practices and what they do and get joy from interacting and helping clients. I know a lot of accountants who continuously complain about tax season – yet they make most of their money during the period.

MORE ON TAX SEASON: 10 Questions Every Reviewer Should Be Able to Answer | 16 Qualities of a Good Tax Season Client | 8 Ways to Delight Tax Season Clients | Small Tax Season Leaks Can Cause Great Damage | 5 Ways Thorough Beats Sloppy In Tax Season | Here’s Your New Tax Season Marketing Plan | 5 Personal Touches for Tax Season | 11 Clear Client Instructions to Make Your Tax Season Easier

Do they expect someone to knock on their door with a wheelbarrow of money to hand them? If they are financially secure, why do they keep working? If they are not, then, DUH! Either do it or find something else, but stop complaining. Better yet, look at all the benefits from what you do (if you need me to tell you the benefits then find something else to do).
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10 Questions Every Reviewer Should Be Able to Answer

December 14, 2015

By Edward Mendlowitz

BONUS CHECKLIST: The answers!

By Ed Mendlowitz
Tax Season Opportunity Guide

The primary people who should review tax returns are trained tax department reviewers. However, often the bunching and compression of work shifts some of the review to higher level, non-tax personnel such as audit managers and partners who might not necessarily have the comprehensive training, background and experience to handle everything that might come up during the tax preparation process.

MORE ON TAX SEASON: 16 Qualities of a Good Tax Season Client | 8 Ways to Delight Tax Season Clients | Small Tax Season Leaks Can Cause Great Damage | 5 Ways Thorough Beats Sloppy In Tax Season | Here’s Your New Tax Season Marketing Plan | When ‘Quick and Easy’ Tax Season Research Isn’t | 5 Personal Touches for Tax Season | Consistency Simplifies Tax Season | 11 Clear Client Instructions to Make Your Tax Season Easier | 3 Ways to Build a Tax Season Team | Have Fun This Tax Season | How to Get Paid Faster This Tax Season

Additionally, in many firms, almost everyone on the staff prepares some returns. That lack of dedicated preparers with the trained skills places an added burden on the tax reviewers, making it important for them to have the range of experience needed to perform the review.

Following are 10 questions reviewers should be able to answer to qualify for their role.

16 Qualities of a Good Tax Season Client

December 4, 2015

By Edward Mendlowitz

We need each other. Make the relationship a good one.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Tax Season Opportunity Guide

Clients are our customers who pay our salaries and present us with stimulating opportunities allowing us to grow.

MORE ON TAX SEASON: 8 Ways to Delight Tax Season Clients | Small Tax Season Leaks Can Cause Great Damage | 5 Ways Thorough Beats Sloppy In Tax Season | When ‘Quick and Easy’ Tax Season Research Isn’t

There is no such thing as a bad or nuisance client – although there are clients who sometimes do bad or nuisance things.
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8 Ways to Delight Tax Season Clients

November 27, 2015

By Edward Mendlowitz

Do you make them feel important?

By Ed Mendlowitz
Tax Season Opportunity Guide

Clients are our customers. They pay our salary and enable us to make good livings. Do what you can to accommodate them and make them feel important – as important as they believe they are.

MORE ON TAX SEASON: Small Tax Season Leaks Can Cause Great Damage | 5 Ways Thorough Beats Sloppy In Tax Season | Here’s Your New Tax Season Marketing Plan | 5 Personal Touches for Tax Season | 11 Clear Client Instructions to Make Your Tax Season Easier | How to Get Paid Faster This Tax Season

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Also be user-friendly – do not make it difficult to work with you. Clients don’t know how smart we are. They think we are great, but they measure us by the small things – the good and bad.
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Small Tax Season Leaks Can Cause Great Damage

November 20, 2015

By Edward Mendlowitz

BONUS CHECKLIST: 5 key points to keep in mind.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Tax Season Opportunity Guide

Some people are micromanagers and anal with details. Others are big-picture managers, letting details take care of themselves. Neither is completely effective and both disciplines need to be balanced.

MORE ON TAX SEASON: 5 Ways Thorough Beats Sloppy In Tax Season | Here’s Your New Tax Season Marketing Plan | When ‘Quick and Easy’ Tax Season Research Isn’t | 5 Personal Touches for Tax Season | Consistency Simplifies Tax Season | 11 Clear Client Instructions to Make Your Tax Season Easier | 3 Ways to Build a Tax Season Team | Have Fun This Tax Season | How to Get Paid Faster This Tax Season

There is a time for details and a time for big-picture thinking. When setting up procedures and processes it is essential that all details be considered and planned for. Once the process is set up, there should be brief but continuous monitoring. And then the big-picture thinking should take over – that is where you will make your money.

But you can’t get to the big picture ever if you are always immersed in the details. Not setting up methods right at the beginning – or permitting a lack of adherence to them – will thwart any chance of growth and the success you can achieve.

5 Ways Thorough Beats Sloppy In Tax Season

November 13, 2015

By Edward Mendlowitz

Make sure your staff feel the same way.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Tax Season Opportunity Guide

Don’t be sloppy instead of thorough.

All work has to be reviewed. And clients and others look at it.

Sloppy work is always evident and usually incomplete. Thorough work is careful and usually complete.

MORE ON TAX SEASON: Here’s Your New Tax Season Marketing Plan | When ‘Quick and Easy’ Tax Season Research Isn’t | 5 Personal Touches for Tax Season | Consistency Simplifies Tax Season | 11 Clear Client Instructions to Make Your Tax Season Easier | 3 Ways to Build a Tax Season Team | How to Get Paid Faster This Tax Season

Thorough work takes longer when first being worked on, but review time is drastically reduced. Further sloppy work takes longer to be reviewed and longer for the preparer to be acclimated with the file when picking it up to make changes.

11 Steps to Building a Better Partnership Team

October 11, 2015

By August J. Aquila

Creating a firm where all the partners work in unison.

By August Aquila
Creating the Effective Partnership

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Your vision is a journey to some place in the future. It’s not where you are today. It may even take generations to get there. It becomes even more compelling when it’s somewhere your people want to go.

While it’s the ultimate destination that people engage with, the journey there is also important. If the end point is exciting and has benefits that your people share, they will be more engaged in the journey. And, when partners are engaged with the firm’s future, they perform better.

MORE on LEADERSHIP: Why Your Firm Should Be a Republic | 5 Questions About Your Firm’s Direction | 6 Reasons to Keep Partners from Retiring | 6 Reasons Why CPA Firms Fail in Innovation | 6 Steps to Handle Staffing Problems in a Merger | 7 Signs Your Firm Is Headed for an Implosion | It’s Not Always about Money: 16 Tweaks for Your Comp System | Eight Key Goal Areas for Partners | Like Herding Cats: Partners Must ‘Walk Together’ | Managing Partners Must Remember Partners’ Needs | New Times Call for New CPA Firm Metrics | Partners Have Love-Hate Relationship with Leadership | 6 Things Leaders Must Do | 8 Financial Ducks to Line Up Now| Partnership Is About Persuasion

So, how do you create a firm where all of the partners work to create an even better firm?

Here are 11 ideas: