practice-management

Running an Accounting Business

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Ed Mendlowitz CPA The Practice Doctor Q and AQUESTION: I am the managing partner of my accounting firm by default. No one else wanted to do it. I am trying to manage things but I have a full schedule, am shorthanded on staff and continue to do a reasonable amount of marketing. I am overwhelmed. How do others do it?

RESPONSE: I purposely left off the size of the firm because my response applies to every size firm – those with two partners on up to large firms with upward of 50 partners. No matter the size of your practice, it is a business and needs someone dedicated to running it. Smaller firms need less time, possibly less skills and perhaps one of the partners can fill in this role. Larger firms need a person who spends substantially all of their time running the business, but not necessarily a partner. READ MORE →

Ten Things Every Firm Needs to Make Clear Firmwide

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The main categories of information for internal communications and management. By Bruce W. Marcus Professional Services Marketing 3.0 While the substance of information varies from firm to firm, there are 10 categories that cannot go unconsidered:

Partner Retirements and Buyouts: Today’s 24 Major Deal Points

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What 80% of firms agree on.

By Marc Rosenberg
The Rosenberg Survey

If partner compensation is the single most critical and sensitive aspect of CPA firm practice management today, then a close second is partner retirements and buyouts – the money partners receive for the purchase of their ownership in the firm when they retire or leave the firm due to death, disability, withdrawal or expulsion.

The amount of money involved is quite significant.  Roughly 80% of all firms consider the value of the firm to include: READ MORE →

3 Steps to Business Clarity Amid the Sea Change in Accounting

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By Sandi Smith Leyva, CPA
Accountant’s Accelerator

With Labor Day closing in, it’s a good time to take stock of where we stand for the year, plus re-group as needed before the 2014 busy season is upon us.  With so many changes in software, politics, tax laws, and global standards, it’s pretty easy to feel a little disorganized.

More for soloists and small firms:  The Five Essential Skills Accountants Need Today  | The Seven Essential Components of a Simple Marketing Plan for Accountants  | Take Six Big Steps to Go Beyond Compliance Services     |     When Your Business Needs to Be Rebooted  |   Two Steps to Easy Cross-sells   |   The Hot New Tech Product for Automated Data Entry   |   Five Value-Add Service Areas to Take You Beyond Bookkeeping   |   Six Money-Making Strategies to Take You Beyond QuickBooks   |   Proactive Ways to Get More Referrals   |   The Three Biggest Money Leaks in Your Practice   |   New Client Opportunities with Mobile Apps   |   Six Questions to Launch Your Summer Strategy Sessions   |   What Most Accountants Miss in the Five Simple Steps to Get More Clients   |   Accountants, Do You Know Your Opportunity Number? | Five Ideas to Reduce Client Price-Sensitivity | Rise to the Top with a Fresh Elevator Speech | Four Ways to Practice Entrepreneurial Perseverance | 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Seeking New Clients  | The Top 12 Business Card Blunders Accountants Make | Seven Tips to Keep the Clients You Have | How to Attract Clients Like a Magnet | Eleven Easy Ways to Deliver More Value to Clients

Here are three steps to help us take stock of our foundational business goals, re-evaluate our big picture, and get us centered as we enter the next quarter. READ MORE →

27 Tough Questions for Evaluating the Performance of a Managing Partner

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Including: Managing Partner Evaluation Forms, Parts 1 and 2.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Management & Governance

This is really an upward evaluation.  Like all upward evaluations, people evaluating the managing partner should be limited to those in a position to offer informed input.  This means that at firms of fewer than 10 to 15 partners all the partners will probably want to participate.  But once a firm gets beyond 10 to 15 partners, an increasing number of partners may not be in a position to respond to the evaluation factors listed in the form.

More CPA Firm Management & Governance:  18 Things Partners Owe their Firms – And Each Other   |  17 Ways to Measure a Partner  |  How The Structure of an Accounting Firm Changes through the Years    |    Congratulations! Your Firm Needs a Human Resources Director    |    The 19-Point Marketing Director Job Description    |    Checklist: How the Best Managing Partners and Firm Admins Work in Concert     |    21 Questions for Managing the Managing Partner    |    No Partner Vote Needed: 17 Decisions Best Left to the Managing Partner Alone    |    New Rules: 13 Items that Should be in Your Managing Partner’s Job Description    |    When Is It Time to Shift Your Firm from Partnership-style to Corporate-style Governance?    |    Not Every Firm Needs a General Patton    |

Firms with management or executive committees may wish to limit the evaluation to the partners on those committees.

Once you have decided who will be allowed to participate in the evaluation, each partner should complete the evaluation forms.  READ MORE →