tech

New Energy Comes from New Ways of Doing Business

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two women having business discussion in front of laptop; wall of windows in background

One idea: a client service coordinator.

By Tamera Loerzel
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?

While everyone is cautiously watching the economy, client needs and demand for accounting and advisory services continues to increase. Firms have to figure out how to run their practices differently to be available to do more with clients, help them solve problems, and make the shifts they need to make, too.

MORE: Outsourcing, Remote Work Will Help Firms Grow Capacity, Revenue | ‘Great Shakeup’ in CPA Firms on the Way | PE, Consolidations to Keep Impacting Accounting Profession | Soft Skills Are Front and Center | It’s Time for a New Business Model
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While 2023 busy seasons may have been “better,” a lingering fatigue continues. Firm leaders who are focused on new ways of doing business, staffing and serving clients will find relief and the ability to focus on important initiatives in their firms. And empower young partners and managers to try new things and lead change initiatives. They can see what’s possible and will make it happen.
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Five Things That Clients Don’t Know about Accountants

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number 5 drawn in sand

We have to remember to offer this information.

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

I’m pretty sure that I am not the only accountant who has made the following mistakes with clients. Here are a couple of ideas to help us remember what we know that the client doesn’t and why it costs us when we forget.

MORE: Are Your Revenue Projections Realistic? | Make Your Prospect Kit Stand Out | Six Ways to Beat the Competition | Grow Your Revenue with Three Marketing Strategies | What Can ChatGPT Do for Accounting Professionals? | Generative AI: Should You Avoid It or Adopt It? | Want Better Clients? Here’s How | Get Your Name in the News | Four Ways Small Firms Can Beat Large Ones
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1. Clients do not know how to evaluate our technical skills.

If you need to hire an accountant, chances are you don’t know a lot about accounting. It just follows that you’re not going to be perfect at hiring an accountant. As accountants, we need to remember that it’s not our technical prowess that gets us the job because the client has no way of evaluating that piece.
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AI for Accounting Automation Will Be Significant

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Cybersecurity remains a concern.

By Roman Kepczyk
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?

Positive Optimism: Barring an even larger international political crisis in the next 12 months, the opportunities within the accounting profession for firms both providing traditional compliance services and those that have expanded into advisory practices will simply be phenomenal! From a technology perspective, the evolution of artificial intelligence capabilities within accounting applications for process automation will be the most significant trend and while there will be a lot of early hype, good solutions will be able to prove themselves out fairly quickly.

MORE: Private Equity Leading to Corporate-style CPA Firms | PE, Consolidations to Keep Impacting Accounting Profession | A 40-Hour Workweek Is Feasible | Five Ways Staff Shortages Are Changing Firms Forever | Soft Skills Are Front and Center | It’s Time for a New Business Model | Rosenberg MAP: Partner Incomes Surge 11.4%
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Watch for what Microsoft does with Copilot and integrated virtual assistance within Excel, Outlook, their Edge Browser and, in particular, Microsoft Teams. Then start watching what individual accounting profession applications start integrating virtual assistance tools for tax research and projections, audit work program assistance, and use of tools to acquire and analyze accounting data and reporting, and the breadth of practical opportunities will start to unfold.
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Five Ways to Wow Your Clients

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chocolate chip cookies in white plate with red cup coffee

Sometimes it truly is the thought that counts.

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

You don’t have to be the Ritz-Carlton or Mercedes to provide your customer with a great experience.

Just a little forethought and planning will make a huge difference.

MORE: Six Strategies to Make More without Working More | Six Ways to Beat the Competition | Grow Your Revenue with Three Marketing Strategies | What Can ChatGPT Do for Accounting Professionals? | Generative AI: Should You Avoid It or Adopt It? | Want Better Clients? Here’s How | Get Your Name in the News
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Here are five tips for your consideration:

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How AI Works in Plain English

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Check out these three reads to understand AI and how to leverage it for business.
 
By Rick Richardson
Technology This Week

Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke once said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Yet artificial intelligence isn’t magic, and you don’t need to be a computer scientist to understand how ChatGPT works.

MORE: New Tech Could Let EVs Go 3,0000 Miles on a Single Charge | Major Websites Blocking Content from AI Crawlers | What Is an HEIC File? | Bill Gates Behind Next-Generation Nuclear Plant | Electronic Skin That Can Sense Touch Will Transform Robotics | Four of Today’s New Technologies That Will Be Tomorrow’s ‘Norm’
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If it hasn’t already, AI will soon be present in your home and business. Ideally, you should be ready.
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Karen Reyburn: Fix Your Marketing and Fix Your Business

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Not MORE Clients, BETTER Clients.

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music and Audible, Player FM, Audacy, Gaana (India), and Boomplay (Africa).

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Karen Reyburn wants accountants to stop thinking “about marketing as this one-off thing where you tick little boxes,” but instead about the ways you can use your marketing to connect to the human experience. Her company, The Profitable Firm, or PF for short, has been helping accountants with their marketing since 2012.

MORE PODCASTS and VIDEOS: Giles Pearson: Fix the Staffing Crisis by Swapping Experience for Education | Jina Etienne: Practice Fearless Inclusion | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Sandra Wiley: Staffing Problem? Check Your Culture | Scott Scarano: First, Grow People. Then Firm Growth Can Follow | Jody Padar: Build a Practice that Works for You, Not Vice-Versa | Ira Rosenbloom: With M&A, Nobody Wants a Fixer-Upper | Peter Margaritis: The Power Skills Every Accountant Needs | Joe Montgomery: Find the Sweet Spot of the Right Clients, Right Services and Right Prices | Marie Green: Your Bad Apples Are Ruining You | Megan Genest Tarnow: Hire for Curiosity Rather Than Compliance | Clayton Oates: One Way to Keep Clients for Life |

Learn More

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Her new book, The Accountant Marketer: The Structured Approach Any Accountant Can Follow to Attract Clients They Love, provides a step-by-step process for understanding the unique characteristics of their firm and how to connect that uniqueness with their best clients.

In Reyburn’s view, marketing is closely connected to the business. “If you have a marketing problem, you have a business problem. If you have a business problem, there’s often a marketing solution that can help with it.”

This book springs out of a PF coaching group called The Accelerator, where participants were guided through a process of creating a structured approach to content marketing that made their marketing better. Reyburn and PF take a collaborative approach to marketing. “We don’t do marketing for people,” she explained. “We do marketing with them.”

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Major Websites Blocking Content from AI Crawlers

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Amazon, Quora and Indeed are three major websites that prohibit ChatGPT’s bot.

By Rick Richardson
Technology This Week

According to recent data from content detector Originality.AI, nearly 20 percent of the top 1000 websites in the world are restricting crawler bots that collect web data for AI services.

MORE: What Is an HEIC File? | AI + MRI = Diseases That Doctors Might Miss | Your Boarding Pass Could Onboard Hackers | ChatGPT Passes CPA Exam on Second Try | Cyber Insurance Costs Rise in Health Care as Attacks Soar | Adobe Announces “Creator-Friendly” Generative AI Tools
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Big and small websites are taking matters into their own hands because there are no clear legal or regulatory guidelines limiting AI’s usage of intellectual information.

Early in August, OpenAI unveiled its GPTBot crawler, claiming that the information obtained “might improve future models,” assuring that paywalled content will be omitted and providing instructions on how to block the crawler on websites. READ MORE →