CPA Trendlines Podcasts (CPA Trendlines)

What makes a cannabusiness successful? 

CPA Trendlines catches up with Jim Marty and Cory Parnell of Bridge West CPAs and Consultants at MJBizCon Next all about the latest trends in the cannabis industry. 

Citrin Cooperman takes on the cannabis niche.

Liz Gold catches up with them at their booth at the MJBizCon Next in New Orleans about why they took the plunge and how the calls keep coming.

Rich Wortmann is proud of his cannabis clients. And he's leading the way in Pennsylvania, helping clients navigate tax, banking, and other complicated business issues.

His word of advice for them? Hire a CPA at the beginning.

Liz Gold caught up with Rich at MJBizCon Next in New Orleans to talk about his growing cannabis practice.

Startup ERP platform for cannabis companies offers six 6 modules on a Microsoft backbone.

With Liz Gold
http://CannaBizCPA.Pro at https://CPATrendlines.com

Alex Glueckler began his career as an accountant at CliftonLarsonAllen.

After years in financial leadership positions with large cannabis companies, today he works with Silver Leaf CBC (Cannabis Business Central), an ERP software solution he helped bring to market for the cannabis industry.

Required of clients: a legal bank account or detailed cash logs.

With Liz Gold

http://cannabizcpa.pro | https://cpatrendlines.com

A proponent of marijuana since college, Laura Durham, CPA, went into private industry after a stint at Arthur Andersen. She worked at a beef company, a software company and later at a manufacturing company.

It was during this time the course of her life changed. Recently divorced, with primary custody of two children, she found herself overwhelmed by the demands of full-time corporate life. So, when a consultant colleague asked her if she’d consider going out on her own to help cannabusinesses in need, Durham gave it some thought and decided to go for it, launching Kind Accounting out of her home in Loveland, Colorado.

Read More -->

In a tsunami of institutional investors flooding the market, Karnes sees opportunity. 

By 2022, Matthew Karnes, CPA, said he expects every state in the country will have implemented either a medical-only or a fully legal cannabis market to reach $35 billion in retail sales. Karnes is founder of GreenWave Consultants, one of the industry's leading Wall Street analysts.

With Liz Gold

http://www.CannaBizCPA.Pro at https://cpatrendlines.com More: https://cpatrendlines.com/2019/06/15/the-cannabis-cpa-podcast-matt-karnes-greenwave-consultants/

Keeping Cannabiz Clients in Compliance.

New accounting technology is part of the package.

With Liz Gold
http://CannaBizCPA.Pro at https://cpatrendlines.com

When Cristina Garza launched her cannabis accounting and payroll company, CannaComply, back in 2014, she wanted to make sure she understood the nuances and complexities of the industry. She did her homework.

Robinson targets fast-growing business sectors facing common problems.

With Liz Gold

http://www.CannaBizCPA.Pro at https//cpatrendlines.com

For Sean Robinson, CPA, MBA, and founder of Tebaja Consulting LLC, his company is helping him answer a calling.

Robinson spent a decade at Citigroup in various roles. During that time, he always had a fondness for his first role, which was managing several teams that supported and expedited the financial close process for private equity funds and venture capital investors.

Green Bits: Helping Cannabis Retailers Stay Compliant

With Liz Gold

cannabizcpa.pro at cpatrendlines.com

After selling his former company, Outright, to GoDaddy in 2012, Ben Curren stayed at the company for a year and then started considering what he would do next. After listening to cannabis-related news and realizing the inventory problems that were emerging due to compliance, Curren got excited to tackle some of the issues plaguing many cannabis dispensaries. 

As a result, he jumped into the cannabis industry, leveraging his skills and background as an engineer at QuickBooks to create a new technology to help legal cannabis retailers stay compliant.

Founded in 2014, headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with another office in Portland, Ore., Green Bits serves more than 1,000 cannabis retailers across 13 states and processes more than $2.7 billion in sales annually through its point-of-sale platform.

By Liz Gold

CannaBizCPA.PRO

A strong network in cannabis, staying up-to-date on all the moving parts of legislation and reading constantly keeps Zach Gordon, CPA well-informed as co-practice leader of Janover LLC’s Cannabis Industry Practice Group. He’s also the chair of the New York State Society of CPAs’ Cannabis Industry Committee and planning the upcoming NYSSCPA’s 2019 Cannabis Conference in conjunction with the Foundation for Accounting Education. He’s taken on these leadership roles as a senior manager in a firm that he’s been at for less than a year.

Katye Maxson-Landis: “I have my ethics attorney on speed dial.”

With Liz Gold

cannabizcpa.pro

Tax season turns into 'advisory season,' and a whole new niche is born.

By CPA Trendlines Research

Gabrielle Luoma, long one of the profession's leading innovators, says the future under COVID-19 belongs to the quick and the smart, in this exclusive video interview with CPA Trendlines.

Firms will need to deploy new services to attract new clients who may have not realized that they needed a firm like yours but now do.

In this conversation, Luoma talks about what's going on in the business, what's going on with tax season, and what the future holds for CPA firms and the clients of CPA firms.

Speaking from her base in Tucson, Ariz., the CEO of MOD Ventures is bringing some of her DNA to regional powerhouse Beach Fleischman through a joint venture. We start by asking abut "when it got real?"

She responds, "We truly are affected by the whole world. We have clients in New York.  Things changed for them rather quickly. And when they started changing, we started realizing, 'Oh, my goodness, we're going to have to really buckle down.' In Arizona, we started seeing shutdowns mid-March. That's when things really got real for us because then we started seeing that the businesses that we work with on a regular basis – we're outsourced accounting, so we work with clients weekly, – we knew that we could be in trouble. We started working really hard on transitioning, and seeing what we needed to do to help our clients quickly."

CPA firms are ill-prepared for the new era of virtual, work-from-home partners and staff, according to Bill Reeb, a leading CPA firm practice consultant, in this conversation with CPA Trendlines contributor Steven Sacks.

Management at all levels will need to adapt, Reeb says, requiring new processes and procedures.  But more than anything, it requires new metrics of productivity. And, most of all, new habits.

After a painful, wrenching re-positioning, Reeb says, firms will emerge stronger, more agile, and more profitable than they were before.

Sacks covers a lot of ground with Reeb, including:

We have a lot of fictitious mechanisms we use as tools to manage.

You can’t get away with what you’ve been doing to manage people in a remote-work environment.
We really don’t know how to manage output from our staff in normal times.

And it will be more difficult in this era of remote working.
Management at all levels will need to adapt.

It requires new processes and procedures.

But more than anything, it requires new metrics of productivity.

And, most of all, new habits.

To build the right habits, we'll need the right systems.

Systems to create single accountability, with one partner designated as responsible for each staffer.

Firms are trying to move toward a more corporate model.

Leadership is not clear when it communicates expectations.

Firms need to cut the marginal workers and focus on the clients that really matter.

Firms and staff need to address the fundamentals of blocking and tackling and listen to what the different generations in the firm have to say.

If you want to run a good organization, you have to do the basic stuff.

This is an opportunity for firms to take the hard decisions they may have been putting off
They’ll be jettisoning marginal clients.

And they should be looking at picking up some good talent.

The influx of new talent will allow firms the running room to eliminate some lagging personnel.

The result will be a marked shift from the matrix-management model.

To a more corporate, top-down, command-and-control management.
With more accountability at every level.

And firms will emerge stronger, more agile, and more profitable than they were before.

With Steven Sacks

 

The NEW Fundamentals

 

Armed with the latest technologies, accountants can do more than ever – faster, better, and cheaper.

 

But too many accountants are missing the biggest opportunity that technology creates, according to Judy Trepeck, long a leading figure in the profession.

 

In her conversation with Steven Sacks, Trepeck, currently senior vice president for customized training at the Michigan state CPA society, outlines how CPAs can go beyond basic accounting to provide more value-added services. It requires experience, talent, ambition, and, maybe most of all, intuition.

 

Trepeck provides a framework for any accountant to ad advisory services to their menu of offerings.

And you only have one chance to get it right.

 

 

Rick Telberg: Hi, I'm here today with Steve Nelson, CPA of Nelson CPA, managing member. You probably know him best because he's sold five million or more copies of QuickBooks For Dummies. Steve, thanks for joining us today.

 

Steve Nelson: Thanks, Rick.

 

Rick Telberg: The first question is, let's talk about PPP loan forgiveness. What are the surprises?

 

Steve Nelson: One of the big surprises is that as compared to the way we help our clients do the tax accounting for a return, PPP is going to be much more working and require much more precision. A lot of the things that we, and our clients, have gotten used to, and some of the imprecision, that's just not going to be there for the PPP loan application. There's a single accounting period, not multiple accounting periods. It's going to be one application, not something you can amend. 100% of any mistakes you make are going to impact forgiveness, so that's a very, very different type of accounting that we're going to need to do.

 

Rick Telberg: You said people should stop worrying about the forgiveness. Why is that?

 

Steve Nelson: Yes, that's been a real surprise in this program, I think. With the PPP Flexibility Act, Congress created some safe harbors that let people probably wriggle out of losing forgiveness. The other thing is, is that this program was, originally, set up and suited to deal with eight weeks of payroll and a little bit extra for some other things like rent and utilities.

 

When they changed the rules and allow a 24-week window, it means that you might not need to worry about forgiveness due to something like a reduction in headcount. It would be not uncommon to cut half of your employees and yet still have more than enough payroll cost to receive almost total forgiveness. That's going to be a surprise, but it's an important thing for businesses is to stay alert to, and our clients to stay alert to, so that people make it through this pandemic.

 

Boy, I think this is going to be much more like applying for a mortgage application when you're a self-employed person, and the bank maybe doesn't trust you, in terms of the substantiation, or it's going to be dealing with an IRS correspondence audit where you don't just give them a number, but you give them a number and then you back it up with lots and lots of documentation. That's going to be something that is going to surprise many small business PPP borrowers. And it's going to overwhelm a number of those folks, I'm afraid.

 

Rick Telberg: Are we looking at a year-around busy season for the next two years?

 

Steve Nelson: That's an interesting thought. This year we've had the first half of the year the tax season. We're going to have a PPP loan forgiveness application season this year, I think we're going to have an extension season this year. Definitely, this year feels that way. I think our revenues and billing have looked that way. We stalled briefly, when that first nursing home had all the infection, but other than that, we've been very, very solid. Gosh, it's easy to believe that if we have a lot of activity next year, it could look the same way. I hadn't thought of that, but that's a real possibility, I suppose.

Creating Customized Client Experiences in the Covid Age, with Eileen Kennedy [in only 30-minutes]



Eileen J. Kennedy, CEO of The Kennedy Factor, demonstrates how to create a consistent, exceptional, customized, and memorable client experience in the Age of the Coronavirus.


You can thrive for years to come – if you take the Covid Crisis as a call to reinvent your practice.


You already have two essential factors in your favor:

1) PPP loans showed your clients you play a critical role in their business, and

2) Clients need help to achieve a full recovery for future survival and long-term growth.

But, you may need to change your mindset and the way you run your practice.

In this fast-paced session, you'll learn how to:

√ Wow! Your clients and gain more referrals.

√ Leverage client feedback to fuel growth.

√ Analyze each client for their needs and potential.

√ Ask the three questions that reveal hidden needs and desires.

√ Implement client retention best practices.

√ Build a plan and set it on auto-pilot.

√ Reveal the "family trees" of new opportunities.

√ Run a client meeting for maximum effect.

√ Grade clients into Silver, Gold, and Platinum categories.

Steven Sacks, author of The NEW Fundamentals, interviews David Bergstein, who says a perfect storm of emerging technologies, a competitive shakeout in accounting, and COVID-fueled change is creating a new range of challenges for accounting firms.

The good news is: There are more opportunities than challenges. But You need to move fast. The window of opportunity won't last forever.

"The world is changing," says Bergstein, now chief innovation officer of Brookstone CPA, based in Margate, Fla. Before launching Brookstone, Bergstein was most recently as "cloud evangelist" for Intuit.

"CPAs are leaning more and more into technology to do what I'll call the back-office work. So advisory services are coming to the forefront."

Pointedly, Bergstein notes that non-CPA firms are challenging the CPA business by taking advantage of the newest technologies and offering advisory services.

"People are calling themselves business coaches, business managers, strategic advisors. There's no licensure required to do that. What those people are doing is utilizing the technology to put the books together. They're not offering audited financial statements."

COVID-19 is putting new pressure on CPA firms to close merger deals, even if it means taking a haircut in the selling price, says Robert Fligel, the legendary New York-based CPA firm mergers-and-acquisitions dealmaker, in a new CPA Trendlines Flash Briefing.

In this replay of the live web event, a fast-paced 30-minute webinar update, Fligel covers:

The Current State of the M&A Market,

Best Practices for Sellers, and

Pitfalls for Buyers and Sellers

Join Rick Telberg and Hitendra Patil for this informative CAS Webinar, "Success Factors in the Age of Covid".

Listen in as Adam Batchelor and John Higgins discuss the tectonic shift in the CPE business - PICPA acquiring CPA Crossings, LLC - with Rick Telberg for CPA Trendlines.

David Bergstein, CPA, CITP, CGMA, is a leader in tax and accounting technology issues, and a sought-after speaker, writer, and practitioner.

David has been in the accounting industry for many years and has been a practicing accountant since 1966. While at the IRS he held various positions, including agent, trainer, speaker and technical chief.

He received his CPA and a Masters in Taxation from Long Island University’s CW Post College. He was an accounting professor at Suffolk County Community College in New York for more than 15 years. He blogs on technology and new ideas in the global information industry, and has a strong Twitter following.

He helps CPAs understand the true power of Intuit’s offerings that allow them to become strategic advisors to their clients and increase their revenues and niche specialties. In 2011, he was the recipient of the ”On the Edge” Innovation Award from the Leading Edge Alliance, which recognizes industry leaders for their vision and significant contributions to the accounting profession.

Steve Sacks interviews Jack Shaw about the 101 of Blockchain for Business for CPA Trendlines. The Blockchain Basics for Business podcast discusses the elements of the technology, its early beginnings, the industries impacted, and the practical business applications. It is part one of a two-part series. The second part will cover the applicability of blockchain as it relates to accounting and finance.

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM BLOCKCHAIN FOR BUSINESS WEBCAST

 

 Bitcoin is only an application of Blockchain which is the platform

 

 Decentralized nodes eliminate the possibility of hacking

 

 Blockchain has many business uses in the financial, insurance, media, medical, consumer and supply chain

 

 Industries impacted by blockchain include energy, entertainment, manufacturing and transportation

 

 Blockchain stores records such as identities, ownership of assets, business transactions and contractual commitments Jack Shaw is an innovation and change management consultant, who has been voted one of the world’s top 25 speakers and one of the top 5 technology futurists.

 

Jack integrates his executive experience in Industry, technology, and consulting to speak on Innovation, Change Management, and Transformational Leadership. And, he has decades of experience designing, developing, and implementing emerging technologies and how these will impact business and society. Jack has advised key decision-makers at such Fortune 500 organizations as Mercedes Benz, Bosch, GE, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, IBM, Oracle, and SAP.

 

Jack has delivered over 1,000 keynote presentations and executive forums in 26 countries and every state across the U.S. He is a Yale University graduate, and holds a Kellogg MBA degree specializing in Finance and Marketing. Jack’s expertise is in the strategic impact of leading-edge technologies, including Blockchain technology, 5G, the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence. He can be reached at https://jackshaw.io/jacks-story/

With Matt Solomon for CPA Trendlines

Bill Carroll, CEO of Hoops HR, reveals the three keys to smart hiring for accounting firms, in this conversation with Matt Solomon.

"We look at retention in really three key areas," Carroll says. "It's security for that person. A lot of that has to do with income, but a lot of that has to do with how they're treated internally as a person. How does the organization engage in conflict? How do they solve a conflict? Is there ultimately a resolution? There's a security aspect to that, and pay is just a portion of that."

"Care is another," Carroll adds. "Security plus care. We look at care as benefits packages or access to benefit packages. Then there's retirement and perks, which should really be aligned with your core values."

The third element is appreciation. "Appreciation will ultimately lead to retention. We all know that experiences drive beliefs, beliefs drive behaviors, and behaviors drive results."

 

 

 

 

Matt Solomon: Hello, everybody. Matt Solomon here, CEO of the Center for Enlightened Business. It is my honor, my deep pleasure and privilege to introduce everybody to Bill Carroll, the founder and CEO of Hoops HR. Bill and his team are on a mission to revolutionize the way that companies hire, and I can attest to the fact that they are absolutely doing that. Bill, welcome, man. Great to have you here and thanks for spending time with us today.

 

Bill Carroll: Hey, thanks for having, Matt. Excited to be here and spend a few minutes with you.

 

Matt: Me too, it's a privilege. I know you have a lot of knowledge and information, especially as it comes to hiring. Here's the deal. I want to start off with the question, for most people hiring, it's an art and a science that they just can't seem to manage, that they can't seem to get right. What do you see as the common pitfalls, the common mistakes or challenges that people are doing in the hiring process? What are they missing, Bill?

 

Bill: I think what we see the most, and it makes sense, we work with a lot of organizations that are sub 200 employees, typically entrepreneur-led, and hiring is a second thought as opposed to a more proactive. I would say one of the biggest pitfalls we see is moving too fast through the process and not taking their time to really understand the kind of candidate they're looking for, how does that candidate align with their culture? Not only just the job responsibilities, but all of the other intangibles that that candidate needs to bring and then really be thoughtful through that process to determine the right fit.

 

Matt: I love that. We've made some mishires in our past and it's amazing. Sometimes, there's top performers that are just totally the wrong cultural fit. It's so hard to make a move like that, but the cultural side of it is so important. The other side of it is we've had people who were great cultural fits that just couldn't do the job and finding the balance of those two things is always a challenge. Certainly, the business can't move forward when those things are not perfectly in alignment, so I love that. Could you tell me, Bill, what are the great misconceptions around hiring? What do you see people are coming to the table with that maybe information that's not accurate or practices that are not accurate for hiring top-down?

 

Bill: The one that we see the most is that the person with the skill is the person I should hire when really, we need to look at it in a more holistic view. Skill is absolutely important. Even intelligence, IQ is the other piece of it, but then there's this whole other side of the equation that encompasses leadership and just interaction with people and cultural fit and all of those intangibles. We put those into what we call the EQ bucket, the emotional, intelligence bucket. Having a well-rounded ideal candidate profile really helps organizations understand and get the right person the first time, because it's extremely expensive.

 

As you know and I've experienced, we've all experienced it, it's extremely expensive to not get the right hire. What I would tell you is on the other side, when we see a lot of transitioning out of employees, it's never because they weren't smart enough and it's rarely because they didn't have the right skill or the right words on their resumes. It was typically because they didn't handle internal conflict well, they weren't aligned with the cultural values and for some reason, it just didn't click. That's what we continue to hear on the transitioning side. We want to make sure we solve that and account for that on the front side.

 

Matt: I love it. It's so easy, especially I think in the accounting industry to look at IQ to see, "Does this person have the skills?" Obviously, it's important that they can do the job, but I think so many people miss the EQ, the emotional intelligence. I love that you speak to that. It's such an intangible thing, it's probably pretty hard to measure, I would imagine. When you can nail that too, then you have the holistic solution, somebody who can do the job, but also be in the job and be part of the team at the next level. I love that.

 

Bill: What I would tell you is it is hard to measure, it is hard to glean. What we work with our clients on is understanding who within your organization can start to dissect and understand that within a person. We are big proponents of multiple people in the interviews. I'll tell you for myself, they won't let me in an interview [laughs] because I'm so excited about the business that I ultimately ended up selling the candidate on why they should go to work with us. Having people that understand and see different things, just different perspectives, really helps with that interview process. It's important.

 

Matt: Thanks to your support. We've been bringing in additional people to our interviews and we're catching things that I never would have caught myself when I was doing the process alone for the last couple of years. I love that. I think it's perfectly right on. Everybody does bring something else to the table. Bill, we're also dealing with a lot of uncertainty. We're dealing with a work environment that has just been disrupted in a lot of ways. COVID has rocked the world, there's a lot more remote workers out there. What are you seeing as a result of that in terms of hiring, in terms of working? What's up?

 

Bill: It's an environment like we've never seen before. Organizations are having to move in different directions, especially on the technology front. Many organizations have made significant investments in the virtual and meeting online and the Zoom meetings and all of those things. The technology is now in place to do even online interviews and video interviews and things along those lines. It's also opened up the opportunity to recruit from all over the United States or Canada, or all over the world, candidly, and really get the best people, the right fit. When I say the right fit, it's everything that we just talked about, not only the IQ skills and an EQ for your business.

 

They're out there and it can really change the economic impact of your organization as well. It's obviously a little bit less expensive to go to certain states and get high levels of talent as opposed to going to maybe New York or California or one of the higher priced areas. It's really just opened up the flood gates for opportunity for employers right now. I'll tell you, the top people that are out there, we talk to them all the time. We play on both sides of the equation. We are actually recruiting people away from organizations and they're looking for organizations that are moving in this direction.

 

They've grown accustomed to being at home, in being able to go to the soccer practice at 5:30 as opposed to sitting in traffic for an hour. The opportunity for them, they're a lot more open to learning about those opportunities as well.

 

Matt: We have headquarters in New York, we have offices in California. We've been hiring people all over the country now. What's really nice about it is we're getting a discount on top talent. We're also able to pay people more than they would be if they were just staying in their state work, and so it's a win-win. The other side of it is that they have a quality of life now that they've never had before. We're getting some of the happiest people that have ever worked with us. We know that the dogs are going to bark in the background like everybody knows now because of COVID, and we know that they're going to need to duck out and pick up their kids or do something, whatever it is.

It's been an incredible environment for us. It's been amazing to not only get a discount on top talent, but to give a quality of life to somebody that we didn't have before.

 

Bill: It's fantastic. That's fantastic.

 

Matt: I want to understand, when you do find the right person, when you do find somebody with the right IQ, with the right EQ, they're good cultural fits, they have the skills, their values are deeply aligned with yours, what's the key to retaining those people? How do you actually hold on and keep top talent? I know it's one of the largest over the last 20 years, every accounting report I've ever seen, the issue is about retaining top talent. What are the secrets? Is there a piece of gold that you can give us before we leave?

 

Bill: Yes, absolutely. We look at retention in really three key areas. It's security for that person. A lot of that has to do with income, but a lot of that has to do with how they're treated internally as a person. How does the organization engage in conflict? How do they solve conflict? Is there ultimately resolution? There's a security aspect to that, and pay is just a portion of that. Honestly, you have to be competitive in your pay. That's the one thing.

 

Care is another, security plus care. We look at care as benefit packages or access to benefit packages. Even if the employer is not able to maybe pay as much or kick in what they ultimately like to, at least, there's an offering there. That really goes to, yes, it's an offering, but it also speaks to, again, this security side of it that the employer is, "They care about me and my family and my well-being." Then there's retirement and perks and what we throw into all the perks. Those are great and you see a lot of organizations that, "Hey, lunch every Friday," or whatever it is. The perks, those should really be aligned with your core values.

If you're not a partying company, you're not a partying person, but a lot like you, Matt, you're about meaningful, purposeful relationships, the perks associated with your business are going to look very, very different than a Facebook or Google or any of those places. It's really security, care, and appreciation will ultimately leave lead to retention of those folks. I would just kind of wrap it all up in what we call an experience. What is your overall talent experience? As you know, there's ton of research out there on this and we all know that experiences drive beliefs, beliefs drive behaviors, and behaviors drive results.

 

Starting on that lowest level of taking an account for what your overall talent experience looks like, not just from your point of view because you think it's good, put yourself in the employee's point of view and look at it from their side. We had one of our customers look at the experience around their health insurance, for example, and it wasn't very good. They couldn't read and so they would go to the doctor, it was a high copay. Then they get this benefit thing in the mail and they're walking through this as one of their employees and realizing, "Wow, we need to add additional help and support around this particular program."

 

It may not just be the program. It may be the support that you offer your employees around those programs that makes all the difference in the world.

Rethinking Workflows in a Work-from-Home World, featuring Ian Vacin, Karbon co-founder, with Matt Solomon, CEO of The Center for Enlightened Business, for CPA Trendlines.

Richard Rothstein and Frank Stitely discuss How COVID Changes Recruiting, for CPA Trendlines.

 

In this video, Richard Rothstein (Founder of Rothstein Consulting, CMO of Clarity Practice Management) interviews Frank Stitely (Managing Partner of Stitely & Karstetter, CEO of Clarity Practice Management) about how Frank’s firm has handled recruiting accountants in a competitive environment before and during a pandemic.

 

Stitely & Karstetter has a unique compensation plan that allows staff to work towards their own goals for revenue instead of relying on a straight salary.

 

The firm also has a long history of remote work for its employees which Clarity’s Practice Management software has made even easier and widespread. Frank also had some interesting ideas about where you find good talent.

 

He networks constantly with others in the field to know if they are looking for work and a good fit for his firm.

 

Definitely some great thoughts and tips about how recruiting looks for accounting firms.

CPAs and finance leaders have to start asking some really painful questions like, according to Gary Cokins, an internationally recognized expert in performance management, in this interview with Steven Sacks for CPA Trendlines.

Questions like:

• Do we know where we make or lose money, reasonably accurately?
• Do our managers understand the strategy? The executives?
• Are we measuring the right things?

KEY TAKEAWAYS
 There is confusion, a lack of consensus about what Enterprise Performance Management and Corporate Performance Management is. Many think both are a process and a system. They are actually the integration of multiple methods.
 An effective EPM and CPM method depends on good high-quality source data that needs to produce facts and cannot just depend on opinion.
 EPM is much broader than a CFO initiative. It's all about giving CFOs better information so they can have the insights to make better decisions. It is for any type of organization in any type of industry.
 Three major issues in operations: strategy, execution, failure, flawed measures of costs and profit of products, service lines and customers. It's all about aligning the behavior of the employees and managers with the strategy of the executives.
 Activity-based costing is just standard that is basically full absorption costing done correctly. This is management accounting information. With external reporting, if the numbers are wrong, you go to jail. Management accounting, you get the numbers wrong, you don't go to jail.
 When people are defining key performance indicators, they need to use a technique called correlation. You can look at a KPI and how it goes up or down and its impact on the next KPI that it influences. If it's poor correlation, it means that is it not a particularly good KPI.
 EPM and CPM can be applied to customer or client profitability. Consider high maintenance customers; always changing schedule; never buying standard, always special. Always calling the help desk. Always returning goods. Low maintenance customers are preferable because they only buy standard. Never changed schedule. Never call help desk. Never return goods. If those two customers bought the same volume, same mix, same price, they're not equally profitable. Because the high maintenance one is really, really eroding a lot of work.
 For CPA firms, they have to look at their clients, their revenues, and their billable hours. And basically, if they use activity-based costing principles, they're all based on work activities. It differentiates what causes high client profit high, very profitable client from low profit clients.
 Activity-based costing is necessary to get the true cost of products, service lines, etc. When it comes to strategy, execution, leaders have to understand the strategy. It is important to get measures. That's where the KPIs come into play. You get what you measure. If you can't measure it, you can't manage it. If you can't manage it, you can't improve it.
 The impact on robotic process automation and artificial intelligence on the CPA profession, will eliminate a lot of jobs, and not just in the area of audit, but also transactional areas like payroll clerks, invoicing and purchase orders.
 Everyone should go to the YouTube video: “Humans Need Not Apply." The audit is not just sampling, because through AI, it’s going to be 100%.



Gary Cokins is an internationally recognized expert, speaker, and author in enterprise and corporate performance management improvement methods and business analytics. He is the founder of Analytics-Based Performance Management, an advisory firm located in Cary, North Carolina at www.garycokins.com . Gary received a BS degree with honors in Industrial Engineering/Operations Research from Cornell University in 1971. He received his MBA with honors from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in 1974.

Staffing, Recruiting and Retention for the COVID Age.

With Richard Rothstein

Click here for more by Richard Rothstein

Steven Braunstein, managing partner of Snyder Cohn in North Bethesda, Md., talks about the impact of COVID on staff recruiting and retention -- including virtual "Lunch with Steve" sessions.

 

Braunstein describes the culture at the 100-year-old, 80-person firm and how that makes a difference in recruiting.

 

Snyder Cohn has also implemented some interesting ideas to promote retention during the pandemic that go beyond work life like “Lunch with Steve” and having more virtual time together through shared lunches.

 

 

Transcript

 

Richard Rothstein 0:10

Hi, there, this is Richard Rothstein and I am talking to Steven Steen of Snyder Cohn, in Bethesda, Maryland. And we're gonna be talking again a little bit about how his firm has handled recruiting this year and this crazy year, both before and after COVID. So, Steven, how you doing?

 

I'm doing great. Thanks for having me, Richard.

 

So if you could start out by telling, how were you handling recruiting accounts pre COVID?

 

Steven Braunstein 0:46

Sure, pre COVID there were multiple different avenues where we would recruit accountants. We work with agencies, I mean, that's always been something that we always talk to them, sometimes they can get some candidates that we're not getting, we would talk with different referral sources that we work with lawyers, bankers, investment advisors, and always just ask them, we're always looking for good people if you know someone. So we did a little bit of that. We did some work on LinkedIn with our HR person. And we had a handful of college campuses where we recruited entry level accountants from so all of those things were done in the pre COVID world.

 

Richard Rothstein 1:48

Are there any referral sources in particular that you found to be helpful?

 

Steven Braunstein 1:53

Over time, I would say, No, but because I think it just kind of depends, you know, does somebody know someone who's looking? So we were doing that. The other thing we did, but we didn't have great results, is offering an incentive for employees if they knew someone, we we did some of that over the years, and but not as much as I would have liked.

 

Richard Rothstein 2:26

The next step to that is once you find the people is, how you how you make competitive offers. So, what what were you doing to make sure that Snyder Cohn was as a competitive opportunity for people to consider?

 

Steven Braunstein 2:45

So I think we're always looking at different salary surveys to make sure that we're aligned on salary trends. But we also like, we feel strongly about our culture. And we think we have a good culture we had, for years, we've had a flexible work environment where we allow some people to work remotely, work remotely part of the time work, remotely all of the time. So we have always had that, and we think that's important. We always had a number of people who were part time, because some people with small children may not have that the full time 40 hours a week available. So that was a cultural thing. I think that the family friendly environment that we had, is people felt that when they would interview with us, that coupled with what we felt was a a competitive starting salary with, the traditional benefits health insurance 401k match. We felt that we were able to stay competitive, although I think that over the last couple of years that they're there, and I think it continues on even today now is there's a little bit of a supply and demand issue where there's just not enough accountants, and especially not enough entry level accountants to to satisfy all the accounting firms.

 

Richard Rothstein 4:07

So once you bring people on board, how long have you found that they would be staying with you?

 

Steven Braunstein 4:22

One thing that I think is phenomenal about Snyder Cohn is that the number of our partners where Snyder Cohn has been the the only firm or almost the only firm where these partners worked. And so so from a growth perspective, that's a huge thing. And we we are very proud of that. I would say that that More than half of our accountants have been with us, probably more than more than three or four years. And we have a number of people who have been with that been with us more than 10 or 15 years. And this is, you know, it's a career for them. They're not necessarily all interested in becoming a partner. But I think we really do manage to retain people when they come on board. I think when I reflect back on people that have left Snyder Cohn, some people have left, because they decided they don't want public anymore, you know, so that's one thing. And I think some people have decided that they don't want to later on when they move out of the area. I think, given the pandemic, that dynamic has changed, because we now have two people that have said they're going to move to a different place, but they want to stay with Snyder. So we're really excited about that, that they want to be part of the Snyder Cohn family.

 

Richard Rothstein 5:56

That's a big trend right now in positions like accounting, where, it's really the skills that matter, that you can transfer things, you can send them documents, they can, do their accounting wizardry and send it back to the firm or even directly to clients with some tools, that it becomes more about where is the best talent? And not just where's the best talent in my backyard? You talk something about remote work, which is great, because I feel like that is a big thing that people are talking about and doing more of now. But what is that? I think some of that you touched on some of this about it being, what are the big changes have been into, you know, post COVID?

 

Steven Braunstein 6:53

I think my changes are, we have to rethink, we've had to rethink how we do training, how we make people feel like they're part of the organization, as a partner, I could just stop by someone's desk and chat with them and see how it's going. It's a little bit harder to, to, you know, send an email to my staff account, Richard, and say, Hey, Richard, I'd love to set up a time. Can we talk tomorrow? And then Richard is terrified that he's meeting with a partner tomorrow for just a check in why is that? Maybe he's going to be fired. I'm going to just like have, Thursday morning coffee with Steve. But just like that, it's a known thing, that I'm going to be putting things on the calendar, so don't be scared that this happening. Maybe it's over the course of a couple of weeks, specifically with some of the lower level people that I wouldn't normally work with. Because I feel like, as a partner, I work with more of the supervisors, and managers, and I'm having discussions on a regular basis with them. And I'm checking in with them on how they're doing. And I think they have a history with the firm, and they feel like they're part of the family. But how do we get that passed down to the people below? That's one of the things that I'm trying to wrestle with here, on what to do best, what do I want to try? And what do I then want some of my other partners to try and record?

 

Richard Rothstein 8:46

I think that's definitely a great thing as far as retention goes, Just from a business aspect, as well as the people who are on the ground who are doing these things. They're the newest people so they may have some new ideas that'd be great. Pull up to the top quickly and not have to wait years for them decide and I really want to be in this industry. Do I want to try and be partner do I want to hang out manager? So I think that's a really cool idea.

 

Steven Braunstein 9:40

We've just started like having our staff accountants do like a weekly Let's eat lunch remotely together. for a half hour, people just talk about what's going on. On again, at least that group of staff, It's seniors, you know, different people that are of the like level can all have an opportunity to be talking to one another. And so we'd like that. And when we onboard some new people in the pandemic, what we've done is, each of them as part of their training, is doing a 30 minute meet and greet with each of the partners and each of the managers. But I'm sure there's even more stuff we have to do to improve our onboarding in the remote world.

 

Richard Rothstein 10:48

Have you been doing anything different from a recruiting aspect, and post covered world?

 

Steven Braunstein 10:54

That's what we're trying to figure out, what we need to do a little differently, Richard? And, you know, we're still doing all of the other things that I mentioned previously with, you know, recruiters and LinkedIn, but we're trying to say, How can we do some of this stuff on LinkedIn better? We're hoping that, that we're going to get to a better place where we're getting more qualified candidates that we're excited about from this.

 

Richard Rothstein 11:28

What what do you expect the recruiting situation to look like, you know, a year from now, do you think it quieted down and feel out like it did before? Do you think these COVID changes are like, embedded? Or do you think it's going to look like something totally different?

 

Steven Braunstein 11:46

I don't think it's gonna look totally different. But I think it's going to look across between where we were pre COVID, and, and in where we are now, and it's going to be like a blend. And I think we're gonna, you know, we've got to learn to pivot on waiting on the changes. And again, I think some of it is, some of it's a supply and demand issue. And I think that right now, there still are a lot of accountants out there, which is why I think it's going to look more similar rather than less similar. But it's, there's, again, there's still going to be a remote element. I think that that's, you know, here to stay for the accounting profession. It may not be all remote, but I think there's there now is a much greater acceptance of remote work, you know, even two or three days a week. I think that's where we're gonna end.

 

Richard Rothstein 12:44

Cool. And finally, is there any advice you have for other firms that are looking to hire right now?

 

Steven Braunstein 12:52

I think you've just got to try everything. I think that's been what I'm experiencing. And, and I think you never know where that next person is going to come from. And, you know, and that's why we're just we're pushing to hire more entry-level staff accountants that we can find them because we feel like let's get people in on the ground floor running. And, you know, just like myself and lots of my other partners, hopefully, it's gonna stick and they're gonna love the profession, and be my next partners.

 

Richard Rothstein 13:27

 

Sounds great. Awesome. Well, Steve, thank you so much for chatting with us today. It's been truly enlightening what you guys are doing and it sounds like you're really doing some great stuff. So thank you.

 

Steven Braunstein 13:39

Three Big thanks, Richard.

With Steven Sacks

To be more competitive, CPAs need to shift their focus from compliance service to process-oriented, value-added work, veteran CPA David Bergstein tells CPA Trendlines. This means working with clients to understand their business operations, competition, and financial challenges, such as liquidity, solvency, and profitability.

The Key Takeaways:

Accountants need to switch their focus to look to the future and real-time accounting, which means that the right way of doing things these days is to take advantage of all technology and automation.
It’s a small and mid-size business that doesn’t have a bookkeeper, that doesn’t have an accountant, that doesn’t have a controller, that doesn’t have a CFO that looks to CPAs to help them. CPAs’ advantage is to use that technology to automate all those processes and then spend time selling value-added services.
Today, to be successful as an accountant, you must identify what platform or platforms you’re going to use to capture your clients’ data at the source to move it through the system.
Payroll tax processing services can be expanded by setting up the human resource tools that go with it. Beyond processing payroll, CPAs can find ways to get lower workman’s compensation; automate the onboarding of employees, and provide various benefit options.
As part of the de-emphasis on process, younger staff members don’t want to do vouchering anymore, which will be supplanted anyway by automation. So, it’s great for firms to offer more training opportunities to their younger staff regarding analytical thinking, selling, and how to consult with clients to find out what their needs are.

With Steven Sacks for CPA Trendlines. The accounting profession is "stuck in a rut," says James N. Lopiccolo, founder and managing member of Capocore Professional Advisors, in Lake Orion, Mich. He says CPAs can't see "the challenges that are coming by from other non-CPA firms." Lopiccolo's answer is offering service agreements, instead of billing by the hour. Risky? Sometimes. But clients love it. In more than 31 years of public accounting, Lopiccolo has worked in business advisory, tax, and accounting for a multitude of industries including contracting, manufacturing, medical, professional service companies, and real estate. He serves on the Michigan CPA Association executive committee and the finance committee, and he is a two-time chair of the AICPA Small Firm Practitioners Task Force.

Key Takeaways:

-- CPAs should employ a minimum level of service agreement with clients because it will help to manage expectations as well as professional fees.

-- A proactive approach by CPAs is what clients desire.

-- Clients want their CPA to be a partner in their success.

-- CPAs are much too fixated on getting as much money as possible from clients rather than providing real value in each client interaction.

-- Make sure the client onboarding process is consistent from one client to the next.

-- Advisory services are practically the same with slight modifications for each client.

-- There is a trust factor in identifying and hiring the right staff in order to provide a level of comfort for providing each client with advice.

-- It is necessary to have confidence in your staff and let them know they have the opportunity to sink or swim.

-- There will be more competition for client accounting services, so advisory services should be the leading service CPAs provide.

-- CPAs need to leverage the CPA “brand.”
In the next five years, new businesses will arise, but at the same time, there will be greater competition from non-CPAs.

With cyber-crime growing by leaps and bounds, accountants are caught in the cross-hairs, cyber-security professional Jill Cagliostro tells Steven Sacks for CPA Trendlines.

Cagliostro, senior product manager with Splunk, a data management and security company, says “cybercriminals are getting more advanced. They’re finding new avenues and new ways to get in every single day.”

“And beyond that,” she says, “they’re also communicating with each other. So they’re able to share these new tactics and techniques amongst each other to become more proficient together.”

Key Takeaways

-- Bad actors are communicating in places like the dark web and in forums to share their ideas and to plan to breach private and government entities.

-- Third-party vendors must go through security questionnaires before they are onboarded as a partner with a private entity.

-- The questionnaires are employed to ensure that the third-party vendor has the necessary security mechanisms in place, such as two-factor authentication, encryption, and comprehensive policies that must be followed.

-- There are key metrics to use to assess the risk of cyberattacks. KPIs that indicate how secure something is or how good the security team is doing at protecting the organization can be difficult.

-- Clients are looking for different KPIs that they can show the level of success that they’ve had with identifying threats in their environment.

-- Companies that experience security breaches will find it more difficult to attract future security talent because security professionals will not want to have on their resume companies that were victimized by a security breach as it will imply that they allowed a breach to occur.

-- The most common way that companies get hacked is through phishing emails, which doesn’t always go to the executives. Security should really not just inform technology decisions, but business decisions as well.

-- One of the best ways the IT team and security teams monitor for behaviors is by tracking activity on employees’ work computers. By connecting to a corporate VPN allows the IT and security teams to see what is going on internally.

-- In addition to external threats, there are internal threats that could be very costly. Company employees can have access to trade secrets, confidential information, and insider trading information.

-- There are a couple of different ways to monitor this behavior using data-loss prevention tools that can monitor files going in and out of a company’s network.

Full transcript and video here: https://cpatrendlines.com/2021/04/11/fighting-cyber-crime-starts-close-to-home/

Profitability Analysis & Reporting

Management finance expert Gary Cokins says there's nothing wrong with activity-based costing, in this conversation with Steven Sacks for CPA Trendlines. Except that you're probably doing it all wrong.

Takeaways:

– The deficiencies with product and service line costing have to do with overhead allocations. The problem is, it's convenient for the accountants to allocate the overhead based on allocation factors, like labor hours, number of units produced in a manufacturer, headcount, number of employees, and square feet, even though none of them reflect the unique consumption relationship between how the outputs products and services consumed.

– Rapid prototyping is really meant as really to get buy-in and displace misconceptions. The accountants can build a model that replaces percentage estimates with data that can be extracted from ERP or production systems.

– The analyses must go below the gross profit margin line, including distribution channel expenses, marketing expenses, selling expenses, customer service expenses, to basically get a P&L almost by the customer to determine whether the largest customer is also the most profitable.

– EPM and CPM tools will enable young professionals to move away from vouchering and more toward problem-solving. Their jobs will become more meaningful and fulfilling.

– Accountants and financial executives really need to create a culture of discovery and investigation. And this is where analytics come into place. Because analytics creates questions. It creates better questions and even more questions. And they also need to have tolerance for making mistakes, as long as they learn from the mistakes.

How to overcome the mind-blocks holding you back from total success.

With Steven Sacks, author of "The NEW Fundamentals: Thriving in Disruption"

Professionals need to use a blend of psychology and strategy to guide them with both mental fitness and tactics to produce career breakthroughs, executive coach Nancy Fox tells Steven Sacks.

In business, the mind is 95% of the game, according to Fox, so it’s essential to recognize the causes of mindset blocks that are encountered, such as competition and business development, and what their impact can be.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Leaders may not understand the nuances or fundamentals of mentoring and cultivating talent. As such, they find the biggest impediments to be themselves.

The conscious mind is where our thoughts are directed in such areas as logic, strategy, memory, learning, data analysis.

However, 95% of our thoughts are directed by the subconscious mind, and only 5% by our conscious minds.

The subconscious mind is where the inner game of work, career, and life is really won — or lost.
There are some strategies you can use to train your mind to prepare yourself to experience an outcome and imagine ways to achieve that outcome.

In addition to training your mind to block negative thoughts and experience only positive thoughts, there are physical techniques that can be used.

Nancy Fox is the founder and President of The Business Fox, a business consulting and training company specializing in guiding law, accounting, and service business firms grow through smarter networking and business development and niche marketing strategies.

With Steven Sacks
The NEW Fundamentals

The main problem with the annual budget process as a fiscal exercise done by the accountants is that it is disconnected from the executive team strategy.

Corporate finance expert Gary Cokins says that allows too much room for bad habits, such as the use-it-or-lose-it mindset of allocated resources, as well as incorporating last year's inefficiencies in processes into the current year.

Five Key Take-Aways:

1. There is interest now in corporate performance management because executives are frustrated with strategy failure. They are good at formulating strategy, but meeting expected goals is a real problem.
2. The way to get rid of spreadsheet budgeting is to view the amount of spending of any organization as the result of the confluence of two streams. The first is going to be repeatable work. It tends to be operational. The second is non-repeatable because it involves capital, risk management, and strategy projects.
3. Accounting must carefully identify and construct key performance indicators. But not every type of measurement is key.
4. Activity-based costing is just full absorption costing done correctly, without the “butter spreading” on spreadsheets of labor hours or units produced or sales dollars or full-time equivalent headcount or square feet. None of those reflect the unique consumption that the products or service lines actually consume.
5. Many people have heard about the balanced scorecard, but it's just a feedback mechanism. The real intelligence is in the strategy map.

With Richard Rothstein

In this interview for CPA Trendlines, Ed Gattis, founder of Parabellum Systems, talks to Richard Rothstein, founder of Rothstein Consulting, about the global recruiting trends and how that is affecting hiring in the accounting world.

Here Gattis talks about his experience in recruiting and recruiting for the accounting community and what has changed. The biggest thing he says is that it has become much harder to source very high-level people due to the lack of in-person opportunities, like pre-work coffees, lunches, etc to convince prospective employees that openings are a good fit.

He also tells us how important personalization is to finding the right talent for your positions.
More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=86455

In this interview for CPA Trendlines, Richard Rothstein speaks with Manny Cosme, President of CFO Services Group, about recruiting new talent in the age of COVID.

Manny makes some great points about working for a small nimble firm like CFO Services Group and the challenges of retaining great talent in the face of competition from bigger firms for high-quality talent.

CFO Services Group also moved virtually several years ago, so they have some great insights on ways to maintain culture even while working remotely. Even more interesting is their attitude on when they hire non-accounting professionals like sales and marketing staff.

Kill the billable hour, embrace remote work, stay flexible, get social, says Pasha Malik of Thyor.

Twitter and Linkedin are the go-to resources for finding new talent at the McLean, Va.-based Thyor group of companies, founder and CEO Pasha Malik tells Richard Rothstein for CPA Trendlines.

But he has much more to say about fixing the accounting business to make it more competitive for attracting the best people. In fact, his group of companies may be a model of the next-generation CPA firm, offering through various entities outsourced CFO services, tax planning, technology consulting, and venture capital advisory services.

The business was launched as virtual with a far-flung remote workforce, and remains so today, giving it a headstart on other firms still making the transition. Meanwhile, Malik plays the role of CEO, CFO-for-hire, tax advisor, strategist, data scientist, startup advisor, wealth adviser adventure capitalist.

Educated in Cambridge and London, Malik has traveled the world in public accounting, from BDO in Singapore to PB Mares in Washington, D.C., before launching Thyor.

For the video and the transcript, go to: https://cpatrendlines.com/2021/08/01/three-strategies-to-crack-the-staffing-shortage/

Bradley Burnett, JD LLM, delivers a first-read on the new IRS notice, which adds 34 pages of additional guidance on the Employee Retention Credit. 

What does it clarify? 

And will it help accountants help small business clients claim up to $330,000 in COVID relief?

The “Uncle Billy” Problem with the ERC

With Bradley Burnett, JD LLM

With 18 months of water under the bridge, we’re three-fourths of the way through the Employee Retention Program, the IRS changed their mind on an extremely important issue that changes many, many tax situations.

• Catch Bradley’s next webinar on the ERC here
• See the video

The question is: Who’s eligible? And who’s not?

The IRS did a complete about-face, now saying if you’re a 50-percent-plus owner and you have a living relative, or half relative, or an ancestor, or a descendant, or a multi-level marketing sponsor, or even an Uncle Billy you haven’t heard from in years… They say you’re not eligible.

It’s crazy! It’s just plain wonky.

So what do we do now?

Many practitioners in good faith have claimed the ERC. Now, do we have to amend? Or, can you let this ride? Congress is already asking IRS to change its position. Will the IRS reverse itself? Hard to say.

You’ll need to break out Form 827 for uncertain positions with your next filing.

There’s a lot to out sort out here.

RELATED: The “Ludicrously Lucrative” Employee Retention Credit | “Brand Spanking New!” IRS Notice on Employee Retention Credit. | Answered! Your Top 11 Questions about the Employee Retention Credit. |

Here's how to stand out online and attract new clients -- the right kind of clients -- to your tax and accounting practice.

Let Becky Livingston be your guide. She's a seasoned digital marketer for accounting firms and the author of  The Accountant's Social Media Handbook and SEO for CPAs: The Accountant's Handbook, both published by CPA trendlines at https://cpatrendlines.comendlines.com/shop.

Ge the transcript, handouts and other downloads for this episode here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=89410

See Becky Livingston's latest articles at CPA Trendlines

With Dom Esposito and Anthony Zecca

EisnerAmper’s deal to take on private equity and spin off its attest firm represents a new path forward for firms seeking capital to remain competitive in talent and in technology, according to Dom Esposito and Anthony Zecca, two veteran big-firm leaders, in this exclusive CPA Trendlines Flash Briefing webinar.

See more here: https://cpatrendlines.com/2021/09/26/flash-briefing-a-call-to-arms-after-private-equity-deal/

EisnerAmper CEO Charly Weinstein calls the firm’s deal to take on private equity a new wrinkle in the profession’s decades-old struggle to secure fresh capital for expansion in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

More here: http://cpa.click/WeinsteinPE

Pictured: Charly Weinstein

After a brief pandemic pause, new lease accounting rules will start to hit hard in 2022.

With Ane Ohm
CEO, Founder of LeaseCrunch

More at CPA Trendlines here

In this interview, Ronald Kranzler, Managing Partner of HKMP, talks about what recruiting looks like for accounting firms these days, and how Covid has affected things.

Ronald talks about retention is at a boutique blue-chip tech-forward firm like HKMP, that has a focus on companies worth over a billion dollars and works hand in hand with Big Four firms

HKMP has been remote for some time and has even developed its own tools for managing workflows. That tech focus is very important to them and their hiring. 

With Sarah Johnson Dobek and Ty Hendrickson
Inovautus Consulting

Sales is sometimes presented as this abstract notion of convincing someone to buy your product, but it actually follows a simple framework.

It may seem like an obvious answer, but there’s some science behind the why.

Key Takeaways:

1. What makes a good business developer.
2. The skills professionals need for business development.
3. The professional’s role in growth.

More here

In this interview, Richard Rothstein (Founder of Rothstein Consulting) speaks with Dan Tyer (Author of Inbound Organization, Hubspot) about what recruiting looks like for accounting firms in 2021, and how Covid has affected things.

This is a little different episode in that we are talking to a marketing professional about organizational trends and how that is affecting hiring in the accounting world.

Dan tells us about how Inbound Recruiting began at Hubspot and how important it has become. 

He spends some time talking about how undervalued your digital footprint is and how being customer-centric is super important to your recruiting. He also mentions a blog post on Inbound Recruiting that can be found on rothsteinconsulting.com

Richard Rothstein of Rothstein Consulting interviews Todd Hockenberry from Top Line Results for CPA Trendlines

In this interview, Richard Rothstein, Founder of Rothstein Consulting, speaks with Lee Cohen, Founder and Managing Partner of LM Cohen, about what recruiting looks like for accounting firms, and how Covid has affected things.

Here Lee talks about his change of heart regarding remote work and how things are changing for everyone in the accounting community right now.

In this interview, Richard Rothstein (Founder of Rothstein Consulting) speaks with Pasha Malik (Founder and Principal of Thyor) about what recruiting looks for accounting firms in 2020, and how Covid has affected things.

Thyor started out virtual so the remote element of this situation hasn’t thrown them at all. They also have a division that works in data science so they can provide actionable information to companies from their financials. 

Here Pasha talks about how well Twitter and LinkedIn has worked for them in finding talent. Thyor also has a unique structure for their projects that allows for a high level of flexibility in their team members. We also talk about what has changed for them and their team in terms of work/life balance.

In this interview, Richard Rothstein (Founder of Rothstein Consulting) speaks with Josh Fisher (District Partners) about what recruiting looks for accounting firms in 2021, and how Covid has affected things.

This is a little different episode in that we are talking to a recruiting professional about hiring in the accounting world 

Here Josh talks about his experience in recruiting and recruiting for the accounting community and what has changed. 

The biggest thing he says is that job hunters are looking out for themselves more and have more opportunities as remote work is allowing them to work for larger firms that previously wouldn’t have been able to reach into their communities.

He also tells us about how important the technology arms race is becoming to finding the right talent for your positions.

What do clients really want? Mostly, it’s not what you’re giving them now.

Seventy percent of clients are barely aware of the extra services you can provide, and 80 percent want something specific that you, in fact, provide. They just don’t know that they can go to you for help.

See the video here

Featuring John Shaw interviewed by Steven Sacks for CPA Trendlines.

In Blockchain Basics for Business, Steve Sacks interviews Jack Shaw on the elements of the technology, its early beginnings, the industries impacted, and the practical business applications.

Key takeaways:

• Bitcoin is only an application of Blockchain which is the platform
• Decentralized nodes eliminate the possibility of hacking
• Blockchain has many business uses in the financial, insurance, media, medical, consumer and supply chain
• Industries impacted by blockchain include energy, entertainment, manufacturing and transportation
• Blockchain stores records such as identities, ownership of assets, business transactions and contractual commitments

Matt Solomon, for CPA Trendlines, interviews Brian Suthoff of Tally Street, to explore Diving for Dollars with Data. 

Matt Solomon interviews Shawn Parikh about the world of Offshoring and Outsourcing in a Covid world and a post-Covid world.

“Process, process, process” and other lessons in scaling an accounting business.

With Liz Farr

More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/2022/01/13/the-disruptors-new-padgett-coo-amanda-aguillard-explains-how-to-scale/

To beat the staffing shortage, tax and accounting firms will need to rank technology skills as important as accounting skills, Padgett COO Amanda Aguillard says in this episode of The Disruptors, a new CPA Trendlines series of conversations between special contributor Liz Farr and leading change-makers in the profession. This is the first of the series.

“We will have to be creative about who we hire,” Aguillard says. “Knowledge of accounting is important, but it’s not the only thing… Being tech-curious is just as important.”

Take-Aways

1. We will have to be creative about who we hire. Knowledge of accounting is important, but it’s not the only thing. Being tech-curious is just as important.
2. Specialization isn’t just vertical niches, but we can gate a practice around particular services. Building practices around services like outsourced controllership, tax resolution, or monthly accounting can make hiring easier because the candidates don’t have to be good at all of the different things.
3. Process is the key to scale. Build and document processes around the idea that you will scale, even when the firm is just one person. Don’t be the bottleneck. Add technology on top of the process so that when the technology changes, you can find another one to take its place.
4. A key skill for the future will be tracking data flow. Understanding where the data is coming in, and where the data will end up will help with developing processes and choosing technology.
5. Ask for what you’re worth. Clients engage you in a business relationship, so they anticipate having to pay you. This is not charity.
6. What firms are doing now is working well enough, but the people coming behind us aren’t interested in good enough. They want to work to live. They want to work just enough to do the things they love.
7. The next big thing will be high-touch client relationships. We need to stop using technology as a shield, and use it to provide value to our clients. How can we help our clients, shoulder to shoulder?

About Aguillard

Aguillard

Amanda Aguillard was only 16 years old when she realized she wanted to become a CPA, and she’s used that passion ever since to encourage innovation in the industry she loves. That commitment lives on through her work as the Chief Operating Officer of Padgett Business Services, one of North America’s largest accounting service and business consulting providers.

Amanda is responsible for providing operational and logistical guidance for the company’s network of franchisees. This includes identifying and incorporating the latest cloud technologies into the Padgett firm operating model. She also is focused on developing and facilitating the necessary training to ensure these platforms and tools are successfully implemented by Padgett firms.

Amanda, who was named one of the Top 50 Women in Accounting in 2018 and 2019, is the author of Xero: A Comprehensive Guide for Accountants and Bookkeepers. She was the Xero Evangelist of the Year in 2016 and used her experience as a Xero Certification instructor to co-found Elefant, a continuing education company for accountants and bookkeepers.

Prior to joining the executive team at Padgett, she ran Aguillard Accounting LLC, focusing her efforts on providing unparalleled client support service through a cloud-based practice that could be done anywhere in the world. Amanda also is the founder of Accounting Salon, a think tank of cloud accounting experts, and its virtual offshoot, SALON.

Amanda, who holds a Master’s Degree in Taxation from the University of Denver, regularly speaks at state CPA societies and industry technology conferences, including Accountex, Engage, Clio Could Conference, and Xerocon. She also is a Certified Instructional Systems Designer.

When she’s not advocating for her industry, she spends her free time cooking for her two children, reading historical fiction, and backcountry hiking.

With Sarah Dobek and Ty Hendrickson for CPA Trendlines

• More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/2022/01/17/close-the-sale-getting-across-the-finish-line/

Negotiating the terms of a new engagement can be intimidating and downright scary.

However, it’s the most important – and last – step to securing new revenue.

When you can learn what you need to have ready for the discussion, know what questions to anticipate, understand common pain points in any agreement so you can address them head-on, and how to show the value of what you’re proposing, closing the deal will become much easier – and lower your anxiety.

Negotiating price and/or new business is something everyone seems to struggle with early on in selling. Why is that? (hint…talking money can be uncomfortable, but price is only negotiated when you haven’t built enough value in the sales process).

What is ideal to know about your prospect once you make it to the proposal stage with a prospect? (Who is involved, decision making criteria, timeline, potential obstacles, budget)

What are some tips to close more business at higher rates? (Hint…build value and take objections throughout the sales process, know who you are selling to and what they value, follow their buying timeline, not your selling timeline, and build trust.

Key Take-Aways

1. How to negotiate price and/or expanded service offerings.
2. What you need to know about your prospect when you make it to the proposal stage.
3. Tips to close more business at higher rates.

With accounting talent so scarce, tax and accounting firms may be surprised to find untapped talents within their current staff, according to Tyler Anderson, partner and director of A&A innovation at Accountability Plus tells Liz Farr for CPA Trendlines.

More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/2022/01/28/disruptors-tyler-anderson/

The Disruptors with Liz Farr

Geraldine Carter is on a mission to make accounting more attractive as a profession, and to make accountants more profitable, particularly soloists and small firms.

In this episode of The Disruptors with Liz Farr, Carter explains the trouble with "orphan 1040s," how to "level up" your firm, the priceless value of emotional intelligence, and why giving your all is too much (80 percent is enough.)

More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/2022/02/14/geraldine-carter/

The Disruptors with Liz Farr

See more here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=94934

Corey Schmidt's Take-Aways

• Offer your staff different paths to being successful.

• Pinpoint the talents you have on your staff, and nurture those special skills.

• Carve out time for people to work on those skills, not just the backlog.

• Challenge your people earlier in their careers so they have three years of experience rather than one year repeated three times.

• Create roles for the kinds of skills your people have.

• A forgotten metric is client happiness. If we provide a service that makes them feel good about what they’re getting, they’re going to be willing to pay more and will stick around much longer.

• Firms should own who they are. A firm with a hard-driving culture that values working long hours should seek out team members who like that kind of work culture.

• Think about where you want to be in five years, and start hiring people who fit that kind of work culture. Build in the people, processes and systems around that end goal.

• Stop doing what you did last year. Start with a blank slate. Following SALY is easier than figuring out how to do things differently. This requires carving out the time for meaningful planning.

• Challenge everyone on the audit team to come to the planning meeting with ideas for doing things differently, whether that’s using data or being efficient.

• Start rewarding the behaviors that are in line with the vision of the firm you want five or ten years in the future.

• Partners with high billable hours send the message to younger people that the way to get ahead in a firm is to do that, even if those same partners also talk about building a flexible data-driven culture.

• Let people pick their own career paths that make sense for them and for the firm.

• The need for a historical financial statement will be gone sooner rather than later.

• Firms need to adapt to the needs of the stakeholders.

• Banks only care about a few key metrics on the financials, so providing those on a real-time basis rather than an entire set of financials three or four months after year-end may be more useful.

About Corey Schmidt

Corey Schmidt, CPA, Manager of Audit Innovation, joined ACCOUNTability Plus, LLC with a decade of diverse public accounting experience, focused on providing audit and assurance services to clients in a variety of industries. He is dedicated to finding provocative and inventive ways to help move accounting firms and A&A practices into the future. Corey relies on his analytical abilities to assist his clients in gaining a thorough understanding of their financial situation and how certain decisions will impact their organization. He is passionate about working with all levels of the organization to provide accurate financial data and improve future results. Outside work, Corey likes to golf, fish, travel, and spend time with his family.

.

With Rick Telberg
For CPA Trendlines

The changes wrought by COVID are still rolling through the business world, pushing many of them into online commerce and cross-border sales, according to Liz Armbruester, senior VP of global compliance at Avalara.

In the U.S. states are gearing up to crack down on the new sources of revenues, leaving many businesses and their accountants still ill-equipped to handle the new rules, Armbruester tells Rick Telberg for CPA Trendlines.

As SVP Global Compliance, Armbruester oversees global compliance operations at Avalara. With more than 20 years of leadership experience from a variety of technology sectors including software, media, and services.

From her perch, see tracks how governments at all levels and across the globe are capitalizing on the rapidly digitizing business world to automatically collect taxes due.

See more here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=95008

The Disruptors with Liz Farr

More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=94950

Matt Wilkinson’s Take-Aways

• Part of your marketing is attracting new talent. Make yourself look good talent as they do their due diligence. Update your website and make sure your social media is engaging.

• Business owners like Matt have been asking accountants for predictable monthly billing and help with KPIs for their businesses since the early 2000’s. It’s only recently that accountants are beginning to provide that. Exclusively for PRO Members. 

• Accounting firm owners tend to have limiting beliefs about how to run their firms – billing by the hour, working in the office, and the partnership structure. The partnership structure itself can be problematic for growing a coherent firm, where each partner acts almost like a freelancer with their own clients, and decisions require agreement between groups that oppose each other’s ideas.

• Accounting firms don’t have scale issues that can be solved with technology and automation. Instead, they have quality issues or people issues. A better way to grow is to focus on doing a better job. Make small 1% improvements in areas like client communication or selling additional services to existing clients. Focus on being local or boutique – all the things that the biggest firms can’t do.

• Times change, people don’t. People skills will always be essential.

• Instead of trying to “make a dent in the universe” as Steve Jobs did, try to model being a good person and what a good company looks like. Those changes will ripple out and impact more than your clients and your team. Thinking smaller can be thinking bigger.

About Matt Wilkinson

Matt Wilkinson has been a marketer for over 20 years. He’s run campaigns promoting everything from a Paul McCartney concert to a skincare brand used by Madonna. Since 2010, he’s worked exclusively with accountants and bookkeepers. His goal is to help them become small business heroes.

Matt is co-founder and CEO of New Zealand-based Bizink, which specializes in websites and online marketing for accountants throughout the English-speaking world. Bizink helps busy accountants and bookkeepers grow by improving their marketing. They do that with high-performance websites, engaging content and modern marketing tools. Everything Bizink does is built for accountants and bookkeepers and streamlined so they can run their practices in the knowledge their online marketing is in safe hands.

Venture capital and private equity are pouring billions into financial technology start-ups. And this business will never be the same.

 Here CPA Trendlines founder, publisher, and editor Rick Telberg tells an audience of conference-goers what it means for the future of the profession, including:

• The real meaning of the "pandemic pivot" for accountants and small businesses.

• Why the accounting industry is more than just ripe for revolution.

• The new rules driving investment capital into new financial technologies. And,

• The three essential strategies for surviving and thriving in the new age of fintech-driven accounting.

Download the slide deck here.

See more here.

Changing the way firms are structured, operated, and financially managed

With Steven Sacks
For CPA Trendlines

The CPA profession is entering another period of shifts in how firms will attain growth levels – the main force being the influx of private capital entering the accounting profession, according to David Bergstein, CPA, CITP, CGMA.

• See more here

New, external investments will change the way firms are structured, operated, and financially managed, as well as granting them increased capabilities to make more strategic decisions, Bergstein tells Sacks for CPA Trendlines.

Bergstein is a veteran technology executive at a number of tax and accounting software companies, including Intuit, Walters Kluwer, and Thomson, and is now an independent author, educator, and advisor.

David Bergstein’s Takeaways:

• Disruption is what smart business people see in a profession that is ripe for change because the traditional CPA series of audit and tax will move to the back burner. The real value of services will be in consulting services.

• CPA firms will split in two – separating the traditional services from consulting to ensure that there will be avoidance of client/service conflicts, and to make the investment more attractive.

• Baby Boomer partners who are a few years from retirement see the infusion of private equity as a way to reformulate partner agreement that were overdo for such a review.

• Technology will continue to be a driver of how firms will change the way they operate and the greater efficiencies accrued will go for additional services that can be outsourced.

• CPAs who break off and begin their own non-CPA-advertised consulting firms will be more apt to hire non-CPAs because of their broader educational experience.

 Geni Whitehouse shows how to shift from a focus on mere data to priceless wisdom.

With Liz Farr

for CPA Trendlines

COVID showed us that we can do more than traditional services and that we can respond to change even when we don’t have all the information, CPA Geni Whitehouse tells Liz Farr in an exclusive interview for CPA Trendlines.

COVID has given the profession the opportunity to impact clients in a very real way, and clients now see accountants in a very different light, says Whitehouse long an evangelist in the profession for progressive practices and innovation.

More for CPA Trendlines PRO Members here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=95962

The Disruptors: Brannon Poe
A Special Series with Liz Farr for CPA Trendlines

Brannon Poe is the founder of Poe Group Advisors and the creator of Accounting Practice Academy. He began facilitating successful accounting practice transitions in 2003. Today he is pioneering a consulting-based approach to transitioning accounting firms, culminating in Poe Group Advisors’ proprietary process for a “seamless “succession.”

In this episode, Poe tells CPA Trendlines:

• Firm culture is not just a lofty concept but also a key to attracting fantastic talent. 
  
  
• Delegation is the cornerstone of firm culture. 
  
  
• Value pricing requires a mindset shift before it can be implemented. Switch off the mindset that equates time with money and shift to a focus on what’s valuable to the client. Value pricing is not just a model for better profitability but a model for better client service.
  
  
• Before growth can happen, several things must happen first. Focus on delivering value to the client, be intentional about the clients you serve and the kind of work you’re doing, have good relationships with clients, and you need capacity.
  
  
• Accountants need a more entrepreneurial mindset. Try setting up a sandbox where you can experiment. Try rolling out changes to a subset of your clients before doing it for everyone.
  
  
• Accountants should stop accepting the status quo. Test your assumptions. For example, does tax season have to be brutal? Some firms have proven otherwise.
  
  
• Firms need a better foundation of the fundamentals of business. What in accounting is never going to change? Businesspeople will always want insights, tax planning advice, and good service. Those fundamentals won’t change, but they get forgotten and don’t get practiced.

 

With Liz Farr for CPA Trendlines

More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=96260

 

To win the staffing wars, accountants must develop a talent pipeline, practice advisor Martin Bissett tells Liz Farr in this exclusive interview.

 

The firms winning in recruiting and retention are using a portfolio approach to nurture prospects who might be ready to join the firm at some point in the future, a world-renowned sales and marketing consultant, a long-time contributor at CPA Trendlines, and, most recently the co-host of the UK-based Accounting Influencers podcast.

 

More Take-Aways from Martin Bissett:

 

• A growing trend in the UK is the “commercialization” of the profession, where private equity firms invest in accounting firms, especially at the mid-tier level. With a change in governance to boards and a CEO/COO/CFO/CMO structure, firms are changing from accounting practices into accounting businesses. 

• A desired result of commercialization is that clients will be better served: more financially literate, fewer insolvencies, and more economic prosperity for all, developing young professionals into commercially minded people who create value rather than provide services. 

• What’s never been in place at most firms is discipline around business development, marketing, and selling, which we have labeled as ‘soft skills.’ If accountants don’t have skills in selling and marketing, how can we expect our clients to regard us as trusted advisors who will help them generate more sales? 

• If you want to win clients of a higher caliber, you need to communicate why they are better off with you than where they are now because they will have to break a loyalty barrier to leave their current accountant. 

• Most accountants have never been taught, coached, or trained to run a commercial enterprise. Likewise, most clients have no experience with firms that offer any kind of value proposition. Then the deciding factors are how close they are, how much they are, and do you get on with them.  

• When you are providing a commoditized service, price is your enemy. Providing the additional value that justifies higher prices has not been part of the training or the education for accountants and is therefore not known. 

• When you chase deadlines for a living and hire people to chase deadlines, that doesn’t allow for innovation or value creation. Instead, be willing to think about whether what you are doing is what you want to do. At what level of pain is it better to tolerate the discomfort of change so you can create something better?

Martin Bissett is the author of

• Winning Your First Client,
• Passport to Partnership,
• Meet Your New Best Client and
• Business Development on a Budget

Shop the Martin Bissett Practice Growth Collection

He is the founder of The Upward Spiral Partnership Ltd., the UK-based consulting firm that specializes in the implementation of professional selling and leadership skills in the next generation of accounting professionals.

And he is co-founder of AddviserPlus, a training and consulting hub for accountants and bookkeepers who are ready to go beyond commoditized compliance and technology-based services and embrace the prosperity and rewards from providing high-value advisory services, one client at a time.

 

The accounting firm's business model isn’t broken yet, but the pyramid is crumbling.

With Liz Farr for CPA Trendlines

• More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=96758

Podcaster and enfant terrible Blake Oliver says the accounting firm is a pyramid scheme destined for collapse.

The system is simple and simply devious: Bring in staff, work them a ton of hours, and the profits flow to the top, Blake says.

But today, the model is being challenged by venture capital-backed tech startups delivering automated tax prep and bookkeeping, by CPA firms following the lead of Eisner Amper into non-CPA businesses, and by the booming growth of non-CPA startups like Acuity.

Blake Oliver, CPA, is an accountant, entrepreneur, and podcaster specializing in technology. He is one of Accounting Today’s Top 100 Most Influential People and has been named a 40 Under 40 in the accounting profession by CPA Practice Advisor. Blake is the creator of Earmark CPE, an app that offers NASBA-approved CPE for listening to your favorite accounting and tax podcasts. He also co-hosts the Cloud Accounting Podcast, a Top 50 Business News show on the Apple charts and the most popular podcast for accountants and bookkeepers globally. He lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., where he likes to hike in the winter and swim in the summer.

Featuring Ira Rosenbloom, CPA (LR), "The Merger Master," with Rick Telberg, CPA Trendlines.

More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=97102

Take-aways:

• Five Steps for Maximizing Your Sale Price.
• The ten signs your firm is headed for the exits.
• The ten factors for getting the best price when you sell.
• Calculate your firm's valuation strategy by considering:
  1. – Your strongest niches.
  2. – The metrics for the current and potential profits.
  3. – Recurring compliance fees.
  4. – High-margin consulting billings.
  5. – New and valuable synergies with a new firm.
  6. – Inherent potential in your staffing.
  7. – Demographics of clients, partners and referral sources.
  8. – Untapped potential in loyal contacts.
  9. –  Reputation and brand recognition.
  10. –  Flexibility in timing, titles and responsibilities.

CPA Trendlines PRO Members can download the slide deck, including the bonus "12-Point Checklist for Seller Readiness," and read the transcript here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=97102
(Login required.)

Not yet a PRO Member? Go PRO with one of today's best offers here: GoProCPA.com.

If we don’t change, we'll be irrelevant, says Rob Brown.

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr
for CPA Trendlines

It’s a changing world, and if we don’t change with it, we will cease to be relevant, U.K.-based accounting podcaster Rob Brown tells CPA Trendlines' Liz Farr.

• More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=97277

A host of the Accounting Influencers podcast, Brown says what got us here won’t get us there in the fight to be relevant in our practices, with our clients and in our careers. Brown's podcasting partner is Martin Bissett, a CPA Trendlines contributor and world-renowned growth advisor to accounting firms.

The last two years demonstrated that accountants can make big changes very quickly. But those changes won’t be enough to assure our continued relevance as advisors and employers.

Younger business owners are using their accountants in different ways and expect more advisory services. Younger employees also have different expectations from their employers.

Firms that don’t address the needs of clients and employees will have a hard time attracting either.

Jamie Lopiccolo with Steven Sacks for CPA Trendlines

 

Lopiccolo is the owner of a small Midwest firm that has been employing a subscription-based model to invoice clients for services rendered. The approach manages expectations by the client and ensures a normalized cash flow for the firm. Additional benefits include a more strategic approach to dealing with new clients because they are getting the full picture of their business’s needs.

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

 

·      One of the goals of the subscription pricing model (aka minimum level of service agreement) is to manage client expectations while managing the firm’s cash flow. 

·      CPAs can position themselves as the client’s partner for success.

·      CPAs are too fixated on getting as much money as possible from clients rather than providing real value in each client interaction.

·      Make sure the client onboarding process is consistent from one client to the next with certain necessary customization during the initial client meeting and CPA research.

·      There will be more competition for client accounting services and advisory services and more revenue opportunities, which is why firms should reduce the amount of time allocated to administrative functions.

·      The subscription model also helps to determine which clients are not profitable, potentially leading to the firing of clients.

·      More strategic planning can be offered to clients so they understand and better appreciate the services they are going to get.

Innovation Insights, with Donny Shimamoto.

CPA Trendlines presents a Center for Accounting Transformation production

Innovation Insights: Five clicks in five minutes? Sounds too good to be true – but automation can be simple and life-changing.

With everyone going remote, it’s presenting auditors with new challenges. But technology can help, according to Colleen Knuff and Stefan Davis, in this interview with Donny Shimamoto.

Part of Wolters Kluwer, which was recently accepted to the ASC X9 (American National Standards Institute or ANSI), the industry setting body for financial institutions, Knuff and Davis explain not only how some solutions allow real-time collaboration versus working in silos, but also how data-driven audits increase capacity and allow more profitability while reducing risk and maintaining high peer-review standards.

(Recorded February 2022)

More here

Say Goodbye to Traditional Audit

Innovation Insights
With Donny Shimamoto
CPA Trendlines presents a Center for Accounting Transformation production

Because audit work is nonlinear and highly complex, disparate workflow systems in the audit are not only an IT risk, but they're also a project nightmare. Jin Chang, the founder of Fieldguide, explained to Donny Shimamoto that the end-to-end project has many workflows that need to be templatized and automated along the project life cycle.

More here

Innovation Insights

With Donny Shimamoto

Center for Accounting Transformation


Today's Take-aways:

• Accountants were the pioneers of business use of database software with the accounting systems—the first wave of accounting technology. The second wave was the move into the cloud, and the third wave now uses AI in accounting technology.

• AI uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR), and Natural Language Procession (NLP) can be used to read documents like PDFs and Excel and extract the relevant data like lease dates into the database where they can be used for computations or searching.

• Because you’re starting with the source document (e.g. PDF, Excel) and extracting the data from there to then put the data into the system, you can trace data back all the way to the source document all within the same system (not just to the point where someone keyed the data into the system).

• The goal isn’t for the machines (AI) to do everything,, but instead to complete 70-80% of the grunt work and allow the accountant or auditor to focus on the analytics and strategic work.

• Small and regional firms can gain an advantage by partnering with accounting technology vendors, enabling them to innovate and incorporate technology into their services more quickly than the larger firms.

The intersection of technology and intentionality.

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr for CPA Trendlines

An explosion of new tech tools is giving accounting firm owners the opportunity to improve efficiency, attract and retain talent, and serve their clients better, tech guru Byron tells Liz Farr in this exclusive interview.

Not only do these tools help ease the pressure of capacity problems, but they may also provide firms with a new revenue stream when they extend that expertise into their clients’ businesses.

The greatest benefits will accrue to leaders who exercise intentionality across many areas of their firms: in their adoption of tech, in making changes to processes, in communication with clients and team members, in accepting the right clients, and in setting aside time for marketing.

For Key Takeaways and more,  go here.

With Liz Farr

for CPA Trendlines

The accounting profession has faced staffing issues for years now and, especially post-pandemic, the problem has compounded.

Penny Breslin, CPA Trendlines contributor and the founder of MoneyPenny, talks about how firms are facing the hiring challenges and popular solutions that seem to be working, including using predominantly cloud-based apps for collaboration and engagement and taking a true evaluation of the talents and skills needed for each position.

More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=98359

Transformation Talks

Paul Mueller, CPA, is the managing director of Mueller Pye & Associates, CPA LLC in Loveland, Colorado.

with Bill Penczak

Center for Accounting Transformation

Paul Mueller was at a crossroads. As a national manager for the tax group of a large firm, he should have felt like Leonardo DiCaprio, yelling, "I'm the king of the world!" Yet, something just wasn't right. Today, he is the managing director of his own firm, Mueller Pye & Associates, CPA LLC in Loveland, Colo. His is a story of a late-life career transformation.

Innovation Insights: Paving the way for ESG reporting.

 Innovation Insights
With Donny Shimamoto, CPA, CITP, CGMA
Center for Accounting Transformation

Those who hesitate to adopt mature technologies could find themselves too far behind to easily catch up, according to tech experts Pete Myers, CEO of Auvenir, and Donny Shimamoto, founder and managing partner of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies.

More here: cpatrendlines.com/?p=100196

<b>The Disruptors</b>
<em>With Liz Farr</em>
<em>for CPA Trendlines</em>

Jason Staats started doing videos at the beginning of the pandemic to quickly share information about the PPP and other relief programs with as many clients as possible. Now, he has an entertaining and informative YouTube channel where he shows how to use his favorite tech tools and a new mission to drive accountants into the future with collaborations and vision.

Transformation Talks
With Bill Penczak
<a href="https://improvetheworld.net/">Center for Accounting Transformation</a></em>

After 16 years of working in firms, Mike Maksymiw, CPA, CGMA, was done. Or, so he thought.

Maksymiw discussed his career path in the latest episode of Transformation Talks with Bill Penczak, the chief transformation officer for the Center for Accounting Transformation. Maksymiw, who is now the leader of Aprio's Alliance-Firm Foundation, offers career advice for new CPAs and those considering succession planning.

More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/2022/09/12/secret-to-success-a-growth-and-abundance-mindset/

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr
for CPA Trendlines

Any accountant who has ever met Hector Garcia will likely use the adjective ‘generous’ to describe him.

Since 2011, he’s been sharing his encyclopedic knowledge of QuickBooks on a YouTube channel that has generated millions of views. Because of that YouTube channel, he hasn’t printed business cards for two years.

In this discussion, he shares tips for transitioning to value pricing, provides a step-by-step blueprint for offering additional advisory services to clients, and discusses two strategies for finding new clients. Instead of hoarding our specialized knowledge as a means to give us job security, Hector believes we should share that knowledge widely to help reduce the misinformation around taxes and accounting.

More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=98347

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

More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/2022/09/28/rick-thisthe-four-or-five-steps-to-moving-into-the-consulting-business/

 

Transformation Talks: Corporate social responsibility reporting all starts with transparency, and leaders should prioritize this, not just for communities but also for sustainability.

James Ross, the CSR leader at Buzzacott, a 500-person accounting firm based in London, talks to Donny Shimamoto, for the Center for Accounting Transformation. Published by CPA Trendlines.

 

Career Reflections

With Amy Welch

After years in public accounting, Chris Ortega decided he wanted something different.

Armed with his MBA in corporate finance from the University of Indianapolis, as well as multiple years of experience, Ortega created Fresh FP&A to provide CFO services to companies, helping them transform their finance departments and businesses. And, while many business owners start with dreams and plans, Ortega says his company operates with six key pillars in mind.

More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/2022/10/14/the-six-pillars-for-finance-transformation/

The Disruptors: Billable Hours - Demeaning and Demoralizing or Useful Measurement?

With Liz Farr

More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/2022/10/25/seth-fineberg-your-classic-business-model-wont-allow-growth/

Too busy? Raise your prices.


The Disruptors
With Liz Farr for CPA Trendlines

What do clients – or, as Ed Kless prefers, customers – want from their accountants? It’s not the tax return or the financial statement but the outcome for the customer, which is most often peace of mind.

To remain relevant in disruptions like online tax preparation and automated bookkeeping tech firms like Pilot, accountants need to think about other ancillary services they can provide above and beyond those basic services.

More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/2022/11/13/ed-kless-clients-dont-want-outputs-they-want-outcomes/

Training can triumph over textbooks in the talent wars.

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr for CPA Trendlines

Mike Whitmire wants to transform the role of accountants in industry from mere counting beans (though that’s not a bad skill to have) to an operational role that leverages accountants’ knowledge of company finances and operations to drive efficiency throughout an entire organization.

More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=103950


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 for CPA Trendlines

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

 More:
https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=105184

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Donny C. Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, is the founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC, a specialized CPA firm dedicated to helping small businesses and middle market organizations leverage strategic technologies, proactively manage their business and technical risks, and enable balanced organizational growth and development.  Donny also works with larger organizations as a trusted business advisor, facilitating organizational strategic planning and execution, IT governance and planning, enterprise architecture, information architecture and assurance, business process improvement, and business intelligence initiatives.

Click here for more Donny Shimamoto

As the founder of The Center for Accounting Transformation, Shimamoto is leading a movement to improve the world by empowering and equipping accountants with leading-edge tools and techniques.

Donny was the first Certified Information Technology Professional (CPA.CITP) in Hawaii and is one of only four in the state. The CITP credential is a specialty designation of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), that identifies Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) with the unique ability to bridge between business and technology, meeting the strict requirements for a CPA license as well as additional training and experience in technology strategic planning, IT architecture, business process enablement, system development and acquisition, IT audit and control, and IT governance. 

The immediate past chairman of the AICPA’s IMTA Executive Committee, Donny has been both influential and critical in several AICPA initiatives, including the development of an IT Competency Model for CPAs and redesign of the CITP Credential. Donny previously co-chaired the AICPA’s Business Intelligence Working Group, researching and creating practice aids in the area of Evidence-based Management, Application & Data Integration, and Information Assurance.  Donny has also been involved in the authoring of guidance published by the AICPA on IT Considerations for Risk-Based Auditing and Enterprise Business Intelligence. As a subject matter expert, Donny is often invited at national and international webinars and is a familiar keynote speaker at national-level conferences.

Donny obtained invaluable knowledge and exposure to a wide range of industries and sectors (retail, hospitality, state government, defense, and higher education) while earning his CPA license as a member of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP's Business Assurance Services, Operational & Systems Risk Management Services, and Management Consulting Services lines of business.  With ITK he has expanded his industry expertise to include not-for-profit (social services, foundations, and membership organizations), professional services, small businesses, technology, and mobile professionals.

Erik Solbakken: Create a firm you'd love working in.

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr for CPA Trendlines

Erik Solbakken, a.k.a. “The Heavy Metal CPA,” is on a mission to free accountants from an oppressive business model. Solbakken spent 18 years working his way up to be a partner in a firm in Canada, but when the partnership fell apart, he was liberated to create a new kind of firm, where he and his staff never worked overtime, and he made more money. Today, he acts as the guide he wishes he’d had when he started, empowering accountants to create firms they love working in.

More  here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=105849

"...Clients who have started their own businesses are looking for a combination of “money, time and freedom.” However, Damery said, we’re selling them dashboards, KPIs and cash flow forecasting without explaining why that’s important and what that’s going to do for them. "Clients are looking for an advisor who's going to listen to me, understand my hopes, my fears, my vision, what the challenges are, and be able to be there to support me,” Damery said..."

Chad Davis: You have an infinite canvas of opportunities to add more joy to your firm.

Kenji Kuramoto: Kill the 40-hr work week, online pricing and other archaic accounting etiquettes.

Randy Crabtree: Follow These 3 Rules to Keep Employees Happy

Ron Baker has been on a crusade to transform accounting firms for decades, first by pushing us to kill the billable hour and to implement value pricing. Today, he’s advising accountants to switch to a radically different business model. His new book, co-authored with Paul Dunn, "Time’s Up! The Subscription Business Model for Professional Firms," explains the subscription model and why moving to this model aligns the values of firm owners with those of their customers. 

“We’re ultimately in the people business. We’re in the relationship-building business. We just happen to do accounting.”

That's how Clayton Oates, the founder of QA Business, views the accounting profession.

Oates also believes accountants can choose whether they are playing a finite, zero-sum game with clients or the infinite game, which continues forever and results in an abundance forever mindset with clients, who will then be your clients for life. 

Dustin Verity admits to being cautious. He also admits to being a technophile.

In the latest episode of Transformation Talks, the CPA explained being conflicted between his obsession with playing with the latest technology and finding the right fit for his firm.

"I've always been interested in technology and, and you know, efficiencies," Verity said, always wanting to know how his firm could produce more and work more efficiently. "That means less hours that we have to spend in the office ourselves." 

Jackie Meyer is a fan of value pricing and niching your practice. Her favorite area is tax planning, which doesn’t require a huge investment of time to provide huge financial benefits for clients. Her own firm tripled revenues by focusing on tax planning. Firms that focus on low-volume, highly-niched areas solve several problems at once. 

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Heather Smith has loved accounting since she was 14 and loves the flexibility the profession offers. Since the mid-2000s she has been one of the original cloud accounting nomads, with an accounting business that she says fits in a lovely Italian handbag.

More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/2023/03/27/heather-smith-try-not-growing-your-business/

In 2022, the ANISE Consulting founder based in Brisbane, Australia, demonstrated that nomadic lifestyle by attending all three live Xerocon events: London, New Orleans and Sydney. Heather is a tireless advocate for her small business clients and a fan of technology to improve our lives, including staffing.

Transformation Talks

With Donny Shimamoto

Center for Accounting Transformation

Many accounting graduates dream of joining large firms right out of college. That dream became a reality for Dustin Wheeler. However, it didn't last long.

MORE: Dustin Verity: Keep an Open Mind and Constantly Learn | Secret to Success? A Growth and Abundance Mindset | O.D. Lanier: Stepping Into Advisory | From Tax to Transformation | Early Adopters Gain an Edge in Audit | Why the Future is in Risk Advisory | Four Strategies for a Future Ready Firm

Many accounting graduates dream of joining large firms right out of college. That dream became a reality for Dustin Wheeler. However, it didn't last long. 

"Right out of college, I moved to Las Vegas and got a job with the largest local firm," Wheeler explained. "And my job there was pretty much strictly tax."

"After a short stay there, I left for an opportunity with a smaller firm of about 16 people, which was a good change for me. It gave me an opportunity to develop some other talents that I wasn't able to use at the previous firm," he explained.

Wheeler's growing interests in technology--and a growing family--led him to a larger firm in Utah, where he continued his obsession with cloud software, paperless office, client portals and more.

But then, Eide Bailly came along.

Produced by the Center for Accounting Transformation. 
Presented by CPA Trendlines. 

Entrepreneurs in the accounting profession are rare, according to Chase Birky, president and CEO of Dark Horse CPAs. And he should know.

• More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/2023/04/10/chase-birky-paralysis-by-analysis-plagues-the-profession/

He had to take an uncomfortable step outside of his own comfort zone to become one.

After starting out in audit at a Big 4 right out of college, he decided it was no longer what he wanted to do.

"I started an audit specifically, you know, not really having a great idea of what audit truly was, you know, because you take the courses in your undergrad, and you know, you have a section of it on the CPA exam," Birky explained. "But what that material is versus what the job is, you know, are two very different things."

That motivated Birky to begin a partnership in a firm that specialized in tax and client accounting services (though he added it probably was not called CAS then).

Unfortunately, that didn't work the way he hoped, either.

However, as Birky reminds us, necessity is the mother of invention.

 The silver lining of the pandemic is that it forced accountants to move to the cloud and to develop distributed labor models, changes that are here to stay, Hitendra Patil, author of Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide, tells CPA Trendines in the latest episode of The Disruptors.