Exclusive information. Extraordinary insight.See all podcast episodes here: https://cpatrendlines.com/category/podcast/ CPA Trendlines is the world’s only research and advisory service focused solely on the tax, accounting, and finance professions. We use a time-tested, quality-proven, proprietary blend of data, analysis, community, experience, and imagination to produce extraordinary value for our clients. Elite decision-makers from all over the world look to CPA Trendlines for trusted advice, bold insights, and confidential access to exclusive intelligence and decision support. You’ll stay more focused, save time, grow revenue in a fast-changing global digital environment, and sleep better at night. Guaranteed. Facts. Figures. Insights. Implications. Here you'll find the data and analysis you can use for your practice and your career, plus exclusive research, insights, and commentary on the most pressing issues and fastest-changing trends. We are dedicated to delivering the actionable intelligence that tax, accounting, and finance professionals need in order to identify and act on emerging issues and opportunities. We specialize in high-quality, concise executive briefings designed to help busy professionals improve their organizations, advance their careers, and enhance their lives. Our reports are relevant, timely, and to-the-point, providing the most essential information, and are digestible often in under an hour.
Where there are unmet needs, there are opportunities.The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrJames Graham’s firm, Richtr Financial Studio, gave up the billable hour 10 or 15 years ago, and points to that choice as something that made the biggest difference in his firm. 10 MORE TAKEAWAYS: James Graham show notes here MORE: Disruptors MORE CPA TRENDLINES PODCASTS and VIDEOS: Karen Reyburn: Fix Your Marketing and Fix Your Business | Giles Pearson: Fix the Staffing Crisis by Swapping Experience for Education | Jina Etienne: Practice Fearless Inclusion | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Jason Deshayes: What We're Doing Isn't Working | Heather Satterley: You've Got To Meet People Where They Are | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Sandra Wiley: Staffing Problem? Check Your Culture | He said it's because “it really changes the nature of your relationship with the client” when the client is no longer looking at the clock with “that dollar per hour at the moment, always hanging over any interaction.” By removing the focus on time, “it allows everyone to move forward better because the focus is on running the business.”His firm, which specializes in outsourced accounting and fractional CFO services for innovation companies, is in the process of growing from 26 to 50 team members. “One of the things that I really like about growth is it creates opportunity for our team,” Graham explained. These opportunities include moving to a higher position or becoming a specialist. He also notes that firms that don’t offer growth opportunities risk losing people.
Fix Your Marketing and Fix Your Business.The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrKaren Reyburn wants accountants to stop thinking “about marketing as this one-off thing where you tick little boxes,” but instead about how to use your marketing to connect to the human experience. 17 MORE TAKEAWAYS: Karen Reyburn show notes here MORE: Disruptors MORE CPA TRENDLINES PODCASTS and VIDEOS: Giles Pearson: Fix the Staffing Crisis by Swapping Experience for Education | Jina Etienne: Practice Fearless Inclusion | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Jason Deshayes: What We're Doing Isn't Working | Heather Satterley: You've Got To Meet People Where They Are | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Sandra Wiley: Staffing Problem? Check Your Culture | In her new book, The Accountant Marketer: The Structured Approach Any Accountant Can Follow to Attract Clients They Love, Reyburn provides a step-by-step process for understanding the unique characteristics of their firm and how to connect that uniqueness with their best clients. “If you have a marketing problem, you have a business problem" she says, "If you have a business problem, there’s often a marketing solution that can help with it.”
The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrGetting the word out about client accounting services could help solve the staffing shortage, says Giles Pearson, CEO and co-founder of Accountests, an online knowledge-testing company that focuses on recruitment, selection and development assessments for chartered accountants, accounting graduates and candidates. EIGHT MORE TAKEAWAYS: Giles Pearson show notes here MORE: Disruptors MORE CPA TRENDLINES PODCASTS and VIDEOS: Jina Etienne: Practice Fearless Inclusion | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Jason Deshayes: What We're Doing Isn't Working | Heather Satterley: You've Got To Meet People Where They Are | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Sandra Wiley: Staffing Problem? Check Your Culture | CAS, Pearson says, appeals to those with an entrepreneurial bent, which could make the accounting profession more interesting and appealing to the next generation.
Twyla Verhelst explains 'collaborative accounting.'With Seth FinebergAt Large for CPA TrendlinesFreshBooks is taking another step to evolve from being a cloud-based invoicing solution for gig workers to being more strongly considered a true accounting solution that accountants could use to collaborate with clients as their business needs evolve. MORE FINEBERG: Your Classic Business Model Won’t Allow Growth | Accounting Tech Decisions You Need to Make Today | You’re Doing Email Wrong | When Live Events Fail | Who’s in Control? You? Or Your Clients? | Time Management Rule #1 for Accountants MORE TECH: Major Websites Blocking Content from AI Crawlers | AI and the Future of Advisory | How Much a Data Breach Will Cost You – Directly and Indirectly | Strengthen Client Ties with Workflow Tools | The Art of Prompt Engineering for A.I. Accountants MORE VERHELST: Twyla Verhelst on How Firms Are Getting Creative to Compete “We are definitely in this flow of evolving the platform to support accountants better," Twyla Verhelst, head of FreshBooks’ accountant channel, tells CPA Trendlines' Seth Fineberg. "We now have an accountant hub, which we will continue to add to and a robust roadmap, one in which we’re building from a place of [asking] accounting partners what do you need?” More show notes here: https://cpatrendlines.com/2023/10/18/twyla-verhelst-freshbooks-collaborative-accounting-will-freshbooks-finally-be-embraced-by-more-accountants/
Transformation TalksWith Donny ShimamotoCenter for Accounting Transformation Glen Harper, CPA, says businesses should be willing to reinvent themselves and that diverse perspectives can be a valuable asset. The owner of Harper & Company CPAs should know: He's had to embrace both philosophies to become successful. MORE: Harper & Company CPAs show notes here MORE CPA TRENDLINES PODCASTS and VIDEOS: Jason Deshayes: What We're Doing Isn't Working | Heather Satterley: You've Got To Meet People Where They Are | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Sandra Wiley: Staffing Problem? Check Your Culture | Scott Scarano: First, Grow People. Then Firm Growth Can Follow | Jody Padar: Build a Practice that Works for You, Not Vice-Versa | Ira Rosenbloom: With M&A, Nobody Wants a Fixer-Upper | Peter Margaritis: The Power Skills Every Accountant Needs | Joe Montgomery: Find the Sweet Spot of the Right Clients, Right Services and Right Prices | Marie Green: Your Bad Apples Are Ruining You | Megan Genest Tarnow: Hire for Curiosity Rather Than Compliance | Clayton Oates: One Way to Keep Clients for Life | Randy Crabtree: Follow These Three Rules to Keep Employees Happy | Erik Solbakken: Yes, You Can Work Less and Make More | Donny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a Mindshift In a recent episode of Transformation Talks, Harper tells host Donny Shimamoto, CPA, CITP, CGMA, who is also the founder and managing director of Intraprise TechKnowlogies LLC, that a good advisor can help you see your business from a different perspective and identify opportunities that you may have missed. He said after some self-reflection, he needed what his successful clients already had--a CEO.Enter Julie Smith.
The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrJina Etienne wants accountants to stop hiding behind our green eyeshades and all the stereotypes we share as CPAs. She practices “fearless inclusion,” which is the freedom to be yourself and to create the space for others to do the same. MORE: Jina Etienne show notes here MORE: Disruptors MORE CPA TRENDLINES PODCASTS and VIDEOS: Heather Satterley: You've Got To Meet People Where They Are | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Sandra Wiley: Staffing Problem? Check Your Culture | Scott Scarano: First, Grow People. Then Firm Growth Can Follow | Jody Padar: Build a Practice that Works for You, Not Vice-Versa | Ira Rosenbloom: With M&A, Nobody Wants a Fixer-Upper | Peter Margaritis: The Power Skills Every Accountant Needs | Joe Montgomery: Find the Sweet Spot of the Right Clients, Right Services and Right Prices | Marie Green: Your Bad Apples Are Ruining You | Megan Genest Tarnow: Hire for Curiosity Rather Than Compliance | Clayton Oates: One Way to Keep Clients for Life | Randy Crabtree: Follow These Three Rules to Keep Employees Happy | Erik Solbakken: Yes, You Can Work Less and Make More | Donny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a Mindshift | Jennifer Wilson: Empower Young Workers to Build the Firm Everyone Loves | Mike Whitmire: Re-Think Your Hiring and Training Practices “Inclusion happens because of how I show up and the space I make for others,” Etienne said. She added that the fearless part means we must be brave and bold while interacting with others thoughtfully. When we show our personalities and our humanity, “That fixes a lot of things, actually,” she explained.
The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrChris Vanover is on a mission “to make accounting and auditing better.”Initially, AuditClub helped firms mainly with quality control, but over time, that grew into offering fractional support on a subscription basis to audit firms that can’t find the talent they need. MORE: Chris Vanover show notes here MORE: Disruptors MORE CPA TRENDLINES PODCASTS and VIDEOS: Jason Deshayes: What We're Doing Isn't Working | Heather Satterley: You've Got To Meet People Where They Are | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Sandra Wiley: Staffing Problem? Check Your Culture | Scott Scarano: First, Grow People. Then Firm Growth Can Follow | Jody Padar: Build a Practice that Works for You, Not Vice-Versa | Ira Rosenbloom: With M&A, Nobody Wants a Fixer-Upper | Peter Margaritis: The Power Skills Every Accountant Needs | Joe Montgomery: Find the Sweet Spot of the Right Clients, Right Services and Right Prices | Marie Green: Your Bad Apples Are Ruining You | Megan Genest Tarnow: Hire for Curiosity Rather Than Compliance | Clayton Oates: One Way to Keep Clients for Life | Randy Crabtree: Follow These Three Rules to Keep Employees Happy | Erik Solbakken: Yes, You Can Work Less and Make More | Donny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a Mindshift | Jennifer Wilson: Empower Young Workers to Build the Firm Everyone Loves Audit firms are challenged to plan a year or even a month out, so AuditClub offers members weekly access. This weekly flexibility allows AuditClub to take a concierge approach to help their member firms out a week at a time. Plus, Vanover may have the secret sauce to getting employees to perform at their optimum levels daily.
The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrBy age 35, Jason Deshayes, CPA/PFS, CFP, CKA, was already co-owner of a CPA firm in Albuquerque. He “hit the magic Shangri La that we’re all working for.” But it wasn’t right for him. He was bored with the long hours and felt he wasn’t growing. He wasn’t able to think about his firm the way he wanted to. So he and his partner sold their firm. MORE: Jason Deshayes show notes here MORE: Disruptors MORE CPA TRENDLINES PODCASTS and VIDEOS: Heather Satterley: You've Got to Meet People Where They Are | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Sandra Wiley: Staffing Problem? Check Your Culture | Scott Scarano: First, Grow People. Then Firm Growth Can Follow | Jody Padar: Build a Practice that Works for You, Not Vice-Versa | Ira Rosenbloom: With M&A, Nobody Wants a Fixer-Upper | Peter Margaritis: The Power Skills Every Accountant Needs | Joe Montgomery: Find the Sweet Spot of the Right Clients, Right Services and Right Prices | Marie Green: Your Bad Apples Are Ruining You | Megan Genest Tarnow: Hire for Curiosity Rather Than Compliance | Clayton Oates: One Way to Keep Clients for Life | Randy Crabtree: Follow These Three Rules to Keep Employees Happy | Erik Solbakken: Yes, You Can Work Less and Make More | Donny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a Mindshift | Jennifer Wilson: Empower Young Workers to Build the Firm Everyone Loves | Mike Whitmire: Re-Think Your Hiring and Training Practices Today, he’s COO at Cook Wealth, a hybrid wealth management and tax firm. Providing both types of services means that they don’t deal with “this weird thing, where the client’s in the middle, and they have to be the conduit for information going both ways.” He says that getting his CFP has “been so enriching. I love what I do, and it’s because I was willing to drop stuff so other people could learn the stuff I learned and so I could do fun stuff.”
The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrHeather Satterley is well-known for being an accounting tech expert. But tech isn’t the only skill accountants need today and for the future. “You can have great technology skills, but if you don't have people skills and those softer skills, that's going to be a problem,” she said. MORE: Heather Satterley show notes here MORE: Disruptors MORE CPA TRENDLINES PODCASTS and VIDEOS: Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Sandra Wiley: Staffing Problem? Check Your Culture | Scott Scarano: First, Grow People. Then Firm Growth Can Follow | Jody Padar: Build a Practice that Works for You, Not Vice-Versa | Ira Rosenbloom: With M&A, Nobody Wants a Fixer-Upper | Peter Margaritis: The Power Skills Every Accountant Needs | Joe Montgomery: Find the Sweet Spot of the Right Clients, Right Services and Right Prices | Marie Green: Your Bad Apples Are Ruining You | Megan Genest Tarnow: Hire for Curiosity Rather Than Compliance | Clayton Oates: One Way to Keep Clients for Life | Randy Crabtree: Follow These Three Rules to Keep Employees Happy | Erik Solbakken: Yes, You Can Work Less and Make More | Donny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a Mindshift | Jennifer Wilson: Empower Young Workers to Build the Firm Everyone Loves | Mike Whitmire: Re-Think Your Hiring and Training Practices One of those softer skills that will be a key skill for the future is problem-solving, which requires keeping an open mind to “look at not just facts and figures, but look at tools, resources, people and pull them all together," she explained. No one can be an expert at everything, so having “a wide network of really awesome professionals” is vital for filling in any gaps “to get the job done.”
Innovation InsightsWith Donny ShimamotoAdrian Hong's journey into the realm of environmental, social, and governmental (ESG) reporting has been nothing short of inspiring. As the founder of Hong Consulting, LLC, his dedication to assisting companies with ESG reporting stems from a rich tapestry of experiences, all pointing to one common thread – the desire to help. MORE Adrian Hong's conversation with Donny Shimamoto here MORE DONNY SHIMAMOTO: Cybersecurity Exemptions for Orgs with Less than 5,000 Clients | Safe Harbor Compliance Reduces Risk of Fines and Penalties | Unleashing the Power of Technology: Transforming Accountants into Trusted Advisors | Overcoming the Five Hurdles to Advisory Services | How Tax Practitioners Became Cybersecurity Risks | Why Compliance Still Matters. But It’s Not Enough. | How Hacker-Proof Is Your Firm? | It Takes a Village to Stop Cybercrime After building a formidable reputation in auditing within public accounting and lending his skills to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) for refining external taxonomy, life had other plans. Hong returned to his roots in Hawaii to steer the helm of his family's venture, Island Plastic Bags.
The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrToo many accounting firms have “smart people doing stupid work,” according to Bill Penczak, a veteran sales and marketing professional. Think about the effort it takes to get an accounting degree and get your CPA, and contrast that with the years of mindless work that many new hires are required to do, especially if they go into audit, he said. MORE: Bill Penczak here MORE CPA TRENDLINES PODCASTS and VIDEOS: Sandra Wiley: Staffing Problem? Check Your Culture | Scott Scarano: First, Grow People. Then Firm Growth Can Follow | Jody Padar: Build a Practice that Works for You, Not Vice-Versa | Ira Rosenbloom: With M&A, Nobody Wants a Fixer-Upper | Peter Margaritis: The Power Skills Every Accountant Needs | Joe Montgomery: Find the Sweet Spot of the Right Clients, Right Services and Right Prices | Marie Green: Your Bad Apples Are Ruining You | Megan Genest Tarnow: Hire for Curiosity Rather Than Compliance | Clayton Oates: One Way to Keep Clients for Life | Randy Crabtree: Follow These Three Rules to Keep Employees Happy | Erik Solbakken: Yes, You Can Work Less and Make More | Donny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a Mindshift | Jennifer Wilson: Empower Young Workers to Build the Firm Everyone Loves | Mike Whitmire: Re-Think Your Hiring and Training Practices | Hector Garcia: Success Strategies of a Quickbooks YouTube Superstar | “One of the reasons why there’s such a talent shortage is because the market has figured this out,” and no one wants to do that stupid work, Penczak says.
The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrSandra Wiley has been speaking with firm owners and leaders for nearly three decades and clearly sees the need for change in the profession. MORE: Sandra Wiley here MORE CPA TRENDLINES PODCASTS and VIDEOS: Peter Margaritis: The Power Skills Every Accountant Needs | Joe Montgomery: Find the Sweet Spot of the Right Clients, Right Services and Right Prices | Marie Green: Your Bad Apples Are Ruining You | Megan Genest Tarnow: Hire for Curiosity Rather Than Compliance | Clayton Oates: One Way to Keep Clients for Life | Randy Crabtree: Follow These Three Rules to Keep Employees Happy | Erik Solbakken: Yes, You Can Work Less and Make More | Donny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a Mindshift | Jennifer Wilson: Empower Young Workers to Build the Firm Everyone Loves | Mike Whitmire: Re-Think Your Hiring and Training Practices | Hector Garcia: Success Strategies of a Quickbooks YouTube Superstar | Blake Oliver: Why Tax Work Yearns To Be Free| Private Equity Explodes in U.K. | Brannon Poe: The Status Quo Must Go | Accounting Nerds, Unlock Your Super Powers | Disruptor: Jason Statts Shakes Up the Status Quo | Think Small to Think Big with Matt Wilkinson | When Financial Statements Go Extinct with Corey Schmidt | Can Geraldine Carter Save Accountants from Themselves? | Re-Inventing Accounting with Tyler Anderson “The business model that was built before cannot be the business model that you have going forward. It simply doesn't work,” Wiley says. “Now, we're still living in the old business model,” and we have to get out of it.
The 150-hour rule is facing harsh criticism in the accounting staffing crisis.With Steven SacksThe NEW Fundamentals: Thriving in DisruptionThere is a movement afoot by the state CPA societies to reconsider whether the fifth year of an accounting program that offers the student a Master’s in Accounting is worth the cost, not to mention the increased complexity of business requiring as much exposure and experience as necessary to groom the younger professionals.FULL SHOW NOTES: hereMORE STEVE SACKS: Sell Service, Not Hours | Fine-Tuning the Subscription Fee Model | When Cyber-Crime Hits Close to Home | How to Build a Winning Proposal | Six Ways to Fix Your Firm Agreement | The Great Resignation or a Reshuffling? | Listen to Learn | Build the Framework to a Solution with Five Answers | Try for Success, Not a WinHowever, there is a shortage of 300,000 CPA candidates entering the profession’s pipeline. That's why several states are seeking to eliminate, modify or enhance the educational/experiential model.Sacks discusses the dilemma of education versus experience with accounting expert David Bergstein, CPA, the chief innovation officer for Bergstein CPA and teaching adjunct for Valencia College.
What to Start Doing Today to Be Fully Prepared for Next Tax Season... and Beyond. A CPA Trendlines Flash BriefingHosted by Seth Fineberg of AccountantsForward for CPA Trendlines TOP TAKEAWAYS Artificial intelligence. Work smarter, not harder. Managing tech expenses. The fast track to rapid adoption. Choosing the right tech for your firm's needs today and tomorrow. YOUR PANEL OF EXPERTSChad Davis, CPA, CMA, Owner, LiveCAChad Davis is a CPA and a co-founder of LiveCA LLP in Canada. He co-hosted the AutomationTown podcast and has a weekly newsletter sharing solutions to common tech issues for accountants. He's also in his sixth year travelling full-time with his family in their RV across Canada and the USA. Kellie Parks, CPB, Cloud Accounting Process and Automation Builder, CalmwatersParks is a Certified Professional Bookkeeper and Founder of Calmwaters Cloud Accounting. She is passionate about all things online accounting and apps that create a robust cloud accounting ecosystem. Parks is an innovator, adopting cloud financial technology for her own business in 2009, and in 2012, as soon as it came to Canada, Parks adopted QBO and has not looked back. She is QBO Advanced Pro Certified, Freshbooks Certified, Dext Certified, WagePoint Certified, QBTime Certified, a Hubdoc Advanced Partner, Plooto Partner, Ignition Partner, 17Hats Partner, Karbon Partner, PandaDoc Partner, Zoom Partner, Reply Partner, and an Acuity Partner. Kenji Kuramoto, CEO, Founder, AcuityKuramoto is the Founder and CEO of Acuitywhich builds and maintains financial functions for innovative entrepreneurs. Through Acuity, he’s provided thousands of companies with a full range of financial solutions, from high-level strategic financial counsel through its fractional CFO practice, all the way to virtualized bookkeeping and tax services. Prior to Acuity, Kuramoto was the CFO of an Inc. 5000 tech company and worked in the assurance practice at Arthur Andersen.YOUR MODERATORSeth Fineberg, Accountants Forward, CPA Trendlines Editor At LargeFineberg has been an editor and journalist for over 30 years, the vast majority of which has been spent serving the accounting profession. He has been the editor-in-chief at AccountingWeb and at Accounting Technology. He was also the technology editor at Accounting Today. His work has appeared in AdAge, The New York Times, Reuters, AiMarketing News, Fortune, CNN, B2B Magazine, Media Magazine, Revolution Magazine, Electronic Media, and Video Business. Today, as an accounting and business-focused editorial manager and content strategist, he is one of the profession's leading analysts on the technology, trends, and winning growth and profitability strategies of tax and accounting firms and the technology companies that serve them.
The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrCPA TrendlinesAl Anderson is out to change audit as accountants know it. Auditors, he declares, are spending too much time being busy instead of being valuable. Get the free preview of his forthcoming handbook: “The New Manifesto for Accountants," Instant Download (PDF) Anderson is preaching a revolutionary framework for audit leadership, described in his forthcoming handbook from CPA Trendlines.Auditors, he says, should be looking closer at transactions, instead of focusing narrowly on the balance sheet. The transactional approach, rather than a balance sheet approach, provides more value to the client because it reveals the bumps in the road that happen as a transaction rolls up to the general ledger so that it can be recorded correctly. For example, consider invoices that could go out earlier, which causes clients to lose a few days of cash flow. Consider, for example, invoices that could go out earlier, which causes clients to lose a few days of cash flow. You're unlikely to notice it if you tie the receivable sub-ledger to the general ledger.
The Disruptorswith Liz Farrfor CPA TrendlinesWhen Scott Scarano lost a few good people at his firm, he knew he needed to change things. Instead of continuing to grow for the sake of growth, he overhauled his management approach More CPA Trendlines podcasts here.“And things are better now at the firm, because we're not focused on growth,” but instead on “growing everybody,” including himself. By building better habits and finding better ways to do things, his team is growing their bottom line, and a few of the people who left earlier have now returned. “That’s growth I like to see.”
The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrFor CPA TrendlinesIra Rosenbloom has been working in the M&A space for accounting firms for over a decade and says it’s a complicated and exciting time in the M&A space today. “We’re seeing a lot of things that make sense, and a lot of things that are frustrating because they make sense, and a lot of things that make no sense,” he said.Staffing problems on both sides are forcing buyers to be far more selective about the firms they consider buying.More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=112436 Today’s buyers are different in many ways than the sellers. First, Rosenbloom explained, baby boomer sellers tend to like to talk to people, while the younger generations looking to buy firms are “more selective in their communication.” Younger buyers tend to be more entrepreneurial, and “the more that the seller comes across as an entrepreneur, the more interested the buyer is going to be in what's going on,” he added. Buyers are also interested in firms making a break with old methodologies and sellers who “want to invest in the long game," Rosenbloom said.
The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrCPA Trendlines Jody Padar, the author of The Radical CPA, has been shaking things up in the accounting world for years. But today, firms are at a boiling point, limited by supply and demand. “You only have so many people doing the work. And what are you going to do? You can’t make the work up. It’s got to get done," Padar said. More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=113007 The old business model was taking whoever walked in and billing by the hour. But today, we don’t have the capacity. “There’s so much work out there," she explained. "I have not heard any accountants say that they are looking for work. They’re all saying, ‘Stop, go away. I don’t have the resources to serve you.’”She encourages firm leaders to prioritize time to think about what kind of firm they want. “It's really about having a practice that works for you instead of you working for it, right? It's about making sure that you spend time focused on your business and not in your business,” she explained.
The Disruptors With Liz Farr for CPA Trendlines Peter Margaritis, who also calls himself The Accidental Accountant, grew up in the gregarious environment of restaurants, “where everybody communicated, not well, sometimes, but they communicated.” So it was a shock when he went to work at Price Waterhouse, and he “felt that all the air got sucked out of the office, and nobody was communicating at all, and they looked at me like I was crazy.” More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=112394 His crusade for the last decade or so has been to help accountants improve what we often call soft skills, but which he calls power skills: the ability to communicate clearly and effectively with others. “There’s nothing that will slow you down more in your career than a poorly written memo or email or a presentation that you were poorly prepared for,” Margaritis said.
With Rick TelbergFor CPA TrendlinesPrivate equity takeovers of accounting firms are changing the rules for the CPA business, impacting succession plans, shifting talent strategies, and reshaping the competition, according to Robert Fligel, CEO and founder of RF Resources, one of the nation's leading advisors. More about this episode here See all CPA Trendlines and Podcasts and Videos here In this exclusive interview with CPA Trendlines, Fligel, a veteran dealmaker in the vast and active New York market, explains what PE firms may not want you to know, why CPA firms are suddenly so much in demand, and the often-uncertain outlook for owners, staffers, and the profession.For some, PE is an opportunity. For others, a threat. Fligel helps sort it all out.
The Disruptors With Liz Farr for CPA TrendlinesBefore Joe Montgomery started his firm, he had an epiphany. He asked himself, “Why would I ever want to own a firm, if that’s what it looks like?” He saw firm leaders chained to their desks, working long hours and dealing with waves of turnover. “There’s got to be a different way to do it,” he thought. More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=111981 After too many 100-hour weeks with a wife and three kids he never saw, he reached his breaking point and exited his family firm to start his own firm and his coaching business, GroupUp. His focus in his accounting firm and in GroupUp is finding that sweet spot of the right clients, right services and right prices. The first step is “making sure we have the right people in the right structure with the right motivators behind it. Those three components can build an unstoppable team," Montgomery explained. Next, he said, “on the client side, we do the right service that's in our wheelhouse, that we can consistently deliver to the right client…and for the right price, so we have enough money coming in the door.”With that structure in place, Montgomery said, firm owners “can get out of production and lead the firm,” changes that can lead to “you running a firm that gives you more freedom.”
The Disruptors With Liz Farr for CPA TrendlinesRyan Lazanis started his previous firm, Xen Accounting, a 100% online accounting firm because he thought he could have a better life if he started his own business. Now, he teaches firm owners from around the world how to build firms that support their lifestyles.More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=111660 “Your business is there to serve your lifestyle. We often lose sight of that,” Lazanis says. Instead, firm owners should think about what makes them happy, and how their business will help them get there."Growing your firm should start with that concrete end in mind. Work backward to see what you should be doing next and how big you want your firm to be. “A lot of firms are able to grow, but to the detriment of someone's work-life balance,” he said. Adding to the top line can also mean “we're driving ourselves into the ground.”Instead, Lazanis wants “to help firm owners create a business model that can scale, where we can add to the top line, but in a more reasonable fashion where we're not adding to our existing workload.”
The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrMarie Greene founded Connected Accounting in 2019 out of a desire to create a new kind of accounting firm where firm culture and “reliable, reliable, reliable” customer service were the highest priorities.MORE HERE: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=111335“What is your culture? Who do you want to have on your team?” are questions leaders need to consider when seeking out new team members or deciding who to fire, says Greene. She advises firm owners to remember the message it sends when poor performers are retained because “the good people also leave because you keep the bad apples.”
Staff and employee annual reviews help assess where teams need additional help, guidance and development. If only they weren't so painful...Enter Menlo Innovations, an IT consulting firm and custom software development firm that appears to have found a better way to analyze team performance and deliver constructive feedback.
The Disruptors With Liz Farrfor CPA TrendlinesMegan Genest Tarnow is well-known in accounting circles as the go-to expert in using QuickBooks for the fund accounting required by nonprofit entities. Full episode notes here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=108914 See all CPA Trendlines multimedia productions here: https://cpatrendlines.com/category/video,podcast/ Many of the best accountants she knows have come from non-traditional backgrounds like dance or philosophy. Megan worked in theater for several years before being thrust into a finance role. Like her, these non-traditional accountants apply their native curiosity to understand how the pieces fit together. By leaning into the work and asking questions, they uncover an unknown aptitude for accounting, suggesting that perhaps we should hire for curiosity rather than compliance knowledge.
With Liz FarrCreating the firm you want means you have to be intentional about it, said Twyla Verhelst, CPA. The head of Accountant Channel at FreshBooks and creator of Women in Accounting Mentorship said the first step is getting clear on your why, your firm’s why and your team’s why so you can approach growth more intentionally. More from CPA Trendlines here: https://cpatrendlines.com/category/podcast/She said CPAs should be asking, "Why is it that a particular goal appeals to you?" "Is that the right thing to be working toward now?" "What will you do to get there?"
Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, says that one of the COVID pandemic’s benefits is accelerating technology adoption.With the ongoing talent crunch, technology is one of the ways firms can get the work done with fewer people, as firm owners seek to create a sustainable balance “because we can’t keep going the way that we’re going.”
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.
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.
Transformation TalksWith Donny ShimamotoCenter for Accounting TransformationMany 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 FirmMany 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.
