Archive for the ‘Helpful Information’ Category
Wednesday, September 19th, 2018
“Even if you’re on the right track – you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” – Arthur Godfrey
You continually face due dates. The major ones are painful.
You end up in a fire-drill mode to serve those last-minute clients. Sometimes the fire drills are even caused by you because of improper processes, procedures, and staffing.
Don’t let procrastination become a part of your firm culture and your daily life.
According to a post via Cornerstone University, procrastination can also affect us emotionally. For humans to maintain a fulfilling existence, we must have a sense of purpose and generate ongoing accomplishments. Failure here may lead to low self-esteem and a lack of ambition.
Read the entire post – Delay, Delay, Delay: How to Manage and Overcome Procrastination so it Doesn’t Manage You.
When it comes to those procrastinating clients, share this article with them. Explain how their tardiness has a negative effect on your entire team. Ask for their understanding and help. (It’s called training the client!). If they don’t co-operate, find them another accountant. Life is too short for all the stress these clients cause.
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Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.
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Jim Rohn
Monday, September 17th, 2018
“You’ve done it before and you can do it now. See the positive possibilities. Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination.” – Ralph Marston
The extended due date is here.
You and your team have been working very hard during a time of year when you should not have to work so hard.
You have those fire-drill clients that almost always hold you hostage right up until the drop-dead extension deadline. It is frustrating. Your team wonders why you put up with these clients.
Why do you? Putting extra strain and frustration on your employees in times where employees are valuable and new ones are difficult to cultivate doesn’t seem like a good plan.
Use this client retention analysis form to help you sort out which clients to outplace.
Or, just ask your employees to vote for 5 clients that they would enjoy seeing gone from the client list.
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Hope fills the holes in my frustration in my heart.
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Emanuel Cleaver
Wednesday, September 12th, 2018
“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” – Mark Twain
Accountants must be good at numbers and they also need to be good writers.
According to a recent post by Grammarly, many writers use filler words and phrases and they also use hedging words because they don’t want to appear demanding and bossy.
I am guilty of using hedging words and I never realized it. I also observe that many accountants do the same.
Here are some good examples via Grammarly:
Slightly
I’m slightly annoyed by Kate’s repeated tardiness.
Sort of, Kind of
Their plan was kind of short-sighted.
Rather, somewhat
The play was rather interesting.
Quite
His car is quite fast.
Probably
We should probably wait to send that email until we have final approval.
If you need to learn more ways to improve your writing, read the entire post.
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Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
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Mark Twain
Tuesday, September 11th, 2018
“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” – Ernest Hemingway
Trust is a word that is thrown around the CPA profession all of the time. “Most Trusted Advisor” is familiar to most of you. CPAs have been claiming that mantra for many years now.
I see that the AICPA even has a Trusted Client Advisor Toolbox and Workshop.
Let’s explore trust a little deeper as it exists inside accounting firms. Here’s a familiar story about firm administrators. The administrator is an experienced professional. He/She takes over most of the day-to-day operations of the firm from the partners and implements procedures to make processes flow smoothly inside the firm. Soon the managing partner is distanced from the details (a very good thing) and can focus on managing the partners. The managing partner trusts that the firm administrator will take care of things.
Trust imparts obligation. The firm administrator takes that responsibility very seriously and works diligently to not disappoint the partners.
In my consulting work, I have experienced many situations where staff members do not trust the partners (owners). Building trust that goes both ways is a continual activity in a firm with a healthy culture. Not there yet? Keep working at it.
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Trust is the lubrication that makes it possible for organizations to work.
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Warren Bennis
Wednesday, September 5th, 2018
“Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you’ll understand what little chance you have in trying to change others.” – Tom Robbins
September 15th is approaching rapidly. You are so unhappy with those clients that ignore all of your requests for their information. Once the fire drill is over, take time to review your client list and decide on the ones that simply must go.
According to Arvid Mostad, President of
Mostad & Christensen, Inc., a well-known supplier of quality marketing materials to the CPA profession, here are the 15 habits of bad clients:
- Slow paying or non-payment of fees.
- Write-downs always exceed write-ups.
- Client frequently complains about billings.
- Client is unwilling to pay for added services.
- Not profitable when compared to other clients.
- Personality conflict with partners and staff.
- Client conduct makes staff uncomfortable.,
- Client is abusive to staff, even if civil to partners.
- Client fails to cooperate or provide information on a timely basis.
- Client doesn’t listen to advice given, then complains about results.
- Client projects are always on a crisis time schedule.
- Client expresses lack of trust in the firm’s work.
- Client is less than truthful.
- Client has taken on new ventures outside the firm’s area of expertise.
- Client’s activities expose the firm to liability.
Use this list to help identify the clients that need to be referred elsewhere.
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Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion . . . . I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.
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Kurt Vonnegut
Tuesday, September 4th, 2018
“Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” – Joshua J. Marine
Not sure why, but many CPAs seem to have a fascination with retaining emails. I have talked to some who admit that they have thousands in their inbox that might date back two or three years or more.
I like a comment in the article I featured last week about M&A and technology. An acquiring firm gets IT involved during due diligence to start educating the firm being acquired about retention policies. When your data comes over to the new system, all of your email older than six months will go away. You need to move client emails to the client file.
How would some of your partners feel about that? If you are a smaller firm and have not implemented these essential types of IT policies, start preparing now.
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When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.
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Helen Keller
Tuesday, August 28th, 2018
“Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed.” – William James
I don’t often use a complete post by Seth Godin. However, this one hits so close to home for CPAs that I just had to share it right here – so you will read it!
Another important due date is approaching. So many of you tell me that much of the stress is caused by clients who fail to provide information. Then it becomes a fire drill to complete their tax return by the due date causing stress and frustration for the entire team. His first paragraph is exactly you.
You must charge a significantly higher fee for emergencies. If those tardy clients won’t pay it then let them go elsewhere. Quit complaining about these clients and take steps to solve the situation.
Emergencies Cost Extra
If you work in a field where things need to be delivered by date certain, with zero defects, with high consequences if you make a mistake—then you need to charge a premium for exposing yourself to emergencies.
It doesn’t matter what something in a non-emergency situation costs. If someone wants the standard version, let them buy that.
The buyer is offered to pull it off the shelf, see if you like it. If it doesn’t satisfy you, take a different one.
Emergencies (or even the risk of emergencies) cost extra. Yelling at us costs extra. Panic costs extra.
Your entire organization (and your entire day) revolves around preventing the emergency or recovering from it when it occurs.
The reason custom work costs more is no longer a matter of production efficiency. Computers are happy to customize things.
Big companies that serve other big companies spend at least 80% of their overhead on being ready (or dealing with) meetings and emergencies.
The reason to charge more is all about ensurance, insurance and emotional wear and tear.
If that’s the sort of work you want to do, charge appropriately.
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History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.
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John F. Kennedy
Friday, August 17th, 2018
“You have to water the flowers you want to grow.” – Stephen Covey
If you are considering taking on the role of Mentor. Or, if you are a Mentee looking for a Mentor – what’s in it for you?
Here’s a post from 2016 that explains the benefits of both roles.
Have a great weekend!
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To add value to others, one must first value others.
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John Maxwell
Wednesday, August 15th, 2018
“What people really want advice on is the interpersonal weirdness that comes with having a job.” – Alison Green
As I read an article via The New York Times – Your Workplace Isn’t Your Family (and That’s Ok!), I definitely thought about how the article should be read by many of you working inside accounting firms.
The article is an interview with Alison Green, author of a book titled: Ask a Manager: How to Navigate Clueless Colleagues, Lunch-Stealing Bosses, and the Rest of Your Life at Work.
I have heard it over and over from firms of varying sizes over many years – “we are like family.” I have always struggled with this topic. I have seen it used to avoid difficult conversations and to justify continuing to employ a poor performer over a long period of time. I have also seen it used to make unreasonable demands like working unreasonable hours and even seven days per week.
As you work at your accounting firm, always remember that this is business, not family, no matter what some people might think.
From the author: I want people to know it’s all right to treat work like work. We’re being paid to be there, and most of us wouldn’t show up otherwise. We don’t need to pretend that’s not the case.
Employment, underneath it all, is a contractual situation. It is a transaction: I pay you and you do the work. You pay me and I do the work.
Be sure to read the article/interview.
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There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.
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Colin Powell
Thursday, August 9th, 2018
“Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.” – Anton Chekhov
CPA firms are seeing amazing growth in the area of outsourced accounting services. It not only is of immediate value to clients, it also provides the accountant with the ability (and information) to become even more of a trusted advisor.
Recently, Bill.com released the results of a survey they did regarding the use of outsourced accounting services. They have furnished a report on their findings – What Businesses Really Think of Client Accounting Services. You can download the report here.
In the introduction, Bill.com founder, Rene Lacerte, notes:
We are a nation of outsourcers.
In our personal lives, we outsource both simple and complex tasks—everything from grocery shopping to planning for retirement. We aren’t lazy or incapable, but we know that if we let the experts handle these tasks, they will be done right and allow us time to focus on what matters most. Outsourcing reinforces our priorities.
Businesses, too, are well acquainted with outsourcing. Disciplines ranging from IT to customer support to HR have all found their ways to hire experienced professionals outside of the corporate structure. Now, outsourcing all accounting is gaining traction.
The accounting profession has talked about client accounting advisory services (CAS) for a decade, speculating on the best ways a firm can solicit and handle all of a company’s accounting and finance department needs. For accountants, holding the reins to the company’s financial performance gives them unparalleled insight into the business and the ability to surpass a transactional state in favor of strategic advice and planning. It creates the platform for impactful contributions.
While accountants understand the benefits of CAS, what do businesses think about outsourcing their accounting? If you’re considering starting or expanding your CAS practice, it is good insight to have before you begin.
In this survey with CPA.com, we asked more than 1,700 small and medium-size businesses to share their opinions on outsourcing accounting. The results are summarized in the following pages. Respondents told us how much they’re outsourcing today, what they’d like to outsource, what they appreciate about it, and how it benefits their customers.
The survey data underscores just how important CAS can be to both firms and their business clients and how it will continue to grow and gain even greater value in the accounting world.
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Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.
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William Shakespeare
