5 Steps for Increasing Your Connection With Clients

Your clients drive your business model. This is why, in these tough times, it’s so important to connect with them and show them you care. Your clients have likely felt a sense of panic over the public health situation, the economy, their own customer base, and their employees.  They may be facing a tension between…

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5 Areas of Focus for Firm Transformation

By now, firms know they need to change. The question now is HOW? As firm leaders read articles, attend conferences and talk to peers, it seems they are looking or hoping for the solution that will magically transform their firm. Unfortunately, there is no magic solution. However, you can take steps to determine the right…

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10 Keys to Success for Emerging Leaders

It’s an exciting time to be an emerging leader in the accounting profession! We’re in the middle of a convergence of four opportunities that provide fantastic potential. The profession is undergoing a transformation from automation, machine learning, and big data. Leadership is turning over at a record pace as Boomers retire and Gen X and…

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2016 CPAFMA Technology Survey Findings-Workstations

The CPA Firm Management Association recently conducted its first comprehensive technology survey tailored specifically to member firms with the goal of identifying the applications, products and processes utilized by peers.  Where possible, the survey attempted to identify which applications firms are moving to in the cloud compared to traditionally on-premise managed solutions.  The survey was…

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The Role of Effort Today

“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” –       Thomas Jefferson If there is something that truly troubles me these days, it’s a nagging fear that our nation is losing its competitive edge and that, once lost, it will take a Herculean effort to regain.  While…

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Protecting Your BYOD Exposure

Bring your own device (BYOD) is becoming the standard in accounting firms as we not only allow our personnel to connect to firm data from their home computers, but also access email and other firm applications on personal tablets and smartphones.  When one of these devices gets lost or stolen, or if an employee is…

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The Hard Truth about Soft Skills

“We’re in a relationship business.” I’ve heard this more times than I can count during the 20+ years I’ve worked with CPAs firms. It’s the one constant in the CPA profession. But, I wonder…have we devalued relationship building? We have access to limitless technology tools as a means of communicating and finding the information and…

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Why Do You Care Where I Work? Six Reasons to Go Virtual

Firms must move – and move now – to support virtual work environments. I’ll admit I’m biased.  For fifteen years, I have run a completely virtual business.  When not on the road speaking, teaching or consulting, each of our team members works from home in cities across the country.  From our inception, the information assets…

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Protecting Your BYOD Exposure

Bring your own device (BYOD) is becoming the standard in accounting firms as we not only allow our personnel to connect to firm data from their home computers, but also access email and other firm applications on personal tablets and smartphones.  When one of these devices gets lost or stolen, or if an employee is…

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IRS Expands Use of Electronic Signatures to Forms 8878/8879

One of the biggest hassles that firms have to deal with is getting signed authorizations from clients to file/extend their tax returns.  This usually entails multiple staff being involved in communicating with the client and dealing with a myriad of delivery methods to and from the client.  Source documents can include physical forms, faxed forms,…

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