Posts Tagged ‘Firm Administration’
Ransomware Awareness
There has been a recent surge of Ransomware attacks on accountants whose workstations were not adequately protected and backed up, leading to some firms paying a ransom and others recreating the data (and wishing they would have paid the ransom instead). For those of you not familiar with Ransomware, it is a term for malicious…
Read MoreWhy 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…
Read MoreThe First Step in Succession Planning-Assess Your Need for Replacement Partners
The first step in developing a plan for the internal succession of your partners is to develop an understanding of the nature and timing of their replacement. This will provide you with what you need to know for acquiring the necessary talent and developing viable successors. Start with when each partner is likely to relinquish…
Read MoreAAA 2015 Paperless Benchmark Survey Results… Bleeding or Stable Digital Edge?
The Association for Accounting Administration recently completed the 2015 Paperless Benchmarking survey to find out the status of paperless office practices in accounting firms this upcoming busy season. The survey has been conducted every two years beginning in 2003 to help identify trends in adopting “less paper” processes. Seven NEW questions were added this year…
Read MoreHIRING TRENDS FOR 2015
According to a recent article on Fast Company, 70% of today’s workforce is actively looking for another job or is open to hearing about a new job opportunity. Another study tells us that a recent college graduate will hold between 15 to 20 jobs in their career. That means they are going to change jobs every…
Read MoreWhy are you Changing?
I recently had the honor of presenting on the topic of change management, with my friend and fellow industry consultant Guy Gage of Partners Coach, at the Accounting Today Growth and Profitability Summit. For those who know me well and have been following my writing over the last seven years, I often like to combine…
Read MoreBuilding Your Bench For Succession
Thousands of firms are working through the succession and retirement of senior partners and deciding along the way whether or not they can pull it off internally and stay independent. The single most important factor for success is what we see when we look over our shoulder – is the bench of people there to…
Read MoreCan You Afford to Buy-out the Retiring Partners of Your Firm?
Many firms are struggling with the prospects of paying retirement buyout payments for their senior partners who will be retiring in the next few years. In some cases, several partners will be receiving retirement buyouts simultaneously. The financial burden can seem daunting. As we have emphasized in earlier blogs, make sure you first have the…
Read MoreDo You Know What Your Clients’ Silence Means?
When I teach topics like deepening client relationships and delivering exceptional client service, I discuss the importance of proactively meeting with clients outside of your regular engagement to further your relationship, identify any potential service issues and uncover new opportunities to add value. Participants nod their heads in agreement and some even approach this discussion…
Read MoreDelivering Better Client Service through Lean Six Sigma
There are two common misconceptions some people have regarding process improvement initiatives. First, one school of thought believes you can’t be more efficient without negatively impacting quality. This couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ve written substantially about this in the past and it’s a core topic we discuss in all of our client organizations…
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