Explore every episode of the podcast CPA Trendlines Podcasts
Dive into the complete episode list for CPA Trendlines Podcasts. Each episode is cataloged with detailed descriptions, making it easy to find and explore specific topics. Keep track of all episodes from your favorite podcast and never miss a moment of insightful content.
Rows per page:
50
1–50 of 669
Title
Pub. Date
Duration
Joey Havens: The Role Culture Plays in Firm Growth | Gear Up for Growth
06 Sep 2024
00:29:23
Gear Up for Growth With Jean Caragher Capstone Marketing
“It's probably impossible to have exponential growth without a strong culture,” says Joey Havens, author of the Amazon bestseller, "Leading with Significance: How to Create a Magnetic People-First Culture," appearing on Gear Up for Growth, hosted by Jean Caragher, president, Capstone Marketing, and powered by CPA Trendlines.
“Leaders have to be more intentional about connecting and showing that they care,” Havens continues, “and when you do that, then your team members do that with each other, and then they do it with clients, and all of a sudden clients turn into real raving cheerleaders, and all of a sudden this firm has double-digit growth every year.”
Other highlights include:
Joey’s guidance for managing partners who question the need for a firm vision.
There is a gap between what the leaders think about culture and what the firm culture is.
How HORNE LLP took a new approach to onboarding new hires.
The impact M&A and private equity can have on firm culture.
Learn about the first three steps to create a magnetic, people-first culture.
Art Werner: Post-Mortem Estate Planning | Quick Tax Tip
Starting his tech journey at age 10, Stephen quickly progressed to establish his own IT company at 13 and began crafting software by 15. He holds a dual degree in Accountancy and International Business from Loyola Marymount, complemented by a Master of Science in Information Systems and Technology with a focus on Geographic Information Systems from Claremont Graduate University.
Since 2017, Stephen has been at the helm of CPE Today's parent company, Devmatics LLC. He specializes in developing tailored software solutions, mobile apps, and sophisticated automation systems to solve complex, critical challenges for a variety of clients. His innovative approach to technology was first applied at his family’s firm, Yoss & Allen, where he revolutionized their technological infrastructure.
As an authoritative speaker and prolific author, Stephen is a powerhouse in professional education, presenting at over 100 events annually and having authored more than 50 CPE courses. His sessions, packed with expertise and actionable insights, cover critical technology topics from cloud computing to preventing data breaches, artificial intelligence, automation, and empowering professionals across the globe.
Stephen’s expertise in the realm of pyrotechnics is equally impressive. As a licensed pyrotechnician, he’s contributed to some of the nation’s most memorable fireworks displays, including the Macy’s July 4th Spectacular and the Golden Gate Bridge’s 75th Anniversary celebrations, the annual Burning Man event, and many other shows around the country. His precision and creativity illuminate the sky, showcasing his dedication to this explosive art form.
When he’s not developing software, enlightening professionals, or lighting up the sky with fireworks, Stephen indulges in his passions for music, community service, and the great outdoors. His commitment to community and adventure is evident, whether he’s at Burning Man or volunteering in his hometown of Big Bear Lake, CA.
Dive deeper into Stephen’s blend of technological innovation, educational contribution, and pyrotechnic artistry at https://yoss.io.
Kenji Kuramoto: Kill the 40-hr work week, online pricing and other archaic accounting etiquettes.
26 Jan 2023
00:53:31
Kenji Kuramoto: Kill the 40-hr work week, online pricing and other archaic accounting etiquettes.
Chad Davis: You have an infinite canvas of opportunities to add more joy to your firm.
13 Jan 2023
00:32:45
Chad Davis: You have an infinite canvas of opportunities to add more joy to your firm.
Aynsley Damery: Rethink the 80:20 rule, because the 80% are likely stealing from you.
21 Dec 2022
00:48:27
"...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..."
Work Less, Earn More: Build the Accounting Firm of Your Dreams
12 Dec 2022
01:04:19
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.
Donny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a Mindset Shift
01 Dec 2022
00:47:05
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.
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.
Jennifer Wilson: Empower Young Workers to Build the Firm Everyone Loves
Mike Whitmire: Re-Think Your Hiring and Training Practices
23 Nov 2022
00:36:07
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.
Ed Kless: Clients Don’t Want Outputs. They Want Outcomes!
13 Nov 2022
00:39:59
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.
The Six Pillars for Finance Transformation with Chris Ortega
14 Oct 2022
00:06:36
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.
Ingrid Edstrom: True Wealth is Not Financial | The Disruptors
22 Aug 2024
00:53:34
Work-life balance means integrating work and life so that the work we choose to do expresses who we want to be in the world.
The Disruptors With Liz Farr
Ingrid Edstrom wants accounting to be not just a more sustainable profession but one that’s regenerative. “This idea of sustainability is really operating from the idea that things can continue to perpetuate as they are,” she explains. A firm may be financially sustainable, “but at what cost to our families, to our personal health?”
The regenerative approach recognizes “that we’ve already passed a threshold of harm that needs to be healed,” Edstrom says. “Regenerative accounting is starting to reframe those ideas around 'What does it look like to go about business in a different way that is truly life-supporting for all peoples and our planet, rather than being extractive of our planet and exploitative of our peoples?'"
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.
O.D. Lanier: The Four – or Five – Steps for Moving into Consulting
28 Sep 2022
00:35:51
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
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.
Career Advice and Success Planning for Accountants from Mike Maksymiw
13 Sep 2022
00:33:53
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.
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.
Innovation Insights: Early Adopters Gain the Edge in Audit
03 Sep 2022
00:26:56
Innovation Insights: Paving the way for ESG reporting.
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.
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.
The Disruptors: Penny Breslin on Facing Your Staffing Challenges Head-On
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.
Episode 421: Thinking Smart about New Tech: Byron Patrick
03 Aug 2022
00:38:09
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.
Episode 420: The New Role of Artificial Intelligence in Rev Rec and Lease Accounting
28 Jul 2022
00:33:07
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.
AI Will Steal Your Job. And That's a Good Thing | Accounting ARC
Few industries are poised for a dramatic transformation as accounting in the rapidly advancing world of artificial intelligence. This episode of the Accounting ARC show, "AI Will Take Your Job—And That's a Good Thing," explores the impending shift, offering a fresh and optimistic perspective on AI's role in the profession.
The episode's hosts, Liz Mason, CPA, and Byron Patrick, CPA,CITP, CGMA; and Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, delve into the implications of AI with a bold assertion: AI will indeed take over many accounting jobs, but this is a development that should be welcomed, not feared.
[Corrected spelling of Liz Mason]
Episode 419: Why the Future of Audit Is in Risk Advisory
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.
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.
Episode 417: CPA Subscription Services: Is This Approach Here to Stay?
08 May 2022
00:18:13
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.
Episode 416: The Disruptors: Why Doing Nothing Is Not an Option, with Rob Brown
06 May 2022
00:51:28
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.
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.
Episode 415: The Seller's Guide to Getting the Best Price for Your Firm
29 Apr 2022
00:52:40
Featuring Ira Rosenbloom, CPA (LR), "The Merger Master," with Rick Telberg, CPA Trendlines.
The ten factors for getting the best price when you sell.
Calculate your firm's valuation strategy by considering:
– Your strongest niches.
– The metrics for the current and potential profits.
– Recurring compliance fees.
– High-margin consulting billings.
– New and valuable synergies with a new firm.
– Inherent potential in your staffing.
– Demographics of clients, partners and referral sources.
– Untapped potential in loyal contacts.
– Reputation and brand recognition.
– 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.
Episode 413: The Disruptors: Blake Oliver Sees a Ponzi Scheme Ready for Collapse
19 Apr 2022
00:39:10
The accounting firm's business model isn’t broken yet, but the pyramid is crumbling.
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.
Episode 412: The Disruptors: Martin Bissett Argues for the "Commercialization" of the Tax and Accounting Profession
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?
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.
Episode 411: The Disruptors: Brannon Poe Rejects the Status Quo
01 Apr 2022
00:34:01
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.
Episode 410: Disruptors: Accounting Nerds, Tap into Your Secret Super Powers
28 Mar 2022
00:34:05
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
Episode 408: How Private Equity Changes Everything
19 Mar 2022
00:12:52
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.
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.
Episode 407: How FinTech Billions Are Re-Making the Accounting Business, with Rick Telberg for CPA Trendlines
12 Mar 2022
00:19:11
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.
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.
Episode 409: Your Sales Tax Compliance Headaches Are Only Just Beginning
08 Mar 2022
00:19:25
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.
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.
.
Episode 404: Geraldine Carter: Saving Accountants from Themselves – The Disruptors with Liz Farr for CPA Trendlines
14 Feb 2022
00:31:07
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.)
Episode 403: Re-Inventing the Accounting Firm with Tyler Anderson – The Disruptors with Liz Farr for CPA Trendlines
28 Jan 2022
00:25:13
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.
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.
Episode 401: The Disruptors: New Padgett COO Amanda Aguillard Explains How to Scale
13 Jan 2022
00:29:28
“Process, process, process” and other lessons in scaling an accounting business.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Ask for what you’re worth. Clients engage you in a business relationship, so they anticipate having to pay you. This is not charity.
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.
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.
Episode 51: Offshoring and Outsourcing, with Shawn Parikh
27 Dec 2021
00:16:31
Matt Solomon interviews Shawn Parikh about the world of Offshoring and Outsourcing in a Covid world and a post-Covid world.
Episode 50: Diving for Dollars with Data, with Brian Suthoff
24 Dec 2021
00:11:50
Matt Solomon, for CPA Trendlines, interviews Brian Suthoff of Tally Street, to explore Diving for Dollars with Data.
Caleb Jenkins: Firm Growth Requires Owners to Shift Roles
15 Aug 2024
00:42:34
Leave the stone age behind. Join the new paradigm.
The Disruptors With Liz Farr
When Caleb Jenkins was eight, he started selling cookies to his dad’s firm during tax season. His dad told him, “For me to pay you, I need you to create an invoice for me.” So Jenkins set up his own QuickBooks file and has been playing with QuickBooks ever since, and eventually joined his dad’s firm.
Like most small firms, RLJ Financial focuses on the fundamentals of tax, bookkeeping, and payroll, but, as Jenkins says, “in the eyes of the beholder, there's really not a whole lot of value there.” However, shifting into advisory – a big talking point in recent years for the profession – is where accountants can bring “incredible value …beyond the baseline of traditional compliance services,” Jenkins says. Shifting into advisory also means “there's way more work that happens all year round.”
Episode 49: Blockchain 101: Implications for Accounting Firms, with John Shaw
21 Dec 2021
00:28:55
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
Episode 48: The Keys to Better Client Relations, with Jeff Pawlow
18 Dec 2021
00:03:50
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.
Episode 47: How to Hire the Best, with Josh Fisher
15 Dec 2021
00:14:11
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.
Episode 46: Staffing in the Age of COVID, with Pasha Malick
12 Dec 2021
00:20:24
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.