October 2009 Leadership Forum

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Vol. 1 No. 10, October 2009

In fulfilling our commitment to continuous improvement in CPA firm management, CPA Leadership Institute has created the Leadership Forum, a panel of the most prominent thought leaders in the profession. Each month we ask them to respond to a question dealing with CPA firm management and leadership.

This month's question is: The economic downturn has placed tremendous pressures on the bottom lines of CPA firm clients. What can CPA firms do to match them in achieving lower costs, more efficient services, and increases in productivity without losing the independence and integrity of the profession?

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Consultants and Other Prominent Observers

August J. Aquila	Aquila Global Advisors	www.aquilaadvisors.com aaquila@aquilaadvisors.com
I have found that the biggest "eater" of profits is the lack of consistent processes in firms, especially the smaller firms. More

L. Gary Boomer	Boomer Consulting, Inc.	www.boomer.com gary.boomer@boomer.com
...Firms should spend more time in planning and defining the scope of their engagements. They should also use change orders...Many firms use a CVO (Chief Value Officer) or Billing Partner to monitor proposals and price engagements. More

Steve Erickson	National Consultant to CPA Firms	www.SteveEricksonLLC.com Steve@SteveEricksonCPA.com
HOW CAN WE MAKE MONEY IN THIS ECONOMY? How does that ad go? We earn it the old fashioned way. Accountants need to start actively managing their firms rather than using passive management techniques. The single greatest difference I see between the most successful firms and lower performing firms is that the successful firms drive their results while the lower performing firms sit back and measure after the fact.....More

Bob Lewis	Visionary Marketing	www.thinkvisionary.com blewis@thinkvisionary.com
… deliver a very high level of value added services. Once they have addressed how to do this, those same services and messages can be used to attract new clients… More

William Pirolli	Bentley Consulting Group	www.bentleycg.com bpirolli@bentleycg.com
Back to Basics.....that is our motto as we go through our budgeting, billing, collections and client service activities. Get back to the simple things that made us successful. More

Patrick Pruett	The APA and Enterprise Network Worldwide	http://enterprisenetworkworldwide.com patrick@the-apa.com
… These are unique times though and many clients simply can not afford the services that you once provided. Working with clients in this regard you would be wise to NOT provide discounts on your fees and instead pitch a lower level service that matches the clients need. More

Marc Rosenberg	The Rosenberg Associates	www.rosenbergassoc.com marc@rosenbergassoc.com
The CPA firm business is a top line-oriented business. Therefore, firms interested in managing profitability in an economic downturn should focus on ways to increase revenues and efficiency of workflow. The best ways to do this are: 1. Scheduling of staff, including monitoring their actual billable time vs. budget.... More

Joel Sinkin	Accounting Transition Advisors	www.transitionadvisors.com jsinkin@transitionadvisors.com
The thing I believe would help is if each CPA firm treated their own business as their most important client. More

Joseph Tarasco	Accountants Advisory Group	www.accountantsadvisory.com joe@accountantsadvisory.com
If you Build It, They will Come--Invest resources in your professional staff. This is the first time in over a decade that CPA firms are in a good position to upgrade and add quality professionals. More

Jennifer Wilson	ConvergenceCoaching LLC	www.convergencecoaching.com
CPA firms must respond to the pressure of the economy by focusing on growing their top lines and also managing costs, efficiency and productivity. More

Firm Leaders

Ken Baggett	Reznick Group	http://www.smf-cpa.com/
Reviewing the procedures of audit and tax programs to determine if they are effective and efficient. We all have "added" procedures over time and sometimes fail to review to see if there is redundancy and unnecessary procedures that has crept into our processes.

John C. Malone	Malone & Bailey, PC	http://www.malone-bailey.com/
…2. Re-examine the entire practice, from top to bottom for efficiencies and better teamwork. More

Anonymous
Review productivity. Eliminate non-value added steps/procedures that the client is not interested in or can't pay for. Some compilations are close to being "reviews" and some reviews are close to being "mini-audits".

Anonymous
Continue to increase focus on substantial / material areas and minimize time spent on the rest. Train the team to think like an owner. Provide value-added advice for improvement of operations and information processing.