Innovative CPA Firms

Source: Practical Accountant

Practical Accountant’s annual awards go to:

For Niche Development:

Gifford Hillegass & Ingwersen (11 partners, 81 staff)—Helping clients raise capital. Its “Road to Funding” includes a 12-step process. The team works with clients throughout the process and helps them develop needed pieces such as business plans.

Schenk Business Solutions (59 partners, 530 staff)—Business process improvement. It helps clients recruit more efficiently, streamline the payroll process, reduce time needed to prepare quotes, etc.

Abrams, Little-Gill Loberfield (6 partners, 25 staff)—Facilitation of Retreats and Strategic Planning for small and mid-sized CPA firms—especially those that want a consultant who acts like a managing partner.

For Better Client Relationships:

Breard & Associates (2 partners, 10 staff)—Borrowing from the book The Bear Necessities of Business: Building a Company with a Heart, the firm treats clients as guests. To fulfill this goal, the firm, whose clients are primarily securities broker/dealers, notarizes annual financial statements and handles mailings to regulators on clients’ behalf.

J.H. Cohn (129 partners, 746 staff)—Hosted a whiskey tasting for contractors in an Irish pub set up at a trade show, and provided dessert for medical group practice managers who stopped by its booth to receive hospital wristbands with the J.H. Cohn identity.

Mark Bailey and Company (2 partners, 18 staff)—Adopted a value billing system. Each client has a fixed price for a set of customized services. Changes are documented in negotiated change orders. The firm has grown 350 percent in revenue and 500 percent in profits.

Mitchell & Titus (15 partners, 125 staff)—Has a unique position as a member of Ernst & Young Global Limited and retains its local firm identity as a minority-owned company.

Sobel & Co. (14 partners, 65 staff)—Holds a bi-monthly Sobel Executive Women’s Breakfast to address women’s business issues such as negotiating, gender-related communication styles, time management, etc.

For Changing the Culture:

Kirkland Albrecht & Fredrickson (6 partners, 55 staff)—Re-orchestrated the tax season with a program called Project Balance, which provides for:

• Closing at 5:30 PM on Wednesday and Friday.
• Theme dinners.
• Work on four Saturdays only, two before March 15 and two before April 15.
• Close work with clients to even out the tax season work.
• Making decisions early on extensions to eliminate certain clients from tax season.
• Using teams to share work.
• Using technology to allow for work outside the office.

Petrinovich Pugh & Company (7 partners, 36 staff)—Offers innovative tax season conveniences such as:

• Day care service in the office.
• Reduced tax season hours for reduced compensation.
• Chair massages.
• Dinner three times a week.

Barnes Dennig (11 partners, 92 staff)—Instituted the following:

• Offsets tax season work with 32-hour work weeks from June 15 to November 30.
• Re-made its brand and logo.
• Launched a blog for college students.
• Created a mentoring program for high school and college students.
• Started a summer internship for gifted students regardless of major.

For Getting Staff Involved:

Porter Keadle Moore (10 partners, 75 staff)—Instituted a comprehensive feedback system under which employees are trained on the value of feedback and given rewards if they do it well. Employees are given specific assignments, such as to provide positive feedback to two other employees on designated work assignments, or to ask employees to talk candidly with each other on how they can improve. Employees are also helped to receive and accept feedback.

Cowan, Gunteski & Co. (10 partners, 53 staff)—Assigns young staffers to the job of selecting, interviewing, and deciding on job candidates, and then training and mentoring them. Many area colleges now invite CG to recruiting events.

Citrin Cooperman & Company (52 partners, 200 staff)—Developed a book of 53 business development initiatives and assigned points to each. Teams of five or six employees compete for the most points. The grand prize is a trip to Las Vegas. More points are awarded for higher-level initiatives. Examples of initiatives:

• Sending a newspaper article about a client to the in-charge partner.
• Reading a marketing book from the firm’s library.
• Selling additional services to existing clients.
• Giving a referral to a client or a referral source.

Crowe Chizek and Company (213 partners, 2049 staff)—Launched a New Product Development program to create new services for clients. Approximately $21 million in revenue resulted from this.

For Technology Innovations:

The Bonadio Group (27 partners, 235 staff)—Provides “thought leadership” podcasts (http://viewpoints.bonadio.com) that offer advice to clients, professionals, and students. Podcasts are available directly from the Web site and can be downloaded to an iPod or CD. More than 1,600 podcasts have been delivered in approximately a year.

Clark Nuber (14 partners, 138 staff)—Developed a phone system that allows a member of the firm to call another just by speaking his or her name.

SS&G Financial Services (20 partners, 355 staff)—Has a voice-over-IP system (VoIP) whereby all staff can be reached by a four-digit number no matter where they are. Messages are delivered by phone and e-mail. Conference calls with up to four people can be held.

Singer Lewak Greenbaum & Goldstein (28 partners 235 staff)—In addition to having a VoIP system similar to the above, has installed call management software that allows visual routing of incoming calls. Each person has visual access to call information, can search for employees, etc.

The Hanke Group (9 partners, 61 staff)—Has a work-flow product using a portal that shows work assignments in the firm, budgeted v. actual time, and current position of the engagement, all via a special dashboard. Through the dashboard, users can find information by client, niche, type of engagement, etc.

From Practical Accountant, August 2007, SourceMedia Inc., One State Street Plaza, 27th Floor, New York, NY 10004, 800-221-1809. For the complete article, click here, then select the article The 2007 Practice Innovation Award Winners; Firms to Emulate.