Six Traits of Highly Effective CPA Firms

Source: CPA Trendlines

Following are excerpts from a May 3, 2010, blog post by Rick Telberg, reproduced with permission.

In evaluating CPA firm partner groups, Sam Allred, of Helena, Mont.-based Anderson ZurMuehlen, applies six key performance indicators (KPIs):

• Financial performance -- Partners naturally focus on their incomes, but it's a mistake to compare partner incomes from firm to firm. Firms need to develop their own goals, based on a sustainable balance between work and life.
• Client management -- The best single measure of client management may be growth in revenue per client. Sure, gaining new clients is essential. But the bottom line on whether you're serving clients effectively isn't just revenue, it's embracing a client's full list of needs and objectives.
• Business development -- It's not just sales; it's developing the right book of business. Does the firm celebrate acquiring Grade A clients, or every client? High-performance firms categorize clients, pursue and cater to the best, and create a culture that rewards only the best new clients.
• Team development -- The best benchmark for a partner's team development skills are the number of people he or she supervises who possess the potential to someday become partners themselves.
• Partner effectiveness -- The biggest problem in most accounting firms is that partners are not giving or getting open and honest evaluations. But that often stems from a lack of a common vision for the firm and the failure to set goals.
• Leadership -- Real leadership begins with sharing a vision and developing the strategy to achieve it. And that begins with making sure that each partner is doing what only he or she can do and that each is doing what he or she does best.

To read the entire post, click here.

From CPA Trendlines, http://cpatrendlines.com, May 10, 2010, "Six Secrets of High-Performing Firms."