2011 Webinar Course Descriptions
Course Descriptions:
How to Make a Niche Work for Your Firm - Why so few firms truly have successful niches. Explore the challenges and opportunities of successful niche creation. Don't be fooled about the niche of the day. All niches can be profitable if done it right.
Partner Selection Criteria - The chief function of partners is to create the tone and climate for staff development. Partners demonstrate through their own behavior the high standards of performance and character required for advancement to the partner level.
Accounting Firm of the Future—How Firms Can Survive and Succeed - Allan Koltin will provide an update of current trends within the accounting profession with an outlook to the future in terms of opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for local and regional firms.
Partner Unity and Accountability - This session will walk you through a proven process to develop unity and accountability. Included are: Why Firm Mission, Values and Principles are Critical, Developing a Culture of Accountability, The Role of Trust, and Tying Compensation to Accountability and Unity. An on-line survey will allow you to determine your level of accountability.
What Every CPA Should Know About Working with a Family Business - We will consider what it takes to be a trusted advisor to a family business, both from the advisor point of view and family point of view. In addition, we will discuss some of the common family induced challenges that advisors need to understand to help move the business and relationship forward.
Being a Leader Regardless of Your Role - No matter what position you hold in your firm, your ability to lead will determine the extent of your success. Leadership skills enable you to guide clients effectively, get team members and firm leadership to buy in to your ideas, and develop the respect and reputation you need to get ahead.
CPA Firm Success Metrics: Understanding Practice Economics - Ensuring your firm's profitability is essential in today's economy, but the professional services business model isn't that intuitive. This session will help attendees get their arms around the various “levers” in their practices that influence profitability and success.
Helping People Overcome Their Personal Pitfalls - In this session, we'll explore the reasons we don't talk openly about needed performance improvements. We'll discuss how to overcome our fears and resignation to gain the confidence and commitment needed to deliver feedback that transforms individual and team performance.
I Trust You (Sort Of). Do You Trust Me? - Workplace surveys (and our experience) show that employees do not trust their employers, co-workers do not trust their peers, and owners do not trust their partners. Wow! Explore the cornerstones of trust in your relationships with staff, peers, partners, and clients.
Conducting Powerful Presentations - Presenting your ideas with power and persuasion is a critical leadership skill and is both an art and a science. Attend this session and explore a methodology and the nuances of developing and delivering powerful presentations tailored for your audience.
Building a Learning Culture in Your Firm - Developing a learning culture will help you prepare your people to lead the firm after the retirement of the current leadership. Creating an environment of continuous learning requires not just technical training, but also developing the skills and behaviors required to succeed.
Cost Segregation Analysis - Cost segregation is one of the most valuable tax planning strategies available to commercial real estate owners. The current NOL look-back provisions enhance cost segregation opportunities for your clients even in this challenging economic climate.
Energy Policy Tax Incentives - This webinar will provide an overview of §179D Energy Tax Deductions and the commercial property owners and Architect/Engineering firms that benefit from it. EPAct modeling and current legislation requirements are also discussed.
Audit Failure—Case Studies and Remedies - This program will review case histories of audit failures in detecting financial statement fraud and employee embezzlement. The circumstances that are detectable but went undetected in each audit will be identified and lessons will be drawn from the experiences of capable auditors who missed significant cues.
Engagement Letters—More Communication, Less Liability - Learn how to write engagement letters for both attest and non-attest engagements. Develop engagement letters that will enhance relationships and communications with clients, as well as other known and unknown users.
Anatomy of a Malpractice Lawsuit - Practical information on what to do when you discover an apparent error.
Mediation: Resolve Client Business Ownership Disputes and Avoid Conflicts of Interest - A practical discussion of business ownership disputes, how the mediation solution works, and the role of the accountant.
IT Vision and Strategy - Leave this session with the motivation you need to address long-standing performance improvements in your firm!
Workflow: Why Now? - In the past few years, workflow has steadily climbed the list of the AICPA's Top Ten Technology Initiatives. You may still be wondering what it is and why it matters to your firm. We will examine the competing and complementary approaches to workflow to help you determine which is best for your firm.
Learning to be a Department Head - This program is designed to assist new department managers and those managers desiring to be promoted, in determining the best path to take in their quest to make the department "tops" in achievement.
Understanding What Your Partnership Agreement Should Include - Partnership agreements need to speak to succession, compensation, demergers, governance and other road bumps. Learn how to admit new partners; buyout partners, and establish criterion for success.
External Succession Planning for the 1 to 4 Partner Firm - Do you have one or more partners who want to reduce their time commitment to your firm over the next 5 years or less? If your firm doesn't have the capacity on a partner level to replace all your partners internally, this session will help you get your arms around the totality of what you need to consider and when.
Succession Planning for the 5 Partner Firm and Larger - Do you have one or more partners who want to reduce their time commitment to your firm over the next 5 years or less? Do you have a succession plan that will enable the firm to continue to grow, replace the senior partners and flourish?
The Urge to Merge for Multi Partner Accounting Firms - Why have there been so many mergers? What are the goals of a merger and how do you execute a plan to achieve those goals? Is a merger right for me? Should I be considering merging up or merging someone in?
How to Operate a Compensation Committee - Compensation committees have always been popular in firms with 10 partners or more. Now smaller firms are adopting this approach in droves. This Webinar will address how comp committees work and why they best allocate partner income based on performance including intangible partner contributions.
Partner Retirement/Buyout Plans: What a Good Plan Looks Like and How They Have Changed in Recent Years - With the unprecedented number of retiring Baby Boomer partners, accounting firms are looking at the retirement/buy-out provisions of their partnership agreements, many of which have not been updated, and do not reflect current practices. Marc will discuss current practices and trends.
Partner Compensation: Best Practices - Define, examine and identify the strengths and weaknesses of 10 different partner compensation systems. We will also discuss new trends, how the top 50 firms allocate income, how performance criteria link to partner compensation, and more.
Benchmarking: The Most Basic Way to Boost Profits - Benchmarking a CPA firm is a fundamental tactic to evaluate performance, improve profitability, exploit strengths, and curb weaknesses. Marc Rosenberg, will discuss the highly regarded MAP survey—The Rosenberg Survey—and will show participants how to properly benchmark their firms.
Partner Self Evaluations—Assess Your Talents - Dr. Gatto will discuss how feedback can be invaluable for partners to understand strengths and areas for development, demonstrate how to better accept and implement feedback, establish consensus on desired strengths, support professional development, and plan for change in the face of changing technologies, competition increases, and client demands.
Partnership Structure – Management Dynamics of Firms that Grow from 2 Partners to 4 and Bigger - Allan Koltin will discuss the various life cycles of CPA firms, as well as the challenges that take place with a traditional partnership structure. He will focus on some of the unique dynamics that affect the firm's strategy, governance and compensation as the firm grows.
Plan and Lead in the Right Direction - The successful planner must have a common sense approach to get people involved and get them to buy into the plan. Many great thoughts and ideas have been discarded, not because of lack of good strategic planning, but simply because of politics. This webinar will give participants the strategies and actual steps to think and then to plan. In addition, it will give them the people skills to get the buy-in for implementation.
Planning a Self Run Retreat - Discussion on how retreats are used for planning. Some people adapt to uncontrollable circumstances better than others because of organizational and interpersonal skills. The planning process could be minor (developing firm procedures) or major (reorganizing and aligning new job positions and responsibilities).
Styles and Dimensions of Leadership - Guides participants toward becoming effective situation leaders who meet firm, staff and partner, and individual expectations. Characteristics of an effective leader are highlighted throughout the webinar. The webinar enables the participants to identify their own leadership styles and develop their own leadership potential.
Effectively Giving Performance Feedback – Every team member, no matter the generation or the position, is hungry for meaningful feedback from leadership. In this session we will walk through the step by step process for building a system for gathering the right data, storing it efficiently, and holding an honest and motivational performance interview.
Mentoring for Better Performance and Retention - This course blends two of the most important challenges facing every firm; developing a plan for the future and having the talent to implement it. We will discuss a process to develop the talent in your firm through mentoring.
Using Compliance Work to Uncover Consulting Opportunities - Business advisory services is one of the fastest growing, most needed (especially at this time) and potentially the most profitable service businesses in the world. CPAs have the credentials and the perfect opportunity to be dominant in this field. A small shift in mindset is all that is necessary to be a catalytic agent of change. This webinar will open your mind to the opportunities you may be leaving on the table.
Understanding the Business of Accounting - Great businesses have great business models. The technical work of CPAs is just one part of their business. Success will turn on how you design it. CPAs, w traditionally embrace a "me-too" model that looks and behaves like all the rest in the industry—that is not the stuff that greatness is made of.
New Possibilities for Your Practice—New Ways to Touch and Enhance the Lives of Your Clients - While it's easy to get caught up in the day to day running of our practices and serving clients, we can lose sight of a much bigger opportunity for serving clients in a different way, and increasing our revenue substantially. This seminar explores how to do this.
Turning Client Problems into Engagements - Many everyday problems that business owners face represent opportunities for advisory services. This presentation will help you easily identify what those problems are and discuss ways you to help clients address them through a profitable business advisory engagement.
Gaining a Competitive Advantage—Differentiate Your Firm and Win - It's increasingly difficult for firms to differentiate themselves sin today's market. This seminar explores a value proposition your firm can offer that can put you at the head of the pack when competing for the best business clients.
Sell Without Selling - Rick Solomon will take you step-by-step through his renowned 'Sell Without Selling' process He will share the secrets that make it work so well. By the end of the series, you will be able to apply this process to any sales situation.
Sell Without Selling Advanced—For Those With Experience - This program provides a great overview of a sales process specifically designed for accountants. Based upon a simple philosophy of service, you'll find it is aligned with your values and integrity, while being very effective in winning new business.
Cross-selling—What is Your Firm's Lifetime Value to its Clients - This program is not just about pricing. It is about a business model change—from selling time to selling intellectual capital, the chief source of wealth.
Value Pricing as a Business Model - Learn to price on client-perceived value, not time. Communicate better with clients, discover their expectations up-front, remove surprises from their invoices, involve them in setting the scope and value of your work, speed collections, and increase profits.
Replacing Annual Performance Appraisals - Most firms and employees are dissatisfied with the annual performance appraisal process. More than 90% of the academic studies done on this tool contain no evidence of its effectiveness—and plenty of evidence of the harm it does. This program will provide proven, more effective strategies that replace the annual performance appraisal.
The Three Most Important Key Performance Indicators - Do your firm's internal measurements give you a competitive advantage in the marketplace? Do they judge the success of your firm the same way your clients do? Are they leading indicators that have predictive ability, and correlate with value as defined by your clients? If you get what you measure, what exactly, do your internal metrics get you?
Delivering Great Client Service - Learn why firms fail to make client service a high priority. Discover the basics of great client service. Find the missing tools to accelerate client service in your firm. Document a plan to make client service the hallmark of how you do business.
Critical Skills Every Manager Must Develop - When you are responsible for the management of people, planning and processes in the firm, it is imperative to understand how to manage. We will identify the 5 fundamental truths for managers, clarify the core skills needed by every manager, and then develop your personal action plan for progress.
Non CPA Executives in CPA Firms - Firms have two choices when it comes to filling the ranks of the leadership group. They can promote from within, or they can hire talent from outside the firm, and not necessarily from a pool of people with accounting skills. This session helps you understanding the pros and cons and the challenges of both paths.
Performance Management: Managing Accountability for Great Performance - Every team member, no matter the generation or the position, is hungry for meaningful feedback from leadership. In this session we will walk through the step by step process for building a system for gathering the right data, storing it efficiently, and holding an honest and motivational performance interview.
Women in Today's Profession - Women make up the majority of the talent pool in firms and are an important component to the present and future of the profession. This session highlights the unique situation of professional women in accounting and brings to light the issues, obstacles, skills and opportunities surrounding them.
Balanced Scorecard - It Can Work in Your Firm - Clarifying staff responsibility and the means for achieving staff accountability can be challenging. In this session the solution is revealed with a proven approach to measuring and rewarding performance at all levels. Learn the Balanced Scorecard theory and how to implement the system.
Developing Your Non-Technical Skills - There are 3 pillars to training excellence in any firm—Technical, Technology, and Core (Soft) Skills. We will focus on “Core Skills” and how they help firms and people grow. Core skills make leaders uncomfortable, but this session you will provide new knowledge to help leaders manage and motivate.
Accounting Firm of the Future - This session will take a look at where the profession is going and what it might look like over the next 2-5 years. What skills will be required, what the structure of a CPA firm might look like, Will we still be managing compliance practices or will we truly be acting as business advisors.
The Underlying Personality Traits that Determine Leadership Styles - Can leadership be learned? This program is designed to help leaders better understand their own leadership style and understand the style of others. How to modify one's leadership style to increase their effectiveness with others per unit of time. The end result of this program will be to identify ways to improve your effectiveness as a leader by adapting your leaders style to those whose behavior you are trying to change.
Enhancing Services to New and Existing Physician Clients - Want to add physician clients to your practice? Want to increase billable hours for your physician clients? Then you need to understand your role as a physician advisor and what these prospects/clients need right now by learning how to expand your services to physicians and their medical practices.
Who is Going to Take Over My Practice? - Many firms are struggling with succession issues as their baby-boomer partners are nearing retirement. Potential future leaders of the firm have not been developed, or have left the firm or are just not interested in the commitment required to be a partner. What are the options remaining for firms? This session discusses succession issues facing firms, the various solutions available to resolve them and the steps firms must take now to ensure a successful transition in the future.
Driving Practice Value and Profitability (including the "attributes of high value firms") - Practice value is a concept that many CPA firms do not often consider. However, high-value firms consistently display solid growth, greater profitability and are very attractive to existing and potential employees and clients. What are the attributes that create practice value? What are the components that lead to greater profitability? This workshop uncovers the attributes of high-value firms and discusses how to manage for growth and profitability. Participants come away from the session with increased knowledge of where the firm is strong and solutions to address those areas needing attention.
The Core Competencies of an Effective Partner - Successful firms understand the need to develop the leadership and management skills of their future leaders. But where do firms go for information? Designed for seniors, managers and young partners, this offering discusses the core competencies that need to be mastered in order to be an effective leader in the organization. Participants will come away with a good understanding of the attributes needed to be successful and will be able to design a personal plan of action they can follow for further personal development.
Future of the Accounting Profession - This session will take a look at where the profession is going and what it might look like over the next 2-5 years. We will discuss what skills will be required, what the structure of a CPA firm might look like and, whether we will still be managing compliance practices or will we truly be acting as business advisors.
7 Trends That Must be Reversed to Improve the Viability of Your Firm - Profit margins in many firms have been decreasing for the past 5 years as salary and benefit cost have soared, utilization has decreased and many more clients have requested and received fixed fees for their engagements. These trends are simply not sustainable in the future. Using this experience and the results of his extensive research, Steve Erickson will address these and other negative trends and make solid realistic recommendations for improvement.