The following is based on a continual survey by Bay Street Group.

Although most CPAs think their clients would refer others to them, only half of financial executives would do so.

CPAs have a collective misperception of who makes decisions to hire them. Eighty percent of CPAs think it’s the owners, and seven percent think it’s the CFOs. But 56 percent of CFOs said they make these decisions, and 26 percent said owners make them.

Reasons that companies fire their CPAs are also at odds with what CPAs think. Seventy-nine percent of CFOs named poor service as the reason. Only 35 percent of CPAs think so. Thirty-three percent of CFOs said failure to be proactive was the reason they changed accountants. Only 19 percent of accountants thought so. Thirty-eight percent of CFOs said they did not have enough personal time with upper-level people at their accounting firm. Only nine percent of CPAs thought this to be a problem.

From CPA Insider, August 7, 2006 (www.cpa2biz.com). For the complete article, click on the following link: https://www.cpa2biz.com/News/Columnists/Telberg/Who+Loves+Ya.htm.