Hire to Lower Costs, Increase Efficiency
Source: CPA Trendlines
The following includes excerpts, reproduced with permission, from an article by Steve Erickson.
I have been giving quite a bit of thought to the cost/price squeeze facing many CPA firms. Salary and benefit costs are at an all-time high as a percentage of net revenue and profit margins have been decreasing.
This is, in many cases, due to the upward delegation of routine tasks to experienced accountants just because they have scanners and computers on their desks. Technology is supposed to replace high-cost labor, not the reverse. We have many of our best and brightest performing clerical tasks in an inefficient manner.
It is time to rethink your staffing models to make sure you have employees with the right skills to perform certain tasks. Here are a few that come to mind:
- Data Management Specialist – An employee who prepares and files electronic data for use by the professionals in the firm. This year I have been in firms where $100,000-plus managers are preparing PDF documents. Hire an expert in electronic documents. Costs will go down and productivity will increase.
- E-mail Expediter – An employee who files e-mail into folders for use by the professionals. According to a survey I recently conducted, professional staff are spending in excess of one hour per day dealing with e-mail. In a firm with 25 professionals with an average hourly billing rate of $150, this represents almost $1,000,000 in potential lost fees every year.
- Technology Coordinator – Hire someone who really knows the software and can become expert in its application. Let your professionals focus on professional matters. I'm not saying to not allow professionals to use software. I'm just saying they shouldn't have to become software experts to practice public accounting.
For the complete article, read “Three New Staff Positions You Didn't Know Your Firm Needed.”
From CPA Trendlines, http://cpatrendlines.com, November 3, 2011.