CPA Trendlines Podcasts

The Disruptors with Liz FarrSee more here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=94934Corey Schmidt's Take-AwaysOffer your staff different paths to being successful.Pinpoint the talents you have on your staff, and nurture those special skills.Carve out time for people to work on those skills, not just the backlog.Challenge your people earlier in their careers so they have three years of experience rather than one year repeated three times.Create roles for the kinds of skills your people have.A forgotten metric is client happiness. If we provide a service that makes them feel good about what they’re getting, they’re going to be willing to pay more and will stick around much longer.Firms should own who they are. A firm with a hard-driving culture that values working long hours should seek out team members who like that kind of work culture.Think about where you want to be in five years, and start hiring people who fit that kind of work culture. Build in the people, processes and systems around that end goal.Stop doing what you did last year. Start with a blank slate. Following SALY is easier than figuring out how to do things differently. This requires carving out the time for meaningful planning.Challenge everyone on the audit team to come to the planning meeting with ideas for doing things differently, whether that’s using data or being efficient.Start rewarding the behaviors that are in line with the vision of the firm you want five or ten years in the future.Partners with high billable hours send the message to younger people that the way to get ahead in a firm is to do that, even if those same partners also talk about building a flexible data-driven culture.Let people pick their own career paths that make sense for them and for the firm.The need for a historical financial statement will be gone sooner rather than later.Firms need to adapt to the needs of the stakeholders.Banks only care about a few key metrics on the financials, so providing those on a real-time basis rather than an entire set of financials three or four months after year-end may be more useful.About Corey SchmidtCorey Schmidt, CPA, Manager of Audit Innovation, joined ACCOUNTability Plus, LLC with a decade of diverse public accounting experience, focused on providing audit and assurance services to clients in a variety of industries. He is dedicated to finding provocative and inventive ways to help move accounting firms and A&A practices into the future. Corey relies on his analytical abilities to assist his clients in gaining a thorough understanding of their financial situation and how certain decisions will impact their organization. He is passionate about working with all levels of the organization to provide accurate financial data and improve future results. Outside work, Corey likes to golf, fish, travel, and spend time with his family..

The Disruptors with Liz FarrGeraldine Carter is on a mission to make accounting more attractive as a profession, and to make accountants more profitable, particularly soloists and small firms.In this episode of The Disruptors with Liz Farr, Carter explains the trouble with "orphan 1040s," how to "level up" your firm, the priceless value of emotional intelligence, and why giving your all is too much (80 percent is enough.)More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/2022/02/14/geraldine-carter/

With accounting talent so scarce, tax and accounting firms may be surprised to find untapped talents within their current staff, according to Tyler Anderson, partner and director of A&A innovation at Accountability Plus tells Liz Farr for CPA Trendlines.More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/2022/01/28/disruptors-tyler-anderson/

With Sarah Dobek and Ty Hendrickson for CPA TrendlinesMore here: https://cpatrendlines.com/2022/01/17/close-the-sale-getting-across-the-finish-line/ Negotiating the terms of a new engagement can be intimidating and downright scary.However, it’s the most important – and last – step to securing new revenue.When you can learn what you need to have ready for the discussion, know what questions to anticipate, understand common pain points in any agreement so you can address them head-on, and how to show the value of what you’re proposing, closing the deal will become much easier – and lower your anxiety.Negotiating price and/or new business is something everyone seems to struggle with early on in selling. Why is that? (hint…talking money can be uncomfortable, but price is only negotiated when you haven’t built enough value in the sales process).What is ideal to know about your prospect once you make it to the proposal stage with a prospect? (Who is involved, decision making criteria, timeline, potential obstacles, budget)What are some tips to close more business at higher rates? (Hint…build value and take objections throughout the sales process, know who you are selling to and what they value, follow their buying timeline, not your selling timeline, and build trust.Key Take-Aways1. How to negotiate price and/or expanded service offerings.2. What you need to know about your prospect when you make it to the proposal stage.3. Tips to close more business at higher rates.

“Process, process, process” and other lessons in scaling an accounting business.With Liz FarrMore here: https://cpatrendlines.com/2022/01/13/the-disruptors-new-padgett-coo-amanda-aguillard-explains-how-to-scale/To beat the staffing shortage, tax and accounting firms will need to rank technology skills as important as accounting skills, Padgett COO Amanda Aguillard says in this episode of The Disruptors, a new CPA Trendlines series of conversations between special contributor Liz Farr and leading change-makers in the profession. This is the first of the series.“We will have to be creative about who we hire,” Aguillard says. “Knowledge of accounting is important, but it’s not the only thing… Being tech-curious is just as important.”Take-Aways We will have to be creative about who we hire. Knowledge of accounting is important, but it’s not the only thing. Being tech-curious is just as important. Specialization isn’t just vertical niches, but we can gate a practice around particular services. Building practices around services like outsourced controllership, tax resolution, or monthly accounting can make hiring easier because the candidates don’t have to be good at all of the different things. Process is the key to scale. Build and document processes around the idea that you will scale, even when the firm is just one person. Don’t be the bottleneck. Add technology on top of the process so that when the technology changes, you can find another one to take its place. A key skill for the future will be tracking data flow. Understanding where the data is coming in, and where the data will end up will help with developing processes and choosing technology. Ask for what you’re worth. Clients engage you in a business relationship, so they anticipate having to pay you. This is not charity. What firms are doing now is working well enough, but the people coming behind us aren’t interested in good enough. They want to work to live. They want to work just enough to do the things they love. The next big thing will be high-touch client relationships. We need to stop using technology as a shield, and use it to provide value to our clients. How can we help our clients, shoulder to shoulder? About AguillardAguillardAmanda Aguillard was only 16 years old when she realized she wanted to become a CPA, and she’s used that passion ever since to encourage innovation in the industry she loves. That commitment lives on through her work as the Chief Operating Officer of Padgett Business Services, one of North America’s largest accounting service and business consulting providers.Amanda is responsible for providing operational and logistical guidance for the company’s network of franchisees. This includes identifying and incorporating the latest cloud technologies into the Padgett firm operating model. She also is focused on developing and facilitating the necessary training to ensure these platforms and tools are successfully implemented by Padgett firms.Amanda, who was named one of the Top 50 Women in Accounting in 2018 and 2019, is the author of Xero: A Comprehensive Guide for Accountants and Bookkeepers. She was the Xero Evangelist of the Year in 2016 and used her experience as a Xero Certification instructor to co-found Elefant, a continuing education company for accountants and bookkeepers.Prior to joining the executive team at Padgett, she ran Aguillard Accounting LLC, focusing her efforts on providing unparalleled client support service through a cloud-based practice that could be done anywhere in the world. Amanda also is the founder of Accounting Salon, a think tank of cloud accounting experts, and its virtual offshoot, SALON.Amanda, who holds a Master’s Degree in Taxation from the University of Denver, regularly speaks at state CPA societies and industry technology conferences, including Accountex, Engage, Clio Could Conference, and Xerocon. She also is a Certified Instructional Systems Designer.When she’s not advocating for her industry, she spends her free time cooking for her two children, reading historical fiction, and backcountry hiking.

Matt Solomon interviews Shawn Parikh about the world of Offshoring and Outsourcing in a Covid world and a post-Covid world.

Matt Solomon, for CPA Trendlines, interviews Brian Suthoff of Tally Street, to explore Diving for Dollars with Data. 

Featuring John Shaw interviewed by Steven Sacks for CPA Trendlines.In Blockchain Basics for Business, Steve Sacks interviews Jack Shaw on the elements of the technology, its early beginnings, the industries impacted, and the practical business applications.Key takeaways: Bitcoin is only an application of Blockchain which is the platform Decentralized nodes eliminate the possibility of hacking Blockchain has many business uses in the financial, insurance, media, medical, consumer and supply chain Industries impacted by blockchain include energy, entertainment, manufacturing and transportation Blockchain stores records such as identities, ownership of assets, business transactions and contractual commitments

What do clients really want? Mostly, it’s not what you’re giving them now.Seventy percent of clients are barely aware of the extra services you can provide, and 80 percent want something specific that you, in fact, provide. They just don’t know that they can go to you for help.See the video here

In this interview, Richard Rothstein (Founder of Rothstein Consulting) speaks with Josh Fisher (District Partners) about what recruiting looks for accounting firms in 2021, and how Covid has affected things.This is a little different episode in that we are talking to a recruiting professional about hiring in the accounting world Here Josh talks about his experience in recruiting and recruiting for the accounting community and what has changed. The biggest thing he says is that job hunters are looking out for themselves more and have more opportunities as remote work is allowing them to work for larger firms that previously wouldn’t have been able to reach into their communities.He also tells us about how important the technology arms race is becoming to finding the right talent for your positions.