1. TOPICS / FIRM PRACTICE MANAGEMENT

Strategy and planning

United we thrive, divided we fail

If you want your firm to thrive well into the future, make enhancing overall partner unity your No. 1 priority in the coming year.

Succeeding with a narrow focus

Specializing and focusing on a narrow range of services can help CPAs and audit firms reduce training costs and risks.

Models of success?

An accounting firm experiment hypothesizes that “there will be multiple successful business models for accounting firms of the future.” Explore the experiment’s results and different visions for public accounting’s future—and examples of that future already becoming reality.

Succession challenges for U.S. CPA firms to tackle

U.S. public accounting firms must tackle five challenges in their succession planning to fill the gaps left by Baby Boomer partners who have begun to retire, according to results from a Global Accounting Alliance survey.

CPAs have opportunities in financial planning and forecasting

Many accountants may have opportunities to expand their service offerings to small business clients by providing financial planning and forecasting, according to a new survey. Just one in three accountants offers financial planning or forecast services as part of clients’ business planning process, according to a survey of 150 accountants

High-functioning firms

High-functioning firms have leadership teams that assess situations, develop strategies, and make and execute decisions with relative ease, speed, and success. Others, however, function with a drag that pulls against their momentum, causing the business of leading, managing, and executing to take longer and produce less-than-stellar results. High-functioning firms seem

The Brazilian way

Brazil, which hosts the World Cup in men’s soccer this summer and the Olympic Games in 2016, remains a top destination for foreign direct investments despite slowed economic growth. Businesses that expand into Brazil quickly learn the Latin American country has many faces.

Managing change successfully

Leaders can foster success and overcome resistance with a well-thought-out strategy for implementing any transition and for communicating their plans.

Six trends that are reshaping business

Accountants excel at analyzing numbers and developing strategies based off them. The way University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor James Johnson, Ph.D., sees it, the numbers describing the demographics of the United States leave accountants little choice today but to embrace diversity and new business practices. Johnson spoke

Women's initiatives: A strategic advantage

The recent AICPA supply and demand survey found that women constituted 44% of accounting employees at CPA firms but only 19% of the partners. The partnership percentage was a step back for women in public accounting. The percentage of female leaders in firms had risen from 1% (partners and principals)

Mergers emerge as dominant trend

Powerful forces are transforming the accounting profession in the United States. The Baby Boomers are heading into their retirement years. Baby Boomer CPAs are in charge of most U.S. accounting firms. And most U.S. accounting firms don’t have a signed succession or practice-continuation plan in place. These realities are rewriting

Preparing for disaster

One CPA firm is still recovering from a “superstorm” that damaged nine of its 14 offices. Another has constructed a safe room in its new office, which was built after a tornado destroyed its previous office. A third firm is adjusting to the “new normal” in a city forever changed

Succession planning: The challenge of what's next

CPA firm owners say succession planning is important, and a growing number of firms have formal plans in place. Still, many firms and sole proprietors have a great deal of succession planning work ahead of them. Among the challenging statistics that emerged from a recent AICPA survey on the topic:

Revitalize Your Firm's Marketing Strategy

If you think there is room for improvement in your accounting firm’s marketing and sales effort, you’re in good company. A recent study by Broderick & Co., consisting of in-depth interviews with leaders representing 130 well-known professional services firms in accounting, law, executive search, management consulting, architecture, financial services and

SPONSORED REPORT

Building client loyalty with payroll services

In this report, CPA experts detail their tactics for performing successful payroll services, how to mitigate risk in the process, and the impact payroll can have as a value-added service.

PODCAST

Using drones to enhance audits

Hermann Sidhu, CPA, global assurance digital leader at EY, walks us through EY’s exciting new project to use drones to help audit large warehouses and outdoor inventories.