Transitioning away from a billable-hour model can improve margins and customer relations. But it also comes with plenty of challenges. Learn how one firm made the switch.
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TOPICS
Information management and technology assurance
All in a dishonest day’s work
It’s difficult to believe, but sometimes CPA firm employees, and even partners, steal from clients. While a CPA firm’s leaders may believe this would never happen to them, claim experience in the AICPA Professional Liability Insurance Program demonstrates this does occur.
AICPA advises CPA firms to review state registration and compliance
CPA firms are being urged by the AICPA State Regulation and Legislation team to review their registration compliance procedures to ensure that they are complying with out-of-state registration requirements when performing attest engagements. The AICPA advisory was issued after recent activity by some state boards of accountancy to ensure that
Searching for privacy
Q: I’ve heard that search engines such as Google and Yahoo! keep a record of your searches and the websites you visit and that they often share this personal information with other companies. I don’t do anything illicit on the internet, but I’m still not comfortable with these search engines
Substantiating trust
Q: When introduced to new privacy solutions (such as DuckDuckGo or Disconnect), what assurances do we have that these solutions aren’t themselves stealthily tracking our computing or internet activities? A: Before trusting a lesser-known privacy solution, at a minimum make sure that it meets the following criteria: The company makes
Whiz kids
I frequently receive questions from CPAs concerned about their children’s use of computers. It is true that children can become overly obsessed with playing computer games, or worse yet, use their computers to access inappropriate content on the web. These risks can be easily mitigated with parental control software, firewall
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
Excel reader challenge
August is traditionally a lighter time of year for CPAs, and in that spirit I’m offering another reader challenge designed to test your Excel skills. I’ve published an Excel workbook at carltoncollins.com/stockchallenge.xlsx that contains weekly stock price information for 10 stocks during 2013. Here’s the challenge: Download the workbook, start
How well do you know PivotTables?
Q: I was recently asked by a large client if I considered myself an Excel PivotTable expert, and I wasn’t sure how to respond. I have used PivotTables extensively, but by definition, it is difficult for anyone to know what they don’t know—if that comment makes sense. Is there some
Shortcuts for evaluating a QuickBooks candidate
Q: When hiring a new QuickBooks bookkeeper, what’s a good way to evaluate a candidate’s proficiency with QuickBooks? A: It is easy to evaluate the knowledge of a QuickBooks consultant, because Intuit makes his or her history of certifications public. You can access this information from the QuickBooks Help menu
Technology plays a role in board members’ top two concerns
In a business environment where a damaging Twitter post can have disastrous effects on a company’s financials, reputational risk remains the top nonfinancial concern for corporate directors, according to a new survey report. Another risk rooted in technology—cybersecurity and information technology risk—is rising quickly among directors’ concerns, according to the
Press Alt+P for pizza
What technology would you like to see more of?
Effective performance management
For a manager, few things are more difficult than delivering honest performance feedback to an employee. And far too many managers don’t give feedback at all. Fortunately, there are ways to address performance review problems. Success lies in the execution of these simple ideas. Define the culture of your
Tech-less-ness
Q: How should I deal with people who don’t have a clue what they are doing with their computer but constantly want me to help them resolve their petty computer issues? A: Being known as a tech-savvy professional has its drawbacks. Specifically, we are frequently expected to help novice computer
You Gantt do that
Q: Does Excel 2013 provide the option to produce Gantt charts? A: No, Excel does not produce Gantt charts out of the box, but you can create one with a bit of Excel trickery, as illustrated in the following example. 1. List your tasks. Start by entering a list of
Office-sharing arrangement
Q: I subscribe to Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus, which includes five product licenses. I’ve installed three of those licenses on my office, home, and mobile laptop computers, and I am wondering if I can allow other family members to use my remaining two unused licenses. I don’t want to do
Do’s and don’ts of due diligence
When is the best time to perform due diligence in the accounting firm merger process? What should each side look for? How should the parties respond to unexpected findings? Find out in the 12th and final installment of the series “CPA Firm Succession: Solidifying the Future.”
Sweeping formats under the rug
Q: I received an error message in Excel stating that my workbook had “Too many cell formats, Excel encountered an error and had to remove some formatting to avoid corrupting the workbook.” What would cause this type of error, and how do I avoid it in the future? A: Copying
I’m happy you asked
Q: What type of technology should I give my employees to keep them happy? A: It’s been my experience that if you want happy employees, then hire happy people. I discovered this simple concept as a Little League baseball coach. While all the other coaches were evaluating the kids’ speed,
Five techie TED Talks
To further feed your tech-savvy appetite, you may want to check out these five interesting TED Talks featuring various technology topics: “Fighting Viruses, Defending the Net” (Mikko Hypponen, 2011) (17:35). “All Your Devices Can Be Hacked” (Avi Rubin, 2011) (16:56). “Tracking Our Online Trackers” (Gary Kovacs, 2012) (6:39). “Welcome to
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