نصائح مهنية - شبكة المحاسبين العرب

الأحد, 10 يناير 2021 12:17

هل حوكمة شركتك ونماذج تشغيلها فعالة؟

تحتاج شركات المحاسبة الصغيرة والمتوسطة التي تسعى جاهدة للبقاء مستقلة إلى تجنب "الفخاخ " المحتملة التي يمكن أن تعيق نموها وتهدد استقلاليتها في النهاية

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المحتوى بالإنجليزية Are your firm’s governance and operating models effective?
By Dom Esposito

Small and midsized CPA firms that are striving to stay independent need to avoid the potential “sand traps” that can stump their growth and eventually threaten their independence.

Regardless of your firm’s size, it’s absolutely essential that you avoid ineffective governance and operating models that will get in the way of achieving growth at an acceptable rate of 6 to 8 percent per year (which is easier said than done organically) and staying independent. If you land in this sand trap, your firm will eventually stagnate and ultimately die or have to merge up with a larger firm.

Today, more often than not, larger firms (and those that aspire to be larger firms) look to one partner group to govern (usually referred to as an executive board, partner board or executive committee) and a second group of partners (the senior operating leadership team) to drive strategy and to oversee day-to-day operations. To be most effective, these two groups need to complement each other. In many firms with highly regarded brands, these two groups comprise different partners to foster healthy checks and balances within the firm.
Unfortunately, all too often, at many of the small and midsized firms, these two groups and their responsibilities are vested with just a single governance and operating committee appointed by the CEO or managing partner. While it’s easy to fall into this trap, this isn’t a healthy way to run a firm. Sometimes it creates a mentality of us versus them. It also creates a good old boys club that becomes inbred. This unhealthy environment often results in favoritism (which is terrible for morale), hampers revenue growth (which is terrible for the partners’ wallets), and makes it difficult to nurture future leaders (which threatens the viability of a firm).

So, let’s take a look at a model for effective governance and operations:

Executive board

Effective governance at any size firm can be achieved by an executive board comprising both senior partners and more junior, high-potential partners — perhaps five to nine in total, depending on the size and complexity of your firm. Generally, the CEO or managing partner is an appointed member, and other members are elected by the partners at large to rotating three-year terms with a limit of two years. The executive board usually meets one day a month (twice when it gets close to compensation time). In the interim, between face-to-face meetings, the executive board holds a video conference or conference call to discuss matters that can’t wait for the next regularly scheduled meeting. The responsibilities of the executive board usually include: (a) approving the firm’s strategic plan and holding the CEO and other firm leaders accountable for the plan’s implementation, (b) approving mergers, acquisitions or a firm name change, and (c) overseeing the successful resolution of partner matters (such as compensation, lateral hires outplacements and new internal admissions).

Senior operating leadership team

Depending on the size of your firm, effective day-to-day operations are best accomplished through a senior operating leadership team comprising the CEO, COO, regional managing partners, office managing partners, audit, tax and consulting leaders, and a go-to-market leader. Again, some of these positions may not be appropriate in your firm today because of its critical mass, number of service lines and/or number of locations. Nevertheless, regardless of size, in addition to the CEO, every firm, at a minimum, should have an office managing partner, three functional leaders (in audit, tax, and consulting or advisory services), and a go-to-market leader (many firms do not have this position today).

While all positions are important, I want to emphasize the importance of a go-to-market leader, who is typically responsible for driving industry and consulting strategies both at the operating office and individual partner levels. This partner, who generally has a small client load and a reduced number of billable hours compared to other partners, is the partner shepherd who leverages their strategic skills into others. If you don’t currently have such a partner in your firm, I highly recommend you consider one.

The senior leadership operating team usually meets one day a month, like the executive board. These meetings create subtle peer competition and promote the sharing of best practices. In between face-to-face meetings (typically held to handle an opportunity that requires quick collaboration), the operating team usually holds a video conference or a conference call. The operating team’s responsibilities usually include reviews of key management tools that enable a firm to execute success.

Trying to grow and staying independent requires a firm to avoid the many potential traps in practice management. Effective management is the key to success, but unfortunately many small and midsized CPA firms do not follow the best practices for corporate governance and operations

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الأربعاء, 21 سبتمبر 2022 11:36

قائمة مهامك لنجاح شركتك في 2021

نجتهد كل عام في إنشاء عشرات من المهام المختلفة والمتميزة لوضعها في جدول التقويم الخاص بك على أمل تحفيزك لجعلك مميزاً في مجالك عن غيرك

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المحتوى بالإنجليزية Your 2021 to-do list
By Daniel Hood

Whatever plans you had for 2020 were likely disrupted by the events of the year, so it seems presumptuous to try to set anything in stone for 2021. We’re not going to let that stop us, though, and so, as we do each year, we’re using this space to offer you 12 tasks you can put on your to-do list right now.

January
online-zoom-meeting.jpg
Ģirts Raģelis/Girts - stock.adobe.com
With so many staff working from home, it’s hard for them to just walk down the hall to ask a question. Instead, offer them “virtual office hours” — set up an open Zoom call or Google Meet for an hour or two each week where you’ll be ready to talk to any employee who calls in.
February
Lease contract, close-up
andia-faith/andiafaith - stock.adobe.com
Hopefully, we’ll all be talking about resuming regular work regimes, so this would be a good time to survey your staff about when, whether and how they want to return to the office — if they want to return to the office at all. You also might want to dig out your lease and see if you have any options for reducing the amount of space you use
March
Tax extension form
Picasa
Pick a date, and tell any clients who don’t have their tax docs in by that date that they’re going on extension. Then stick to it.
April
p198t4eqkm4031vfi13bq164hhfc6.jpgAfter each tax return you complete, take a brisk five- or 10-minute walk.
May
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yurolaitsalbert - Fotolia
Start making sure everyone has a chance to be heard in meetings, either by calling out interruptions (which are rude, anyway) or by instituting a turn-based system where you deliberately give everyone a chance to weigh in on the topic — or both. The loudest person isn’t always right.
June
Summer reading 2019
Dudarev Mikhail/Dudarev Mikhail - stock.adobe.com
Pick a business-related article, video, podcast episode or book that caught your interest, and share it with staff. Then meet up virtually (break into smaller groups, if necessary) to discuss it and how it applies to your firm. Repeat on a monthly basis. Accept suggestions from staff.
July
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Africa Studio - Fotolia
Pick a single process at your firm — whether internal or client-facing — and ruthlessly drive out any paper-based steps. Repeat.
August
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prima91 - Fotolia
Investigate accepting new types of payments — everything from credit cards to ACH payments, PayPal, Venmo and cryptocurrencies — and adopt whichever will work for your clients.
September
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creative soul - Fotolia
Experts had been predicting a worldwide pandemic like the coronavirus for 30 years. Research some other challenges that experts say are likely in the future, and figure out how they’ll impact your firm — or your clients. (Climate change is certainly a good choice here, but bonus points for going beyond that.)
October
Technology gap
Sergio Donà/itestro - stock.adobe.com
Conduct a technology inventory. Does everyone on staff have all the screens, scanners, tablets, etc., that they need? Is all their software appropriately licensed, and all their security software up to date? Alternatively, check the service-level agreements on one of your cloud-based apps. Are they living up to the terms?
November
New York City map with pushpin
Robert Byron/Rob Byron - Fotolia
Check your client list to see what percentage of them are within 25 miles of you. Then go through your service offerings to determine how many actually require you to be able to meet face to face with the client. Draw your own conclusions.
December
p18rfc8oi6s7djdg32ku481ush6.jpgWe’ve suggested this before, but as the years get harder, it’s only getting more important: Close your office between Christmas and New Year’s.

https://www.accountingtoday.com/list/your-2021-to-do-list?utm_campaign=accountingtoday-tw&utm_content=socialflow&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

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الثلاثاء, 05 يناير 2021 12:22

كيف تبتكر داخل شركة محاسبة؟

الابتكار يمكن أن يدفع شركات المحاسبة إلى ما وراء طرق التفكير القديمة والعمليات التي عفا عليها الزمن

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المحتوى بالإنجليزية How to innovate within a CPA firm
By Jody Padar

Innovation: It’s one of my favorite things. It can push CPA firms past the old school ways of thinking and outdated processes. It ensures we’re providing clients what they really want. Once CPAs adapt a truly innovative mindset, their whole approach to business and client relationships change.

Recently I spoke with Heath Alloway, director at Upstream Academy, on this very topic. He shared some really interesting perspectives on CPA firm innovation. We talked about misconceptions surrounding innovation, how to foster an innovative mindset, choose ideas to develop, bringing innovative ideas to market, and more.

As we get ready to kick off a new year, and in the spirit of starting fresh, here are tips for how to innovate in your CPA firm.
What do CPAs think innovation is?

Innovation can be scary. It can mean different things to different people. The way that many CPAs view innovation, according to Alloway, often revolves around misconceptions. Clearing up what innovation is, and what it is not, is a good first step to creating that innovative mindset.

Alloway explained that innovation doesn’t have to be something new. It doesn’t need to be some new invention or process. It can be an incremental change. This is an easier pill to swallow, right? You can still innovate your CPA firm in small steps, over time.

Second, innovation in technology doesn’t actually have to involve tech. Yes, often a firm that is undergoing change is also reevaluating its tech stack. But that’s not always the case and that’s fine.

Third, and this one is big, is that innovation doesn’t have to come from the person in charge. More than likely, firm partners are the ones hindering innovation. They’re scared, don’t want to rock the boat, whatever the case may be. Innovation can start anywhere in the firm. In my experience, innovation usually happens from the bottom up, because those are the people closest to the problems.

Finally, innovation is not imitating what everyone else is doing. Alloway said if you’re looking at the competition and launching a new service line, you’ll never be innovative. You’re just copying others.

“Anyone in your firm can innovate at any time,” he said. "It’s more of being able to identify problems and then working to provide solutions to bring value.”

That’s what innovation is — it’s not a big, open-ended goal that always involves technology and originates in the corner office. Innovation is more nuanced and uniquely adapted for each CPA firm environment.

How can CPA firm leaders help to foster innovation?

I strongly believe if you’re doing best practices, you’re not innovative. What we’re looking for from innovation arenext practices. Radical firms that want to foster this sort of open-ended, solution-based environment can start by understanding that they don’t need a perfect plan.

This isn’t counterintuitive at all, by the way. Perfection is the enemy of completion, as the saying goes. As a CPA firm leader you can help jumpstart an innovative mindset when you provide clarity that you and your team don’t need the perfect plan.

Your plan “is going to evolve over time … that adaptive mindset and culture [are] the biggest takeaways,” said Alloway.

How do you know which ideas to act on?

Most innovation happens from the bottom up. The challenge for firm leaders once they make it known that they’re open to ideas is sorting out the so-called million-dollar ideas from the ones that maybe need a little more work. Alloway suggested creating a process around innovation. I love this because innovation and efficiency require effective processes.

There are three buckets he recommended:

Generating and tapping into innovative ideas
Deciding whether to act on ideas
Taking an idea to market
The real task for the second bucket is figuring out whether to fail fast or move forward. This mentality suggests that there are no “bad” ideas, but the timing may not be right or the details need to be worked out.

Alloway shared three questions to ask when making this determination:

Can it make money?
Do our clients want it?
Can we build it or purchase it?
Don’t make assumptions. Talk to your clients. Run the numbers.

How do you take an innovative idea to market?

Let’s say you have a virtual suggestion box and someone submitted a really great idea. It’s potentially profitable. You’re reasonably sure there’s a demand. You need to take the idea to market. Start by getting out of the “services” box and think like a product developer. Actually, create a prototype.

“This could be a sketch on a whiteboard. It could be putting [the prototype] on paper,” Alloway said.

Then, go to three or four of your top-level clients. Have a conversation and find out what they would want, need and use.

Don’t just focus internally and assume you know what clients would want. And don’t get hung up on trying to develop the perfect service or product offering. Take what you know, roll it out, test it, and learn as you go.

How do you build an innovative culture?

Saying that innovation is important and demonstrating that it’s important are two very different things. For the firms that want to grow, they need to challenge themselves a little. An innovative culture is one where everyone knows it’s okay to fail. Not all great ideas will work. And you will invest money on a project that doesn’t deliver. People need to know that you will spend time working on these innovative ideas, even if nothing happens. That’s okay. Give your people permission to fail. That’s first.

Second is to understand that for innovation to happen, the traditional billable hour model has to be modified. I’d say eliminate it totally, but for many firms that’s out of the question – at least at the beginning. What you don’t want is someone investing four or five hours per week or per month into developing an idea only to punish them for not hitting their utilization rates.

Third is to create a safe space for people to share ideas. This could be in team meetings or you can send out surveys. Ask staff to identify their greatest asset, challenge and opportunity. See what they come up with. In meetings, pose a problem and ask people to bring their best idea to the table. Vote on the top ideas and start developing those ones a little more. Either of these activities will help foster a sense that firm leadership wants to get better and hear from everyone.

As your CPA firm is building out or refining a plan for 2021, make sure innovation is at the center of it. There are many ways to grow, but only one that will ensure long-term, sustainable growth that puts clients and staff first. There is no better time to begin investing in innovation … and the future of your firm.

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الأحد, 03 يناير 2021 13:38

خمسة أشياء يجب التفكير فيها في عام 2021

أظهر لنا العام الماضي أن الاضطراب يمكن أن يحدث في أي وقت

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المحتوى بالإنجليزية 5 things to think about in 2021
By Susan S. Coffey
December 31, 2020, 9:25 a.m. EST

This year showed us that disruption could happen at any time, but as a forward-thinking and innovative profession, it also showed us that we were prepared to handle it. While it’s true that 2020 disrupted how accountants worked, it didn’t change the importance of what we do — in fact, it showed us that we are more valuable than ever to our clients and employers because of our agility, adaptability and ability to problem-solve during times of extreme challenge.

We can be almost certain that the next few years will continue to bring the unexpected. We’ll need to keep a sharp eye out for emerging trends and changes impacting the business environment, and therefore our profession, and evolve to continue meeting the demands of a constantly changing, disruptive world.

Here are some of the things I’m thinking about as we go into 2021 that I think are poised to elicit change in our profession and how you can act to make the most of them.

1. Technology is impacting what we do at an exponential rate, and we need to embrace it. 2020 showed us that one event could accelerate what we thought would take years to change. While the pandemic upended our lives, it also fast-tracked our adoption of technologies like cloud-based solutions and digital communications tools, and hastened our need to address technology-related challenges like cybersecurity. The most prepared practitioners had already leveraged advanced technologies. Those who hadn’t quickly realized the value and pivoted.

Now is the time to reflect on the ways your firm has used technology this year and strategize how you can adopt emerging technological solutions for your firm’s management and client services.

2. Trust in the disclosure of nonfinancial information is increasingly important. The pandemic increased attention on how businesses interact with the world around them. A focus on a diverse and inclusive workforce — and the impact of natural disasters— are resulting in more and more companies thinking about the ways social and environmental issues affect how they operate and communicate the value of their businesses. This shift in business reporting provides opportunities for us to help our clients and employers make sense of how their business practices impact people, communities and the planet.

I’ve been an advocate of environmental, social, and governance reporting and related assurance for many years through the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants’ sustainability and integrated reporting initiatives, and I’m excited to see business and regulatory communities evolve around these topics. I believe there is a huge role for the profession in facilitating meaningful reporting and providing much-needed trust that builds stronger businesses. Accountants are uniquely qualified to measure, report and provide assurance on consistent, comparable and meaningful sustainability-related information. Here are some resources and learning to help you take advantage of this opportunity.

3. Committing to lifelong learning is mandatory. According to the newly released World Economic Forum Future of Jobs report, in-demand skills will change considerably over the next five years. Surveyed employers said the top skills needed by 2025 include critical thinking and analysis, problem-solving, active learning, resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility.

Clients, businesses and organizations will continue to need new and different things from us, and we must commit to constant reinvention. This requires new skills. I include myself in this category and have been advancing my own technological and people skills. I encourage others in the profession to do the same, and a good place to start is the Go beyond+ disruption podcast.

4. Successful firms and businesses are putting diversity and inclusion at the forefront.Companies that are more diverse and inclusive are more attractive to job seekers. They also have better outputs and productivity. However, that doesn’t mean every company is making diversity, equity and inclusion a priority. According to one Accenture report from earlier this year, only 34 percent of leaders identified diversity efforts as a priority at their organization.

Our profession is embracing the diversity of those we serve, but to maximize the benefit, we must create opportunity in leadership positions within our organizations so those we recruit can see themselves thriving and advancing. We support professionals and firms with resources and training to help with your diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

5. Young people will want to join our profession because of the value we create and the good we do.For many young people, the pandemic has intensified a desire to do good in the world via meaningful employment. They had already considered themselves purpose-driven but are now even more motivated to make a positive impact on the world around them.

Accounting is already an attractive career choice, and as we evolve and add additional services to our client service portfolios, it will become ever more attractive. We're demonstrating our profession is purpose-driven, serves the public good and drives sustainable business. Accountants’ role in the pandemic — particularly supporting small businesses’ access to the Paycheck Protection Program — reinforces our role as a purpose-led profession. The work we are doing around ESG reporting and assurance is similarly appealing. And the association is recognizing the profession’s purpose through our efforts to evolve the CPA. Through education and the CPA Examination, we are positioning the profession to continue protecting the public interest and driving resiliency in business.

I encourage you to reach out to young professionals and students in your area and talk to them about the ways our profession engages in these issues and how they can contribute through a career in accounting.

Get ready for more

In this year of tremendous disruption, it feels like the future has arrived faster than we anticipated.

It’s likely 2021 will also be a disruptive and transformative year, but it’s in times like these that we can truly find the extraordinary. By embracing disruption and leaning into a new, digital, dynamic era, we can reimagine our roles and set the pace of change for the profession, businesses, economies — and ourselves.

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الأربعاء, 30 ديسمبر 2020 19:56

تركيز المنظمات الغير الربحية علي مواردها المالية

حان الوقت للمنظمات غير الربحية للتركيز على مواردها المالية

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المحتوى بالإنجليزية It’s time for nonprofits to focus on their finances
By Amy Karson
December 23, 2020, 9:00 a.m. EST

Across the country, nonprofits are facing unprecedented financial challenges just when their services are needed most. Nonprofits contributed over $1 trillion to the U.S. economy in 2016, but nearly one-third expect to close within the year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, charitable giving declined 6 percent in the first quarter of 2020. This paints a grim picture, but something is changing in the nonprofit sector that gives me hope for its future.

I’ve seen outreach to my accounting and financial firm, which specializes in small to midsized nonprofits, skyrocket in recent months. There seems to be a renewed awareness of how important clean financial books are for a nonprofit’s overall viability. The folks who run nonprofits are experts in their missions, but don’t always have the business experience to guide their teams to a clean bill of financial health. That’s why their fiscal challenges often stem from their bookkeeping.

As organizations prepare to turn the page on what has been a challenging year, here are three reasons why they should prioritize clean accounting and finances in 2021.

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The power of clean books

Financial hardships for nonprofits are not unique to 2020. Approximately 62 percent cited financial sustainability as a top challenge in 2018, according to Nonprofit Finance Fund’s annual State of the Nonprofit Sector survey. Clean accounting not only puts an organization on a path to stability, it fixes other areas that may have suffered as a result of disorganized accounting.

My firm recently engaged a client with a stagnant board. Their mission was worthy of support but a lack of fiscal transparency turned off potential recruits. If the books don’t tell a clear story, it makes it more difficult for boards to understand the financial health of the organization. We cleaned their books within six months and proved the financial stability of the organization. We soon saw board recruitment and charitable contributions increase as a result.

A bookkeeper is not a CFO

Clean books allow a nonprofit to be nimble and make necessary improvements. Accountants record the past while financial analysts plan ahead. Nonprofits need both skills to thrive. That is problematic for organizations with budgets that don’t always allow for a bookkeeper, let alone a CFO. The trend of nonprofits relying on volunteers as bookkeepers is slowly subsiding, but too often, nonprofits run into trouble by expecting their accountants to do the job of a CFO.

There are three tiers that support an organization’s finances: a bookkeeper, a controller and CFO. Just one or two of those means only half the financial story is told. Nonprofits must make strategic decisions to get a full and accurate picture of their past expenses and an understanding of what those mean going forward. If bringing in both a bookkeeper and a financial manager isn’t feasible for an organization, an outside accounting firm specializing in nonprofits can efficiently fill in the gaps.

A nonprofit is not an ordinary corporation

What’s the difference between nonprofit and for-profit accounting? The answer lies in the name. In the nonprofit sector, success is measured by how funds are spent. Revenue streams are different and there are complex federal and state standards that must be followed to the letter. Abiding by those guidelines is challenging enough without forcing corporate accounting standards onto a nonprofit enterprise.

Whether you go with an in-house hire or an external firm, a financial manager must understand how nonprofits operate. The smallest nuances can mean the difference between success and failure. For example, one of our clients was awarded two restricted grants days before their fiscal year ended. Because revenue in the nonprofit sector isn’t matched against expenses and funds have to be paid down over time, they were set to begin the new year in a big hole. Knowing this, they were able to take the appropriate steps to make up for the loss.

I have never been more confident in the future of the nonprofit sector. That faith only grows as more nonprofits take a fresh look at their finances. I urge all nonprofit leaders to do the same. At a time when nonprofits are more important than ever, healthy finances can help them focus on the most important aspect of their nonprofit: its mission.