CPA Practice Advisor

JUL 2016

Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.

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• www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com By Gail Perry, CPA, Editor-In-Chief FROM THE EDITOR Published by SouthComm Business Media, Inc. PO Box 803 | 1233 Janesville Ave. Fort Atkinson, WI 53538 920-563-6388 | 800-547-7377 VOLUME 26, NUMBER 6 Publisher: Barry Strobel Editor-in-Chief: Gail Perry, CPA Managing Editor: Isaac M. O'Bannon Assistant Editor: Taija Sparkman National Sales Manager: Jim Colford Columnists: David McClure Doug Sleeter Jim Boomer, CPA.CITP Kristy Short Randy Johnston Rene Lacerte Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA.CITP Paul McDonald Art Director: Rhonda Cousin Site Manager: Lester Craft Production Manager: Barb Evenson Audience Development Manager: Terri Petitt Editorial Advisory Board: Jim Bourke, CPA.CITP, CGMA, CFF Jim Boomer, CPA.CITP, CGMA, MBA Bob Cedergren, CPA.CITP, CGMA, CISA Randy Johnston, MCS Greg LaFollette, CPA.CITP, CGMA Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA Doug Sleeter Sandra Wiley, PHR, SPHR SOUTHCOMM, INC. CEO: Chris Ferrell CFO: Ed Tearman COO: Blair Johnson VP, Production Operations: Curt Pordes VP, Technology: Eric Kammerzelt Executive Vice President: Gloria Cosby Director of Digital Business Dev.: Lester Craft Subscription Customer Service 877-382-9187; 847-559-7598 Circ.CPA@omeda.com PO Box 3257, Northbrook IL 60065-3257 Article reprints: Brett Petillo Wright's Media 877-652-5295, ext. 118 bpetillo@wrightsmedia.com List Rentals: Elizabeth Jackson email: ejackson@meritdirect.com phone: 847-492-1350 ext. 18 • fax: 847-492-0085 Practice Advisor (USPS 017-576), (ISSN 2160-8725 print; ISSN 2160-8733 online) is published six times per year (February, April, June/July, August, October and December) by SouthComm Business Media, LLC, incorporating two editions known as CPA Practice Advisor and NSA Practice Advisor. Periodicals postage paid at Fort Atkinson, WI 53538 and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Practice Advisor, PO Box 3257, Northbrook, IL 60065-3257. Canada Post PM40612608. Return undeliver- able Canadian addresses to: Practice Advisor, PO Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2. Subscriptions: Individual subscriptions are available without charge in the U.S. to qualified subscribers. Publisher reserves the right to reject non-qualified subscriptions. Subscription prices: The basic annual rate is $3, based on qualifying associations of 10,000 or more public accountants that may also subscribe for all their public accountant members (certain restrictive covenants apply) for a basic subscription rate of $9 per member for a three-year subscription. One year subscription for all others: USA - $48; CAN $70 GST; INT'L $99 GST. All subscriptions payable in U.S. funds, drawn on U.S. bank. Canadian GST#842773848. Back issue $10 prepaid, if available. Printed in the USA. Copyright 2016 SouthComm Business Media, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recordings or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission from the publisher. SouthComm Business Media, LLC does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any person or company for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in the material herein, regardless of whether such errors result from negligence, accident or any other cause whatsoever. The views and opinions in the articles herein are not to be taken as official expressions of the publishers, unless so stated. The publishers do not warrant, either expressly or by implication, the factual accuracy of the articles herein, nor do they so warrant any views or opinions offered by the authors of said articles. The opinions given by contributing authors are their own and are not the opinions of our staff. All trademarks used are the property of their respective owner. • w w w . C P A P r a c t i c e A d v Gail is the Editor-in-Chief of CPA Practice Advisor and a CPA. She is the author of over 30 books (including "Mint.com for Dummies" and "Idiot's Guide to Introductory Accounting") and she maintains a small tax practice. She earned a bachelor's degree in journalism om Indiana University and studied accounting at Illinois State University before starting her professional career at Deloie. Gail is the former publisher and editor-in-chief at AccountingWEB and is a former columnist for the Indianapolis Star newspaper. New York Show Focuses on CPA Relevance ere's been talk in accounting circles for years about the impor- tance of being someone clients can turn to for insights into how their businesses run and ex planations of what all the numbers mean. is isn't new. More than 15 years ago, Dav id Maister, in his acclaimed book, e Trusted Advisor, warned of the tenuousness of having only a transactional view of clients instead of a relationship view. ink about how many of your clients connect with you only once a year. How many do you not see at all? I myself have a tax practice where a few clients send me their data and I never even meet with them in person. How easy would it be for someone else to step in and take my place? W hoosh. at fast. So it seems that relevance is the issue of the day. A re you worth your salt? Say we reach that time, in the ver y near future, when all of the number crunching is automatic. W hen what you're selling is no longer financial statements and tax returns. Don't think your everyday client is going to pay for you to point to the numbers and say, "Yep, those numbers are correct. Here's my bill." Did you catch the flaw in the above statement? W hat we're selling should never be nor should it ever have been financial statements and tax returns. If that's what you're doing, then congratulations for having goen this far and having built a base of clients who want that. I don't mean to sound, well, mean, but it's really time to take another look at your practice. Two sessions at the New York show really drove this home for me. Amy Veer, global vice president of educa- tion and head of accounting USA at Xero teed us up with a session on how not shying away from technology and instead embracing all the cool tools that are out there will position a CPA firm to aract the best talent - and by best talent we don't mean data entry people. e best colleagues you can find will be those who can empathize with your clients, see the real picture, and make the best recommendations for success. It's going to be those touchy feely Millennials who want to leave the office for yoga at 2 in the aernoon. e ones who realize that the things in life that make you you actually are important. Joe Woodard, CEO of Woodard Events and Woodard Consulting, followed up with a moving session on how the numbers are just the beginning of the story and it takes an experienced accountant to tell the rest of the story, to not wait for the financial statements that come in months aer the year-end but to look at the numbers as they are right now, and then actually see the people behind the numbers who are puing their heart and soul into their business, and make the connection. Give yourself some credit for hav- ing mastered the art of accounting and get busy reminding yourself, and your clients, of the value of your knowledge - the human side, if you will, of the numbers. — Gail Perry, Editor-in-Chief Follow me on Twier at @gperrycpa GPerry@CPAPracticeAdvisor.com T he tone at July's New York Accounting Show & Conference reflected a concern in the accounting profession about the commoditization of services and what CPA s will do when computers have taken over much of the day-to-day work. It appears an actual fear of irrelevancy hasn't set in, although there are rumblings that this is coming. Aer all, it's one thing to advance your practice by using tools that make your job easier and that leave you with more day at the end of your day. It's another thing to stay awake at night worrying that your clients will no longer need you because they can just buy the soware themselves.

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