CPA Practice Advisor

NOV 2011

Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.

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FROM THE TRENCHES N Accountant Programs That Can Help You Plan Now that extensions are behind us, and we are helping clients with tax planning, some of you are beginning to look ahead to the coming year and your own personal and business plans. Although a single article won't neces- sarily help you build an entire busi- ness plan, a few ideas that are incor- porated and well executed could make a world of diff erence for your fi rm and your clients. Forecasts show outsourced CFO and controllership growing quite profi tably and that, over the coming years, tax and audit processing will change because of technology changes. The big wild card of the future is the retirement rate of practi- tioners with much experience and the smaller number of practitioners that will be available. While this transition is happening, we need to be thinking about how to prepare for and manage it. What is the right strategy for you personally, and what is the right plan for your fi rm? What is your personal plan? If your plan includes client advisory services that can reduce internal costs at your own fi rm while helping your clients with their busi- ness issues, accountant and commu- nity programs that have been devel- oped by soſt ware publishers could be a great help to you. What do these programs offer? Common elements of all of these programs include the following: • focusing on how to help the accountant deliver bet er services to their client base • reduced costs to the fi rm itself • training that is oſt en in the form of free CPE • exclusive content for program members • more advanced technical support (frequently included) Many of your competitors will not take the time to train partners, man- agers and staff on the products off ered in these programs. You can craft recurring revenue programs to your fi rm that are not based on compliance, but rather on services for which businesses really want help. You can add a great deal of value by bringing your accounting expertise to bear and leveraging a number of the off erings. Randy Johnston Mr. Johnston is executive vice president and partner of K2 Enterprises and Network Management Group, Inc. He is a nationally recognized educator, consultant and writer with over 30 years' experience. He can be contacted at randy.johnston@cpapracticeadvisor.com. 14 14 November 2011 November 2011 • www.CPAPra www What types of programs are available? Areas covered by such programs include sales and use tax, accounts payable processing, expense reporting, invoicing, accounting, document management, and cus- tomer relationship management (CRM). Most of the key issues for small to medium businesses are directly addressed by the off erings in the programs. As a side benefi t, many of the products are "cloud" SaaS off erings, so the products run through a web browser, have no local soſt ware w.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com to install and allow you as the accountant to look at the same information as your client, usually without any licensing fees. Most of the programs have an "eat your own caviar" approach, where you can run the same application in your fi rm that clients are using in their own busi- nesses. Further, if you need the data from a client, you can have access without cumbersome fi le transfer. What programs should you consider? Our K2 Enterprises teaching team maintains a list of Accountant Network and Community programs at ht p:// cpafi rmsoſt ware.com/cpaprograms. html, which includes all of the pro- grams we are aware of and that we believe deliver high value. • Avalara Accountant Advantage Program • Bill.com Accountant Program • Concur Advisor Program • FreshBooks BeanCounters United Program • Intacct Partner Program • QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program • Results Partner Program • Sage Accountants Network • SmartVault Affi liate Program of new off erings in the coming year based on what we see being devel- oped, but that information is not yet public. What do your clients want & need? Beyond these well thought out off erings, consider what your client base is requesting from you for new services. T ere are opportunities all around IF you will take advantage of them. You may be comfortable in tax or audit, and those services are needed, too. However, it is becoming clear to me that businesses are get ing the advice they need whether it is from someone they can trust like their accounting fi rm or from consultants or sales teams that may not always have your clients' best interests in mind. Looking to drive client services to a new level? Further, some of you are looking for a change of pace. You have done the same thing for so long, that it is nei- ther interesting nor challenging. Wouldn't you like to have a new interest that drives your client to want you around and pay you for more WOULDN'T YOU LIKE TO HAVE A NEW INTEREST THAT DRIVES YOUR CLIENT TO WANT YOU AROUND AND PAY YOU FOR MORE SERVICES? We know that other publishers are developing programs that you should consider when they are introduced, and urge you to keep an eye out for these high-value additions to your practice. T is website reference list is updated on a regular basis, removing programs we no longer believe are eff ective and adding new programs that have merit. We expect a number services? If you are comfortable or think you are completely serving your market, I'm very happy for you. If you'd like to do more for your clients, take the time to review these pro- grams and determine which ones should fi t into your plan. You'll be pleased you did.

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