Strategy and the Virtual Controller

Thank you to everyone who has dropped us an email, or connected with us on LinkedIn - keep your emails coming in! That being said we've had a couple of questions from listeners looking for all the answers - a blueprint of sorts to follow. However when we've dug a little deeper in conversations with these folks, one thing is particularly apparent - they haven't yet created their vision for what the...

Sweat Jar Warning! And here's the link about customer dissatisfaction article that we discuss. Post tax season many consultants will be recommending to fire your pain in the a#@ (PITA) clients. Before you do, ask yourself what makes them a pain? Yes there are some clients who truly are a pain in the you know what... But today we ask listeners before they put clients on the chopping block, have a l...

New business doesn't just walk through the door - especially not the properly priced value added work that many accountants and bookkeepers want to add to their firm. Winning this type of work requires a defined sales process that includes good discovery of not only the numbers, but also what non-financial challenges the business owner is facing. If you only focus on the numbers you'll miss much o...

We know! Tax season isn’t even over and we’re talking about a tax season review. Don’t worry, we’re just planting the seed. In fact we’re recommending taking the rest of April off! But when you do come back in May, be intentional about your business. The risk is it’ll quickly be the fall and extension season and you won’t have done any of the big projects you wanted to. Here’s an easy agenda for y...

This is the third episode we've done on pricing and today we tackle how to pricing the value added services you provide. Take a listen to the previous episodes as they do build on each other. As we've said before we're not pricing experts, instead we've shared our insights from being in practice and working with firms to help them implement a practical pricing model. We've attempted to keep it sim...

It’s been said many time before - the riches are in the niches. However making the most of an industry vertical requires more than marketing. It’s actually the systems, process and the tools you use that will bring the riches. With the April 15 deadline looming, you may not have the space to be thinking strategically about your niches, but you might be able to start building that list of clients y...

Often in the heat of tax season we overlook our own policies and procedures, including during the recruitment and onboarding process of new team members. And nine times out of ten, this is where problems first arise. We might speed up the recruitment process, we might put cultural fit to the side for the time being - just to get the capacity we need. And once they're in the firm, we want them to h...

This is our second episode on pricing. If you missed the first episode, check out Pricing: Don't trash the time sheet...Yet. This episode focuses on fixed pricing - where it makes sense in your firm, and how to go about creating a fixed price. Probably no surprises, but it does start with a time sheet. We cover off on cost accounting of accounting and bookkeeping with simple time motion studies an...

As is always the way, some 1099s are late, and tax season seems to be starting early...again. For all the change we have had over the last couple of years, some things never change. However we all have a different lens through which to look this year. The pandemic has changed the way we do business, it has changed our expectations - whether you're a client, an employer or an employee. Some firms o...

Pricing is difficult and by no means are we experts! We have made a lot of screw ups along the way however and we'd like you to learn from our collective mistakes. Pricing is part science, part art, and a bit of luck thrown in as well. This is part one on pricing. Of how many episodes we don't quite know just yet. We decided to start with the billable hour and when it makes sense. Interestingly we...

Today's episode focuses on artificial intelligence (AI) in the accounting industry. Unfortunately software providers (and Damien's guilty of it early on) have over promised what AI can do. This episode isn't to bash AI, but rather help listeners understand where AI excels and with this understanding identify the tasks that are perfectly suited to it. The apps that leverage AI are an incredibly imp...

Enforcer might be too strong of a term to describe who your next hire should be, but one thing is for sure they shouldn’t be an accountant nor should they be trained to do bookkeeping. One of the biggest limiting factors we see firms doing over and over again is thinking they need to hire more accountants and bookkeepers. Instead you should be hiring documenters, client relationship managers, and/...

In this episode we respond to emails we received about firm owners struggling to keep good people despite the fact they “run good firms”. Many firms owners will lament the work ethic of young people these days, others will assume their staff will eventually steal their clients, so why bother training, but the problem isn’t with staff. Instead we challenge listeners to take a constructive look at t...

With tax season on the horizon we kick off this episode discussing how we communicate with clients. Owners and staff are quick to blame clients, for all their tax season troubles, but more often than not it's because we haven't set clear boundaries with our clients that tax season gets derailed. For the most part clients are very understanding - with good communication that manages their expectati...

Post thanksgiving, pre tax season is an interesting time in an accounting firm. For most providers it’s considered peak selling time, or alternatively the last chance to close a deal before tax season. For practitioners many think it’s their last chance to get new systems and tools implemented. We’ve recently received a number of emails from listeners trying to fast track their software selections...

Previously we have teased the Little Black Dress (LBD) concept - if you haven't checked out that episode (13) go ahead and have a listen as it'll help you to get the most out of this episode. Penny uses the LBD to help practitioners understand a tech stack. The term tech stack hadn't even come into the accounting vernacular, but the LBD analogy had everyone in the room nodding along - well 50% of...

While we love discussing all things firm development with just the two of us, it's always enjoyable to welcome guests to the podcast especially when they're clients of ours and are putting into practice a lot of what we talk about in the podcast. Rachael Siegel, CPA is the founder of Go Figure Accounting , and she joins us today to share her experiences since going it alone and starting her own fi...

Lucky episode 13! In this episode we introduce listeners to your newest team member - your tech stack. Your technology should be working for you and should be doing the work of a few FTEs whether it comes to workflow, document management or data processing. We break the tech stack down into the back of house - apps for your firm - and the front of house - apps that you and your clients use to faci...

One of the biggest mistakes we see in accounting firms is the team members not working on the appropriate tasks. Most often it's the partners doing the technician's work such as data entry, but it's also the technician's (and the partners) doing the administrative work. This means your team members aren't working on those tasks where they bring the most value. Another challenge we have seen in the...

No surprises but clients are a critical part of your business. But too often firm owners try to adapt their business plan to their clients instead of the other way round. We've both seen too many firms attempts at change being derailed by (Pain in the Ass) clients. It's important to recognise that you can't be everything to everyone, so focus on the clients you enjoy - they listen to you, they lik...

No, we're not talking Star Wars in this episode. Instead we're talking about a common trap many practitioners fall into when they're thinking about their next hire. Too often the default next hire is another technician, another accountant or another bookkeeper. In other words trying to clone yourself. If that's the case, you're likely thinking about this wrong. Instead of hiring another you, what...

Today we dig deeper into defining "Advisory Services". Building on Penny's four quadrants from episode 6 we discuss the AICPA definition outlined in this article . Ultimately it comes down to defining the deliverable so that the clients understands the benefits of that deliverable. Rather than hiding behind 'reporting' it's important to make it tangible for the client. Likewise technology is not t...

Without a clear vision, and your constant leadership your team can sometimes get led astray buy other team members with their own agenda. As the the business owner you can't delegate this leadership responsibility. If it's not constant and consistent, someone will fill this void for you. Penny shared an email she received this week from a client with an internal saboteur. Unfortunately the owner l...

We have our first guests! We also have our first major technical difficulties. We’re delighted to be joined on the show by Brian Lang and Mike Chawner, two CPAs out of Austin Texas who are former colleagues and former business partners. They share with us their journey from starting their firm together through to later dissolving the partnership and going their separate ways. As Brian and Mike wil...

In today's episode we make our first attempt at defining 'advisory' and provide listeners with a framework to help better define their service offering. In Penny's upcoming book she breaks advisory services into four quadrants: The Catalyst The Strategist The Steward The Operator Where you choose to operate is up to you, but it's important to put a stake in the ground and help your clients un...