Blog
7 Steps to Improve Team Performance
If your team members are not as productive as usual, lack initiative or motivation, are dissatisfied and at odds with each other, it’s time for a tune-up. Just as with individuals, teams also need regular attention and maintenance. By implementing some team-building...
How to use admininistration to increase capacity and leverage
How to increase capacity and leverage – the holy grail for accounting firms! It’s easy to understand why capacity and leverage are so important, but more difficult to appreciate why accounting firms sometimes struggle to get real success in these areas. Administration...
When the World is Forced to Work Remotely
Worldwide concern over the Coronavirus pandemic has gained momentum over the past few weeks. Traditional DR (Disaster Recovery) plans traditionally only focus on catastrophic events where business assets are damaged or destroyed. However, pandemics hit hardest at a...
Client Discovery Meetings – Where do you start?
Take a look at this 8 step process for running client discovery meetings. 1. Tell the client that you want to meet with them to talk about the future. “What we used to do was good. Now what we do aims to make us more aligned with your financial needs. We are committed...
How To Turn Your Accountants into Analysts
The development of business analytical skills is increasingly important as partners and managers of accounting firms make the transition from a compliance to advisory focus in their relationship with business clients. In its broadest sense, a business analyst is...
Generalist or Specialist – Who Owns the Future?
What sort of accounting firm do you think will own the future? One that provides a broad range of accounting and advisory services or one that specialises in a particular service? One that knows what type of client it wants to attract or one that will embrace anyone...
Experiential learning – How it works and when to apply it
I belong to a generation that has been taught things in a rather academic way – a lot of theory, tons of bibliography and numerous essays. Experimentation was confined to the Chemistry or Physics laboratories and even there nothing truly spectacular happened – for...
How to set up a vCFO service in your firm
Digitisation and financial analytics in a fast-paced world are transforming the traditional CFO role. The owners of SMEs now have real time access to financial information in a way that was previously only available to larger firms. They are looking for professional...
The Proactive Manager – Should you focus on compliance or advice?
As accounting firms move from a dominant focus on compliance in the work they do with clients to a focus on both compliance and advisory skills, the role of manager has never been more critical. Two types of managers are evolving in public practice, the first with the...