عرض العناصر حسب علامة : استراتيجيات
الثلاثاء, 09 نوفمبر 2021 16:02
المحاسبون: قلقون من التكيف، وليس استبدالهم
مهما كانت مخاوفهم، فإن التقدم المستمر للتكنولوجيا لن يحل محل المحاسبين -ولكنه سيتطلب منهم تغييرًا كبيرًا، وفقًا لجيسون ماركس، الرئيس والمدير التنفيذي لشركة Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting.
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المحتوى بالإنجليزية
Accountants: Worry about adapting, not being replaced
By Daniel Hood
October 29, 2021 9:00 AM
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Jason Marx of Wolters Kluwer addressing the 2021 CCH Connect conference
Jason Marx of Wolters Kluwer addressing the 2021 CCH Connect conference
Whatever their fears, the perpetual advance of technology isn’t going to replace accountants — but it will require them to change significantly, according to Jason Marx, president and CEO of Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting.
“Accountants need to think much more about adaptation than replacement,” Marx told attendees at the company’s annual user conference, being held this week in Austin, Texas. “Technology improves efficiency, by removing manual steps and by reducing human error. It drives straight-through processing, rather than replacing accountants, and it frees them to focus on the more strategic work requiring creativity, collaboration and imagination.”
That is, of course, only true if they take advantage of the tools at hand: Marx contrasted a 2019 Robert Half survey in which accountants overwhelmingly reported being concerned about the potential for technology with a 2021 Wolters Kluwer study that showed that just 7% of small firms — and only an astonishing 2% of large firms — believe that they are maximizing their use of technology.
He believes that tax and accounting professionals are more than up for the challenge, however. “You are part of a profession that has proven its grit, its determination and its resilience over and over,” he told conference attendees. “You have served as the quiet heroes behind the scenes to keep businesses running during very, very difficult times. You’ve been balancing the implications of new tax regulations, accelerating market trends for technology and for mobility, a real war for talent, and urgent client demands around the clock.”
To help them understand and face all those challenges, he explained five broad market trends that are shaping accounting, and that they’ll need to bear in mind as they move forward.
1. The move to the cloud
“The pandemic served as catalyst for establishing the value and flexibility of cloud software,” Marx said. “It’s brought factors like high availability, lower costs for disaster recovery, business continuity, remote workforce management and business agility,” and the shift has only been accelerating.
2. The shift to remote work
While this move is driving a need for both tighter collaboration and efficiencies in the client experience, its impact is really being felt internally. “Staff experience has become much more relevant, with the increasing impacts of the war for top talent, which were certainly aggravated by the pandemic,” Marx explained.
3. The growing requirements for real-time data exchange and reporting
“This is being driven by automated source data capture by regulatory reporting that requires consistent data, and the growing importance of APIs that allow firms to treat platforms like our own CCH Axcess as a central hub,” according to Marx.
4. Emerging tech enabling higher-value work
By reducing manual data entry and by improving accuracy, emerging and advanced tech tools — and at least 90% of firms are hoping these tools will help them achieve improved results next tax season, according to a 2021 Wolters Kluwer survey cited by Marx. “Forty percent of all firms said they were innovators or early adopters of technology, and 54% of large firms, and all of them reported higher confidence levels and better results than firms that label themselves as slower to adopt.”
5. Legislative and regulatory change
The volume, speed and intensity of legislative and regulatory change is getting overwhelming. “There is no doubt that the pace of regulatory has changed over the last several years — well, you know it; you live it. It’s pretty much non-stop, and we don’t see that changing,” said Marx. “Many of you wonder if we will ever see a return to a normal tax season, but planning for tax season is becoming more complicated by late changes to filing deadlines and forms.”
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الخميس, 22 سبتمبر 2022 08:46
خمسة طرق لجعل فريقك يفكر مثل المدير المالي
هناك فرصة هائلة لمحترفي المحاسبة والمالية لتجاوز خدمات الاستعانة بمصادر خارجية تقليدية لتقديم خدمات استشارية عالية القيمة والشراكة بطرق أكثر جدوى مع الشركات الصغيرة.
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المحتوى بالإنجليزية
5 ways to get your team to think like a CFO
There’s an enormous opportunity for accounting and financial professionals to go beyond traditionally outsourced services to offer high-value advisory services and partner in more meaningful ways with small businesses.
Less than half of the 31 million small business owners in the U.S. feel knowledgeable when it comes to accounting and finance. And among those smaller businesses with 50 or fewer employees, less than half have their own CFO or controller.
Millions of these businesses are open to, and looking for, a more engaged and proactive finance team, but the industry has been slow to deliver.
Why? One major reason is that it requires a deliberate shift in the way accounting and financial professionals interact with clients. In order to evolve into a more advisory-focused firm, principals need to inspire everyone on their team to break out of the task-oriented mindset and start thinking like a CFO.
Here’s how to empower your team to make the shift:
1. Ask tough questions that make think them beyond the transaction mindset
You can help your team think more like a CFO by getting them to weigh in on more than just the transactional elements of their work. Ask engaging questions that get them thinking about their client through a more strategic lens. Ask them what they’re seeing, what’s changed with the account, and what’s new for the client.
2. Teach them to look for advisory moments
The opportunities to offer more advisory-oriented services are endless; teams just need to know how to spot them. Let’s say a client mentions casually that they’re thinking about moving from their current office. That’s an advisory moment — an opportunity to engage on a deeper level. Train your team to capture these moments by offering helpful guidance. Offer to review the lease for them or run the numbers with a higher rent payment. You want to condition your team to insert themselves into the decision-making process.
3. Balance people skills with heads-down work ethic
Identify the people on your team who are fantastic with clients and put them front and center in not only interacting with clients, but also in advancing your firm’s advisory practice. It’s not only about people skills, though. Your heads-down workers are the ones who see the day-to-day changes and that’s where opportunities emerge. Encourage everyone on your team, whether they’re client facing or not, to communicate and share their insights.
4. Put the focus on the client relationship rather than the short-term deliverable
Help your team shift into a more advisory mindset by emphasizing the importance of building a relationship with clients. Oftentimes, business owners aren’t familiar with the full range of services and expertise that is available to them, and it’s up to your team to build a relationship that opens the door for deeper conversations. That way, when a client confides that they might be, for example, considering expanding into a new service or thinking of making some big hires, your team will be there to offer valuable support and guidance.
5. Be patient; big change takes time
This kind of fundamental shift in mindset takes time. Focus on planting seeds of change that, over months, begin to evolve into a new way of thinking. Be patient and allow incremental change to seep in and permeate your firm’s culture.
The bottom line
Small business owners are desperate for the insights accounting and financial professionals can provide. There’s never been a better time to empower your team to adopt a more strategic and proactive attitude when engaging clients. This will help you demonstrate more value to your clients, shift into an advisory role and take your own firm to the next level.
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الإثنين, 16 ديسمبر 2019 09:30
إعداد العروض الفنية والمالية
.هذه المقالة بناءً على طلب من أحد الزملاء يسألني كيف يمكنه المُضِي قدماً في إعداد العروض الفنية والمالية
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المحتوى بالإنجليزية
Preparing proposals:
Frequently we are asked to prepare a formal proposal. This is usually done when the client or prospect is considering multiple firms and the decision will either be made by a board of directors or when the person making the decision feels the need to tangibly back up their decision. Sometimes the request is made to show that multiple firms were solicited when management wants to retain the current accounting firm. Whatever the reason, it is usually a good practice to comply and to comply with a complete and impressive proposal.
This column was prompted by a colleague’s request asking me how she could go about preparing a proposal. For starters, the proposal should include a detailed description of the requested services and scope and the client’s anticipated role, biographies emphasizing the experience of the people that will be working on the engagement, experience in the client’s industry, a timetable for the deliverable, where the work would be performed (usually on the client’s premises), the range of your rates for each level that will work on the team (if it is a time-based fee), and payment terms.
The following are some specifics you can consider including in the proposal:
1. The proposal is about filling the need the client has; it is not about you, even though you will need to provide a lot of information about your partners, staff and firm.
2. You need to convey the value that will be received by engaging you.
3. The proposal should clearly state what the clients said they want, being careful to limit it to what you are proposing.
4. Provide the scope and responsibilities of you and the client for meeting deadlines and a timeline. Include a comment that you always meet deadlines and rely on the cooperation of the client for this.
5. Include a proposed fee for the specific services covered. If possible, provide fixed fees. If that cannot be done, then try to break the project into separate parts with a fixed price for each part. If that cannot be done, then quote your rates but realize that once you set a range, you’ve set a “fixed” fee somewhat in the middle of the range.
6. Ask for a retainer and explain your progress billing policy.
7. It is important to include wording that the fixed fees are predicated on the services described. If they're not fully what the client understands them to be, they are welcome to make any changes, suggestions or additions, and you anticipate the full collaboration of the client’s staff. Mention that any out-of-scope work would be identified and quoted before you will proceed on providing those services.
8. Include descriptions of current clients in their industry or for the specialized services they want and get endorsements that you could include in the proposal.
9. Include photos and brief information about the team members who will perform the services for them.
10. I believe an individual should sign the proposal and not the “firm.”
11. Offer a free consultation for every new venture or activity they are contemplating, with no limit to the number of consultations (these are really sales pitches). Afterwards, if necessary, fixed fees (or hourly rates) if applicable will be quoted.
12. Make sure the proposal is proofed. You should have a partner who will not be part of the team review it before sending to the client.
Keep in mind that your proposal will be compared to others, and you will need to include some things that are memorable, stand out and provide the reason why you should be engaged.
Be aware that the proposal is not an engagement letter so it will not contain the typical caveats and internal file retention policies or arbitration processes to collect unpaid fees.
Use the above as a guide. Good luck with this process.
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